Quote:
Originally Posted by Twinz
Regarding setup;
I tried the stiff rear bar setting this past weekend and was actually surprised at how small of a difference the change made.
The car turns a little better under throttle but is also doesn't quite hook up as well (rear tires) when throttling out of turns. (Tonda had her first spin in about 8 months with the setup)
I benchmarked a bunch of other drivers before and after the bar change and I improved vs all of them....but barely. Less than 2 tenths was the biggest improvement and just hundredths on the other end.
The improvement is so small that it might have just been me having a better day than the last time me and my benchmarks competed, or the car could be a little quicker.
I will try it again in a couple weeks, but I am still undecided at this point.
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We back to back tested the car and also recorded a slight improvement in speed with the hard rear bar. Thus far our notes are:
Soft/Soft - Hate the feeling of the car with Falkens, worked well with BFGs. Slow to change direction, bias push in low grip surface, neutral high grip. Really not great in transitions, can be loose and get out of phase by the last few slalom cones. It's only a matter of time that you get deep in the rear bumpstops and the car gets really loose, really fast. Drive-able, but can be a lot better.
Soft/Hard - Much better feeling but not a lot of time difference. More predictable, easier to drive which leads to a fast pace out of the gate. Needs rear rebound to tame the setup for most drivers, but can't put in too much on high grip concrete as the rear of the car will start skipping on exit. Add front rebound for quicker response, add toe for exit stability. Keeps the rear off the stops until you hit really high speed transitions. Will push on high grip surface, fast sweepers when you get deeper into the front stops.
Hard/Soft - Do you like push? This is how you get push. Very slow & painful in low speed corners, not a lot you can do to fix. Stable in transitions but actually overall slower than Soft/Hard in those sections. Would not recommend anyone try this unless you make the car snappy with high rear tire pressure and possibly pulling rear spacers if you have that option.
Hard/Hard - Probably the most stable and predictable the car is going to be. Virtually no difference in time between this and Soft/Hard on smaller courses. About the only difference is you can't overdrive the front on entry or it will push much earlier. Virtually no front rebound needed on higher grip sites about the same rear rebound as Soft/Hard setup. Less rear toe needed, but we haven't fully tested yet. We're pretty sure this is the high grip surface setup, but again we need to test more. It does keep the car off the deeper parts of the front bumpstops so that's a plus.
The car is totally and completely limited by the Falkens. There is a "peak" time you will reach with all the setups, it's just a matter of how you get there. Driving like an asshole with the tires screaming to high hell and disagreeing with everything you do can sometimes net in a slightly faster clock time. Lots of risk for very little reward though. Pressures from 28-34 or so.
Temps: we think the Falkens are OK when the tire surface temp is hot. Once the core of the tire heats up it's pretty much downhill from there. Liberal amount of spraying when they get to about the BFG operating temp helps a little, but couldn't realize the benefit of that on the clock.