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Old 05-24-2020, 05:36 AM   #25
churchx
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jamal View Post
Are you sure that it's increased mass transfer that increases grip? Then how does a larger swaybar work?
The reality is there are more than one possible outcome from applying throttle in a corner with a rwd car.
First is - more speed - more cornering force required from the front - front tires are already at a high slip angle - more understeer results
The other possibility - more rear slip angle due to both acceleration force and additional rear lateral weight transfer - reduced understeer
Third option - wheelspin - much more rear slip angle - reduced understeer. Maybe hard to do in a stock power brz especially with good tires.
However, the first two are both possibilities. Kind of depends on power and how well balanced the car is at steady state. We've setup cars to be fairly biased toward understeer to give the rear tires more ability to accelerate the car out of a corner.
Yes, increased mass transfer also transfers more grip. Hence why common way to fight with understeer is reduce transfer to rear if you were with under gas with throttle off (to what aswell in addition to opposite when you want reduce that for rear to have more grip, refer as playing with throttle), or with brakes increase transfer to add rotation, maybe less often mid curve, but commonly enough with trail braking on turn-in.
Larger swaybars work increasing effective spring rate for mass transfer from side to side. It results in less roll .. but also in less independent suspension and overloading tires on one side, so at one point of upping swaybar rates it has negative net effect of reducing available grip. Better to rely more on right stiffness springs and damping, but use swaybars more for balancing grip imho. Unless driver was limiting factor and less rolling car was required to bolster one's confidence to push more.
More speed to use up more grip while cornering .. it's not RWD specific, but any car's trait. Google on traction or grip circle. Well illustrates that your tires have limited amount of grip and it's up to you to what to "spend grip budget", and how one may use it most effectively without leaving unused grip on plate (namely - trailbraking and gradual increasing throttle proportional to unwinding steering wheel when accelerating out of corner).
Wheelspin i already mentioned in previous post. Drifting is not fastest way around track. And is easy to do .. if you already have used up lot of grip on something else, eg. cornering at high speed near limit, then many abrupt driver inputs can throw off balance and make car loose grip, including via getting rear sideways and wheelspining.
But! Theory aside, and all those specific ways to loose grip aside, purely from my limited track experience, driving on twins with square tire setup and NA power, i found myself overall much easier to drive/balance grip limit/fight less with car, when i moved grip balance to front, via more front camber then in rear, via less understeer biased then stock setup. It also reduced my mistakes count and upped lap speeds. Also similar alignment seems preferred and suggested alignment setup by many others, that do track their twins.
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