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Autocross understeer woes

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Old 05-21-2007, 07:55 AM
  #21  
bpp
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Bump the rear TP a coupla three # hot pressure to start off..
Old 05-23-2007, 09:26 AM
  #22  
PMS
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Default Re: Autocross understeer woes

First of all, there is a finite amount of grip available in the front tires. Once you have optimized the front grip and used all of it, that is as fast as the car is going to go around a corner. Much of what people are suggesting here - disconnecting or softening the front bar, dropping front pressures, etc. - or what you describe as tossing the car sideways is not going to make your times quicker. All you are doing is giving up ultimate grip on the rear end and not gaining anything in the front.

My experience is that being smooth and not overdriving the front wheels is the way to fast autocross times. I'm sure you've heard "slow down to go fast." Take it to heart.

Second, Eagle F1 tires are not good tires for autocross. I'm not sure your pressures are too high, but if you can go lower without rolling over onto the sidewalls, then try that. Also, I would suggest mounting a good set of Falkens, Kumhos, Hankooks, or Bridgestones on your stock wheels to use for autocrosses and keep your Goodyears on those 18x8.5s for the street. A better set of "Street Touring" tires (notice, I am not suggesting R-compounds) in a 225/40-18 or 235/40-18 is going to work much better. Then get a pyrometer and adjust your front pressures until you get the temps as even as possible across the tire (you will undoubtedly find the shoulder temps higher than the center or inside edge temps, but find what makes them as even as possible).

Then, the bottleneck to your cornering speed is going to be the front grip, so if you want to get a better feel for the car, pump up the rear tire pressures. The tires act as a spring, and the higher the pressure, the higher the spring rate, so by bumping up the rear pressures, you are effectively raising the rear spring rates which will result in a faster rate of weight transfer on that end of the car, and can counter the understeer. Also, as you get more extreme with the rear pressures, you will find that the center of the tread tends to bulge out, shrinking your contact patch, reducing your rear grip, but also countering the understeer. I see that the combination of these two effects can make the car more comfortable, and therefore possibly faster, but I caution you not to go overboard. You are still limited by the grip available in the front tires.

A little bit of toe out in front will help turn in, but too much toe out will hurt your mid-corner grip, so it's best to sneak up on this.

A little bit of toe out in the rear will help the car rotate, but too much can make the car twitchy, so again, some restraint is worthwhile here.

Remember that any toe (in or out) is going to chew up your tires, so if you can't or don't change the settings back after an event, then you probably want to be conservative.

Something I would strongly recommend if you are serious about autocrossing this car is a set of the CPP adjustable front upper control arms. These will allow you to dial in some positive caster (which becomes negative camber on the outside front tire and positive camber on the inside front tire when the wheels are turned) and some negative static camber. This will allow you to further tweak the temperatures across the surface of the front tires in order to get the most out of the available contact patch there. Again, discretion is probably in order here if you are not going to be adjusting the settings back after the events because too much negative camber (especially with any toe) can eat up your tires. Also, too much positive caster can wreak havocs on your corner weights as the steering wheel is turned, so you'll need to find a happy medium there too.

And probably the easiet thing to change is the loose nut behind the wheel. Get all your braking done in a straight line and early, then be patient with the throttle, squeeze it (not stomp on it) as you unwind the wheel. Focus on maximizing your exit speeds, which means rolling into the throttle earlier, which results in braking earlier and apexing later. Back the corner up and don't overdrive it.

And of course, seat time, seat time, seat time.
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