Oversteer help

[pontiacgp]

I take it when you talk about cross it's the wedge your discussing. It will create a loose condition coming off the corner if you have too much wedge. Another thing you can try to get traction out of the corner is 1/2 turn on the preload for the sway bar and if you can lighten the rebound on the left rear that might help..

 

[ReQ]

I do mean wedge, it just gets called cross around here for whatever reason, but just to clarify what I mean, I am talking about the cross weight between the LR and RF tires, I have read that nearing 50% cross weight is considered a loose condition, but I have no idea of the context of that statement (track type/car setup etc.)

guys here seem to be putting spacers on top of springs to increase the cross weight, even though I can say from watching other cars in front of me, EVERYONE is loose off the corner, some more than others naturally

as for the rebound on the shocks, these pros only have 3 settings, "tie-down - 50/50 - easy up" this is what they are called, no other information is given really, I have my left rear in "tie-down" and right 50/50, may test the "easy up" setting on the right rear

and sway bar preload? is there such an adjustment on the OEM setup, I would like to do some adjusting on my sway bar, but we are only allowed to run factory parts, could I buy different height end-links to change preload? if that is indeed what you are talking about, raising or lowering the ends, also I have seen a few cars running without sway bar bushings on the frame, I have never seen such a thing, seems like the sway bar moving around would be a bad thing

 

[pontiacgp]

get rid of the oem set up on the sway bar, you only want that bar do work when the load is on the right front. Just use a 7/16 rod to set up your sway bar

 

[ReQ]

Not allowed to run anything but OEM parts sadly

by "only work when the load is on the right front", what do you mean exactly, I think I have a pretty good understanding of how a sway bar functions, though its functionality is difficult to fully understand in motion, given the fact that its sort of a "push and pull" equilibrium

I assume with the oem setup the bar is not neutral sitting still, so I guess the goal is to get the bar neutral first, then preload it until it starts to work better? if I can find a way to do this "legally" which way should I preload, up or down, left or right

overall I have little to complain about now with the handling, it is much more liveable than it once was, I would prefer it to be more balanced, but it is predictable and controllable now, so I guess that is good, I just have nitpicky issues now, and predictably not quite enough motor to run with the winners/cheaters, few weeks ago the points leader was busted in tech with vortec heads and a racing clutch, they gave him a week to "fix" it and did not DQ him, but they did not dig any deeper to see where else hes illegal, next 2 weeks and hes still walking away from me half track, I push him through the turns but I just cant get around him clean no matter how good of a run I get on him

oh well, just keep truckin aye?

 

[UMI Sales]

Any updates ReQ? How's things? Car still in one piece?

ramey

 

[ReQ]

Long time no update I suppose lol

guess things have just been uneventful for the most part, the car is handling very well, finally got all the air pressure and spring rates/heights and weight figured out, things have just been rolling a long, I have won 3 heat races and finished third just the week before last, Saturday got rained out so we didn't get to run our feature, which is unfortunate considering I just bought a GoPro Hero Friday and then we get rained out, hopefully next week I will have an in car video of a feature, if all goes well anyhow

I do have one recent issue, in our heat race I got sandwiched in the first turn, riding on bumper of the car in front and everyone stopped, car behind me slammed me into the car in front, ran the race with a throttle that was hanging wide open every turn, and exiting the turn it would catch and I had to force it passed the obstruction which lead to some traction problems, the problem is where the front frame was notched, its bending every time I hit anything little by little, the distributor cap is touching the firewall, use to be able to get my hand between them

it pushed the frame up and the engine went with it of course, the throttle linkage moved up enough to bind on the hole in the firewall, made contact at about half throttle and as a result of that, it would be stuck wide open by the time it got there, cutting the firewall fixed that but the frame is still bent, currently looking for another g-body so we can swap everything over in a week, so I don't have to miss a race, tied for second in points right now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcApddyDj9k
I was in the second heat, they only show the first for whatever reason, I think whoever is filming is with the #31 car, 68 wins just about every week, if it isnt him its 56 or 35, they have a pretty big engine advantage over me, and 35 who is my team mate, almost takes me out on the white and checkered flag, but at least he backed out lol

 

[UMI Sales]

That looks like a fun little speedway!

 

[ReQ]

It is pretty fun, but sometimes extremely rough being so small

ran pretty well last night with our patch job on the frame, we put the car on jack stands and cut the front down bar loose to see how much it would move http://i.imgur.com/Hu1R1.jpg almost half an inch, rather than replace the bar which was not really bent, more like curved or bowed maybe? we just took a 1/2" steel plate and cut a square and welded it into the gap, also plated the frame in a few places just to keep it together until we find a new frame

I started last in the second heat race, small field tonight so we had 6 cars in each heat and i managed to finish second which is also where I finished in the feature even though it was pretty sketchy at times, my gopro camera did a pretty decent job, had a few bumps a long the way in the feature but all in all I kept my nose clean and finished up front, even though I got D/Qed over my right front camber.. which I had no idea was barely 1 degree more than it should of been, stock a-frame bolts shimmed as much as you can, gauged at 3 when we built it, I guess the larger tires and bent frame screwed me, and 35 was D/Qed for running world product heads, screw in studs and guide plates lol, if he had of kept digging his engine is illegal from the crank to the intake, at least my engine is 100% legal

in the video you will notice a black car with no number on the drivers side blew past everyone with ease, he was only on the track to take out number 68 and succeeded, he had street stock slicks on his car and who knows what under the hood, not to mention they switched drivers without telling anyone and had an open-wheel driver in for the feature, he didn't even bother to run a heat race

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap_AuR7HobY

edited out almost all the cautions except a short one, mocking a friend for going the wrong way, video was originally 18 minutes long, long cautions

 

[ReQ]

rained out the 25th, so we had another 2 week break and TONS of rain thanks to the annoying hurricane, track was unbelievably slippery during warmups, it was a scorching hot day

had a weird problem during the warmup as well, a strange "bumping" vibration and very twitchy front end, checked the car out as much as possible before the heat race and never found anything wrong, the problem was gone in the heat race so I can only assume since the car sat in one place for 2 weeks, the tires warped or flat spotted, whatever you want to call it, handling was still twitchy but we found out why after the races

did alright in the heat but I got a little carried away and spun the second place car out on the last lap, hes terribly slow through the turns and unpredictable, I was having trouble gauging him and bumped him a few times, a little too much the last time, so I started the feature dead last http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSXoMtUhQOA ignore the music, its an inside joke

feature was uneventful for me until near the end of the race, developed an awful push and I fell way back from the fast car pack, still finished 5th at least, too lazy to edit out the cautions this time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmvIVUetsLU

after the race we checked the toe and it was half an inch off, I assume thats the reason for the twitchy handling and push towards the end of the race

most of the dirty drivers are being eliminated, 4 have already been barred for the season and after last night the yellow 03 that I spun in the heat, may make it 5 after the stunt he pulled doing doughnuts during the race, and arguing with the track owner repeatedly

 

[pontiacgp]

there's a few things we check out before a race and one is the toe...we start off with zeroing out the right side and adjust the left for the toe...but even with that is sounds like you had a good nite and it's nice to hear the track has the gonads to dump the wannabe crash test dummies