Completely hypothetical question about wide-track

[Cock Womble 7]

It's really not something I was planning on doing, but a fellow PHer and I were chatting about my Seven recently and he mentioned that in the pictures of it he had seen, the front suspension looked quite narrow.

He assumed, rightly, that I don't have the wide track suspension - but this lead us to wonder if you could fit wide track suspension to a 7 with clamshell wings.

I am of the impression that wide track would be too wide for these wings and fall foul of the MOT man for having wheels standing proud of the bodywork.

But what do I know...?

[2slo]

Why not get wide track suspension at the same time as a conversion to cycle wings.

The start of a carbon diet?

Mark.

[Red Smartie]

You could space your clams out to suit the new track.

[BertBert]

That would be a novel look!
Bert

[Cock Womble 7]

So, in a word, no.

[Tango7]

I think Angus (of Angus&Tessa fame on Blatchat) has built his car with widetrack and flared wings. There was a mention of Carbon Bits doing carbon flared arches if there was enough interest and they were thinking of a wide track set. Not sure if this would be a go-er or not as it would depend on on demand and it was pointed out that there weren't many flared wing cars with widetrack but that could be because of the same query you have!

[Dave J]

wide track is 27mm wider each side - depending on your wheel size you may want to check I'f the wings are wide enough

[Cock Womble 7]

Dave J said:

wide track is 27mm wider each side - depending on your wheel size you may want to check I'f the wings are wide enough

27mm? Is that all? Thought it would be a bit wider than that.

I had a squint down the wing earlier and I reckon 27mm might just stick out a bit - but as you say, that depends on wheel width.

Either way, it's still very much hypothetical.

[EFA]

Dave J said:

wide track is 27mm wider each side

The wide track rack extensions are 40mm long!

[Dave J]

doh!
I poped in the garage and measured the old ones on my shelf, turns out they are damper extensions not rack extensions

what a cock

[Cock Womble 7]

Ah, 40mm. That would definitely stick out.

[EFA]

And, having fitted wide track to my car when it was originally narrow track reduced understeer a fair bit. Fitting wishbones with +100mm overall over wide track completely eliminated it, to the point I had better turn in than a K series wide track car, despite havong a boat anchor VX up front.

[iain a]

Ran my 7 with widetrack and clamshells.. the wheels did project a little, but I didn't have any problems.... apart from the drag and lift created by the clams.
I now have cycle wings.

[EFA]

It was once proven that clams produce downforce, not lift.

[iain a]

Was the 7 in question upside down at the time?
I couldn't turn into high speed corners (80mph + on track) when I had the clams, but could when I fitted cycle wings.
Others may have different experiences..

[EFA]

No Iain, it was in the Mira windtunnel.

Front geo and wide track are the only things which have a massive impact on turn in. Caterhams cycle wings (as opposed to the smaller ones I made) actually cause lift.