FAO Corpulent Tosser

[tuscan_thunder]

Murray,

When I was spectating at Alford on Sunday, I remembered you were talking a while back about your car suffering from understeer .

I think, viewing from the outside but obviously still being able to see your hands, that it is indeed understeering but I also think it is rolling into understeer.

From what I can see, the front of the car and the back of the car need to be stiffer both in terms of springing and damping.

The body of the car appears to be rolling and this seems to be forcing the car laterally, causing understeer.

The rear of the car seems to grip well but I think if you stiffen the front you will need to stiffen the back to compensate and also to help steer the nose into turns.

I would not stiffen the rear by as much of a percentage as the front as you will begin to lose traction, especially in the wet and you will then undo the balance change initiated by stiffening the front.

The geometry, for the springing and damping rates just now, seems good as all four tyres seem to be reasonably flat in turns. With more grip/less understeer with a change in spring and damper rates, you may need to adjust your set up, possibly with more negative camber at the front.

You would, I suggest, need to find out your spring rates at the moment and take things from there. What kind of dampers do run and are they adjustable?

The alternative is to fit a more powerful engine so that you can, like Mr Dickson, just boot the throttle to swing the tail out and point the car through the bend..........

hope this is of some help
rgds
John

[Kiltie]

Funny, for his last run, we actually disconnected the anti roll bar to soften it even more.

I'm sure CT will be along soon to debate the point.

Cheers,

Eric

[Corpulent Tosser]

John

Thanks for your inputinto my handling problems, as Eric said I disconnected the anti roll bar for my last run and that made a difference, it still had some understeer but not as much.

I definately need to check the spring rates and possibly get new springs, the disconnecting of the roll bar is something I had thought about for a while but didn't do as at least I knew how the car steered as it was but decided to give it a go in the final run of the season. Should have tried it ages ago though!

Good to hear that the tyres are all making good contact as I noticed ( after Eric mentioned it) that Andrew Grover's Striker was lifting a wheel at some places on the track.

As for the more powerful engine, I would be happy to give power oversteer a go, if only some kind soul would provide the more powerful engine.

Thanks
Murray

[tuscan_thunder]

Corpulent Tosser said:

John

Thanks for your inputinto my handling problems, as Eric said I disconnected the anti roll bar for my last run and that made a difference, it still had some understeer but not as much.

I definately need to check the spring rates and possibly get new springs, the disconnecting of the roll bar is something I had thought about for a while but didn't do as at least I knew how the car steered as it was but decided to give it a go in the final run of the season. Should have tried it ages ago though!

Good to hear that the tyres are all making good contact as I noticed ( after Eric mentioned it) that Andrew Grover's Striker was lifting a wheel at some places on the track.

As for the more powerful engine, I would be happy to give power oversteer a go, if only some kind soul would provide the more powerful engine.

Thanks
Murray

I wonder if the anti roll bar is causing some of the problems in so far as it's maybe reaching its working point too soon. It is, basically, an undamped spring so it's actions are sharp and fairly uncontrolled. In a fwd car, adding an ARB nearly always seems to add understeer so it could be that your ARB is too strong?

If you can avoid running with an ARB then it's all the better. If you can, try running it for a while without the ARB (I know it's close season, but maybe a track day or, even better a morning at Alford would be useful) this may reveal the characteristics more clearly as the ARB may be masking the true handling of the car.

Is there an ARB on the rear?

As for engines, I'd love to help but the most I can offer is the motor out of a redundant generator.......