recommend a book on car set up for a beginner

[andye30m3]

Looks like I've secured a bmw 320i with the aim of doing the production bmw championship next year however despite sprinting for the last 3 years I know very little about car set up

Can anyone recommend a good book that will help explain the basics of getting the car handling as well as possible?

Also other than the standard tools, what things would you recommend purchasing, thinking infa red tyre temp gauge and camber gauage but I sure there's an awful lot more which will come in useful

[NJH]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Competition-Car-Suspension...

..also wouldn't you need to use a pyrometer with a probe to properly take tyre temperature samples?

[Defcon5]

oooh will you be doing a project thread? That would be really good!

[Mark Benson]

NJH said:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Competition-Car-Suspension...

..also wouldn't you need to use a pyrometer with a probe to properly take tyre temperature samples?

You need a degree in maths for that one. Well, maybe not that bad. It's good, but it's not a beginner's book.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Make-Your-Car-Handle/d...

is a good primer,
I have both books, the latter if you can get past the US slant on things explains the basics very well and gives you ideas on what to do to cure various issues.
The Staniforth book (the first link) is good when you really want to get into the subject and have the ability to design your own suspension and has a lot of information for slicks and wings racers, but for a beginner running a car in PBMW it's not going to be of much use, start with the Puhn book I linked above and see where you need to go from there.

[anonymous-user]

your best bet is to find a friendly competitor in the series or someone with rwd saloon experience and go to a trackday making changes throughout the day to suit you based on their recommendations. i cant believe that no one would offer to help you, its hardly F1 and most clubbie series are friendly racers. they may not replicate their car for you but they will help you far more than you sitting there with a book second guessing what to do in your garage.

[tristancliffe]

I found the Puhn book to be incredibly basic (even by a beginners standard) most of the time, American a lot of the time (and hence glossing over stuff that is important in making a car handle, and concentrating on wedge), and plain wrong in a lot of places.

Avoid. Save your money. Buy a Carroll Smith book or the Staniforth book, both of which are simply enough for a beginner, but have enough depth to keep you coming back for more as you learn.

Not to say both books don't have misinformation in them, or a few beliefs in old wives tales we now know to be untrue, but the majority is massively informative and understandable. And applicable.

[andye30m3]

Thanks very much for the suggestions.

Looks like a good reading list of the winter months.

[NJH]

The 2 diagrams given in this link,
http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f273/suspension-se...
..look a lot like cut down versions of those given in the Staniforth book. TBH more than anything I have tended to go back to those diagrams in the Staniforth book but after awhile you should have them memorised anyway.

[JTeb]

Mark Benson said:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Make-Your-Car-Handle/d...

Good call for people with no prior experience with cars.

I learnt from "Race and Rally Car Source Book" by Allan Staniforth, but it's full of anecdotes (some useful, most not) which tend to make it difficult to find the facts. I believe it's out of print now, and the newest edition is rare as hens teeth. It has got some good diagrams in it though, and it never comes across as being 'textbook-like'.

It takes you through the entire process of building a race car from scratch as well as modifying existing cars. Although I've never had an intention of building from scratch, it's useful to know why certain parts are where they are.

Edited by JTeb on Wednesday 29th June 10:57