360 Challenge Stradale Suspension Settings
Discussion
I have always thought my Stradale handled peculiarly. It seemed prone to lift-off oversteer, and when running with correct tyre pressures it was very skittish in long curves. Despite all this it was suffering from understeer and eating the outside edge of the front pirellis.
I finally got my race team to have a look at the set up today and was a tad surprised. to get the car to handle at all, i had dropped the tyre pressures to as low as 26 psi instead of the 32/30 it should have been.
The front camber was 1 deg L and 1.5 deg R and the rear was 1 3/4 deg L and 2 deg R. This is quite appalling really on such a track oriented car and at this cost! The corner weights were quite good, but heavy on the rear right. My guess is because the car was originally LHD designed and with a driver on the left it would have been better balanced.
The biggest shock was the toe settings. The front had a total of 2mm out, which wasn't too bad, but the rear was ridiculous at 2mm total TOE OUT!!! No wonder the handling was so bad!
We reshimmed the suspension to 2 deg negative camber all round (the most we could easily achieve), 3mm total toe out front and 2mm TOE IN total rear. Tyre pressures were reset at 32psi front and 30 psi rear.
We also changed the brake pads all round. At 5k miles these looked ok, but the brake wear light had started to flash. Sure enough, despite having 4 or 5mm left, they were shagged.
The car is now transformed! It handles much better and more predictably. Yet to try it on track (where it wasn't too bad, just not confidence inspiring). Losing traction now in a bend is very easy to detect and control, and the ride overall is far better with good overall traction.
Pretty poor set-up from Ferrari, and pretty poor PDI from HR-Owen. In addition to this, one of the rear anti-roll bar bushes has alot of play. This is after one of the front ones had alot of play (repaired under warranty).
Be interested to hear other Stradale owner's points of view on the suspension.
I finally got my race team to have a look at the set up today and was a tad surprised. to get the car to handle at all, i had dropped the tyre pressures to as low as 26 psi instead of the 32/30 it should have been.
The front camber was 1 deg L and 1.5 deg R and the rear was 1 3/4 deg L and 2 deg R. This is quite appalling really on such a track oriented car and at this cost! The corner weights were quite good, but heavy on the rear right. My guess is because the car was originally LHD designed and with a driver on the left it would have been better balanced.
The biggest shock was the toe settings. The front had a total of 2mm out, which wasn't too bad, but the rear was ridiculous at 2mm total TOE OUT!!! No wonder the handling was so bad!
We reshimmed the suspension to 2 deg negative camber all round (the most we could easily achieve), 3mm total toe out front and 2mm TOE IN total rear. Tyre pressures were reset at 32psi front and 30 psi rear.
We also changed the brake pads all round. At 5k miles these looked ok, but the brake wear light had started to flash. Sure enough, despite having 4 or 5mm left, they were shagged.
The car is now transformed! It handles much better and more predictably. Yet to try it on track (where it wasn't too bad, just not confidence inspiring). Losing traction now in a bend is very easy to detect and control, and the ride overall is far better with good overall traction.
Pretty poor set-up from Ferrari, and pretty poor PDI from HR-Owen. In addition to this, one of the rear anti-roll bar bushes has alot of play. This is after one of the front ones had alot of play (repaired under warranty).
Be interested to hear other Stradale owner's points of view on the suspension.
I've noted a similar problem with my F40.
It had huge understeer. I guess its a safety feature that Ferrari build in to prevent customers reaching the traction limit on public roads.
I've had to change all the shocks, springs, bushes and camber/toe/castor to get it how I want it.
Still understeers a little and I'm sure that can be dialed out by firming up the front shocks a few clicks.
It'll be a while before I try it again because of the recent fire etc.
It had huge understeer. I guess its a safety feature that Ferrari build in to prevent customers reaching the traction limit on public roads.
I've had to change all the shocks, springs, bushes and camber/toe/castor to get it how I want it.
Still understeers a little and I'm sure that can be dialed out by firming up the front shocks a few clicks.
It'll be a while before I try it again because of the recent fire etc.
Stiffening the front shocks will most likely increase understeer. Usually softening the front or stiffening the rear will reduce understeer.
A car can understeer for lots of reasons - not enough negative camber, insufficient toe out at the front, crap tyres, overstiff front anti-roll bar, lack of downforce at high speed etc etc etc
Main thing with Ferraris is to get the weight onto the front, or it will naturally understeer. Trail braking into corners and gently transferring to the throttle will help offset alot of understeer.
My race team guys have setup and run a few F40s and even rebuilt some from a bare shell, so if you want their details, they can help you with setup.
A car can understeer for lots of reasons - not enough negative camber, insufficient toe out at the front, crap tyres, overstiff front anti-roll bar, lack of downforce at high speed etc etc etc
Main thing with Ferraris is to get the weight onto the front, or it will naturally understeer. Trail braking into corners and gently transferring to the throttle will help offset alot of understeer.
My race team guys have setup and run a few F40s and even rebuilt some from a bare shell, so if you want their details, they can help you with setup.
evoblade said:
My race team guys have setup and run a few F40s and even rebuilt some from a bare shell, so if you want their details, they can help you with setup.
Tell me more becuase the settings for the car were given to me by Cristiano Michelotto who has been helping me with my F40. His recommendation is to increase the damping on the front shocks, the same advice also comes from Quantum.
Regards,
J.P
I'm from Quantum, we supplied the dampers for the F40 as post above.
The advice to increase damping on the front, is based on increasing the rebound, thus it will tend to hold the front of the car down as you come onto the power exiting the corner, thus reducing corner exit understeer.
The advice to increase damping on the front, is based on increasing the rebound, thus it will tend to hold the front of the car down as you come onto the power exiting the corner, thus reducing corner exit understeer.
Ahhh, yes, increasing rebound would do that. The post about "stiffening" the dampers was a bit misleading.
All too difficult to tell from someones descriptions. If it is understeer on exit under power, then resisting weight transfer from the front would definitely help. If it is understeer on corner entry, then that is a different thing. I assumed the latter, not the former - sorry.
All too difficult to tell from someones descriptions. If it is understeer on exit under power, then resisting weight transfer from the front would definitely help. If it is understeer on corner entry, then that is a different thing. I assumed the latter, not the former - sorry.
Gassing Station | Supercar General | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff