Originally Posted by
Benzaah
Can anyone share there experiences on carpet when starting with a new carpet and then progressing up to high traction as the event wears on. We have a brand new CRC rug coming for AOC and i have zero experience on carpet. By the sounds of it there could be up to 200 racers attending the event which will have Ride as the spec tyre. Any advice on goop as well would be appreciated. Unfortunately some of the more readily available treatments in the US are a bit hard to come by down here. I have not been able to find SXT or sticky fingers down here.
Since no-one else has answered you, I'll throw out some debatably useful stuff.
Grip will probably come up pretty quick. I'd guess by the end of the first full day of running. I've gone through new carpet once and new layouts a few times at the club level, but never something like snowbirds or IIC with totally virgin carpet getting mobbed by a ton of people, so I could be off. In any case, new carpet that hasn't gripped up feels more like asphalt: very low grip, but very consistent regardless of line. It's kinda fun.
Don't tune your car during this phase. Just keep a base setup and concentrate on learning the layout. You'll probably want/need to sauce the living crap out of your tires during this stage.
As grip comes up, it'll also get more of a distinct groove. The darker / grippier the groove gets, the starker the contrast in grip level between being in and out of the groove will be. On carpet, it's absolutely critical to drive clean and stay in the groove. You may only miss the apex by a couple car widths, but that can put you out on a very slippery part of the track. Getting out of the groove can also get your tires dirty in a hurry, too.
Sauce: Are you restricted? Is it a Jack / SXT 3.0 / Sticky Fingers situation? I haven't tried Sticky Fingers, but I prefer Jack over SXT 3.0. I find SXT to be overly aggressive during warmup and the first few laps, making it very hard to settle into a good run. Jack seems less aggressive up front, but more consistent over the whole run. I have to tip-toe for a lap or two in warm-up, then I'm good to go.
When you clean the tires, don't forget to clean the sidewalls. Check your glue seams religiously.
Setup: I don't know anything about the Eryx specifically. But if you find yourself starting to traction roll, try: less droop, similar droop front and rear instead of more in the rear, and moving weight forward in the chassis. Also, saucing less than the full front tire can work wonders. In general, use less dual rate and set up the chassis for better rotation. If you understeer, or your back end is too planted, you'll use more steering lock, and then you'll flip. You'll also scrub too much corner speed. Understeer + too much lock will also make your car do weird things on corner exit as you get on the power, and really hurt your consistency.
Carpet won't rip the crap out of your tires like asphalt can if you push the front tires hard on corner entry. However, pipes
will rip the crap out of your car if you have too much initial steering and nose into the barriers.
-Mike