bboy

For your GP rides, which one do you prefer to us?

- One Way
- Gear Diff
- Solid

Any suggestions/comments?

Brian Bosley

iTrader: (13)

I used to be a hard core one way driver for years in electric because it gives you more turn-in and gives you hard out of the corner acceleration and you could keep constant throttle in the middle of the corner because the front outer wheel was free to rotate faster than the driven wheel.

I use a spool/solid now for a number of reasons, same great corner exit and lighter weight with the addition of being able to use the brakes instead of grip to slow the car down. The trick is that you can't use the throttle mid corner or your car will just push out (because the two front wheels always spin together, even when you let off)

A number of people have told me that gear diff is the way to go but then they use 300,000cps oil and should just save the weight and run a spool for the very little action that the diff is providing in my opinion so I haven't even tried it.

British Menace

This is what put me off from using a gear diff' at the front of my car. But after I'd seen countless world class drivers using the diff' over the other options. I have persevered. And will persevere.
The trick is to find the right thickness of oil/grease which suits your particular driving style.
Problem is what you might initially find if you have been using a spool for a while is that you think you don't like it. But with the diff' you CAN use some throttle while in the corner! That, as you pointed out Brian, is the small but significant drawback of the spool.
The big plus is ease in which you can drive the car. Just not so much throttle work at all, and once your used to it, with maybe some set up changes to get the best from the diff', I think it's ultimately faster.

Regards,
British Menace

Brian Bosley

iTrader: (13)

If you look at the cars of the world class drivers on american tracks, most run a spool and not a diff. But if you look at their cars from the worlds this year, the diff was the ticket. unfortunately I have no idea what they were running in them. I think it has something to do with on throttle steering on big ribon style tracks, I heard they used 2nd gear most of the time like they do at Ft. Meyers so perhaps a diff would be good there. The 3 tracks around Houston all have more hard 180's than sweeping exits but you do bring up a good point, I should get a front diff and try it, I can't honestly say that I have ever tried them back to back with a genuine attempt to run the diff (meaning changing any portion of my setup from the spool)

mtveten

iTrader: (29)

There is no single best option, the trick is to quickly find the one that yields the best balance for the track & condition your racing.

Solids give great on-power steering & car control with excellent braking at the expense of decreased fuel millage, increased tire wear, & reduced off-power corner speed @ a greater turning radius.

one-ways provide great on-power steering, increased fuel millage, reduced tire wear, increased off-power corner speed at the expense of a significant reduction in breaking, reduced stability & car control.

Diffs provide an adjustable balance between the superior braking & car control of a spool & increased off-power steering & corner speed of the 1-way. In general the diff's action will pull less out of the corner compared to the spool or 1-way in a decreasing value as the oil gets lighter. The lighter the oil the less resistance, less resistance means more rotation improving speed through from corner entry through mid-corner. Heaver oil will increase resistance improving braking stability & acceleration out of the corner.

bboy

Right, as a new bee (less than 1 year), I find diff a lot easier to drive. I started off with one-way because that's what everyone uses in my club but I find that I often turn too quickly even when I dial down my dual rate, and that I oversteer a lot and am afraid to brake even when I really have to because the car would loose control.

After changing to gear diff (stock with 50k oil), I find it much easier to nail the corners though people are always surprised when they find out I am not running one-way.

As for spool, from all that I have heard about the tear and wear, I still haven't try it yet....

jk1152

Brian I've been messing around with using 500k weight front diff at Gulf Coast in Houston. I have some 100k but don't think I'll go that low.

freestyles

iTrader: (14)

I prefer to use a spool as it suits my track a little bit better than anything else but some guy's run a front diff but then put 100k wt so it pretty much locks them but maybe could diff out a little.

I drive vey aggressive so a spool also sits my driving, brake hard into corner then accelorateout hard out of it

Brian Bosley

iTrader: (13)

I haven't actually felt a 500k diff, but it seems like a spool would be the same thing except you might get maybe 5% diff action under high loads so you would be better off saving the weight on the drivetrain. it would be interesting to see the difference timed back to back but they'll be racing two more times until next march or so.

jk1152

Yeah to bad you didn't stick around after the meeting last race. I'm running the lightweight 2speed, lightweight disk brake holder, lightweight front and rear drive shafts. After doing this I noticed I lost a lot of momentum going through the corners so running the front diff for a little more rotating mass has not been so bad and help the corner speed momentum issue.

I might switch between a solid and 500k to see what changes on qualifying times.

The plus about 500k is that the front end is more durable, if I tag a wall I don't have to worry about snapping / bending any cvd's or messing up the spool.

Brian Bosley

iTrader: (13)

Post back here after the 13th when you try that since I'll be running offroad, I would really like to know on that track for the future. I wasn't able to make the races because I was only interested in the meeting itself and had a family get together and an Astros suite for the night.