Originally Posted by
LloydLoar
I have not tried this, but it sounds like a reasonable idea. Right now I have just been taking all of the fuzz off of my tires between runs, but not actually cleaning them with any sort of motor spray. Seems like it might also make ride height adjustment a lot easier over the course of a day.
I would describe it as the car becoming edgy. Tendency towards oversteer, and I have to be a lot more careful on the throttle to prevent the rear end from kicking out. It just doesn't seem as "hooked up". Never really had issues with traction rolling, the handling just seems very inconsistent between runs. Will seem easy to drive and fast for one run and then very difficult to drive an hour later. I have a nagging feeling this is also related to my tire care in between runs, and not actually cleaning them off other than taking the fuzz off...?
What tires are you running front/rear, and what tires is everyone else running? That's a good starting point, figuring out if you are running the right tire in the first place and adjusting from there.
Tire care changes from track to track, sometimes. At our club we just defuzz the tire. If you stay in the driving line though the tires come off very clean. Most of us also set up our cars so we run full dope across the front.
As far as ride height, I always set my car up square. 3.7mm across the deck, and I start an evening there. By the end of the night I usually am around 3.5mm rear and 3.3mm in the front. I don't bother adjusting during the night unless my rear/front bias grows greater than .2mm. You can experiment with chassis sag, but typically for me I always run 1-2mm of uptravel and no chassis sag.
The length of time you sauce, and track temperature play important roles in consistency. If the track is getting colder as you progress through a race day it may be losing grip, you may need to sauce longer or run a softer tire. On the other hand if it is getting warmer and grip is coming up you may sauce less. I generally try to sauce for 15 minutes and adjust from there. If the car feels loose late in the run I will go to 20 minutes, if it is too edgy in the beginning but feels fine late, I will sauce for 10. For me I've found its important to sauce the same time every time however. Just slapping it on and calling it good introduces inconsistency.
The easiest thing to do is see who's clearly faster consistently and ask them what they are doing. It will get you on pace faster than speculating on the forums since none of us run that track.
If you are new enough to this and don't know what to ask figure out this;
- Tire Compound.
- Tire Sauce, applicatino length, and amount across front/rear.
- Tire Diameter and sidewall radius amount.
- CA on the side wall, if so, how far.
- Ride height.
Other things to consider that effect consistent handling;
- Diff smoothness and tightness. Ask to spin their diff, if it's clearly smoother than yours you have to fix it.
- Dampening rates and springs. Are you running a similar setup?
Good luck!