Originally Posted by
Skiddins
I don't think the dragster example is very good at all, they have huge power to weight ratios and (comparatively) all the weight is at the back to begin with.
Think of an 'average' road car, from standstill if it pulls away hard the front will lift up (more so if it's FWD) and dive when braking. This is the weight transfer in action.
The front will keep trying to lift until there isn't enough downward force on the tyres to produce traction and it either wheel spins or the traction control cuts in.
Sportier versions, sometimes of the same model of car, will come with harder front and rear suspension which help to reduce this transfer.
As they don't have adjustable droop, the dampers and springs are tuned to changed the transfer. We have the benefit of set screws in the wishbones so we can separate some of the this transfer from having to change the springs etc.
Obviously we use a combination to allow us to tune the car for all area's of the track.
Another reason you may loose rear traction with more front droop is that the camber gain at the rear (and/or combined with what the camber was to begin with) is too great and as the rear compresses down to contact patch of the rear tyres is reduced.
Sometimes simply reducing the static rear camber can increase rear traction.
As every setup guide and book keeps telling us, you cannot make a setup change without it, in turn, having an effect on another setting. We're trying to find that ultimate sweet spot for our cars, for each track in each condition.
Thanks Skiddins, yet more great input. To give further background on my setup, I was running 2 degrees of camber all round with little to no camber gain. After the first run I felt that the car was oversteering on corner exit when applying the power coming out of the bend. My hunch was too much front grip rather than not enough rear grip. For the second run I changed from 2.6 front spring to 2.8, went from 1.3mm to 1.4mm front roll bar. The car was better but still a little wayward at the rear so for the third run I increased the front downstop from 8.75mm to 9.5mm. This small change balanced the car, reduced the over-steer and the car felt much more balanced and gave much quicker times. I know the grip was coming up each round due to the track rubbering in and with more runs I was getting used to the track, but the setup changes definitely improved the rear of the car.
As it was the last run I went with reducing front droop as this is what I have known to add a bit of push which is what I needed. I didn't feel increasing front droop as I've tried in the past would have helped but I am definitely going to try 8mm on the second run tonight to see what effect that has. According to theory that should add more rear grip. According to my experience it won't. Tonight will tel!!
