I have a very good idea when I am fast and when I am not. I often leave the transponder unplugged so that it doesn't make me want to try different changes to look for speed rather than pace. It is also allows me to play mind games with people that I am racing, where they can never truly judge how fast my car is.
There are practice champions, who always try as hard as they can to top the timesheets in practice and fast lap, but suffer in the race because of consistency issues and a lot comes down to aggressive setup. Many of the top racers are within 2 tenths of the fast lap, but can run those laps almost every lap.
I'm definitely not there yet. I do like the Next Level Timing software for practice as it focuses on consistent laps, but with changing layouts as often as we are for HFAY, I seem to always be learning the line and where its worth driving a longer line at faster speed vs a tighter line at less speed and what is ultimately faster and consistent for me.
I guess i prefer my racing a little different. I tend to run with the same people and in some cases have for many years and we know each other and our driving styles. We know where we have to backoff in relation to each other and where we can push it, where we can go side by side and where we cannot. No mind games, just having a better focus that day and a better setup car that day. It means we can usually run very close to each other without incidents, and that pressure is a large part of the fun, knowing even going too wide in a corner will cost you the position. No secrets, just the fun of laying it all out there.
Originally Posted by
art4242
Yes, truing down below 22.3mm is difficult as the tire gets really thin, especially with the softer compounds. You can take really small light cuts the last few tenths and that usually helps, also let the tire cool down between each cut. As the tire get hot it becomes really soft and falls apart when cutting. Another trick I used to do as a last resort was to cool the tires down with electronic component freeze spray after each cut. Unfortunately the safest way to get them even thinner is to just drive them and wear them down.
As for traction rolling here's my usual list of items to combat it:
- smaller diameter front tires
- harder front tires
- stiffer front springs
- less camber
- higher offset front wheels (up to +3)
- less caster
- add weight to chassis underneath
- remove weight from body higher up (lexan windshield)
- lower ride height
- less rake (raise front end relative to rear)
- softer rear T-plate
- larger/higher rear wing
Lastly, PN V2 front tire tape is narrower than the full width of the front wheel. I usually place tape towards the outer rim to give more traction. You can also place the tape towards the inside of the rim, which lowers traction as the outer edge of the tire is not stuck down.
Definitely having to let the tire cool as i cut it. I will keep playing with it, as all my tire truing experience up to the mini z's was foam.
On Steve's car we did everything on your list with the exception of adding lower weight (dont have any), removing upper weight (already a lexan windshield) and a larger rear wing. Running PN firms on +3 rims, yellow PN springs on the AA front end. Lowest camber, camber gain and caster settings. I hate admitting it, because it was always one of the settings I struggled with the most in understanding, but I wish we had more roll center adjustments. My car still has +2 fronts, taller tires and mediums so i have some more i can still give up. A lot of our challenges continue to come down to a track that is setup outdoors each week, so the tiles are always in different places and we get a lot of dust and pollen buildup especially this time of year. On Sunday, we had birds nesting overhead that were dropping twigs and feathers on us and the track during the qualifying heats and mains. Adds to the challenge hehe.