Hi Guys,
Well, we tried out that solid rear last weekend. It certainly is . . . errr . . different.
To summarise . . we were at the MRCCR (Lilydale) track. A large 1/8th scale track with a 200+ foot back straight. It's mostly pretty open with a couple of hairpins.
My driver (13 year old son) took most of the day (three five minute heats) to get on to it but was lapping in his usual bracket by the end of it - we had about twenty minutes of track time after the main was rained out and most people had packed up to go home.
This is what we found:
Car bolted out of corners like there was no tomorrow.
Very sensitive to throttle, inducing power on oversteer coming out of tighter hairpins, Throttle control is everything but on wider sweeping corners and elsewhere, no problem - actually pretty good.
We run Active foams 40/40 with the rears usually starting out1mm larger. Normally, wear is pretty even front to rear with a one-way and a 10K rear diff. With the solid axle, rear tyre wear was horrific. We ended the day with the rears 2mm smaller than the fronts!
We played with setup somewhat and actually ended up taking out most of the rear toe-in. It ended up at 1/2 degree. I know, I know . . more rear toe should have helped the power on oversteer, but it didn't. It's got lots more to do with throttle control, I reckon - that's a driver issue, not my department.
Anyway, we likely could invest more set-up time to perfect this, but question wheather the inherrent tyre wear issue will see us any further ahead, overall.
Is there is anything fundamental I've missed?
Comments welcome.