Originally Posted by
Jon Kerr
You really don't want your steering completely slop free. This will make the car very twitchy unpredictable. If there's a little slop, it will allow for little imperfections in the surface. If there's no play at all, every little imperfection will change the direction of the car and it will feel like the car is wondering all over the track.
We actually learned a lot about steering "play" the other day at Hot Rod Hobbies. I went up there with Cavalieri and Maifield to hang out and get laptimes for them. Basically run after run, Cavalieri was about a half second faster on his fast lap, normally these guys are head to head. What happened is Maifield glued his servo saver down because the track for the Shootout is always smooth and well groomed, but at this point it had been sitting out for a month or so and got all rutted up. Maifield's car hit every little bump in the track and made it very unstable, Cavalieri's car basically would just cruise over the little bumps without being affected much.
You dont see this as much in on-road racing because we dont deal with a lot of bumps and ruts, but there are still the little ones, and this is why I always recommend staying with the stock Schumacher ballcups. I personally dont do anything to them to make them fit more snug, don't feel they are sloppy enough to need it.