On other topics, went to the track yesterday and had another good productive day.
Played a lot with wheelbase and ackerman settings, trying to get my head round what each setting did, as well as see if I can't make the car more comfortable. Also tried quite a few different bodyshells, and one other interesting trick... more in a bit!
Track was pretty low-medium traction, as it had rained the previous night, and only a few of us there.
Started out the day with as I have been running. 0.5mm behind the front arm, and 3.5mm in front of rear. Good front end, and quick rotation. Too quick in fact, difficult to stay on top of the car, and couldn't push. First change was to move the rear shock up to hole 2, which helped, but still too quick to rotate round.
Tried going back to 1mm/3mm wheelbase (and remembering to adjust the ackerman shims as well), made the car much more stable to drive, but now didn't rotate fast enough, and lost some front end (as to be expected!).
Next run I switched back to 0.5mm on the front only, and this gave back some of the entry, but with the stable rear, so felt very good at that point.
However, next run I had to switch to new tyres having worn the previous set to the canvas! The new set gave more traction due to being new, and using a different insert, so was back to being too safe with too little mid corner rotation. So back to 3.5mm in front of the rear, and was back to good rotation.
In terms of ackerman, flirted between 1.5 and 2mm shims (with the 0.5mm front wheelbase). 2mm felt smoother through the whole corner, whilst 1.5mm was more direct in the middle... still not so sure on which I prefer, think it's a "on the day try both" kind of change
Did play with the camber links again, but traction levels dictated staying with the middle hole/5F/4F combo, especially on the newer boots. 4F/3R felt like it had good reaction, but overall less grip.
With bodyshells, did a couple of runs changing the shells every two minutes (and mixing up the order to keep it fair!)... Speed6 was as expected nice and stable, seemed to flow nicely through the turns, with a natural push. LTC-R was, for me, the best, good steering all the way through the corner, but with a predicatble transition from entry to exit. Now the oddity was the P37. That seems to have the entry steering similar to the Speed6, but with rotation and exit of the LTC-R. Makes, for me, for an odd experience driving, where the rear seems to break away too quick, so the nose would miss the apex, then the rear snap round. IMO, it requires a slightly different style to drive, or if you have a car with a darty front end would help to calm it down... but for me, I'll take the LTC.
I did also try a different wing with the P37 (Ride HD Lip) to see if it would help calm the rear, but if anything made it worse! The wing uses a 90° return at the top, like a gurney... but personally I think it works more like a flow blocker rather than a staller, in effect reducing the downforce. Suffice to say, the wing will be staying in the box!
Last run of the day, I thought I'd give something a try I'd been discussing with some friends back in the UK. And that was 2 gears in the gear diff, but with thicker oil. On the bench, this gives a nice smooth action, if anything better than the 4 gear. However on track... well lets just say the griding noise I heard when first pulling away wasn't good! Managed a couple of laps, but the gears had stripped. So forget that then
Overall... good day at the track
