XRAY - Model racing cars

Hi all Ardent Winter Series drivers

I could do with some help in terms of setup and tyre prep after a disappointing and frustrating Round 2 at Ardent on Sunday (first time racing with the Moorespeed tyres)

Setups are posted under my sig "CharlesF", pretty close to kit setup, except for C2.8 front springs and 450 shock oil, gear diff / 1000cSt oil.

First trials at practice on Saturday was poor - loads of understeer and general lack of grip, with lots of pickup on the tyres (conditioned 30 min CS additive from new, and then used LRP). None of the changes to setup worked (generally going softer on spring locations, supposedly to improve grip), until a new set of tyres were fitted, and it seemed a lot better.

Sunday race day - back to some understeer and poor grip, but also with a sharp rear "hook" on entry deceleration. I changed to C3.0 springs for Q2 (to get close to kit setup & reduce front end dig-in), but this was virtually undriveable due to the rear "hook".

The general advice seemed to go for thicker shock oil, I put 550 in on the front, with C2.8 springs on pos 4, and with some minor changes to roll centres (higher on front, lower on rear). Tyre prep - CS additive, 20min on rear, 10 min on front. This was better, but not really gripping as it did on Sorex's. How some drivers were getting grip roll filled me with envy !! The tyres continued to pick up badly throughout the day and I was still 2-3 laps down on my normal pace.....

So - can you guys advise / post your setups and tyre prep ?? (seemed to be loads of different opinions floating around !!)


Cheers

Charles

Try looking at this;



It's from Stephan Chodzynski.

He might be worth talking to at the next meeting.

When you mean rear 'hook' do you mean that the back comes loose after the front grips?

Looking at the setup and having received some advice at Maritime I would consider and perhaps with some of the following (don't go berserk, just test one thing at a time);

Try standing your rear shocks up one hole.
Remove all the shims from under the shocks.
Try more camber at either end (have run 2.5deg at the rear on carpet before)
Shorter rear wheelbase might help with rotation.
Narrower front wishbone shims (for turn in)

Put the standard rear hubs in, have been advised that one hole are for more flowing tracks, certainly not tight carpet.

At Maritime, once the backend was a bit more sorted I put the additive on for 20mins front and rear to get the front to bite a bit more.

Last but not least, no matter what advice you try (or ignore) let us know how you get on with any changes.

Here was my last setup for Maritime, Standing the rear shocks up really helped with the tight 180deg corners.


Skiddins

Thanks Skiddins

Will try out the various ideas, test day needs to be planned soon!


By "hook" I mean that the car will push/understeer on entry under braking or zero throttle (with quite a lot of lock applied) until the front grips (and seems to dig onto the front offside wheel), then the back end pivots around quickly (45-90 degrees off line, almost a spin) unless you catch it with the throttle.

Hi Skiddins

Maybe I'm not being clear

Hook as you describe it is exactly what I mean - front digging in, off power, rear very loose. Definitely not "loose on power" !

xform/index.php?act=view&ID=740&setup=t3_2011

try this set-up, very stable with loads of steering (easy to drive) but a bit loose on power but you can just drive it so it doesn't, to be honest

good luck

quick question, what final were you in?

Hi Charles,

Just about to post my setup, pretty unconventional, but after spending the Saturday testing, got my to 3rd in the a final on the sunday

I did speak to Jonathan, he said he was struggling, pm me if you have any more questions, I'm back at ardent today to do some more testing.

Ps. I was using only CS, the moorespeeds don't like anything else (I tried them all!), in the end, I had it on for 8 mins on the rear and 2-3 mins on the front!