Pepsibottle1s Setup Guide for the Complete Moron PART I: Basic Fundamentals: In the eyes of a Driver

Introduction: No, you cant play with the wrenches yet.

You may be thinking, Hey, isnt this a $#%@ set-up guide? Why cant you just tell me how to make the car go fast and where the wheel goes? and I wouldnt blame you if you did. However ( and youve simply got to trust me here), I felt the same way when I started delving into the technical aspect of things and that mindset simply got me NOWHERE. The truth is, theres really no magic answer when it comes to setting up a race car but rather a bunch of complicated crap that takes both time and effort to master. With that said, I want to warn you that like many other things in this world, knowing your way around a race car isnt exactly an overnight process. Its going to take hours upon hours of constant studying, tweaking, and experimenting before you learn what works and doesent. This guide isnt going to make you Larry Macreynolds or Chad Knaus, but what it will do is give you some basic insight on how exactly a race car works. Im purposely leaving out several details not to mislead you, but to make the learning process much less complicated. The entire reason Im writing this is to serve as a basic introduction to setting up your race car and learning the background behind why the car does what it does. Why? There are many guides and tutorials available that claim to be a Set-up guide but in reality, all they do is belittle the reader and confuse those who are new to the subject. With that said, Im going to do my best to introduce you to the basics and put everything in the simplest terms possible. I realize that not everyone is technically gifted and doesnt want to spend time reading a college lecture so thats why Im going to only delve into the fundamentals. After this is all said and done, you wont be Adrian Newy but youll see things quite differently when you head back out onto the track, all without giving you a near-fatal migrain. Youll be able to enter the garage and know what the hell youre doing and also take some of this out onto the track, making you a better driver in the long run. I may not be a NASCAR tech, but I can say that I can effectively work on a race car if I need to. But as I said, lets take baby steps here and start from the ground up. Today, Im going to give you the essentials that are a must if you want to learn how to begin tweaking; the fundamentals of Vehicle Dynamics. No, were not going to be making any setup changes right now, as we will get into that stuff next time. Stay with me though, and maybe youll pick up something you can use behind the wheel.

Tires: Theyre Hella Important!

Perhaps the most overlooked aspect involving how the car handles lies in the tires. You can build the best race car, design a superior chassis and install the lightest and most powerful engine known to man but that doesent mean squat if its all running on rims. The only thing keeping your ass on the track is the tires, so its critical you learn how they work! In a nutshell, there are three factors which determine how much grip you have available from the tires. First is the coeffecient of friction between the track and the tires (simply put, the conditions of the track surface and compound of the tire). Next is the contact patch, which is how much rubber is actually on the road. Obviously, we want the largest contact patch we can get ensuring that we use all of the tire. Lastly and most importantly is the vertical load on the tires. Vertical load is the force created on the tire by both physical weight, gravity and downforce. In other words, how its how hard they are being pushed down.

Generally, the more load you put on the tires, the more grip they will create. However, theres a catch: the rate of traction does not increase as fast as the increase in load. You do pick up more grip, but the increase in load is greater putting greater strain on the rubber. So before you strap a 1000lb weight on your car, you might want to know that the tires have to work much harder to provide that same amount of traction plus the extra weight doesnt help acceleration or braking either. Therefore, the potential grip available is vastly decreased; thus is why lighter cars are usually faster than heavier cars. In an ideal universe, we want all four tires equally loaded as this ensures that each is creating the same amount of grip. However, you will soon see that this is easier said than done but that will be discussed a bit later. We all know that tires have a limit, and exceeding that limit leads to bad things happening. The good news here is that tires dont simply tell you to screw off and die; they gain and lose grip progressively, as well as providing a few warning signs to tell you that youre on the edge. This means that it is quite possible to drive at the limit without instantly fataling and besides, the only way to know youre at the limit is to push it. In fact, in order to truly gain 100% grip, tires in fact do need to be pushed. Tires are made from rubber, and what does rubber do? Stretch. And in a corner, thats exactly what they do. This is called Slip Angle. Basically, when you drive through a turn, the tires end up pointing in a different direction than the wheel itself because of how elastic they are. This stretching or slipping is natural and required for to tire to produce maximum grip. The faster you drive into a turn , the more the tire stretches or slips. With all tires, there is an optimum Slip Angle where the tire produces the most grip. In racing tires, this angle is far greater providing a bit more forgiveness than typical street tires. What does this mean? It means that you cant baby the car and expect to be fast; you have to push the car a little and be a bit fearless. At the same time, being too fearless leads to overworking the tires, exceeding that Slip Angle and losing grip. But as I previously mentioned, remember that a tire is progressive and does not immediately lose all traction. Even when you exceed their limit, the tires still provide grip. When you lock up the brakes, you still slow down albeit not as fast. Practice driving at the limit, because thats the only way you will learn what is. In fact, try taking a corner faster than you think is possible; when you get the tires to slide right away, you wont be caught off guard.

Weight Transfer: The Second Key to the Puzzle

With all of that said about tires, lets look at the actual forces at work. As a driver, the most important thing you have to realize is that every action you make effects the balance of the car, and this balance is the transfer of weight across the tires. Just about everything we adjust on the car in the garage is in response to this weight transfer and it is the primary factor that determines if youve got a hot rod or a dump truck in the turns First, lets think about it. Whenever you apply throttle, have you ever noticed the car shift rearward a little bit or how the car seems to lurch forward as you apply the brakes? In the turns, have you noticed that the car seems to roll to the opposite side? This is what I mean when I say every action effects the balance of the car because every input you make influences how weight is distributed across the car. Next time youre driving on the street, this is something you can easily observe and experiment with. Notice how sensitive the car is and the impact that your driving input has on how the car rides. If you slam on the brake as compared to gradually squeezing it, youll find that the shift of weight is much more violent, and that jerking the wheel causes the car to sway much more than smoothly turning it. Keep this in mind. In racing, these inputs and the resulting forces have an adverse effect on a cars handling. In an ideal universe, wed like to have a perfect 50/50 weight distribution at all times. This would mean that the weight of the car is split equally across all four tires, meaning each would share the same load and therefore produce the same

amount of grip. This gives us a very happy car and a very happy driver; this is what we push for in creating an ideal set-up. But life aint perfect. Maybe you can see where Im starting to go with this, haha. To start, rarely does a car (or race car for that matter) ever possess a perfect weight distribution. Most of the weight lies either up front or in the rear with the engine; thus creating an obvious imbalance. Secondly, one must understand that weight is constantly being shifted from F/R and L/R due to the forces described in the last paragraph. The only time the cars weight is static is when the car is at rest; even while driving in a straight line, remember that the thrust pushes the rear of the car down and bumps and track imperfections are constantly being soaked up by the suspension. To sum things up, we want all four tires to receive the same amount of load but thats much easier said than done. I could throw in a ton of complicated aspects right now such as moment center and center of gravity but Ill keep it really simple: Our goal is to control weight transfer and keep the car balanced in such a way as to produce equal amounts of grip between all four tires. Im sure youve heard the saying that smooth is fast; that cannot be any truer here. Your goal as a driver is to be as smooth as possible with your inputs and doing so is key to minimizing the effects of weight transfer. Ever wonder why Aryton Senna could outdrive Prost, Berger and Hakkinen, all of whom drover the very same car? Its not that he had mad hax; he simply drove in a way which maximized the potential of all four tires, allowing him to squeeze every last bit of speed there was available. He wasnt perfect, but rarely did he make mistakes. You didnt see him cranking the wheel at the last minute of throwing the car in unnecessary drifts, but rather driving in a way which enable him to do as little as possible. The less you do behind the wheel, the more balanced the car is and that of course leads to MORE GRIP.

Conclusion: What the #@$^ does that have to do with Car Setup?
If youve made it this far, give yourself a pat on the back! Thankfully you stayed with me throughout the remainder of the text and if so, picked up the fundamentals of Vehicle Dynamics. It wasnt THAT painful, was it? Truth is, if you truly want to understand car setup, you must first be able to drive in a smooth and consistent manner. If you cant do that, you wont be able to create an effective setup. In fact, most handling ailments are not a result of a ill-tuned car but rather sloppy driving technique. Lets say that the car fishtails at the exit of a corner as soon as you apply throttle. Have you ever stopped to think that you turned in too early or entered the corner too slow? Thus the point I want to push across; practice being smooth! If youre not smooth in the first place, how are you ever going to expect to find an ideal car balance? With that said, get out there and work on what weve covered today. In the next section, well delve into the garage, focusing on shocks, springs and roll bars.