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road set up vs tight oval course set up

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Old 05-27-2009, 04:10 PM
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9secondflat
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Default road set up vs tight oval course set up

i have a c5 that has been lowered, qa1's and hotchkis sway bars front and back along with all poly bushings around the entire car. my question is what would be the difference in a road course set up vs a tight mild banked oval track 1/3 mile? thanks in advance.
Old 05-27-2009, 04:48 PM
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waktasz
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Stafford?
Old 05-27-2009, 04:53 PM
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95jersey
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probably more camber on the outside wheels, less if not even positive camber on the inside wheels as a start.
Old 05-27-2009, 04:58 PM
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waktasz
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I don't claim to have any direct experience with ovals, but I imagine there'd be a change of ride height as well.
Old 05-27-2009, 05:01 PM
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AU N EGL
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ovals you might want stock ride height for compression in the banked corner

no more then -1* on the left and 0 camber on the right.

Ovals sound like fun, but too much alignment changes to and back after to run on
Old 05-27-2009, 05:09 PM
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davidfarmer
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you need positive camber on the inside, you need stiff springs to keep from bottoming out (assuming it is banked any at all), and of course you need to move the steering wheel directly into your rib cage.
Old 05-27-2009, 08:27 PM
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Lancer033
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Originally Posted by waktasz
I don't claim to have any direct experience with ovals, but I imagine there'd be a change of ride height as well.
wouldn't the ride height be lower on the left side as well or is that just for the aero stuff?
Old 05-27-2009, 09:19 PM
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davidfarmer
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even with banking, the outside will be loaded more than the inside. I think balancing both spring rate and ride height would take a lot of tweeking depending on the banking angle and loads.

btw, road racing tires aren't load rated for ovals either. When we raced at Charlotte in 00' (not that crappy nascar setup a few years back), BFG found that the cars were tripling the load rating, and had to put a temporary chicane in.
Old 05-28-2009, 06:35 AM
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AU N EGL
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Originally Posted by davidfarmer
even with banking, the outside will be loaded more than the inside. I think balancing both spring rate and ride height would take a lot of tweeking depending on the banking angle and loads.

btw, road racing tires aren't load rated for ovals either. When we raced at Charlotte in 00' (not that crappy nascar setup a few years back), BFG found that the cars were tripling the load rating, and had to put a temporary chicane in.
Ovals may sound like fun, but what david has mention is enough to NOT do ovals. Too much set up changes.

Plus our tires dont have inner liners like the NASCAR tires do. So if or when a flat happen on the banking, look out.
Old 05-28-2009, 07:34 AM
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9secondflat
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i ran at seekonk speedway this past w/e. my car was set up for road racing by the prior owner...one can see the camber (both tires are leaning inward at the top..i dont know if this is called positive or negative) anyways i had nt01's on the front and bfg drag radials on the rear at 32 psi...when i came out of turn 2 back end came around real fast...tried to save it but didnt...almost kissed the wall at 50mph
Old 05-28-2009, 09:52 AM
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thehammer69
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Originally Posted by 9secondflat
my car was set up for road racing by the prior owner...one can see the camber (both tires are leaning inward at the top..i dont know if this is called positive or negative) anyways i had nt01's on the front and bfg drag radials on the rear at 32 psi...when i came out of turn 2 back end came around real fast...tried to save it but didnt...almost kissed the wall at 50mph
The inward tilt at the top of your tires would be called Negative Camber.

And you really should not use Drag Radials for this application.
Old 05-28-2009, 10:43 AM
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I crew for a Legends race car team and we run at Wall Stadium, 1/3 mile, high banked asphalt track in NJ. We have also run the same car at Lime Rock park, 1.54 mile road course in CT.

It takes two of us old guys about 6 hours to change the car from oval to road course form, but we are changing tires, springs, rear gear, reset rear offset, reset front end castor / camber, etc., etc. We don't change shocks because they are a spec shock by rule, but we do swap tires from side to side because our tires (also a spec tire by rule) are camber cut for the oval set up. On a road couse only car I would just run straight shaved tires.

The basic difference between a road course car and an oval car is the corner weights. On the road course you want a 50/50 balance or maybe a 49/51 balance side to side, since many road courses are just clockwise ovals with a left turn.

On the oval car you want as much left side and rear weight as you can find. We do that with spring rate and ride height settings.

Right front tire carries maybe 5 - 6 degrees of negative camber while the left front will be a little on the positive side. We also run a castor split, where one wheel has more castor than the other so the car just wants to turn left into the corner. We run the same toe out as on the road course set up so we just check it to be sure. We also carry more tire pressure on the right side than on the left.

But the MOST IMPORTANT thing in chassis set up is HOW YOUR DRIVER LIKES THE CAR. Look at NASCAR, not all drivers on the same team run the same chassis setup. Each driver & car combo is different, similar, but different.

On a relatively stock Corvette, dial in all the negative camber you can get on the right front. Go a little positive camber on the left front. Run more tire pressure on the left side than on the right but check your tire temperatures as this will steer you to better camber and pressure settings.

Can't help you on the rear settings as we run a locked solid axle on the Legends car, but I would want to see a little toe in and more right side tire pressure.

Roy - crew member 14NJ

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