gkmccready

So, I was watching practice at Infineon on SPEED earlier... they said that a bunch of the cars are running maximum negative camber to get better bite. Now here's the bit that shocked me: -8 degrees. (!!)

John Shiels

That must really look kicked in hat type of cars?

Joe_Planet

they should just do 90 degrees so they can just ride the wall

flink

v8 supercars...







They look to be around -6 to my eye.

It is pretty odd. AFAIK there's nothing unusual about the front suspension. wikipedia sez "Basic front-suspension configuration is double wishbone (made compulsory for both makes through Project Blueprint), whilst rear suspension is a "live axle" design, using 4 longitudinal links and Watt's linkage for lateral location."

efranzen

How about the Milliken MX1 with 45° of camber?!

John Shiels

dumb me I SEE NASCAR now for type

Solofast

NASCAR uses tall 15 inch tires and the compounds have improved a lot over the years, so there's a lot of lateral force going into a tall tire. That equals a lot of deflection which means big negative camber. Remember too, while they are running radials, there are big differences in construction and if the tire has more bias type of construction that will equate to needing more negative camber. Taken as a whole it all makes sense....

rfn026

All that negative camber makes the tire companies crazy. I'm just amazed at how much negative camber you need (can use) with the new tires.

Richard Newton
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2000BSME

that's not 45* though.

2000BSME

that can't be true either. The rear wheels have camber in them also.

trackboss

It is very true. Those cars have very trick live axles with bolt on uprights that can be set for camber.

2000BSME

trackboss

The V8 super cars are amazing. Crazy fast considering how many restrictions they have. The teams however have huge budgets. Think about $125k for a top motor and the front running teams having 8 motors with two dedicated on the dyno for research.
There is a great book about them called insiders guide to v8 supercars 2006, or something like that. Lots of detailed info and photos which only makes one wonder how wild the stuff is they won't show.

flink

One of the aussie "GTO" guys went to an auction and took lots of photos of supercar parts. http://www.ls1gto.com/forums/showthread.php?t=255474 - lots of parts ****.

Motorsport's huge in .au. And none of this left-turn-only stuff

2000BSME

I wonder what the 'water brake spray tank' is.

bosco022

My old GTA Monte Carlo had a -1.5* cambered axle quick change.
Worked well.

Harry Gant won four NASCAR races in row back in the early 90's.
Reportedly that was the first time a team used the cambered
rear axles. Positive camber on the left rear.

mgarfias

Donohue/Penske were experimenting with it on the Trans-Am Javelin in the early 70s. As far as I remember they were just copying what the nascar guys were already doing.

Solofast

Old trick of bending negative camber into the rear axle was often done on live axle road racing cars even before it was popular in NASCAR. AFAIK it was outlawed or restricted in NASCAR, It's tough on axles and bearings....

I had a friend who was going to do it to a C prepared autocross car, the shop that was going to do it apparently used chains and a lift... The shop owner said "you don't want to be around here when we do it, it's pretty ugly"... After seriously thinking aobut it he chickened out....

Solofast

Water is used to cool brakes in some series where it's allowed. The spray is shot into the center of the brake rotor and is turned to steam as it goes thru the vanes. Takes away a lot of heat and works well on heavy high powered cars.

trackboss

I have a cambered rear end in my race car. The aussie cars are nothing like that. They have a complete upright bolted on the end of the full floater and it is adjusted with shims. Very trick and I'm sure very expensive.