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itsworn · 8 years

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Why Teams Chase Their Setups

Going In Circles

I had a recent déjà vu moment. I was reminded that common sense is not all that common after all. I also now understand why some teams seem to struggle year after year, sometimes having success, but mostly struggling. It’s not that they don’t care and just want to be “out there”, which I really once believed to be true. It’s because they are ignorant.

Before you jump to conclusions about using that “I- word” let me further explain. If you look up that word, it means among other things, according to Merriam-Webster, “…lack of knowledge”. An example given is, “parents ignorant of modern mathematics”.

We can substitute the word “parents” for racers in this case. Many of the teams I am referring to don’t necessarily lack specific knowledge about the race car, they just plain don’t know how to put all of that knowledge together into a package.

To be fair, I think it takes a special mind to decipher all of the various parts and pieces that go into a modern setup. The pieces must fit together like a puzzle and that is not a cheap metaphor, it is reality. To end up with a completed puzzle, one or more pieces left out ruins the whole picture.

So, how does a team that cannot put the pieces together get around this dilemma? They have to collectively agree to allow someone outside the team that can come in and put it all together for them. This is asking a lot and most egos will not allow such an intrusion. There, I have gotten to the root of the problem, egos.

Many teams have what I loosely refer to as “mentors” who might be out of racing at the present time, but who have raced a lot in the past. They still want to stay engaged in racing and I think it is a wonderful thing, to a point.

So, these mentors take control of the setup aspects of the team and are mostly resistant to anyone from outside butting in, no matter how briefly the encounter. And, it doesn’t matter how strong the intruder is in their knowledge base.

I have had well-known consultants, who were many times winners in their own right and are now many times winners with younger drivers they are bringing along, tell me that certain teams, who they are friends with, just won’t take the most basic of suggestions for improvement. It frankly boggles the mind.

In this world there are givers and takers. Almost every consultant I know is a giver, or they would never be trying to help other in the first place. Most of them can’t stand by and watch a team struggle when they know how to solve the problem at hand. But they have to at times or risk a rebellion.

So, they stay friendly and stand back and observe. It’s not easy, it’s just human nature. I know that with the articles we write on the pages of CT, as well as all of the other technical writers out there trying month after month to help the racers get better and have more success, we’ll get through to only a percentage of the readers.

There is even the phenomenon of people out there having disdain for those of us who dare to tell anyone how to do anything. I don’t have patience or time for those in that category. My thought is, if you already know what we are presenting, pat yourself on the back and move on.

Where all of this is leading is this. If you are caught in a situation where you have “advisors” who are resisting change and whose ego does not allow differences of opinion just because it is a threat to their control, find a way to urge them to move on.

It’s a fairly easy thing to do, just quit listening to them and doing what they say. Their egos won’t be able to stand the rejection and they’ll find another team to dominate. Your team’s performance will improve and someone else’s will get worse. Better them than you.

If all of that seems harsh, it’s got to be even harder going year after year with no success and struggling to finish in the top five. It is entirely your choice who you associate with and who you have relationships with. Look around you and evaluate which relationships make your world better and which ones drag you down.

There is nothing we can ever do about the past and it’s not worth worrying about. But the future is an entirely different thing. We should care about it and we should make changes now to ensure our future is going to be better than our past. It’s called growth and it’s one of the reasons we are all here, not my words, but nonetheless true. Hey, it’s a whole new day, right?

If you have comments or questions about this or anything racing related, send them to my email address: [email protected] or mail can be sent to Circle Track, Senior Tech Editor, 1733 Alton Parkway, Suite 100, Irvine, CA.

Freddie Query is a very experienced and successful driver and now consultant who mentors young drivers to success. If and when he tries to help race teams, they would do well to listen. He is one of many of us who continually get frustrated with the resistance we run into with race teams.

Setup For Bristol

Hi Bob,

I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction for a decent starting point with springs and shocks for a 3100 lb metric 4 link car for the race at Bristol? Any help would be great, thanks.

Chris Titcomb

Chris,

If you will read my piece about Bristol, you’ll begin to understand the challenges you will face running there. Although you, in your class, won’t be experiencing the high speeds the Late Models will be seeing, you will be traveling much faster through the turns than you ever have.

That puts a lot of loading on the suspension. My suggestion for spring rates for your type of car is similar to what we did back in the day with the Late Models. Basically triple your current spring rate.

So, I think most teams running stock classes are in the range of 700-800ppi spring rates. Triple would be going to 2,000-2,400ppi springs. Since your ride height is more than the late models and your speeds lower, you might get by a little softer, but I wouldn’t go there with less than 1,800ppi or so.

The first time out, you will pay close attention to shock travels to make sure you are not in danger of contacting the track with the cross member, or god forbid the oil pan. This brings up another important design requirement, make sure the cross member is lower than the bottom of the oil pan.

The other part of the presentation about Bristol is the part about the high loading on the other components of the car besides the springs. Everything must be in very good condition like your ball joints, control arm bushings, etc. This race will test how well you, or whomever, built your car.

Cheater Motors

Back many years ago when I was living in England and had a side business of building and racing “spec” engines for various formulae we faced the same problem. The solution was the regulations were re-written to allow any competitor to buy a “winning” engine for a fairly low fixed price. The owner could not resist. A refusal to sell would result in the engines owner being immediately banned from that category and losing any winner’s purse from that event.

To race in that formula you agreed your engine could be bought at the end of a race meeting for the agreed price. The price included the “accessories” such as headers, carburetor(s), fuel and oil and water pumps. The “seller” was responsible for the removal under the eye of the buyer at the end of a race meeting. Sometimes the “seller” would accept the “buyers” engine in part exchange, again, for an agreed price, but mostly they wanted cash only.

The result was that people did not invest much money in clandestine upgrades as they could lose them if their engine was bought. Likewise, people did not invest much time in labor intensive upgrades such as blueprinting, port realignments and/or polishing. It also meant any “secret” performance modifications were quickly learned by the competition and were not secret for long.

Here’s an example. I raced in a saloon car category that required “stock” engines. All parts had to be as supplied from the factory without modifications, meaning no grinding or filing of parts. I had been building Formula Ford spec engines and had a “traders’ license so that I could go to the Ford factory in Dagenham and pick through their inventory to select weight matched pistons, roods etc.

I used to take my gauges and scales with me and sift through sometimes hundreds of parts just to find, for example, four well matched rods, where the small and big ends were closely matched across all four. Likewise with pistons, valves, etc. You can imagine just how long you could take, especially when you had three of something and needed a fourth! You’d have to look for multiple sets and settle for the first set of four that were “good enough”.

I always did that for a customer’s Formula Ford engine. Careful selection could improve a standard engine from rated 72 bhp to sometimes as much as 105 or more bhp. I only did the above once for my street saloon. That engine was bought after the first race of the season and the next race was the following week. I had a full time job and couldn’t afford to skip work to sit and sort Ford parts for a couple of days or longer.

However, I discovered quite by accident that if I had a carburetor gasket that was torn in just the right place and was opened up just a little as the screws were tightened down it would create a fuel “leak” between the float bowl and choke when cornering around hard right hand curves and corners. This was good because the engine would normally starve and misfire badly at racing speeds under these conditions normally but this “extra” fuel eliminated the problem with resultant quicker lap times.

One could even “tune” the amount by careful adjustment of the gap in the “torn” gasket. I had three relatively cheap engines bought before the secret mod was discovered and everyone soon followed suit. When the scrutineers learned of the practice they at first banned it as an “unapproved modification” but later reinstated it for “safety” reasons, stipulating precisely where and how wide the cut could be that replaced the “tear”.

The things we racers do to find an unfair advantage. But fixed price buying of a competitor’s engine will keep the competition even and reasonably cost effective.

Phil Grice, Carlsbad, CA

Phil,

We already have claimer classes in the US. The plan you describe might be applicable to the crate or “strictly stock” motor programs possibly. If a sanction really wanted parity, and I truly doubt that is true in some cases, then they would enact the claimer rule for “stock” and sealed motor classes. The impression most sanctions give is that they want to be fair and everyone on the same performance level as to motors. Well then, let them claim. I won’t hold my breath on that one.

Outlaw Grill Openings

Bob,

I have noticed that a lot of outlaw asphalt Late Models don’t have any grille openings on the front of them and they pull air from the bottom of the duct work to cool the car instead of the front. Is there a reason why most pro/super late model guys don’t do this?

Would it not increase front downforce since the grille opening would be covered? This is just something I have noticed and wanted your input on the concept. The only drawback I see to this design is the duct work would be like a vacuum and suck all the trash off the race track. If you could help me out with input that would be great.

Thanks, Michael Murray

Michael,

I’m not sure what you are referring to, every outlaw late model I see has a grill opening in the front. If the body is black and the hole, screen and trim is black, it is very hard to see, but it is there, it has to be. Look much lower and you’ll see it.

What many racers have discovered is that they don’t need as big an opening as was previously thought. It helps to be out in the lead where you can get clean, undisturbed air to cool the motor. So, these openings find a way of moving lower and becoming smaller.

Torque Arm Systems

Hello

We are now in our closed season and are looking into our rear end setup. I’ve just read your article on mounting the 3rd link offset to help load the tires evenly through anti-squat. We currently run a three link system with a panhard rod. I’ve been looking but can’t find a article you’ve done on torque arms.

Is there any advantage on a torque arm system over a 3rd link? I’m trying to achieve more bite off the corners but can’t find good enough info to tell how the torque arm would work on circle track racing as they are all on old muscle cars. Any info you might have would be great before we start altering bits about.

Thanks Carl

Carl,

There is a current stampede to find more rear grip for accelerating off the corners. At the Speedweeks show this past February at New Smyrna Speedway in Daytona Beach, we saw cars with huge amounts of bite off the corners. It seems like the more bite you can get, the quicker you can get back to the throttle coming off the corners.

As for the old muscle cars using torque arms, most of those are leaf spring cars and the use of torque arms or what used to be called traction bars was to prevent wrapping up of the leaf springs. I had a friend back in the day who hit third gear in his highly modified Nomad and pulled the driveshaft out of the tranny. My first engineering job on hot rods was to design traction bars for his car. It solved the problem.

In my article on traction in this issue, I explain in some detail the problem with un-equal loading of the rear tires due to load transfer. We can therefore go to what used to be thought of as “extremes”, but now know as necessary, lengths to add load to the left rear tire.

Any device or method that can get that done is worth looking into. There are two basic goals for adding bite for better acceleration. One is torque absorbing and this can be done with spring or rubber pull bars, torque arms, lift arms, etc. This method takes the shock of initial throttle application out of the tire and puts it in the device.

The other is the redistribution of rear tire loading and that is what we discussed in the current article. Both help gain forward bite, so keep looking around and incorporate the systems you think will work best for your application.

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