tube80z

If you're really curious you can measure this by placing a known weight on the outside of the tire and measure the period as if it were a pendulum. Think 20 pound block of metal hooked to the tire with a nylon strap. Remember F(measured in hertz) is =1/T (period of the pendulum). And T=2*Pi*SQRT(I/m*g*L) m is your mass g is the gravitational constant L is the length from center And I is what you want to measure (moment). Now you have a simple experiment to keep you busy over the holidays. Merry Christmas, Cary

Actually it's quite simple if you are willing to make a number of measurements. For spring rate you can use ride frequencies and decide on how stiff you really want to go. These use your sprung and unsprung weights to set the frequency for your car. A car set to 2 Hz (hertz) will behave the same whether it is light or heavy car. The problem with using recommended spring rates is that your car may have different weight distribution and/or sprung/unsprung ratios. Just a thought. Cary

That's not too far from the toyota and honda power steering systems. Been looking at that possibly for the race car. Just need to know how to change the feel. Cary

Having had the F-body and LS2 pans together these pictures are just a little misleading. The F-body pan is about 3/4 of an inch lower near the drain plug than the LS2 pan. It's hard to see in the pics but the LS2 pan is flat on the bottom. Cary

So just thinking out loud. It looks like you need a new crossmember and a lot of oil pan work. For moving the rack would it be possible to make adapters to move the tie rods, so the rack was lower and further forward? Generally you can move a rear steer rack forward with little problem other than increasing ackerman. But I have no experience with a Z32 so I'd believe that about as much as I'd believe the Vh45 is 100 lbs lighter Another option (one that I'm looking at for something else) is a roadsteresque solution. Front steer rack with rockers that connect to the current tie-rods. Other than that I'm tapped out. I looked and the inside of one of these cars once and I can see why you don't want to work on the firewall and the tunnel. Cary

See the quote above about lining Bernie's pockets. If you don't pay his fees then the race goes somewhere else. Cary

Cool, I looked at a wikipedia entry and I could have sworn that there was a car in the 16s. Good to know the little caterham beastie punched in well above it's weight.

You do realize much higher up the board is the Caterham R500. You don't get much lighter or simpler than one of those. Almost as fast as the Veryron. It's simple, you need more newtons (F=Ma and the rest of this forms of this equation) Cary

What I've read is you can build your motor it just won't be allowed to have more performance than the cossie. And the tranny is the same for everyone, which probably also means the KERS unit. I'd love to see F1 in America at some place like Laguna Seca. I agree, many of the new tracks seem pretty much the same. I think the only Tilke circuit I like is Turkey. Singapore was kind of neat but I don't really want more night races. Oh well, it will all go where ever Bernie gets the most money. Or where Max can find cheap labor Cary

If you follow F1 you'll know the Honda decided to take it in the pants for 2008. They were one of the most well funded teams last year and completely shifted focus to 2009. They made that decision after Ross Brawn arrived and saw the performance of their car in 07 winter tests. The question now is can a home be found for this team. They have some of the most up to date resources of any F1 team and poached considerable to help them out. Cary

I think this has been fixed. But then the rules first came out it as the closest whole litre for weight. Cary

Using a T-10 or muncie isn't going to add any time to this conversion. We've been running the T10 all year and it's a known quantity. There's a special bellhousing and pilot bearing that are needed. And a special flywheel can be used that allows either old style clutches or the newer camaro/corvette clutch. Cary

Around here we had track days, autox, drag racing, and dirt track. We still have all of that so not much has changed in this neck of the woods.

Nope, still has those stupid door handles.

It will be good to note how much travel you have before we go too much farther in advice. I would like to point out that in the pic above you're on the brakes and not the gas. So you can't really say for sure how planted the rear is or not. As John mentions above the issue we're all seeing is a pitching of the car. What we don't know is if that's caused from the from the car running out of travel or some other cause. Once you fix that I think you'll find car works much better. The static pics make it look like you're fairly low. Cary

It may also come from changing RC locations and/or using devices like droop limiters to control the load transfer distribution. I'm not saying this isn't the issue but unless you see it in person it is unlikely in my opinion. I've seen a number of cars setup just like this and they don't have this issue unless an insert isn't working. Cary

It's sorta hard for me to tell what is causing what in your video. But to me it looks like the front starts hopping, probably ran out of suspension travel, and then your right foot starts tapping along. And as you make more power and have a more responsive engine you pay the penalty. A few things to try that aren't too hard. Put zip ties on the shock shafts and see if they are being pushed into the bumpstops. If they are then I'd fix this before moving too far along Next thing, which may be a little harder. Add a quadrant to you throttle linkage and slow down the lower opening movement. You want to have to move your foot more at the lower openings. This can really be important with a V8 car. And if you can get us some pics of the car in a corner. Preferably a front three-quarter shot so we can see the inside front and rear tires. Cary

If you like those try this site, https://www.racing-underground.com/index.ru?cls=25&cid=2&scid=71 Cary

Yeah, that was pretty cool. My three favorite rally videos 1. Climb dance (Pike Peak in a 405) 2. Michelle Mouton in an Audi commercial 3. Walter Rohrl's pedal cam (how I learned left-foot braking) Cary

I've ran a very tight CLSD, a lose CLSD, VLSD, and an open diff. With the preload jacked up a lot (close to spool) I thought the car worked really well for autox (like a big kart). When I started setting the car up more like a sports racer (much stiffer springs, droop limiters, etc.) I found that a loose, almost open diff worked much better and the car was a lot faster. For a while I had a completely open diff in my autox car and it was as only slightly slower than when I ran the loose CLSD. So if you follow a similar setup for your car the Quaife should work well. Cary

Also check the bearing on top.

Mine had have about a year of hard use and all I can see is a little of the anodizing wearing off. So far have been very happy with these. I take them apart a few times a year and clean the surface and put in some new grease. It it would help I can send you some close up pics but it will take a bit for me to find all the parts. The bottom of the plate is a hemisphere and the there's a steel washer with a similar curve in it that rides on the camber plate. A torrington bearing is fitted under this. The way these are built the spring loads go into the plate and the spherical takes the shock loads. And when you turn the bearings allow everything to move. Cary

Really nice work! Cary

I don't see how you're going to get any radial loading on the toe-link. And a season of abuse has shown no issues in ours. Cary

How do you figure out spring rate with air bags? None of these sites mention this simple fact for their systems, or at least I can't find it. Cary