The quest for the perfect ride

[elie boone]

Then Raikonnen must be as fast as Alonso.

[James.S]

?

[tiddy1]

I would still suggest trying with toe in, even if it is just 0.25 deg it makes a fundimental difference to how the wheels react once you get passed the 0 deg point.

Think of it like trying to balance a small ball on top of a big one (toe out) the ball wants to fall off

0 deg is like a ball on a flat plate

Toe in is like a a ball sitting in the bottom of a bowl, i.e it wants to stay there

 

hope this is not too obscure

 

Simon

 

 

Edited by - tiddy1 on 21 Aug 2014 12:13:10

[tomperkins]

Quoting tiddy1: 

I would still suggest trying with toe in, even if it is just 0.25 deg it makes a fundimental difference to how the wheels react once you get passed the 0 deg point.

Think of it like trying to balance a small ball on top of a big one (toe out) the ball wants to fall off

0 deg is like a ball on a flat plate

Toe in is like a a ball sitting in the bottom of a bowl, i.e it wants to stay there

 

hope this is not too obscure

 

Simon

Not at all, thanks Simon

[elie boone]

James, for sure racers go off data to see where they can improve, but different driving styles demand different shock absorber/spring set up so they test a number of different springs to see what gives the best feel/lap times, this is normally done pre season. Once there is a good basic set up they start to fine tune the set up. Not to offend any body but some racers look at the set up of the front runners and copy it in the hope they will be fast, witch not always work but is always expensive.

[James.S]

We will agree to differ. Data is everything in racing. The feel of the car is nothing. I have had to drive around setups that i didn't like because they were fast - despite what i thought.

 

Believe me, the driver is at the bottom of the telemetry totem pole.

 

 

[elie boone]

Even at McLaren it seems they have different opinions.

[Z3MCJez]

Quoting James.S: 

We will agree to differ. Data is everything in racing. The feel of the car is nothing. I have had to drive around setups that i didn't like because they were fast - despite what i thought.

 

Believe me, the driver is at the bottom of the telemetry totem pole.

 

 

I agree with some of that, but if you set the car up to be "knife-edged" you may be able to do one quick lap in 10, whereas a forgiving setup may leave you slightly slower per lap, but faster over a 10 lap run.

 

Also, as Elie says, what is quick for one person is not quick for another.

 

Jez

[tomperkins]

So it's a few months on from the start of this thread and I thought I'd give an update on progress.

I'm now really happy with the way the car is driving. Overall I've carried out the following tasks:

• Softened suspension damping
• Raised steering rack to reduce bump steer
• Lowered rear trailing arms
• Set toe to neutral
• Reduced rake (from 20mm to 15mm)
• Changed to CR500's for the winter

Raising the steering rack did make a big improvement in the amount of bump steer and softenng the damping helped but by far the biggest improvement came from fitting a set of new CR500's. People have mentioned the fact that CR500's are softer and lighter than the Toyo R888's that I had on the car for the summer and it's so true.

My car feels light on it's feet now, beautifully balanced and predictable on all but wallowy roads at high speed. I suspect the bouncing on wallowy roads at high speed is simply down to the silly spring rates (350/200) and the dampers not being able to keep up.

Next job will be to fit some sensible springs on the existing dampers, with the longer term aim to swap to some high quality suspension (Quantums or Nitrons I suspect).

Thanks for eveyone's help and input on this one.

[Jonathan Kay]

:-)

Jonathan

[solstice]

Tom, am following this with interest, I'm up the road in amesbury, I bought my 7 a couple of months ago and have experienced similar problems, I've ordered quantoms from simon which should arrive in the next week or so, will try a similar set up as a starting point.

Gareth

[tomperkins]

Hi Gareth,

Hope it helps, be interested to hear how you get on with the Quantams.

[vertew]

Interesting post Tom - I've had a similar experience.  I bought my (2003) Caterham back in 2012 and had a similar view about b-road handling ... it was properly scary.  Details are here, but in summary, my issues were fixed by (a) ditching the 10yr old CR500s (that had transformed into bakelite) and by (b) revising suspension geometry / spring rates and a flat floor job.  The transformation has been so astonishing I'm still amazed every time I take it out.  Anyway, good to hear that you're now hapy with the way your 7 handles.

cheers, Andrew.

[Simon Owen]

Hi Tom 

Sounds like good progress, are you going to keep the 500's for summer or switch back to something else ?

I've been debating trying CR500's for some time but never got round to it because i'd have to alter the set up slightly ... plus my car had 15" wheels originally so i'd need new stays too.

Partly I'm being lazy as i've run 888's for as long as i can remember, get em cheap and there are lots of things about them i really like BUT I would like to try a lighter tyre with softer side walls.

Must make the effort to try a set as i've been offered a new set to have a go on ...