Racing Car Technology Racing, Road Performance, Classic and Sports Cars |
ABN Number 42 911 718 836
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Subscribers, please click
on the "Technical Pages" link to Log In. Thereafter you can move
around the site without interruption. This site is written by Dale Thompson B Sc(Eng) MSAE-A, Racing Car Technology, Batemans Bay NSW Australia. The proprietors of Racing Car Technology are Dale Thompson and Neville Smith.
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"Cornering speed is the key to
everything. If you corner that much faster, you
carry that speed all around the race track." Jim Hall, Chaparral
Cars. |
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In the late 90's, after 20 years in racing, we began our search for ideas, and started our systems based suspension set ups in the workshop, followed by track testing to check our work. We have advised on all types of cars in circuit racing, rally, tarmac rally, super sprint, drift, performance road cars, classic and sports cars.
Using our Weight Transfer Worksheet (WTW) we can do the
necessary calculations to determine
a balanced set up, and then find a direction for
set up changes to try in testing. It is a very much a practical
exercise - do the baseline set up in the workshop, then test. When you're flat out building/preparing/racing your car, it is difficult to source all the information you need to understand the suspension set up on your car. There are two ways we can work with you. We can consult with you via email/phone/skype, assisting you or your technical people to do the work, or we can do it in our workshop at Batemans Bay. Much of what we do is simplified so you can use the ideas straight away. Some is unique to us, and some has become common practice in professional racing. Based on our experience setting up 100's of race cars, we can get your project moving in the right direction. This alone will save you time and money. You will have a better set up and a faster race car. It is far better to start with a known balanced set up for springs anti-roll bars and shocks, rather than wasting track time/use up the car, testing and racing on unknown spring/anti-roll bar/shock rates. Professional race teams do weight transfer calculations like the WTW, and keep a running comparison of their "magic number", as they progress through testing and racing. To enquire, email me. Describe your car, and class of racing (or road use), and I can get back to you about getting a good suspension set up for your car.
Racing By Numbers....... What's Your Category? Circuit Racing/Tarmac Rally/Hill Climb/Historic/Drift/Club Car- Supersprint, Regularity, Track Day etc Are You Building a Special, Show Car or High Performance Road Car?
Whatever you race,
whatever performance car you build.... Every racing car has a magic number. In fact, everything on four wheels has a magic number. The magic number represents the set up where the car is balanced mid corner - where the driver reports the handling is to his liking - no excess of oversteer or understeer.
The WTW represents the simple roll stiffness model of weight transfer, as explained in our presentation "How Does the Driver Control the Car?" It recognizes the major tuning adjustments we use in suspension set up, eg roll centre height, spring stiffness and anti-roll bar stiffness. We have concentrated on ease of use and practicality. Anybody can use it. Racing and road performance car workshops, or owner/driver preparing your own car, all will find it useful. As an example of the way the magic number works, say you have a rear wheel drive sedan with 55% static front weight, such as our Holden Monaro example. This might infer a magic number of 60. So we adjust the various inputs in the WTW to reflect this magic number, and change the set up on the car accordingly. This is your baseline set up. If it's a road car, you'll find it handles nicely on the road. For race cars, each time you go racing or testing, when you make changes to the set up, you re-calculate the magic number. It gives you a direction with your set ups - a higher number is more understeer than the baseline set up, a lower number is less understeer. You can spec the set up of your car by using our Weight Transfer Worksheet. Decide never again to fit unknown spring stiffness, anti-roll bar or shock stiffness to your car. You can be in control. We provide email support for subscribers.
Let us do the suspension set up on your car at our Batemans Bay workshop. This program is the key to developing your race car, special, project, or show car. We'll do a workshop set up, and then track test with you. With our procedures, all customers have improved better than 1/2 second to in excess of 2 seconds per laps. Some have won races for the first time.
Origins of the
Weight Transfer Worksheet. Why would you want to do any
calculations? Why aren't these calculations in more common usage? What You Will Know (about the car) if You Do a Weight Transfer Worksheet. Ten Biggest Set Up Mistakes Thought starters about set up issues.
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To enquire,
email
me. Describe your car and I can get back to you with what we can do
to to get a good suspension set up. . Ackerman? Or Anti-Ackerman?
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Track Test With Us |
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testing of racing cars has been the key to our R&D success.
To find out about a racing car test day, click here
We can test with you driving your road or race car at Wakefield park. We use a data logger (the DL1 from Race Technology, UK) to record a very accurate speed trace and track map. We get detailed analysis of car and driver performance from split times generated, and by overlaying the speed traces. You get the logger files so you can do some analysis yourself....mor |
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Road Car Performance |
When we do a performance road car set up, we try to take the driving experience to a new level. For instance, the popular classic sports and performance cars are still around because people enjoy driving them. We want to make it a sensational drive.
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