Tom and Vipers
Enthusiast
I have never specifically tuned a suspension for the track.
My only experience with springs and bars was simply tuning a few Supercharged Studebakers (!) for 10/10's street driving.
However, I took a 93 Formula to Nelsons Ledges and found the car behaved amazingly weird which has led me to think about setup strategies.
Here is what the bizarre Formula did:
Heavy Heavy push. It was impossible to pin the car out! In fact when setting up to try to HP the back out, while it could be done, the HP required was so excessive, the whole car shuddered when this was achieved on a 30 mph hairpin - barely had enough HP to do it.
I would say this car PUSHES!
But guess what, when you hit the brakes, the car would immediately spin out just like a rear brakes shifter cart!
This combo had a bit of entertainment value because in the hairpin, I was going in too hot and then hitting the brakes to bring the car about and then throttling out of the corner.
What I was thinking was what about setting a car up in the opposite direction: Set the car neutral to loose and then the brakes to push. If you blow it and the rear starts to come out, you catch it with the brakes.
I don't know if this would work, however, the opposite was quite predictable/controllable in my Formula.
Any comments?
NOTE: I also don't hear a lot of talk about push and loose, over and understeer here or on the GM fbody boards. While the Viper may be much better balanced, those fbodies do push a lot. Still no discussion. Is this an area where people do not experiment?
My only experience with springs and bars was simply tuning a few Supercharged Studebakers (!) for 10/10's street driving.
However, I took a 93 Formula to Nelsons Ledges and found the car behaved amazingly weird which has led me to think about setup strategies.
Here is what the bizarre Formula did:
Heavy Heavy push. It was impossible to pin the car out! In fact when setting up to try to HP the back out, while it could be done, the HP required was so excessive, the whole car shuddered when this was achieved on a 30 mph hairpin - barely had enough HP to do it.
I would say this car PUSHES!
But guess what, when you hit the brakes, the car would immediately spin out just like a rear brakes shifter cart!
This combo had a bit of entertainment value because in the hairpin, I was going in too hot and then hitting the brakes to bring the car about and then throttling out of the corner.
What I was thinking was what about setting a car up in the opposite direction: Set the car neutral to loose and then the brakes to push. If you blow it and the rear starts to come out, you catch it with the brakes.
I don't know if this would work, however, the opposite was quite predictable/controllable in my Formula.
Any comments?
NOTE: I also don't hear a lot of talk about push and loose, over and understeer here or on the GM fbody boards. While the Viper may be much better balanced, those fbodies do push a lot. Still no discussion. Is this an area where people do not experiment?
