You want to shoot for about 2/3 of the car's total weight to be on the front axle. In fact, for most of you the entire reason you are racing is the chance to get behind the wheel and let it all hang out. The "truest" stock car racing in the USA, Front Wheel Drive racing features everyday folks taking FW The racing line is the route a racing driver follows to take corners in the fastest possible way. I've auto-crossed FWD for decades and the most SOTP effect with more (positive) caster is steering feel as it relates to the self-centering effect, if both sides are equal. The rules call for a five point, three inch wide belt. Be sure to buy a seat that fits snug and holds you well. Here is a list of phases of grip that a dirt team might encounter on a typical race day, along with the associated estimated g-forces that the car might experience: 1. CT: How do you drive a car that's way too tight? You just have to be a bit more cautious. steel lug nuts. We will soften the RR spring and the front springs. So now, you only get about half as much acceleration force and half as much cornering force before youre outside the edge of that circle. 5. More camber is not always better. SUSPENSION AND STEERING: All components and mounts must be unaltered, OEM and match year, make and model of car used. Remove the entire interior, you don't want to leave anything that could catch fire when you start welding. 13. On a dialup connection, it might take 3 minutes or more before the page finishes loading entirely. Im going to slant my advice more toward stock, production front-wheel drive cars than specialized, highly modified front-wheel drive race cars (last-gen WC, WTCC, BTCC, etc.). Front wheel drive is the wave of the future. Adding camber plates with a modified top mount should allow you to get a minimum of 3 degrees of negative camber, which is the starting range used on our production-based C30 race cars. (If you are interested, you can learn more at www.DirtSchool.com. When finding a company to install the cage ask if they will be bending the tube or buying a kit form. No racing, mud or snow tires. For you lucky hi-speed users, it's not a huge problem. SAFETY EQUIPMENT: Rules apply at all times car is on the race track. Almost always, that means bringing you information about how to build a better--and safer--race car and set it up for best performance. Mostly because, AWD cars, despite what they tell you about their symmetrical drive layout or whatever else, fundamentally drive like FWD cars. Front Wheel Drive Set-Up. Toe in is more stable under braking but that is because it stops the rear from moving around. Gear diffs are far smoother in operation than plate diffs and are substantially lower-maintenance, making them ideal for daily-driver street cars that see some track day use. In a front wheel drive car most of them are running 2deg out on the left front 7deg in on the right front 1.5 In on the right rear 0 on the left rear. And that circle represents the amount of traction the tire can give you. Well, actually, I run (ran) a Honda CRX for the past 2 1/2 years. On a track that has good moisture and is smooth, the car will be easy to control going through the turns and the speeds will be high. Photography Credit: photosbyjuha.com. You've got to find what works for you. thick or thin ones? This is true however it also jacks the chassis in a bad way by moving the outside tire upwards and the inside tire downwards which results in more body roll. Unfortunately for the driver, tires are only able to do so many tasks at once before their limits are exceeded. Have fun guys no personal attacks or any kind of spam also. If you get a caution you can try to find some dust and spin the wheels in it and try to clean that tire back up, but there's no guarantee that's going to work. Often guys do it with very stiff sway bars, you actually need a very stiff sway bar in the front of a FWD car, but a lot of guys jack up the sway bars in the rear, and that causes there to be enough rear roll stiffness that the rear breaks early. It is time to soften the car, move weight over to the right, and lower the rear moment center more. Just aim for the gritty spots, and that can help keep the tires from glazing over. Zero rear steer is essential now because our dirt car will handle much like an asphalt car. tricknologyFebruary 28, 2007 in Grease Monkey Hangout, Here is some of speed secret stuff for FWD 4 cylinder cars,,,these guys run in Lansing Michigan and are FAST with Stock 4 cyl. Given these constraints, and if you were asked to build the IDeal Honda,,. We can start moving weight over to the right side to provide a lower left-side weight of 52-54 percent. this is a site for you to sell your Front wheel drive racecars and only front wheel drive racecars and parts tires ETC. Dash may be removed, but can remain. Sold in pairs. They are crazy! do not allow excessive lightening of the chassis/body, do not allow engine mods, only stock Fuel inj allowed, even the exhaust manifold must be stock, the car , suspension, and engine must ""LOOK STOCK TO THE EYE"". Fuel cell vent, including cap vent, must have check valve. Remember in the end you'll have complete control over this so you're really just choosing a sensible baseline. > Should you have Rear Sway bars? I too have been racing FWD's for many years and early on, the folks that did my initial alignments, a race shop in LA, set the front toe out, and the rear in, not a Robb suggests, rear out. FWD cars. P5007314 Hub and Bearing Kit (199599 Neon ACR). Steering, braking, and power. We may earn a commission from links on this page. Racers of all classes are getting smarter by the year, and getting to the front is a matter of staying on top of the most current technology. One spring rubber allowed in each spring. Take the VW Golf R. It has a Haldex center coupler, its a FWD car until you need the rear drive, then the rear engages. You can overdrive it a little bit to compensate. Eckert: Normally, dirt race tracks always gets slicker, so you are usually working to tighten your car up. On this car, we would have already moved the upper mounts for the rear shock/springs out as much as possible to reduce the rear spring angles. Same as the Audi TT. What I'm curious about is what front spring rates are recommended. do not allow locked final dirves ,,like your class does. ( TIRES AND WHEELS: OEM DOT 13, 14, 15 or 16-inch passenger tires only. My bigger front bar was from a GRM article or post somewhere, I'd love to see a Phase II follow-up article on what happens after you do what's in this article. Some guys like to lower the left-side rods, but others hate that. As you push that pedal down to the ground, thats an effort to try to keep you in that friction circle. DOOR BARS: Minimum three horizontal door bars on driver side and two horizontal door bars on passenger side. This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies. Calling on all race engineers out there for some help. My thoughts were that all things being equal, a rear-wheel drive car will totally run circles around a front-wheel drive one, and of course, I wanted to be in the faster cars. Nobody ever looks at the ENTIRE CAR. Frankly, the advice that was given regarding front-to-rear weight distribution and spring selection for a FWD car is questionable at best. Dry slick, a condition in which the track has lost considerable moisture and is now very dry and slick with little grip: 0.7 to 0.9 g's (The cars are now very slow in getting into and through the turns, and traction under power is very low. Stock gas tanks are not designed to keep the fuel in place during a night of racing. When you are driving on course you are rarely over 10 degrees of steering angle and usually under 5. Eckert: Once you get racing there is not a lot you can do. If you are turning left all the time you should tip the RF tire in at the top. Youve heard about torque steer and wrong-wheel drive and might write it off as being for grocery-getters, not real performance cars. It's best to purchase your first racecar already put together. If you have a high-quality performance tire, you make that circle bigger. Eckert: If your car is too free in the corners, what you've got to do is back your corner up onto the straightaway. for some back ground Info, with the setup Mr. Maurice Randall posted they won track championships and many features at a tracks that had about of these 30 cars every night, and the competition was close. This is the pressure you are targeting for each wheel when the racing car is out on track. A rusted car will take a lot of repair before being able to weld in a roll cage. The 1.06 gears are just about as quick if you're running by yourself, but if you get in traffic and have to lift off the throttle, it takes longer to get back up to speed. I think there are a lot of drivers who say they dont like racing front-wheel drive cars, but I think thats mainly because they have never driven a properly set up one. Franklin: You've got to keep it loaded on the springs more. Usually in the South you don't have to worry about it because the tracks are pretty gritty, but up North that can be an issue. Work with your cars electronics, not against them, Make the most of where your cars weight is, Expect your FWD skills to translate to AWD cars. YOU!!!!! Don't put the weight in front of the front wheel and don't add any behind the rear wheels. But generally, I've found the following to work good when coming in after a hot practice session: Hmm Maurice might want to read up on roll couple distribution theory. LM: We can now begin to change the spring rates at the RF, RR, and LR. This is what happens when you see the left rear tire coming off the ground in the corners. Raise the Panhard bar by 1 inch to 13 inches left and 9 inches right. Increase the rear steer by changing the angles of the left trailing arm. Replace the engine accessory drive belts. . The rules will only allow aluminum seats. This makes plate diffs the clear winner when used for a full-time, dedicated front-wheel drive track car. Toe is the angle that the tires have toward each other. Easy Steps to build a Pony or F.W.D. On stock front-wheel drive cars without camber plates, a couple of degrees of negative camber is the most you can hope to get within the stock shock mount. So what you want to do is control your weight transfer absolutely as well as possible. In terms of what you can do: Manage that relationship between your steering and braking. We might want to anticipate the dry and slicker conditions coming now for lack of time later. 4-cylinder Front Wheel Drive normally aspirated engine. ?? In the back, you want a swaybar or a stiffer one than you already have. If your toes point toward each other then you are toed in. Most of us 4 cyl FWD cars run on asphalt. And thats because youre still having that same challenge of how to handle the friction circle on the front tires., ACP: Thats why guys who come from FWD rally cars as I did, I started in a Russian Lada, then I transitioned to AWD like the Evos have an easier time getting up to speed. Steel brake lines only. 3 Participate in the qualifying laps. The hardened track condition may only occur for one heat or so. P4510826 Rear Tension Strut Kit-Left and Right (200305 SRT4, 200005 Neon). Dirt track cars run the gambit from stock car-style Late Models to hybridized Modifieds to open-wheel Karts, midgets, dwarfs, winged and non-winged Sprint cars. Once the car is neutral without heavy braking, then enter the corner at speed with the normal brake pressure that would be used in the race or in hot laps and see if the handling changes. This is great for smoky burnouts but not so great for getting around a track quickly. For more information, call IMCA at 319-472-2201. OEM steel unaltered floor pan only. Also I adjusted the springpreloadby jacking up the front and just taking the slack out of coilovers, is this a good starting point? And physics haven't changed since. If you can learn to pilot a FWD car fast, you can drive anything. If you're not an experienced welder you should find one. The studs bite better when pushed into the ice with camber vs scratching across it. So for Example your tires are running at 140F and it's 80F outside. The rear ride height would be set as low as possible, as this would raise the rear moment center and lower the CG to reduce the rear roll angle versus the front roll angle to help balance the setup.
