Making the Tires HAPPY Part II

A tire's "contact patch" is defined as:
"The area of tire rubber that actually touches the road at any one time. Also called the tire footprint."

- Minty fresh RS3s ready for duty-

Tires in the area of suspension setup/tuning is universally acknowledged as VERY important in making a car handle well but it still surprises me how most drivers do not take it into account enough.  Brand and sizing are important to a degree but it's how you manipulate and use the tire's contact patch that makes the difference in either having a corner-carving monster or an ill-handling race car.

That being said, it has taken me all these years of track driving to mostly understand how to use the footprint of the tire to go faster and there is still much I have to learn.  So, here's what I'm using to manipulate and try to optimize my tire's contact patch (which are 255 wide size footprints):

>"DGR-S" Coilovers with Swift Springs

>Circuit Sports tie rod ends with Tein S14 inner tie rods

>Tein tension rods

>S14 Rear Subframe

>Megan RUCAs (rear-upper control arms)

>TC Sportline rear toe and traction rods

>Rear roll-center correctors


Now, I know the list above wouldn't impress any brand-name fanboys and some suspension-elitists out there BUT I think the whole is greater than the sum of the parts here-  I am about doing more with less because no amount of spending on pricey suspension parts substitutes for experience gained from adjusting and tuning the suspension along with the seat time spent behind the wheel testing it out. And believe me, I have spent a TON of time adjusting and tweaking the suspension (alignment, arm lengths, tire & wheel size etc) to finally say that I have it almost dialed-in.

All the parts combined have helped me put the tires into their "happy" place but just throwing them onto the car won't make a bit of impact unless you know how to adjust and use the parts. And I have to give credit not only to my now enlightened self but to a lot of the stuff I have sifted through online, especially from the die-hards on the Nissanroadacing forums (www.nissanroadracing.com) and the drifters on Zilvia.  PLUS, the inspiration for my suspension setup has come from this car:

- The motivation & inspiration -

Okay, I know what you're thinking: Why follow a drift car for suspension setup if you're grip driving???
My answers: 1.) It's all relative and 2.) In order to drift well, you need to grip well.  Take a few moments to let that sink in.      

From reading up on and researching what they have done and are doing with Dai's Formula D S13 suspension setup, I can say that there are many hidden gems and diamonds in the rough to find if you read between the lines of what Mike Kojima says about the car and do a little bit of thinking about it.  He's not the chief-suspension guy for the car by mistake. Here's a snippet of what I'd suggest to adjust for (but will not give you exact specs because that's up to you and your driving preference) if you're driving a S13 or S14:

>Toe settings front and rear (this WILL greatly affect grip more than camber)

>Camber settings (to make good use of the tire's contact patch at the entry, middle, and exit of a corner)

>Ride Height (yes, this does make a difference because it DOES affect suspension geometry)

>Roll Center and Instant Center (this is affected by ride height AND in a nutshell without explaining much, these are REALLY important. Do some research and read up on it!)

>HOT Tire Pressures (these readings matter the most and can greatly affect the car's handling during practice and competition) 


Now if you're really uber-hardcore about suspension setup, you could alter pickup/attachment points, get the ultra snazzy roll-center corrected knuckles, and maybe even custom fabricate parts if you want. I could get more in-depth in this post which would arouse some but might bore others. BUT since I do not consider myself a "pro" and just an amateur grassroots driver, my intention here is to help the "little guy" who's a do-it-yourself type person that does not have access to a lift, fancy tools, press, and so on.   

SO getting back to my suspension components, I know there have been and will always be guys out there who will say stuff like: "Why didn't you just go with all the premium, pricey suspension parts from the start?" OR "Your setup is wrong. You should do this and this and that etc..."

To that I say: There's no wrong-way but many ways to skin a cat, hit the target, achieve the goal. It has and always will be a never-ending debate over the ways to approach suspension tuning and, you get what you pay for concerning parts which I do agree with.  What I wanted to do (and drivers can make time for this if they can get past looking stupid at times) was try different things because I felt that would teach me the most.  Sure there were failures and ridicule along the way but I always try to tell myself that it's all a learning process which would make me a better driver in the end.  Like one of my "tough-love" college professors once said: You learn more from losing than winning. My setup works for me but it might not work for the other guy.

- RPF1ssssss -

Remember kids: It's the journey that makes you; the hopefully positive end result is what makes it that much sweeter.             

My tires are happy, are YOURS?

Making the tires HAPPY! A Semi-Deconstructing of my suspension setup Part I

As I mentioned in the previous post, I will kinda-sorta-peel back the veil on what setup now runs on my S13.  Took a lot of blood, sweat, tears and many many red-eyed nights to figure it out but, I think it's pretty much almost there. First, let me take you back 3 years ago when my car was mostly a sorta "drift-fanboy" setup ALTHOUGH my car has not been super-duper slammed like most of them; I actually knew not to do that before all the magazines, publications, and online sooth-sayers deemed that it's a sin to do so. 

It was 2009 and I was still doing the regular once-a-month autocross practice events (with drift events thrown in-between) BUT no actual competition in the championships on Sundays. The suspension setup I was running was good for drift events but not good for going fast in the realm of objectiveness with the fastest time winning when you compete in autocross.  The setup was more of a I had to "drive around and compensate for it" case so, that in-turn discouraged me from trying to compete since I knew I wouldn't be fast enough to place in the top 3 each championship event and battle for the yearly points championship to get that coveted "Jacket" with your name on it.      

- Circa 2007 to 2009. Sportmax/XXR Wheels! -

What changed my mind or got the gears turning in my head was a conversation I had with a fellow autocrosser/close friend who asked me the basic question of: "Why don't you compete on Sundays???"  My answer was: "Uhhh, I just don't feel I'd be competitive or fast enough..." 

And from that response came my self-realization: "Heck, why don't I just become competitive and fast?" So after competing in every championship event for 3 years straight, I am now running as one of the top guys in the CST (California Street Tire) Class in my Southern Pacific region of SCCA's Solo2 Autocross.  Sometimes I ask myself: "How the heck did I get here?"

Seat time, seat time, seat time and a semi-pro suspension setup gleaned from an evolution of setup changes throughout the driving seasons helped too.  The main thing I learned was this: making the tires work correctly which in turn put them in their "happy place" was the biggest factor in going faster and being fast as well.

Besides, what else is linking and connecting your car to the pavement/road/asphalt?

Tires baby.....Tires.

- The result after 3 years of Trial and (T)error-

AutoX April 14th-15th Championship: The RETURN to HANDLING!

Been awhile since I've written about a past event and the results....so, here's I goes:

3RD Place! (out of like 21 entries....whew, number of runners in class keeps on increasing! First place was won by that immoral jackhole who doesn't belong in class but that's another story altogether.)

Besides that, I am happy to report the changes I have made to the rear suspension along with the alignment tweaks have helped to finally PUT the POWER DOWN coming out of corners which was one of the main problems of why it was hard to go faster.

NOW, her rear-end is tamed and she doesn't shake her booty all over the place like the macarena- she instead as Mystikal once said, shakes her ass but "watches herself."

- 2nd and 3rd Place Respectively-

f

I'll discuss more in another post of most of all of the changes I've done to the rear suspension (don't want to divulge all my secrets) but just know that the mods involved an S14 subframe and new rubbers *wink wink.*  

Results here: 

http://members.quixnet.net/free2000/cscc041512_fin.htm#CST

Semi-Dirtay Racing or "SDR" (Not San Diego)

Some wisecracker once told me (and I'm sure some of you have heard this):  
"If you ain't cheatin', you ain't trying. "

Cheating goes on in all forms of sport and specifically in motorsports, it can and does happen. It's just up to the rules-makers to catch and enforce the rules imposed. 

Which leads me to this argument:  I do not like it when a driver competes in a car other than his own in autocross. Why?

Well, what I am getting at is that there was a certain driver at the last event who competes in my class who has his own car (that he has been racing for the past couple of years) who did this such thing: On race day, he found another guy who drives the exact same car but the difference was it had practically NEW Star Spec tires.  So why the switch? 

Engine blew? Broken upper or lower A-Arm?  Nope and nope- he just wanted to try and win.

- Mr. Sheen's Winning?-

Now it's perfectly fine to want to win and what he did was totally within the rules and nothing is against it BUT to me, I feel it is dishonorable and a real sucky thing to do. Whatever happened to using your own car to win?   Before you start spouting fire at me, hear me out...

This guy's car had no "mechanical issues" i.e. engine failure or suspension failure AT ALL. In fact, his car was running perfectly fine at practice the previous day before Sunday's competition runs. 

Only thing was, he was spinning like a top run after run which would lead one to believe that either he's not such a good driver OR his tires weren't gripping well.

So why did he make the switch?  I can list many reasons: Insecurity, infidelity, inconfidence, dishonesty, dishonorable, etc etc etc.... he did in fact state that his Hankooks were "done."  SO, that basically gives all the reason in the world of why he did it.

Whatever the case, my belief is that at this amateur/grassroots level of motorsport you should compete in your own car, barring any mechanical issues.  If your engine blows up or something broke and you can't fix it in time before competition starts, then sorry but you're SOL.

This ain't Formula1 or ALMS where you have a backup car or your teammate's car to pilfer if you're the #1 driver. Heck, I could've done the same thing this guy did like "Uh, I'm not fast enough SO I'll just go grab my friend's Ferrari and lay the smack down...."

Nope, not me...not ever.  Long as my car can run fine, I'm driving it. 

And the Bottom line:

Don't BAIL on running your car UNLESS you REALLY have to. Having shitty, worn-out tires DOES NOT count because that's YOUR fault for not using new tires for competition.

So to that guy who used another car to compete with despite his own car being PERFECTLY fine:

DON'T BE A DICK: DRIVE AND COMPETE WITH YOUR OWN CAR.

Thank you, end of rant.