It’s been a while since the last post. The obvious reason being that there wasn’t much to write about, apart from whining that my Clio still hadn’t been set up the way I wanted, or that I had a little screw in my front left Toyo (luckily, no puncture and the carcass apparantly unharmed). Really nothing to get all chatty about.
As the title suggests, there finally are some news-worthy changes: I got some H&R camber bolts fitted last friday, had the tracking done and the camber set to minus two degrees on the front axle. This is usually regarded as a little too much for daily use and not enough to exploit semi slicks to their full potential. But that’s what I settled for. As most people will know, more negative camber means that the wheels are tilted further inwards at the top, thus keeping a larger part of the tyre in contact with the road under cornering, while slightly reducing the contact patch in a straight line. In theory this should mean less understeer and higher possible cornering speeds.
Even though every-day-life is currently consuming most of my time, I was so eager to put this theory into practice, that I couldn’t resist heading for the Spreewaldring last saturday for a short track outing.
The conditions were pretty much the same as the last time with the temperature being around 28°C. So it was a good day for a meaningful comparison. And I’m glad to report that the setup changes indeed seem to make quite a difference.
Just like theory suggests, the car understeered less into and out of the corners. I could turn in at higher speeds and in general put the throttle down earlier. Also, I felt more comfortable working the tyres hard, because I wasn’t afraid of overstressing the sidewalls like previously. And the lap times are testament to that.
You might recall that my previous best on Goodyear Eagles was a 1:46.7, achieved on a rather chilly day at only 5°C. A time I couldn’t quite match on the last track day, even though I was on Toyo semi slicks for the first time, supposedly better springs (Eibach pro-kit) and a little wider track due to different wheels. I would have thought back then that all of that would more than make up for slight power-loss due to the high temperatures. It didn’t.
But saturday was a different story. The first run showed a best of 1:44.9 while the second and last run yielded an even better 1:44.5. I can now run low 1:45s relatively consistently.
Obviously, there’s still a lot of time to be found by improving my driving. When analyzing a few laps with the lap timing software RaceChrono (more about that in a later post), which is more capable than what I used before, I found that my weekest and most inconsistent corner is the Teich-Kurve. It’s a tricky 3rd gear turn, for which you can’t brake in a straight line. Entry speed here is very critical, especially in the Clio. Go in too slow and the rpm’s drop down to 3.800 to 4.000, a rev range where the Clio lacks grunt, it needs at least 4.250rpm. Also, my line through there needs a slight adjustment, as I found out when following Alex in his 100hp Smart Roadster. That car is rather useless in a straight line, but makes up for it through the turns, as this video shows:
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I let the Smart by after a few laps and was actually expecting him to pull away, but he didn’t. It seems we’re currently running pretty similar lap times, which is great fun. The whole day was really nice actually, especially after being a little disappointed after the last outing, when my times were rather cack. So, for now, it seems, the car is in good shape apart from some issues which need sorting. The important thing is, the base is finally something to build on. Time to improve the driver some more.
All pictures curtesy of www.trackday-racing.de.
As the title suggests, there finally are some news-worthy changes: I got some H&R camber bolts fitted last friday, had the tracking done and the camber set to minus two degrees on the front axle. This is usually regarded as a little too much for daily use and not enough to exploit semi slicks to their full potential. But that’s what I settled for. As most people will know, more negative camber means that the wheels are tilted further inwards at the top, thus keeping a larger part of the tyre in contact with the road under cornering, while slightly reducing the contact patch in a straight line. In theory this should mean less understeer and higher possible cornering speeds.
The conditions were pretty much the same as the last time with the temperature being around 28°C. So it was a good day for a meaningful comparison. And I’m glad to report that the setup changes indeed seem to make quite a difference.
You might recall that my previous best on Goodyear Eagles was a 1:46.7, achieved on a rather chilly day at only 5°C. A time I couldn’t quite match on the last track day, even though I was on Toyo semi slicks for the first time, supposedly better springs (Eibach pro-kit) and a little wider track due to different wheels. I would have thought back then that all of that would more than make up for slight power-loss due to the high temperatures. It didn’t.