Loose in the middle

[spray004]

I'm running street stocks this year and still working on getting the car set up correctly. I'm getting into the corner pretty well but the car gets real loose from the middle to the exit. I seem to have pretty decent forward bite going down the straight when I get it going straight. The car is 3261 lbs with me in it and half tank of gas. It has 52.2% Left, 51.6% Rear and 49.8% Cross, 65# of bite. I've got a 1100 LF, 1200 RF, 225 LR and 175 RR. Shocks are AFCO 1020's in the front and 1030's in the rear. The track is typically dry slick in the feature most nights unless its rained a lot and cooler weather. We run G60's and I usually run 3/4" to 1" of stagger in the rear. I have adjustable spacers in the car as well.

Any thoughts on what I can do?

[speedbuggy]

First thing I'd do is bump up the cross by 2%. That'll get you to about 135# of bite. When you feel the rear starting to step out on you, ease back into the gas to catch it then keep accelerating on off the corner.

If it starts getting a little looser on entry, either drop the RF spring to 1000# or just swap the fronts if you don't have a 1000#.

[spray004]

Thanks. I didn't get a chance to put more bite in the car before Saturday. I co-drive the car so it was my weekend to watch. I would notice as the car would come into 3, the LR almost looked like it would want to pick up off ground. The track is a med-high bank 1/3 mile with tight corners.

[spray004]

I was able to up the bite to around 120# and was able to keep the cross the same %. The car was much better but I still think it could use more. Should I up the bite in 50# increments or 20# increments or some other number?

[speedbuggy]

Keep bumping by 50# until it starts driving worse, then back it down 20# at a time.

I'd still suggest getting your cross up a couple of %.

[MM90]

You could try a little less rear stagger as well, maybe 1/2" if you're already at 3/4-1".

[Dirt Knife]

run '0' stagger
Leave your cross weight alone

[twizted]

Any advice on how to determin correct stagger on say a a tight 3/8 track with decent banking?


0 stagger, guarantees that you are going to be dragging one tire as you turn left, if that works then you have a very unbalanced set up and need to fix it so you can run the correct amount of stagger so both tires work for you in the corner.

[speedbuggy]

Google "stagger calculator" and take you pick.

Probably going to be about 2". You will need to know the track banking angle, turn radius and the track width of your rear tires...maybe other stuff ...

There should be only one "correct" stagger for a given track. I have always been taught that running something other than that, or pretty close to it, is trying to cover up some other handling problem.

[Driver88]

Might wannamake sure ya rear end is square. The RR was lagging in my old car and it felt good in but it always felt loose off

[Racer96m]

bingo

zero stagger, reverse stagger are covering something else up.

When your car is right and balanced and you add wt or lead to tighten it up on a dry track, youll need to ADD stagger so it will still turn in the middle.

Im going to agree with that. I ran 2-3.5" of stagger all the time. Even on the slickest of tracks, and the slicker the track was, the faster we were.

Dave.

[junebug]

ive never understood changing stagger for track conditions...no matter what track is like the radius of the corners never change

[spray004]

I don't plan on changing the stagger. I will probably have to up the cross some to get the bite up. Its the only option I have left to get it up since I'm out of room for ballast on the left side. If the weather doesnt improve, it might be a few weeks or a month before we race again.

[72Dubya]

ive never understood changing stagger for track conditions...no matter what track is like the radius of the corners never change

A heavy track will usually make a car seem tight and push, so more stagger is needed to help turn the car.

A slick track will make a car seem looser towards the rear of the car, so less stagger is needed to keep the car from turning too much.

[backspace]

Where did you learn that at,Kaleb?

[72Dubya]

Stormin' Norman.

[junebug]

The radius of the corner never changes no matter what even if track has glue on it it still has same radius....theres alot of other ways to free up a racecar...wedge, left side weight , shocks, springs, air , ballast locations, roll center heights,....i thk changing roll center heights is prolly the best thing to do when track condition changes...if u watch chassis roll and keep it consistent no matter how fast or slow the track is ur car should drive well on both...the biggest difference when tracks fast is u get more body roll and car gains side bite when it actually is needing less because of the track being more locked down