Mastersbilt GenX xtra help

[Kenny Outlaw]

We run an Mastersbilt Gen X xtra 2013. Tader Masters looked at the car wheni bought it late last season and said it didnt didnt need any updates to be current and we talked briefly about running the car as a crate. He did provide me with the Gen X setup books and we used that as a baseline setup. we ran the car 8 nights with all top 10 finishes and even ran 4th in a crate special at shadyhill speedway and the car was consistantly getting better. Im confident in the custom shock package and the baseline setup but i am having trouble finding any info for setups directly relatedto crate racing. Tader even said he didnt have alot of info about the crate stuff as of yet. i really like the car and it has all top notch stuff no junk on it but i feel like there has to be more crate specific stuff for the mastersbilt than what ive found so far. if anybody can help get me going in the right direction on crate specific stuff or where i can find the infor like other forums and such i would greatly appreciate it. i have been reading a little about crate specific spindles but im a little afraid becase the car drives really good but i am willing to put some new stuff on and give it a go if it would help. We race in northwest Indiana as well in Illionois (kankankee), we also will be making some trips down to Twin cities speedway North Vernon Indiana, and also Brownstown a couple of times. Thanks guys any help would be great.

[Matt49]

Quick pointer on here: Even if it is crate specific, you'll usually get a lot more hits on setup stuff posting in the "Dirt Late Models" section. Most of the stuff in the "Crate Late Model" section is more engine specific. I know that seems counter-intuitive but that's just the way this place is.
A lot of people might tell you that you need all of the trick lightweight drive train parts that free up HP to the rear wheels. That stuff won't help you nearly as much as simply getting the car to maintain corner speed. Brownstown is our home track and we make it to Twin Cities from time to time. The guys that win consistently around here aren't doing anything crazy on hubs, rear-ends, etc. They simply have their car setup properly and have drivers that know their way around these places. We have a lot of guys running crates that are former winners and track champions in supers and modifieds. The competition is pretty tough but nobody is really doing anything exotic.
We own a set of the GenX crate spindles and have yet to try them so I can't help you there. And a lot of other guys I know others are leery of them too because it is more designed for a place where you are still on the gas getting into the corner. Brownstown is only that way early in the night and Twin Cities is usually the same. The key to Brownstown is finding grip in the slick. And it gets REALLY slick come August and September.
If MLR19 chimes in, listen to what he has to say. They are the guys to beat and have been for a few years in the crate late models at Brownstown. Unfortunately, we've fallen a little behind on things because we only raced 3 times last year. I thought we were just awful but a fellow competitor that consistently runs top 5 pointed out that everybody else is just continuing to get faster :-)
Unlike UMP country, we run an open shock rule which is a polarizing topic. But guys that are on top of their shock game are doing quite well.

[billetbirdcage]

^^^^ Couldn't agree more!

You're going to hear a ton about cheated engines and tons of money spent on the latest greatest light weight parts, but like said a good handling car will make an engine look illegal. Example: We were .6 faster then the whole field in hot laps and heat races, mostly due to we were the only ones not lifting all the way around the track. I can see where someone thought we had an illegal engine and if I didn't know better I would have likely thought the same thing. Often times you can't tell how much or if someone is full throttle all the way around the track, so it's easy to think we were just out powering everyone that night with a cheated engine. I told the car owner, be prepared to get torn down and have people complaining, low an behold the next race they sent a tech guy to remove valve springs and go over the engines pretty well.

Car handling trumps engine and trick light weight parts every time. The wide spread cheating is an excuse for the most part if your running with a decent series but that's not to say it don't happen in some area's.

Just my opinion.

[MLR19]

The crate spindles are better in my opinion. I agree with Matt that you have to charge the corner to make them work. The single most important thing to remember about crate racing is maintaining momentum. You simply don't have the power to do it any other way. Corner speed is what you should be looking for in setup changes. You will find as corner speed increases forward bite problems go away. Most people have their car way too tight, if you have to get out of the gas to make the car turn, you are giving up speed. As far as super light components go the only place they are an advantage is on restarts. Once up to racing speed the standard weight parts actually help maintain momentum.

[Kenny Outlaw]

Thankyou thankyou guys i really appreciate the info. Only having 8 nights in the car I really like how it drives and it was fast right out of the box with a baseline setup for a Gen X. We bought the car in Alabama and brought it home to indiana and on the way stopped at Mastersbilt and Tader actually came out and looked it over for us and said it was a good car so i have no complaints with the help he gave us and was very nice and emailed me the gen x setup for it. The first night out in the car we decided to go to twin cities which is 3 hours south, and right off the start the car was good, they had 18 cars and we qualified 4th, ran 5th in the heat (driver error) and ran 8th in the main against some pretty good guys. Over all i was happy bit in the a main i didn't realize you could run soft tires down there and we ran 40's all the way around and atbthe beginning i got my a#$ handed to me bit once the tires started to come i could feel the car get better but it was late in the race. I really like the car over all and by the comments i can see what we need to work on. CORNER SPEED and momentum. With it being a Gen xtra i can also see we should be using the rear measurements for the smackdown setup as well. If im wrong on that please correct me. We will.be racing at shady hill speedway a lot this next year and the corners are very slick and slow and when we raced the crate special they had we finished 4th bit I just couldnt keep the car on the bottom real well at all. Either i would slide in past my marks and have to drive up hill to catch it, or if i hit my marks and stayed on the bottom, I scrubbed to much speed and the car would unload the rear bars. I'm sure there is a happy medium somewhere and we will keep working and learning, until.we get it right. Thanks guys for the input it is very helpful and greatly appreciated.