What Is Front-Wheel Drive? | YourMechanic Advice If the track changes banking with more angle on the high side, then passing can be done on the outside more easily than down low if the car is handling well. Now that youve done the impossible and gotten a front-wheel drive race car handling well, youre free to take on easier assignmentslike solving the European debt crisis or resurrecting Lindsay Lohans acting career. Karts. 12. 4. Soft driving seems slow, but the alternative is always slower. If your front inside wheel hits it at speed, you just might lose a little control and in the process lose speed. This is the old Pony Stock "Speed Secrets and Tricks" message thread. Answered above. If you are loose when you start coming up out of the gas, you've got to keep the car loaded on all four corners instead of just going into the corner and letting out all the way on the gas and getting on the brakes because that is going to make you freer. Because when you are counter-steered there really is no traction. In the case of the Mopar cars, there is really only one ratio to run at Spartan. And lots of bonkers stuff. ! The .91 ratio transfer gears are needed along with the 2.86 ring and pinion gears. If we had nothing to learn, we may as well go golfing-not. The straighter you are in both the Crate and the Super, the faster you are going to be. No mirrors. I would call these "marathon posts" LOL! Buy a good fire suit and a "S" Rated Helmet and Go Racing. This kit upgrades standard hubs and bearings to service Neon ACRs. Same with go-karts with solid rear axles, theyll lift a wheel around a corner. Running camber in that range will allow the tire to lay completely flat in the corner, giving it the biggest contact patch and the maximum amount of grip. Call 800.979.0122, 7am-10pm, everyday. The goal with stiffening the rear bar is to transfer weight to the outside as the car enters a corner. This is what happens when you see the left rear tire coming off the ground in the corners. If you want to leave the dash and shifter that's OK. Also remove all glass, the windshield is optional. You can run a lot of toe in a fwd and a quarter inch there might help as well. Isn't the body roll in a favorable direction? Pobst begins by going over the differences between rear-, front-, and all-wheel drive. No torque dividing final drive. this is a site for you to sell your Front wheel drive racecars and only front wheel drive racecars and parts tires ETC. No convertibles or two seat sports cars allowed. > What are typical Toe setting settings for the front and rear? Mr. Arnold. These are exceptions and won't be addressed here. There are two main types of diffs used in front-wheel drive applications: gear and plate. The racing line is the route a racing driver follows to take corners in the fastest possible way. The setup may look like this: LF = 350; RF = 325; LR = 185; RR = 150 (double the rear springs for the swing arm car); Panhard bar at 12 inches left. That's all for part 1. Posts: 122. what tire sizes do you run? For Tech info on the 2.2 2 valve OHV engine GM Chevy Cavalier and Pont. FWD cars almost always lift the inside rear tire. Tire selection should include a little more siping to help dissipate heat, as the tires will begin to spin slightly coming off the corners. Metal firewall must be between driver and cell. There is only one way to stop a severe pushy or loose car, and that is to lift off the throttle. Provides more positive suspension control for improved driver feedback and dynamic stability. On some cars the rear toe is adjustable, be sure to set it too. The car's center of gravity (CG) needs to be lower when the grip is high. Rear kickers required. I personally expect him to do quite well. No aftermarket racing heads. NO FOR SALE POSTS. According to the National Speedway Directory, there are over 700 dirt oval tracks in operation in the US. 8 tips on how to win dirt-track racing with almost any car In addition, too much pressure can result in making the tire too stiff and unpredictable (snap loose), so make small increases in pressure until you find that sweet spot that works well for your car. 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. [Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the November 2012 issue of GrassrootsMotorsports.]. HS: With the track going to full dry and slick conditions, we need to get more radical in our setup. It depends on the car and the tires being used. On the Volvo C30 Touring Cars we ran in the Pirelli World Challenge last year, we had nearly a 10-psi spread between the front and rear of the Pirelli P Zero slicks. And physics haven't changed since. Maximum wheelbase 105 inches. Keep the weight low and to the left, and use tires with wide grooving to release the wet mud easily. For stiffer suspension springs and stiffer swaybars and Torque Sensing Differentials,,. There will be less grip, but not to the point of going overly soft on the springs or introducing great amounts of rear steer to turn the car. The right axle is now a little short. You've just got to drive it and hang on. P5007314 Hub and Bearing Kit (199599 Neon ACR). Caster will never add negative camber on turn in, because steering axis inclination takes camber away. Are you the guy who likes to slow the car way down make the turn and then drive hard off the corner, or do you try to carry your momentum all the way through? We will make some changes to the previous spring setup. Links for making a NEON faster, lots of this info will apply to any FWD 4 cyl car. (NOTE! If you are in a Super you can help loosen the car up with the throttle. Steering, braking, and power. This can vary due to car and driver preferences. They are more like asphalt anyway, and a team racing a dirt car on those tracks would do well to set up their cars more closely to an asphalt car setup. Pumping up the rear rubber and hitting the front tires with more negative camber can boost your cars cornering abilities, but dont forget to modify that variable in the drivers seat. It would not be fair to those teams I have worked with in the past to divulge specific set up information, so I will explain using generic concepts. But as you turn that steering wheel, you have to pull the throttle up in order to accommodate that string, thats pulling the pedal back. This makes plate diffs the clear winner when used for a full-time, dedicated front-wheel drive track car. Select spring sets lower car as noted. I run with a touring series called the Texas ProSedans and we run only asphalt. This does two things: It lowers the rear moment center and raises the car's CG. 4m.net is a very large nation wide racing forum,,, THEy have a very good ministock tech forum,,,so register , then go to the Mini stock Tech forum and learn. If your shop is saying different then take your car to another shop. If you're not an experienced welder you should find one. The difference is in the grip factor and mostly deals with the level of moisture present in the first inch or two of the surface material. Keep the all-terrain tires and lower the pressures a bit. This can vary a little depending on the car and the tires being used, plus the driver preferences. The more parameters you can modify (suspension pickup points, roll centers, custom uprights and control arms), the less you have to trick the car into doing what you want. Cage must be electric welded. Jun 24. The front wheels do everything, turning, braking, and accelerating whilst the majority of the car's weight is over the front wheels. If you have a choice, run tires with large grooves such as the all-terrain types for mud and snow. ACP: Historically, front-drive cars had a reputation for not driving well, not being great performance driving cars. All flammable material, radio and air bags must be removed. Towards the left front but behind the LF wheel and down as low as possible. Basics of driving front wheel drive on dirt and a couple tips to get you up to speed and hopefully out of trouble. ACP: Draw a circle, and imagine how force vectors go: put a dot in the middle of the circle, and you get to put a certain amount of force forward or backward before you go out the edge of the circle. The surface has not come apart just yet, and passing is a bit more manageable because the entire width of the track is uniform in grip. Stock for make and model - Dodge to a Dodge, Honda to a Honda. The Racing Line Goes Over Differences Between RWD, FWD, and AWD It's good to get tips from other guys and see what they do, but to mimic their setup and think you are going to have the same results can often be a mistake. Or if you are a three-wheel braking, you go to four-wheel brake. BRAKES: Must be steel, unaltered, OEM operative, four wheel disc or drum brakes, and match year, make and model of car used. Install softer rebound left-side shocks and softer compression right-side shocks. 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. Based on these 2007 IMCA rules, which HONDA car (model, Year, body style), Honda Engine and trans should a new racer pick to build and race?? That arrows pointing straight off the page, thats pulling you forward force. Someone else can chime in about the other cars. You also have to watch the track to see how it progresses and watch guys who are fast to see how they are driving the track. How to drift in BeamNG.drive | Traxion Five years ago wed be able to pull a few fuses or sensors and be able to override it, but its gotten to the point where its extremely hard, and all the cars now are CAN-BUS wired. If your toes point toward each other then you are toed in. For each type of car, we will set up for the six conditions listed above. About 2-4 degrees of positive camber works in the LF. The Panhard bar, mounted on the left side of the chassis, should be at heights of 12 inches left and 8 inches right. Because the weight is all in the bowl of the spoon, where your fingers dragging it down, and its dragging the rest of the car with it. Make your front-wheel-drive car faster - Grassroots Motorsports If we try to go to throttle at this point, that inside tire will quickly exceed its maximum grip, lose traction and begin to understeer (immediately followed by much swearing coming from the drivers seat vicinity). are you allowed locked or positraction final drives? Down South even when they dry up and blow off, they still aren't slick because they are so abrasive. This term is widely used when describing a 4-link dirt modified right front shock or asphalt cars front shocks. The track has now blackened over and the edges of the groove are loosening up with the surface material turning to drier sand. We will examine some physical rules that deal with chassis dynamics so we can arrange the setup to meet the conditions. A top Neon team can help with their setup here. I just started roadracing a FWD 1993 Mazda MX6/Ford Probe with a 2.5 L V6and I'm taking all this advise to heart. No center steering. Rotating The Car - The Key To Cornering Fast | Speed Secrets The axle in these cars acts like a swaybar. In addition, the increased tire pressure in the rear changes the shape of the tire, making it rounder, which makes it ride more on the center of the tread, decreasing the contact patch and decreasing grip. For that reason, it is very important to lessen the amount of steering input as early in the corner as possible before you start goingto throttle, which will give the tire a bit more grip to work with for acceleration out of the corner. thick or thin ones? Note: Emissions exempt in California, Massachusetts and. Look down at your feet. Perfect for autox and spirited street driving. You're essentially shortening a leg of a table(outside front) and lengthening another (inside front). ACP: Its kind of an open secret that they do that with the rear brakes on the Focus ST. Sold in pairs. Normally there are lots of used seats available you just have to look around. The key, again, is to be sure to make changes based on your track conditions related to your type of car. Johnson: I'd say for a guy starting out the condition that's going to the most trouble is dry/slick. Others are far more involved and only make sense for dedicated race cars. Thanks for all those mopar part #s and neon links, now you gave out all my secrets, but thats ok the more neons the better. I got two control inputs coming into the computer here, I got throttle angle and I got brake pressure, and itll cut you to limp mode.. If you have a track driven car and want to run R compounds, I would recommend starting with at least 2.5 degrees of negative camber up front. Frankly, the advice that was given regarding front-to-rear weight distribution and spring selection for a FWD car is questionable at best. P4510826 Rear Tension Strut Kit-Left and Right (200305 SRT4, 200005 Neon). When I started my pro career in the Touring Car class of the Pirelli World Challenge (then known as Speed World Challenge), I, like many drivers before me, had visions of big, powerful GT cars dancing through my headbig, powerful, rear-wheel drive GT cars to be precise. A typical setup might be: LF = 400; RF = 450; LR = 225 (400 pounds swing arm); RR = 275 (500 pounds swing arm); 56 percent left-side weight; Panhard bar at 11 inches left and 12 inches right, mounted to the right side of the chassis; and no front Ackermann with zero rear steer. Tire Grooving and Siping Tips - Speedway Motors AMENDMENTS TO THESE RULES MAY BE MADE AT ANY TIME IF CERTAIN TYPES OF CARS ARE DOMINATING. All ignition components must be unaltered, OEM and match year, make and model of car used. We could set up a car for a driver who likes to slow down and turn and drive off the corner hard, and if I get in there it feels terrible to me. No matter how much we try to keep that unloaded, inside-front tire planted, however, itll still have less grip than the outside, loaded tire. Imagine drawing that line, out 45 degrees to the top left. All glass, exterior lights, chrome/plastic trim and hood insulation must be removed. The primary goal of the diff in a front-wheel drive application is to apply power efficiently to both wheels, without excessive wheel spin from the less loaded, inside front wheel. The car will automatically brake the inside wheel, just a little bit, around a hard corner which has exactly the same effect as the left-foot braking. So lets take a closer look at what it takes to get one of these wrong-wheel drive vehicles around the trackquickly. Change all the fluids; drain the antifreeze replace with water. Must use OEM crank, rods, valve sizes, stroke, etc. If you have some rear adjustment turn both back wheels to the wall about a quarter inch. 1. Upgrade base model vehicles to ACR/RT level, and upgrade ACR/RT models to higher levels. FUEL SYSTEM: Must have complete, unaltered, OEM fuel system for year, make and model of car used. Some are fairly simple tweaks suited to cars that only see a few track days a year. In the case of a rear-wheel drive car, you get those two rear tires, those two rear palm-prints, they always get to push you forward, and the front tires only have to turn you side to side, and usually stop you, too, because thats where most of the braking force happens of course. Now softer tires can be used with some siping. If it can be made to have more resistance to twisting, the car will handle better. This effect can be taken to an extreme, and we never want to three-wheel the car in order to create the effect. Now is the time to find some help. The rear springs don't need to be stiff at all since they are carrying very little weight. That is probably why rear steer (left tire forward) is sometimes so helpful. If youre steering and accelerating at the same time, youre going to break traction.. Both sides must have vertical bracing from top to bottom door bars. Once the track has hardened, it will quickly continue to change toward black and then to slick. Also, using them is very close to installing a more robust suspension. If you do get a tire that is glazed over, you just do what you can. I want to say I've heard that before, but for some reason the way you said it just clicked with me. But any modern car is going to say whoa, hey, what are you thinking? ENGINE COMPARTMENT: Engine and radiator must be OEM, in OEM location for year, make and model of car used. All cars must remain strictly OEM. HS: We could maintain the previous setup as the track begins to smooth out, but it will keep a considerable amount of grip. Buy a good air pressure gauge, tire pressure is the biggest adjustment you will be making. When you've got that much power on tap it is easy to use the gas pedal to get the car to turn, but that's not as smooth. Good tires will make the difference in the way your car handles. Some of the other cars are done similarly while others may have adjusting cam bolts. So basically, its right up our alley. If the arrows going straight and to the left, toward the edge of the circle, thats a turning left force, thats a g-force to the left. These rebound adjustable performance Struts will improve the handling and performance of your Neon. You only have so much force that a tire contact patch can give you and remember, tire contact patch is about the size of the palm of your hand. Now if you head up North and go someplace like Learnerville, that's a track that can get slick! 1 week scuba diving the Red Sea. You just have to learn how to slow down and go faster. Eckert: If your car is too free in the corners, what you've got to do is back your corner up onto the straightaway. You need to learn as much about them as you can. And, contrary to what many would consider "common sense," the lighter the rear of the car is, the stiffer the rear springs need to be, especially the right rear spring. This is a good time to get used to the bumps and the bank on the curves. Keep the air pressure high. Dirt Car Setup Tips - - Circle Track Magazine - MotorTrend 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. This style of driving has a couple of benefits. Now weve seen a bit of what the driver can do to help negate some of the front-wheel drive disadvantages, but what can the car do to help in return? Sometimes you can spin the tires and make it worse, and then sometimes you can spin them and that friction opens it back up. CT: So how do you drive a dry/slick track? engine. www.tomorrowstechnician.com/tt/tt30216.htm. Because youre asking them to take that side load, and you add the accelerative force.. Run a higher pressure in all of the tires. Do a tune up on the engine and check the compression. Because AWD cars fundamentally are FWD cars with RWD added. Car must start without being pushed or pulled from initial staging area or go to rear of that race. (If you are interested, you can learn more at www.DirtSchool.com. But if you decide to build one, here are some tips. Precision manufactured struts are the same as those found on the 199599 Neon ACR. The primary goal of the diff in a front-wheel drive application is to apply power efficiently to both wheels, without excessive wheel spin from the less loaded, inside front wheel. Also All NEON racers should install the thicker ACR front hub listed In the catalog and sold by Dodge which is used in SCCA racing. 16. These Mopar Performance Coil Springs will add a new dimension to your cars handling and performance. You cant really trick (the cars computer) that way (anymore). Theyre front-heavy, the front tires tend to get over-taxed because youre asking them to do two things at once. 10. If you can get to the pit and the car is way too tight, one thing you can do is just take some panhard bar angle out, and that will usually free the car up. No speeding, no passing, no bumping; just drive around. No reinforcing except installation of front strut crossbar. What happens if you gain camber up front while turning due to added casterthe entire body rolls more, and your rear outside tire is now leaning over even more (assuming you didn't make any changes out back). This also applies to other makes of cars with similar rear suspensions. 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. 15. No iron, galvanized pipe or fittings, square tubing, brazing or soldering allowed. 4. must remain in the OEM location. It's what racing is all about and it's all fun. > Do want more weight % on the front or the rear? I forget where I ran upon the discussion but there is some kind of analysis that was done at some point to see why he might have thought this And it had to do with the tire's "trail" and where it fell in relation to the contact patch causing a disconnect in steering feel as grip is exceeded. You should set the front toe to 0" to 1/16" OUT. Under these conditions, teams using softer RR springs with Panhard bars high on the left side and low on the right side and with plenty of rear steer will find trouble. This is alot of information all at one time. The problem with this weight transfer is that it takes weight off the inside tires, which is exactly what we are looking for in the rear but exactly the opposite of what we need in the front. These are used for adjusting the camber on the front. I do not have the space or time to fully explain roll couple distribution theory here, but I do explain it in detail in my suspension seminars, complete with class notes. We will be back in action on 5/6/23 at Wilmot Raceway for the series and track season opener!! Front-wheel drive gets a bad rap with car enthusiasts. Rear hoop must have X bracing configuration. Is it faster? Aluminum high-back racing seat required. 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. Evo is a little different, and STI is a little different, but they all fundamentally drive like FWD.. The first is that the car is rotating enough that it should be better pointed down the next straightaway, allowing us to open up the steering wheel and decrease the amount of grip the tires need to steer the car and allow more to be used for acceleration. Must be securely mounted with positive terminal covered. If you don't fancy running through all the above set-up work then you can download the special Traxion drift edition of the Ibishu BX 200. Everything behind you, in fact, everything behind the engine, thats just details. When carving around a cone, does your car resemble a dog lifting its hind leg to a fire hydrant? Plan ahead Watch the circuit. Properly executed trail-braking shifts weight from the rear of the car to the front, increasing grip on turn-in. So we continued with our who's who of dirt racing with Dirt Late Model drivers Josh Richards, Dennis "Rambo" Franklin, Chub Frank, and Rick Eckert, then we switched over to the 410 Sprint Cars with Jason Johnson. Lower pressure on the left side will provide a lateral force that counters the centrifugal force that is trying to take the car up to the wall. Details. Camber is the angle at which the top of the tire is tilted in or out. As someone who spent 20 years driving as "right wheel drive" purist, having recently started driving/racing a fwd car, I will admit that I was wrong and completely agree with the opening of the article. It brakes individual wheels according to the inputs of what you are telling it to do. The key to managing how much your car rotates into a corner - using that to your advantage - is the timing and rate of the release of the brakes, along with the right amount and speed of turning the steering wheel. Due to reduced grip, higher pressures can have a negative effect on braking. Welcome to the internet home of Front Wheel Drive Circle Track Racing Podcast show is being worked on daily! So. Also I adjusted the springpreloadby jacking up the front and just taking the slack out of coilovers, is this a good starting point? One of the simplest things to do to help get rotation in a front-wheel drive car is to increase rear tire pressure. Yes, you do have to be careful and make sure you carry as much momentum as you can through the corner with a Crate, but you also have to do that in the Supers too. 24 All-Wheel Drive via autoevolution All-wheel drive cars are ideal for a lot of racing situations but fundamentally handle like a front-wheel drive machine and you can expect your front-wheel drive experience to transfer over to the all-wheel drive platform to a degree. Ok, so now you have a car with a roll cage, seat, belts, fuel cell and the suspension has been set. Don't worry about the LR since it has little effect on handling. This is where you need to check the tires after you run and move the camber and toe until the tires are the same temperature all the way across. ". In fact, I just spent about 400 miles on the track with the Fiesta ST, GTI, and Type-R, Golf R, WRX STI, Civic Si, and all of those street cars, except for the Type-R, would go to limp mode. 7,800 rpm rev limit. No wheel spacers or bleeder valves. What is Dirt Track Racing? The main thing for a driver to recognize is that in a front-wheel drive race car, the front tires are trying to do several jobs at the same time. Secondly, because were having to use the throttle to counteract the rotation of the car, we will be going to throttle long before corner apex, increasing the amount of time the car is accelerating. Just remember to take it to a track if you really want to test your limits. Front Wheel Drive Racing - Facebook Front Wheel Drive, dynamics and tuning using ChassisSim The way to think about this is: race drivers often illustrate stuff with cutlery, so driving a RWD car is a little like piloting a knife. How to set your racing car tyre pressures perfectly (every time)