Rain setups

[wepsbee]

Well it looks like we will be able to experience some wonderful rain racing at LRP. A setup question? Disconnecting the rear sway bar, installing rain tires are obvious rain setup changes, what about the shock/struts? Soften all, just fronts, just backs, I am not clear on the physics of these adjustments. Some insight would be appreciated.

[quadzjr]

on what you setup and why is a matter of preference. Typical you will want to soften the car up in general. To allow for more wieght transfer, slower. IT is all about maintaining static friction as long as possible. If your car is already bad with understear or overstear you can correct by softening one of the other just like you can in the dry. If you want to get even more in depth you can run softer spring rates.

-This is all from a theoretical stand pointand and an enginering background.

PM me if you would like a mroe indepth explaniation.. I find that too often I can get wordy when explaining things, and find that it was not necessary.

[joeg]

Dan--If you get over-set-up for rain, you will be slow on a drying or dry track.

A full rain set-up would also require a change of springs to soften everything up further--not worth the risk.

Just get yourself the best set of rains possible--Hoosiers (either Wets or Dirt Stockers). Rear Bar can be disconnected quickly. Top adjustable struts are nice too.

[Xian]

Personally I'm a fan of "disconnect the rear bar" and throw on the rain tires. You can fiddle with the shocks and soften things up but I've never seen a real need to do so. Swapping springs seems redonkulously over-involved for club level racing. Too much chance of making the car worse than it would have been on the "regular" spring setup. All, IMO of course.

[wepsbee]

on what you setup and why is a matter of preference. Typical you will want to soften the car up in general. To allow for more wieght transfer, slower. IT is all about maintaining static friction as long as possible. If your car is already bad with understear or overstear you can correct by softening one of the other just like you can in the dry. If you want to get even more in depth you can run softer spring rates.

-This is all from a theoretical stand pointand and an enginering background.

PM me if you would like a mroe indepth explaniation.. I find that too often I can get wordy when explaining things, and find that it was not necessary.

Dan--If you get over-set-up for rain, you will be slow on a drying or dry track.

A full rain set-up would also require a change of springs to soften everything up further--not worth the risk.

Just get yourself the best set of rains possible--Hoosiers (either Wets or Dirt Stockers). Rear Bar can be disconnected quickly. Top adjustable struts are nice too.

Personally I'm a fan of "disconnect the rear bar" and throw on the rain tires. You can fiddle with the shocks and soften things up but I've never seen a real need to do so. Swapping springs seems redonkulously over-involved for club level racing. Too much chance of making the car worse than it would have been on the "regular" spring setup. All, IMO of course.

Thank you all for your help. I will disconnect the sway bar, I use Toyo's full tread as rains, I do have upper adjustable rear shocks and I do not have other springs. I am just getting the car to a point were I know what it will do in the dry so this will be new in the rain. I really cannot adjust too much as I will not be able to understand what is happening with all the changes. So I will make small changes and figure out a little at a time what is going on. Thanks for the starting points.

[Xian]

Depending on the rest of the setup and how comfortable you are in the rain, you could always soften the rear shocks to make it a little "safer" handling... not a "gotta do it" though, IMO.

[RSTPerformance]

We did a lot of testing in the Rain a few years ago at Lime Rock... Put me on the Pole for ITB/ITS with an ITB car in the rain. The above suggestions are good but also dont forget, if you are running a lot of camber you may want to stand the tires up a bit and get rid of some of the camber. Sometimes it helps to get a bit of grip slowing down in a streaght line. Also you may not be "rolling onto the tire" as much in the rain especially if you don't soften the suspension, thus you don't need as much camber.

Raymond "just something to think about" Blethen