ivan
23-03-07, 05:30 PM
Strategies for improving your lap times
Practice makes perfect. A very experienced former professional racer once said to me, "the problem with you blokes (referring collectively to amateur racers), is that you are ready to go racing at about four o'clock Sunday afternoon." He was referring to the general lack of testing and practice undertaken by Club Car racers. Unfortunately, we don't all have mega dollar budgets, so we have to be careful about how we spend what budget we have. Racing and practice miles is about the most economical way to improve your lap times when you are starting out. New racers often find that they get quicker as the day progresses, setting a better lap time in their final race than in qualifying. This is because of the experience and the increased confidence on the circuit. Practice the day before will help you to set a quicker time in qualifying. A quicker qualifying time will improve your position in the race. It doesn't take much - I've seen days where four tenths of a second could move you six spots up the grid.
Be prepared:
State of mind is critical to going fast. The bloke mentioned in the previous paragraph once said (he has a lot of good sayings) "If the car isn't ready Friday night, it will never be ready".
If I had to point to a single thing which made me faster when I was starting my racing career, it would be this piece of advice.
If you are still working on the car at 2.00 am Sunday morning, you obviously will not get much sleep, which is not helpful to being fast. Neither is rushing around trying to get the car ready five minutes before qualifying. If you are thinking about the car, you are not thinking about being quick. And believe it or not, being consistently quick is all about thinking, and has nothing to do with "big balls". You need to be well rested, relaxed and able to concentrate on the task at hand in order to be at your fastest.
So make sure the car is prepared well in advance of the meeting. And don't decide to make some radical change to the car on the Wednesday before a race meeting. Big changes should be tested well before a race.
Car setup:
Good handling is more important than good horsepower. Just ask John Boston. He races a Datsun 1200, with a 1500 cc engine, and has qualified on the front row of plenty of Trophy races. It doesn't have a lot of grunt, but it handles and stops very well, so John has the confidence to drive the wheels off it every time he goes out.
People much better qualified than me have written very comprehensive books on the subject of handling, so I won't go into too much detail. I suggest you buy one and read it. Fred Puhn's "How to make your Car Handle" is a good starter. Carroll Smith's "Tune to Win" is a bit meatier and mostly relates to open wheelers, but is still valuable. I will just mention a few specifics which relate to Club Cars, which you may not pick up from the text books.
Your car should have somewhere between 2.5 and 4.5 degrees of negative camber on the front. Our control tyres, Yokohama A008r's, overheat and blister the outside edge of the front tyres, particularly on heavier cars, if there is insufficient negative camber. Negative camber compensates for the body roll generated by our cars, as a result of relatively high centre of gravity and relatively soft spring rates. You will read in the text books that negative camber detracts from traction when braking. This is true, but it is better that the alternative, which is lots of destroyed tyres, and lower corner speeds. Also, a relatively high profile tyre (ie our 60 series) is less sensitive to camber change than a lower profile tyre. Ask experienced drivers with the same car as yours about their suspension setup. A tyre pyrometer (measures tyre temperature) can give you a guide to the correct camber and tyre pressure, but it is not the be all and end all. I use mine mostly for home brewing. Remember, the stopwatch tells no lies.
When you lower the ride height of your car, bear in mind that you can go too far. Make sure you have sufficient suspension travel left, typically 50 mm to 75mm minimum, and that the car isn't riding on the bump stops. A car either riding around on the bump stops or hitting them regularly will result in terrible handling. Remove the bump stops or cut them down if necessary. Bear in mind that drastic lowering of the ride height can also affect the suspension geometry, particularly roll centre height and dive/squat. You may find the car is faster in spite of a slightly higher ride height, due to more travel and better geometry.
Spend some time playing with your tyre pressures. It is cheap and easy, and the right tyre pressures on the day can make a surprising difference to your lap times. Some of the things to bear in mind are:
Tyres heat up with use, and as the air inside heats up it expands, increasing the pressure. It is the hot pressure that is important to you. Get a feel for how much pressure your tyres put on between cold and hot.
The humidity of the air in the tyre will affect the amount of pressure the tyre puts on. The more humid the air, the more pressure is put on.
The tyre heats up mostly as a result of sidewall flex. The lower the cold pressure, the more the sidewall will flex, and the faster the tyre will heat up.
On the subject of brakes, it's a case of fit the best ones you can afford. A mistake often made by inexperienced people building a Club Car is under braking their car. Brakes that might be fine for two laps in a supersprint could fade away in a 10 lap race. Have a look at what is fitted to the cars which are developed to the level to which you aspire, talk to the drivers, and copy what seems to work. There is no point spending $3,000 on AP Racing brakes if your car is a daily driver which you race occasionally. And if you want your RX3 to be running for the Open Championship next year, you might as well spend the money now and throw your single piston fronts and drum rears in the bin. The front of the car will do approximately 80% of the braking in dry conditions, so this is where you should spend your money. Some of the more common front brake callipers are Landcruiser, RX7 series 4 & 5, Volvo and Nissan 300ZX, all of which are four spots. The single piston fronts which work well are callipers from heavy cars such as late model Commodore, Falcon or Celica, and only when fitted to much lighter cars than those for which they were originally designed.
If your car is a purpose built racer, I suggest you install a mechanism for adjusting the brake bias. A pressure limiting valve in the rear brake line, such as those from Tilton or AP, are the most common method. Twin master cylinders and a balance bar are in theory superior, but most of the really fast Club Cars seem to use a pressure limiting valve.
I recommend using an asbestos based pad, such as Black Flash, when you are starting out. If you ask around, you will find that a lot of the more experienced competitors will prefer a carbon metallic (such as Hawk) or carbon kevlar pad (Cool Carbon). These pads have a coefficient of friction which is up to 50% higher than an asbestos pad, and they have a very wide operating temperature range, which means they bite like hell even when they are stone cold. They also have a lot less feel than "regular" compound pads, meaning that it is really easy to lock front wheels. This is not good, because when you are starting out, you will be trying to develop your brake modulation (mental ABS) skills, and this lack of feel will make the job much harder. Locked front wheels equals flat spotted front tyres, which can get very expensive very quickly. A flat spotted tyre cannot be fixed, and the only thing it can be used for is a very ordinary looking coffee table in your lounge room. So unless you like giving Mr Yokohama lots of your money, stay away from carbon pads for your first season.
Going fast in the wet:
There are two simple ways to be successful in a wet race:
Make sure you can see where you are going.
Stay on the track.
These comments may sound trite, but so many people get caught out in the wet, and you can take advantage of this. If you can't see the track, you won't be quick. The biggest problem is fogging the windscreen. There are several things you can do to combat this. Make sure your heater/demister is in good working order. If you want to get really serious, fit an electric demister to your windscreen. You can also smear Fog-X or a similar anti fog product on all internal glass. If you have none of the above, race with all your windows wound down. This keeps the cabin temperature down and will minimise fogging, but you will get pretty wet. If your windscreen wipers are not much chop, Rain-X is great.
People will invariably spin off in the wet, and if you stay on the track you will beat them. All that is required of you is to make fairly careful use of your brain and your right foot. The off track areas (ie grass and mud) are so much more slippery in the wet, you won't believe it until you try it. The most common outcome when someone leaves the track in the wet is that they keep sliding until they are stopped, usually by part of the scenery. Keep your eyes open for water running across the track or in puddles. The car can aquaplane when driven through such water, and if your car is aquaplaning, the only thing you can do is tighten your harness, and make sure your thumbs are not hooked around the steering wheel. Be aware of cars spinning out in front of you, and be prepared to avoid them. Look out for mud dragged onto the track by a car which has been off, and if you go off yourself and get going again, take the next couple of corners easy, as you will have mud in the tread of your tyres.
In terms of car setup, you need to go soft in the wet. Drop a couple of pounds tyre pressure, bearing in mind that the water on the track will keep the tyre cool, so it won't put on as much pressure during the race. A008s are a pretty good tyre in the wet, if they have plenty of tread. The more tread you have, the faster you will be. A brand new set of tyres is ideal, and will give you a distinct advantage over someone with half worn tyres. If you have adjustable shocks, back them off a few clicks. Disconnect your sway bars, or if they are adjustable, set them on the softest setting. If you have adjustable brake bias, wind it a bit towards the rear.
Regards,
Ivan
Note: This article may have been copied from another website and revised to better suit the Starlet community. If you are the owner of the original article and would like us to remove it, please contact me via email with the subject "Remove Article" and i will remove it from this website as soon as possible.
Practice makes perfect. A very experienced former professional racer once said to me, "the problem with you blokes (referring collectively to amateur racers), is that you are ready to go racing at about four o'clock Sunday afternoon." He was referring to the general lack of testing and practice undertaken by Club Car racers. Unfortunately, we don't all have mega dollar budgets, so we have to be careful about how we spend what budget we have. Racing and practice miles is about the most economical way to improve your lap times when you are starting out. New racers often find that they get quicker as the day progresses, setting a better lap time in their final race than in qualifying. This is because of the experience and the increased confidence on the circuit. Practice the day before will help you to set a quicker time in qualifying. A quicker qualifying time will improve your position in the race. It doesn't take much - I've seen days where four tenths of a second could move you six spots up the grid.
Be prepared:
State of mind is critical to going fast. The bloke mentioned in the previous paragraph once said (he has a lot of good sayings) "If the car isn't ready Friday night, it will never be ready".
If I had to point to a single thing which made me faster when I was starting my racing career, it would be this piece of advice.
If you are still working on the car at 2.00 am Sunday morning, you obviously will not get much sleep, which is not helpful to being fast. Neither is rushing around trying to get the car ready five minutes before qualifying. If you are thinking about the car, you are not thinking about being quick. And believe it or not, being consistently quick is all about thinking, and has nothing to do with "big balls". You need to be well rested, relaxed and able to concentrate on the task at hand in order to be at your fastest.
So make sure the car is prepared well in advance of the meeting. And don't decide to make some radical change to the car on the Wednesday before a race meeting. Big changes should be tested well before a race.
Car setup:
Good handling is more important than good horsepower. Just ask John Boston. He races a Datsun 1200, with a 1500 cc engine, and has qualified on the front row of plenty of Trophy races. It doesn't have a lot of grunt, but it handles and stops very well, so John has the confidence to drive the wheels off it every time he goes out.
People much better qualified than me have written very comprehensive books on the subject of handling, so I won't go into too much detail. I suggest you buy one and read it. Fred Puhn's "How to make your Car Handle" is a good starter. Carroll Smith's "Tune to Win" is a bit meatier and mostly relates to open wheelers, but is still valuable. I will just mention a few specifics which relate to Club Cars, which you may not pick up from the text books.
Your car should have somewhere between 2.5 and 4.5 degrees of negative camber on the front. Our control tyres, Yokohama A008r's, overheat and blister the outside edge of the front tyres, particularly on heavier cars, if there is insufficient negative camber. Negative camber compensates for the body roll generated by our cars, as a result of relatively high centre of gravity and relatively soft spring rates. You will read in the text books that negative camber detracts from traction when braking. This is true, but it is better that the alternative, which is lots of destroyed tyres, and lower corner speeds. Also, a relatively high profile tyre (ie our 60 series) is less sensitive to camber change than a lower profile tyre. Ask experienced drivers with the same car as yours about their suspension setup. A tyre pyrometer (measures tyre temperature) can give you a guide to the correct camber and tyre pressure, but it is not the be all and end all. I use mine mostly for home brewing. Remember, the stopwatch tells no lies.
When you lower the ride height of your car, bear in mind that you can go too far. Make sure you have sufficient suspension travel left, typically 50 mm to 75mm minimum, and that the car isn't riding on the bump stops. A car either riding around on the bump stops or hitting them regularly will result in terrible handling. Remove the bump stops or cut them down if necessary. Bear in mind that drastic lowering of the ride height can also affect the suspension geometry, particularly roll centre height and dive/squat. You may find the car is faster in spite of a slightly higher ride height, due to more travel and better geometry.
Spend some time playing with your tyre pressures. It is cheap and easy, and the right tyre pressures on the day can make a surprising difference to your lap times. Some of the things to bear in mind are:
Tyres heat up with use, and as the air inside heats up it expands, increasing the pressure. It is the hot pressure that is important to you. Get a feel for how much pressure your tyres put on between cold and hot.
The humidity of the air in the tyre will affect the amount of pressure the tyre puts on. The more humid the air, the more pressure is put on.
The tyre heats up mostly as a result of sidewall flex. The lower the cold pressure, the more the sidewall will flex, and the faster the tyre will heat up.
On the subject of brakes, it's a case of fit the best ones you can afford. A mistake often made by inexperienced people building a Club Car is under braking their car. Brakes that might be fine for two laps in a supersprint could fade away in a 10 lap race. Have a look at what is fitted to the cars which are developed to the level to which you aspire, talk to the drivers, and copy what seems to work. There is no point spending $3,000 on AP Racing brakes if your car is a daily driver which you race occasionally. And if you want your RX3 to be running for the Open Championship next year, you might as well spend the money now and throw your single piston fronts and drum rears in the bin. The front of the car will do approximately 80% of the braking in dry conditions, so this is where you should spend your money. Some of the more common front brake callipers are Landcruiser, RX7 series 4 & 5, Volvo and Nissan 300ZX, all of which are four spots. The single piston fronts which work well are callipers from heavy cars such as late model Commodore, Falcon or Celica, and only when fitted to much lighter cars than those for which they were originally designed.
If your car is a purpose built racer, I suggest you install a mechanism for adjusting the brake bias. A pressure limiting valve in the rear brake line, such as those from Tilton or AP, are the most common method. Twin master cylinders and a balance bar are in theory superior, but most of the really fast Club Cars seem to use a pressure limiting valve.
I recommend using an asbestos based pad, such as Black Flash, when you are starting out. If you ask around, you will find that a lot of the more experienced competitors will prefer a carbon metallic (such as Hawk) or carbon kevlar pad (Cool Carbon). These pads have a coefficient of friction which is up to 50% higher than an asbestos pad, and they have a very wide operating temperature range, which means they bite like hell even when they are stone cold. They also have a lot less feel than "regular" compound pads, meaning that it is really easy to lock front wheels. This is not good, because when you are starting out, you will be trying to develop your brake modulation (mental ABS) skills, and this lack of feel will make the job much harder. Locked front wheels equals flat spotted front tyres, which can get very expensive very quickly. A flat spotted tyre cannot be fixed, and the only thing it can be used for is a very ordinary looking coffee table in your lounge room. So unless you like giving Mr Yokohama lots of your money, stay away from carbon pads for your first season.
Going fast in the wet:
There are two simple ways to be successful in a wet race:
Make sure you can see where you are going.
Stay on the track.
These comments may sound trite, but so many people get caught out in the wet, and you can take advantage of this. If you can't see the track, you won't be quick. The biggest problem is fogging the windscreen. There are several things you can do to combat this. Make sure your heater/demister is in good working order. If you want to get really serious, fit an electric demister to your windscreen. You can also smear Fog-X or a similar anti fog product on all internal glass. If you have none of the above, race with all your windows wound down. This keeps the cabin temperature down and will minimise fogging, but you will get pretty wet. If your windscreen wipers are not much chop, Rain-X is great.
People will invariably spin off in the wet, and if you stay on the track you will beat them. All that is required of you is to make fairly careful use of your brain and your right foot. The off track areas (ie grass and mud) are so much more slippery in the wet, you won't believe it until you try it. The most common outcome when someone leaves the track in the wet is that they keep sliding until they are stopped, usually by part of the scenery. Keep your eyes open for water running across the track or in puddles. The car can aquaplane when driven through such water, and if your car is aquaplaning, the only thing you can do is tighten your harness, and make sure your thumbs are not hooked around the steering wheel. Be aware of cars spinning out in front of you, and be prepared to avoid them. Look out for mud dragged onto the track by a car which has been off, and if you go off yourself and get going again, take the next couple of corners easy, as you will have mud in the tread of your tyres.
In terms of car setup, you need to go soft in the wet. Drop a couple of pounds tyre pressure, bearing in mind that the water on the track will keep the tyre cool, so it won't put on as much pressure during the race. A008s are a pretty good tyre in the wet, if they have plenty of tread. The more tread you have, the faster you will be. A brand new set of tyres is ideal, and will give you a distinct advantage over someone with half worn tyres. If you have adjustable shocks, back them off a few clicks. Disconnect your sway bars, or if they are adjustable, set them on the softest setting. If you have adjustable brake bias, wind it a bit towards the rear.
Regards,
Ivan
Note: This article may have been copied from another website and revised to better suit the Starlet community. If you are the owner of the original article and would like us to remove it, please contact me via email with the subject "Remove Article" and i will remove it from this website as soon as possible.