front track width

[Jeff Jansen]

On Asphalt, and on a metric car, How wide should the track width be in comparision to the rear track width? I was running only 1/4 inch difference, and today I set my car up with an additional 1 1/2 inches for a total of 1 3/4 difference. Besides Left Side percentages, does it matter how far you go out with the left front versus the right front? Does it have to be done equally. When I widened the front end out, I was able to move 60 pounds of ballast weight from the right side to the left side. I assume this is a good thing?

 

3300 lbs, flat track, 1/3 mile. 53% left side rule.

 

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

Jeff

[NickHolt]

On asphalt, both the front and rear track width should be as wide as the rules allow. Having anything less than the maximum allowed track width is giving away handling potential to the competition.

 

The denominator in the formula for weight transfer in a turn is Track Width. In other words, the wider the track, the less weight is transferred from the left side to the right side at a given lateral g-force. To put that another way, a wider track car can go faster through the turn than a narrower track car. That's because the wider track car has the ability to generate more g-force (cornering power) to produce the same amount of weight transfer as the narrower track car. A wide track car has the built-in advantage over a narrower track car.

 

If you need to narrow one end of the car or the other, you are simply compensating for a basic handling problem by crippling one end of the car or the other from its full potential. It's like a runner with two unequal length legs. It's hard to run that way. There's two ways to get the legs the same length. Saw the other leg off to match or fix the other leg to match. Most teams simply saw the other leg off because it's easier to do than fixing the actual problem.

 

That being said, sometimes the rules for the entry level metrics make it nearly impossible to correct handling issues so compromises are needed just to get the car through the turn at all. In cases like that, do whatever seems to work.. LOL

 

Nick

[Jeff Jansen]

Thanks Nick,

 

I have a 3rd place car most nights. I am just looking at all ways of increasing my car's potential. For example, my car still has the stock floorboard and no trailing arms "fiddled with." I am racing against some Mid-Am cars and old Sportsman type cars that have the floorboard cut out and the drivers seat moved to the rear. They easily come up with a 50/50 front rear percentage. I can only come up with about 53/47 unless I go way above the 3300 pound limit. Right now I weigh 3368 with full fuel. To scale at 53% left side, I had to stick 70 lbs in the right back seat floorboard. I was trying to figure out how I could get that off there and still abide by the 53% left side rule. The only way I could do it was to replace the lf 4" back space wheel with a 2 inch BS wheel. And I put a 1/2 inch Wheel Spacer in the right front.

 

So the wheel offset as of now is:

 

LF 2inch BS

LR 4 inch BS

RF 1 1/2 inch BS

RR 2 BS

 

Previous was:

LF 4

LR 4

RF 2

RR 2

 

I have not tried this setup yet and hope it don't whack me out. The car up to this point was a little loose on entry and a bit loose on exit. I hope it doesn't exagerate this tendency.

 

I appreciate the help.

 

Jeff

[poorboy]

I liked running the widest possible on my metric car, 2 backspace all the way around seemed to be good. I think the added tire scrub was less of a problem than a narrow car. I also made sure my right side tires were lined up. And mine seemed to work better with the left front spaced out about 3/8 farther than the left rear.