Each road course turn can be dissected into an entry, middle, and an exit. Dissecting a corner into those elements and analyzing the cars performance is the key to going faster.
Don’t confuse going fast with scaring the bejesus out of yourself at every corner, either. As road course racers quickly find out, a smooth, steady, calculated, fast pace throughout the entire course results in better lap times. The abusive treatment of throttle and brakes just wear out the car faster. When setting up a road course chassis, the goal is to achieve the most traction where it will benefit lap times and passing the most. That means compromise.
Since a car can only have one setup and a road course typically has many turns, the approach to chassis setup should revolve around the most important corner. But what is the most important corner, anyway? According to some, it is often the one that leads to the longest straightaway with the best passing opportunity. Of course, setting up a car for the most important corner doesn’t mean ignoring the rest of the track, either. It’s a compromise between having a setup that behaves as well as possible throughout the whole of the course, but places emphasis on making the car perform where it’s realistically possible to make gains. With this approach you will be extremely fast in a few corners, good in a few more, and taking it easy in the bad corners.
Whether it is a portable wheel alignment, a racing alignment, a performance alignment or just a quick check on specs for your daily driver alignment..QuickTrick will fill the bill when used as instructed.
- If the car is tight overall, try using a softer front sway bar, stiffer rear springs, raising the track bar, using softer front springs, or a combination of them all.
- If the car is loose going into the corner, use a stiffer front sway bar, a softer rear sway bar; lower the track bar, or a combination of these solutions. If the car is loose exiting the corner, use a stiffer front sway bar, softer rear springs, or a combination of the two.