Bandolero chassis setup

Bickel states that if your reaction times are good, a long IC point inches is generally more desirable than a short one 50 inches or less. This will plant the tires smoothly and keep them planted a long time. However, as we noted much earlier in this article, if too much power is applied to a long IC point, tire shake can result. The other consideration Bickel tells us about is the amount of torque your engine can deliver to the drivetrain coupled with the type of drag slicks you have.

They work best when you limit the rear movement to as little as possible with an IC point on or near the neutral line of the car.

That location relative to the rear axle centerline will make a difference in performance, even if the IC point remains the same. The closer to the housing the upper bar is, the less the car tends to wheel stand. The neutral line examined previously slopes within the car from front to rear. Bickel says that should you decide to change the length of the IC, you must also change the height in order to maintain the same anti-squat relationship.

The farther back you move the IC, the higher it must be. Big power stick shift cars typically need to stay inches above the racing surface. The bottom line here is you have to take your time setting up the four-link for your particular car.

Like any other part of the race car, Bickel recommends you follow the above methodology and that you make only one change at a time. A bit late reply, but: Jack your car up so the wheels are hanging freely.

Then adjust so that the pressure point is just resting against the spring. Then tighten everything up and put the car back on its wheels. I disagree with most of what was said in above article that was the way it was done 20 years ago all info is outdated. I feel a 4 link is superior to ladder bar, but more time consuming to set up. When the 4 link is right their is nothing better for a high horse power car.

Hello my name is Robert article from Mr bickel is very informative it leads to a good starting point espically if someone has it allover the place you want the car to move in a forward motion with a minimum wheel stand all is done is a brakage of all peices below chassis. Every race car is different and the track is the best to test a given set up my experience is the keep it as simple as possible only make one change at a time his article on pinion angle is also helpful.

Thanks to Mr Bickel for very helpful article. Your four link information is not great. Four links need to be a parallelogram. By putting them to an instantaneous centre you are inducing twist in the diff housing when the vehicle rolls. I am setting up a 4-link in my 74 corvette. Why does your line go to cam height over front spindle? Curt Perry from Chassis Engineering has been in the shock and chassis business since with different manufacturers, and offers some insight into spring rates for drag racing shocks.

Most springs for drag racing are working at a linear rate. Having the correct shocks and springs plays a key role in maintaining the correct ride height. Jerry Bickel has decades of experience building race cars and adds to the concept of the correct spring rate for ride height.

So, the heavier the car, the stiffer the spring you will need to hold that shock in its designed position. Racers really need to look at the spring that will hold the shock in the correct position. Shock Ride Height The spring rate is part of the dampening equation when it comes to chassis ride height.

The shock itself plays a role. First, the ride height you want your car and body to sit at; second, the ride height the shock is supposed to be sitting it; and third, the ride height the spring is supposed to be working in.

The rear suspension of a racecar plays an important role in how the car is setup and in its final chassis ride height. The 4-link also provides these cars with the ability to control the amount of rotation the rear end housing has inside the car, and adjust the amount of traction based on the track conditions. Making sure the 4-link is placed in the chassis properly helps ensure the correct ride height will be maintained.

When it comes to the chassis ride height, that part of the calculation is already baked into the car, and the racer should not look to the 4-link as a way to adjust this. Bickel explains how the way the 4-link plays into how you adjust the car. Sometimes you have to adjust the ride height of the car to get the intersect points where you want them.

Selecting the ride height for the rear still goes back to the wheel and tire choice and how it ties in to where you mount the 4-link. Perry goes into some detail on how the choice of ride height is made for the rear. Legends car racing is a style of race car, at a low cost. It also puts the race in the hands of the driver and the setup of the race car, Oval Car Setup Tips. Setup Tips by Dale Jr. Race track configerations and Series rules will also dictate what setups work best for your race car.

We iRacing Asphalt Legends Setups. Dirt track race cars can be very difficult to set up. Normal Topic. We can handle anything from a simple lollipop replacement to a complete cage repair.

A race car chassis can be thought of as. It also puts the race in the hands of the driver and the setup of the race car, Legends. Circle Track Analyzer Performance Trends. Longacre is an established brand name in the racing industry and is recognized for dedication to quality. A higher number means a lower or shorter gear. Your final drive ratio will be the same as your differential ratio.

Front Bias The Front bias can be adjusted by clicking the weight bias tab on the garage screen. Front bias is the amount of weight on the front of the chassis as compared to the rear of the chassis. Front bias is determined by placing lead weight at various points as low as possible in the chassis. Sliding this weight forward gives you more front weight or bias.

The most front bias were allowed is The least amount is Generally speaking, the flatter the track, the more front bias required. The higher the banking the less front bias required. This is because the higher banked tracks require less braking which in turn means less weight is being transferred to the front of the vehicle. Less front bias or more rear bias would be preferred at a track like Talladega.

A slower track that requires shorter gear ratios, will also require less front bias. This is due to the problem of wheel spin that can occur during acceleration. You would rather have less front bias or more rear bias to help transfer weight to the rear quicker to avoid wheel spin. Just the opposite would be true when a higher gear ratio is required. The less front bias you run the looser the chassis will be.

Experimentation once again with all these variables will be the only way to correctly determine the proper front weight bias given the various circumstances. Another factor that must be considered when dealing with front bias is Fuel. As fuel is burned, your rear weight distribution is lowered. Although your not directly changing your front bias, you will be affecting the amount of weight that is being transferred as fuel is burned. This will result in an ever changing car as fuel dissipates.

Front Bias synopsis: More front bias will tighten the chassis. Less front bias will loosen the chassis. Front Brake Bias Many people believe that the brakes in a racecar are used for nothing more than slowing or stopping the car. Nothing could be further from the truth. Properly adjusted brakes can improve lap times by allowing you to get into a corner better. Front brake bias allows us that same exact adjustment.

Because of these varying factors more or less front brake needs to be "dialed" into the car. Since this will vary with each corner at each track, it is important to find the right balance as not to upset the chassis when you apply the brakes while cornering.

It is important not to confuse a loose or tight condition upon entry with a front brake bias problem IF your problem doesn't occur when using the brakes. On the other hand, your chassis may not be tight or loose on entry, but because you have the incorrect front brake bias set into the chassis, you're creating a problem when using the brakes. It is real easy to mask or create an I'll handling car getting into a corner by making a front brake bias adjustment.

The more front brake bias higher the number you have set in the car the tighter the car will be on entry. The lower the number the looser the chassis will be. This tight or loose condition from front brake bias will only occur while your on the brakes entering the turn. Some may try to add front brake bias to tighten up the chassis going in, but unless your using the brakes going in, changing front brake bias will be useless.

Plus the fact remains that you are only masking the problem of the loose condition by trying to compensate with a brake adjustment. You might want to adjust the chassis elsewhere to tighten the car up on entry. So how do you know when you have the correct amount of front brake bias?

I believe the correct brake bias is determined by how the chassis reacts when hitting the brakes hard going into a corner without locking them up. It is important not to steer any more than is necessary. Any added steering inputs can throw off your results due to the added weight transfer that occurs while turning. How did the chassis react? You ll probably also want to make sure that you re not using any caster stagger during this test. Once you have the brake bias the way you want it, you can go back and work on the compromise between caster stagger needed for turn-in but not so much it causes you to use to much front brake bias.

Front Brake Bias synopsis: More front brake bias will tighten the chassis entering a corner under braking. Less front brake bias will loosen the chassis entering a corner under braking. Front Roll Couple Whenever you turn, there is going to be some body roll. Body roll has to be handled by the suspension system so the tires won t break traction. Since Cup cars use independent suspension, the front and rear of the chassis handle their share of body roll separately as it passes through the front and rear roll centers.

Roll couple percentage is how much body roll is distributed between the front and the rear suspension systems. Since we know the stiffest end of the car will slide first, roll couple provides a pretty good indication of whether the chassis is going to be loose or tight. If the front slides first, the chassis is tight and if the rear slides first the chassis is loose. Figuring out roll couple is a complex formula that includes roll rate, track width, spring rate, sway bar lengths and thickness, anti roll lever lengths and rates, and tire pressures.

Increasing the front springs and sway bars as well as decreasing the rear springs and sway bars will increase roll couple while doing exactly the opposite will decrease roll couple. The higher the front percentage number, the more under steer pushing there is in a chassis.

Conversely, the less front roll couple, the more over steer loose. The reason the front roll couple percentage is so much higher than the rear roll couple is because most of the weight transfer from inside to outside during cornering should be led by the front or non driving wheels.

There is also a direct correlation of weight distribution and roll couple. Typically, as you move weight forward in the car, the less amount of front roll couple is needed. As you move weight back more front roll couple would be needed. Adjusting roll couple should be done before adjusting wedge in regards to tightening or loosing the chassis. It is possible that taking out wedge could have a negative impact on right front tire wear as more dynamic weight may be distributed to the right front from the heavier load that was jacked static negative wedge to the left front and right rear.

Adjust roll couple before adjusting wedge to tighten or loosen the chassis. Front Sway Bar A sway bar is also known as an anti-roll bar or stabilizer bar. The purpose of a sway bar is to control body roll through a corner. This is done with a bar that connects to both front lower a frames. Without getting to technical, a sway bar acts as a third spring to help balance out weight transfer during cornering.

The sway bar is measured by the thickness or diameter of the bar. The thicker the bar the stiffer the bar. Here are the diameter choices of the bar: 0. Generally speaking, the larger the bar the less the body roll up front. The less the body roll the tighter the car becomes. Fine tuning with sway bars is an easy way to compensate for roll couple or body roll. Front Sway Bar synopsis: The larger the bar the tighter the chassis.

The smaller the bar the looser the chassis. Front Toe Out Front toe out is when the tires are farther apart in the front of the tire than the back. Toe in would be just the opposite. Front toe out is utilized to help prevent tire scrub while cornering. Within the sim we are allowed adjustments that range from Under no circumstances would you want a toe in condition.

The majority of setups usually require a setting of less than 0. I wouldn't run anything less than. Larger radius tracks with long corners would require less toe out. More toe out will help the front end stick entering a corner. A car will run faster with the toe straight. By monitoring tire temperatures you can tell if you have a toe problem with the chassis.

Excessive toe out would show higher temperatures on the insides of both front tires. Excessive toe in would show higher temperatures in the outsides of both front tires. Front toe out isn't an adjustment that has to be changed or monitored as often as camber. Start with an adjustment of 0. Adjust the toe slightly only when the rest of the chassis is real close to being correct. Fuel Level Your WC race car comes equipped with a 22 gallon fuel cell. Your allowed to adjust the fuels levels from 1 gallon to 22 gallons for practice sessions only.

All races as well as qualifying must begin with a full 22 gallons in the tank. Gone are the days of deciding how much fuel you want to add during a pit stop. We are now faced with 5 options. A splash of fuel will give you gallons. These options can be selected by hitting the left or right arrows on your keyboard after hitting F3.

The less fuel your carrying the faster your car should be. This of course depends on tire condition. The important thing to understand about fuel, is how it effects the handling of your car as it is burned. Multiply that times 22 gallons and you have an extra This is important to remember when taking on less fuel late in a race.

If your setting your chassis based on using a full 22 gallons, you may think that by taking less fuel that you will be quicker. Depending on your setup that might not be the case. The best solution is to practice your setup with different fuel levels to see how it performs.

It's also possible to make a wedge or track bar adjustment in the pits to compensate for how your will react with less fuel.

Fuel Level synopsis: Less fuel equals faster speeds. The less fuel in the tank the tighter the chassis will become. Grill tape is nothing more than duct tape. The only component were worried about is the radiator. The more tape you apply the hotter your engine will run. Running excessive amounts of tape for a long period of time will result in engine failure. So why put any tape at all on the the front end? Instead of air going through the car, air is being forced around the car.

This places more down force on the front end. More down force will make the front of the car turn into the corner quicker. Excessive amounts of tape can cause too much down force making the rear of the car lite creating a loose condition. Weather is another factor you must consider when deciding how much grill tape to use. It stands to reason the hotter the day, the higher your water temperature will be. Therefore with the warmer weather you'll find yourself having to run less grill tape to allow more air flow through the front of the car.

In other words, running the same amount of grill tape on the same track in 50 degree weather may cause an overheating or engine failure problem with the weather being 85 degrees. Be sure to keep an eye on your gauges, or you may find yourself pitting to remove some of that tape. Try to get away with as much tape as possible on superspeedways without causing excessive water temperature.

More tape will decrease lap times. If you discover you can get away with running more tape, but become to loose, adjust for the looseness elsewhere. The hotter the weather the less tape you can use. Tape causes aerodynamic changes that have very little affect at speeds less than MPH.

Left Bias The left bias can be adjusted by clicking the weight bias tab on the garage screen. Left bias simply means how much weight is on the left side of the car compared to the right side. Between all the weight adjustments allowed, this one is the easiest to figure out. If you could run your car, with the weight being equal at all 4 corners entering a turn, then you would run faster than anyone else in the corners. With perfect weight distribution you would have perfect tire temperatures.

Perfect tire temperatures equals the maximum traction you could attain. This is what were all trying to accomplish with every single adjustment we make on a racecar. As heavy as WC cars are, left side bias on an oval is simple to deal with. Always keep as much weight as possible towards the left side of the chassis. Whenever your dealing ONLY with left hand turns, always keep the left side weight at More left side weight allows you to take left hand turns at a higher speed.

These obviously would be the road courses. Although at a track where there are more right hand turns than left, you may favor a higher right side percentage. This will allow you to get through those right handers a little more quickly, but at the sacrifice of losing speed going through the left handers. This still could be advantageous if there are few more turns going right than left. Higher right side bias will cause the car to Under steer when making a left hand turn.

Rear Sway Bar The purpose of the rear sway bar is the same as the front sway bar except it controls body roll at the rear of the car. The rear sway bar connects in the back between both rear lower trailing arms. As with the front sway bar, the rear is adjusted by changing the diameter of the bar. The rear sway bar range of adjustments are as low as 0. This differs by a half inch over the front sway bar, yet the rear offers no less than 26 adjustments in 25 hundredth increments.

The larger the bar the stiffer the rear becomes. But by making the rear stiffer, it has just the opposite effect that occurs at the front. A larger rear sway bar will actually loosen the car up due to the fact that the way the weight is being transferred at the rear, is just the opposite of the the way the weight gets transferred at the front of the vehicle.

Rear Sway Bar synopsis: The larger the bar the looser the chassis. The smaller the bar the tighter the chassis. Ride Height The chassis ride height is simply the distance measured in inches from the bottom of the frame rails to the ground. This measurement is taken at all 4 corners of the car where the frame rails are lowest to the ground. Ride height is adjusted by turning down or up on load bolts located at each corner of the car on top of each spring.

Ideally you would want to run your chassis as low as possible. The lower your ride height, the lower your center of gravity. The lower the center of gravity, the lower the overall weight is to the ground. The lower the weight the less weight transfer will occur while cornering. There are a number of criteria that must be considered when adjusting ride height. These adjustments are built into the chassis itself.

Rear roll center can be taken care of by adjusting the track bar. Check you tire temperature for proper camber angles. The most important factor we must consider is chassis clearance. If the ride height is set to low the car may bottom out on the track. This will more likely occur at high speed high banked tracks where the centrifugal forces are higher higher or at road courses where there are dips in the track.

If the car bottoms out in the rear you will most likely get loose. Bottoming out up front will result in a push. If you bottom out you can do one of two things. You can raise the ride height or run stiffer springs. Personally I've always believed that lower was better, but I also believe that softer springs are better.

Again, this theory depends on a lot of other adjustments set within the chassis, so experimentation is the only real answer. Lowering the ride height at those same corners will also lower the RF. The corner that is opposite is the LR. At the LF we are allowed to set the ride height as low as 4. The higher the front of the car the tighter the car will be. The LR can also be set as low as 4. Adjusting the ride height effects the way weight is being transferred when cornering.

Running a higher LR ride height also puts more weight on the RR. This will cause a loose condition entering the corner. Another thing you must consider when raising the ride height in the rear is how it affects the aerodynamics of the car.

With that big spoiler running across the back, it will create more drag because it will be catching more wind. This will slow your straightaway speed. With more wind catching the spoiler it will also create more down force on the back of the car which should allow the back of the car to stick better in the corners.

Running a higher ride height may allow a lower spoiler setting. Springs will play an important rule in determining your overall ride height. In general, the lower the car, the faster the car should be, but possibly at the expense of bottoming out.

On larger tracks where moderate acceleration occurs at the mid portion of the corner, having the CG too far forward will result in a larger wheel steering angle in the corner and typically a push under steer exiting the corner. On short tracks where you have heavy acceleration, having a CG too far forward can result in rear wheel spin and a car that feels loose overseer when trying to exit the corners. The higher the CG is above the ground the more weight will transfer to the outside tires in a corner.

A higher CG can also exaggerate the affects of Tip E below. Raising or lowering the CG can impact suspension geometry such as rear axle steer or camber gain in the front suspension. Let the front roll center fall where it may in order for the front suspension to have good camber curves. Use the rear roll center to tune your race car's handling. Elevating the rear roll center tends to make the car looser overseer in the mid portion of the corner when the centrifugal force is highest.

Many people refer to this parameter as roll couple distribution. There are no fixed numbers for this parameter. Your settings back at tip A will affect your ideal numbers.

Anybody can crank on the weight jacks until the race car has balanced handling. Cross weight preload is a way of measuring how efficiently the car is balanced. After you make the spring change it will be necessary to readjust your corner weights. Typically for pavement tracks the front has a larger number. Dirt tracks typically require a larger number at the rear. In all cases, changes that decrease the rear number make the car tighter and increasing the rear number makes the car looser in the turns.

While weight jacking is a quick and simple way to change the handling of the race car, it is still a crutch. Follow instructions in the manual on how to interpret the preload and determine what the race car wants for springs. Before your race car goes on the track or at the shop the tires are "Cold. As soon as you stop the tires are still "Hot. This measurement can change from cold to hot conditions just like the pressure. A computer is just dumb box.

It only know what you tell it. For example, if you were to race your car and have the right front brake rotor glowing bright red you would see this and would be registered in your brain. The computer can not see t he car and does not know that a large heat source is near the wheel and tire.

The temperature of a wheel can be elevated to the point where more heat is reaching the air inside the tire from the hot rim than is coming from the tread surface of the tire.

If the software were to read only the tire temperatures it may suspect a slightly high air pressure, but with the rim temperature the software would know about the heat coming from the brake rotor. A good place to take the rim temperature is where the center flange of the wheel meets the rim portion of the wheel.

Ride Height synopsis: Too low a ride height could cause the car to bottom out. The higher the RF ride height the tighter the car will be. The higher the REAR ride heights, the more drag on the straight-away, but the better the rear will stick in the corners. A higher LF will tighten the chassis.

A higher LR will loosen the chassis. A higher RR will tighten the chassis. Due to the importance of good note keeping, I'm going to once again remind everyone the importance of keeping track of various adjustments made throughout practice sessions. These notes could be useful for setups at tracks with familiar configurations which can turn out to be a real time saver. Above I've included two setup sheets for taking notes. You could also use the setup notes option within the garage area to track your changes.

I personally would rather track notes on paper because they are are easier to refer to when trying to set up a car at another track with a similar configuration. What I do like to keep track of in the setup notes area is what type of tire wear I get with the current setup. Fuel mileage is another thing to keep track of. Knowing how many laps you can get on a fuel run will allow you to keep in the back of your mind, when you will be forced to pit. Can I make it on a full tank of fuel or will I need tires first.

If so what lap will I have to pit should we go green the whole way. I also like to keep track of how the car reacts as tires wear, as well as how it performs with less fuel in the car.

How bad do lap times decrease over X number of laps. What chassis adjustments could I make during a pit stop to help counter react the way the chassis performs with less fuel.

Perhaps a track bar or tire pressure adjustment would be the way to go when pitting after so many laps. All these types of questions I have answered before entering a race because of good note keeping.

Simply reading your setup notes will remind you once again what you can expect from the setup you will be running before even getting on the track.

If you have multiple setups for various weather conditions reviewing these notes will allow you to choose what setup to run given the current track conditions. This is where using the track notes section of the garage area comes in handy read the section on track notes.

A shock controls the speed at which the spring moves. Shocks are a very easy issue to become confused about. At times, too much or too little of the same adjustment on the same shock can produce the same exact results in the chassis. Such results end up in total confusion as which way is the right way to go with an adjustment. The most important thing to remember regarding shocks, is that the stiffer the shock, the less grip it will have at the corner or end of the chassis.

Shocks do NOT control the amount of weight transfer in a corner.