Racing Car Technology in Durras, New South Wales, Australia | Automotive, aircraft & boat

Racing Car Technology

Locality: Durras, New South Wales, Australia

Address: 1 Murramarang Cres 2536 Durras, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.suspensionsetup.info

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25.01.2022 Anti-roll bars are often characterized as a necessary evil. Racers know you need them to restrict roll, but many suggest the interconnection between wheels on the same axle causes bad things to happen. Proponents of this view say things like the suspension ceases to be truly independent. On the surface, this might appear to make sense.... The reality is very different. The interconnection between wheels on the same axle has a negligible effect for racing and high performance. Check out our blog here: https://www.suspensionsetup.info//anti-roll-bars-a-good-or

25.01.2022 In the 1960s and 70s the race cars all had very soft springs. The Designers thought that's how you make grip at the tyres. The Authors of books on racing and the racing pundits supported this view. Here's our side of this incredible story. "The Story of Grip - 1960s to the Present". https://www.suspensionsetup.info/the-story-of-grip-1960s-to... How soft spring delusions of the 60s and 70s obstructed race car development. Now we have righted the wrong. See the latest developments in suspension stiffness technology. https://www.suspensionsetup.info/the-story-of-grip-1960s-to.

24.01.2022 RACING CAR DRIVERS. Here’s what you need to know about front to rear weight distribution. A typical high performance rear wheel drive layout may be 50-50.... But many RWD cars will be nose heavy maybe 55-45. FWD hot hatches will be around 60 40. Mid-engine race cars are the reverse up to 40 60. Front or rear weight percentage is a big deal because it determines the natural steady state balance of the race car. Front engine muscle cars understeer, don’t they? But what about rear engine cars with more weight over the rear wheels? The greater weight over that rear end should stick the rear. Wouldn’t that be the layout with understeer tendencies? How confusing. The schematic diagram you see in this post can be used to sort this out. It’s based on the simple model of vehicle handling as used by vehicle dynamics engineers for suspension design and race car simulation work, known as the bicycle model or single track model. Get a look at our comprehensive blog post on this: https://www.suspensionsetup.info//how-does-weight-distribu If you need to find this post later, just go to our blog via the main menu on our website. If you like what you’re reading, get our E Book. See the link at the bottom of our blog post or on our homepage.

21.01.2022 Release of the new GARMIN CATALYST FOR RACING DRIVERS. What is it? It’s a small tablet sized data logger that you use to do analysis and help you go faster. Improve your lap time. Now before you turn off thinking, I’ll be downloading data and looking at squiggly lines and matching with video on my phone or lap top or something.... The Catalyst is different. It coaches you with direct suggestions as to where and how you can improve. All the data, readouts, video and functionality happen on the unit itself. So, you do not have to download anything. When you’ve finished your session, you can start looking at the analysis directly on the Catalyst screen. It coaches you firstly by showing you where time can be gained and then using voice to prompt you while you’re driving your next session. Actionable feedback on where you can go faster. The main feature is it’s almost AI like ability to coach you with just the camera, GPS and G sensors included in the unit no other sensors attached. After every session it’ll give you three things to try next time out 3 opportunities it sees for you to improve your lap time. It could be a cornering line change or where and how you are braking and accelerating. Ross Bentley, racing driver coach and author, was involved in pre-release testing. The staggering thing is Ross’s own personal experience in that test. After many laps establishing his time, he turned to the Garmin Catalyst suggestions and improved by .9 second! Click through and checkout Ross’s article on the Catalyst.

20.01.2022 Here's the Real Guts on What Anti-Roll Bars Can Do for Your Race Car... As indicated in my previous post, there’s much more to anti-roll bars than simply reducing body roll. In this blog I want to focus on two super important characteristics of anti-roll bars in suspension set-up for racingSuspension Stiffness in Roll and How You Get More Grip With Stiffer Springs and ARBs.... Suspension Stiffness in Roll..... The anti-roll bar adds to suspension stiffness in roll i.e. In cornering, both the spring and the anti-roll bar contribute to the suspension stiffness as seen at the tyre contact patch. I’m going to quote a vehicle dynamics expert here, so you don’t think I am making this up: Typically, a bigger bar on the front improves the perception of nimbleness, (agility), as it makes the outer tire work harder in the first half a second or so (of initial turn-in). Greg Locock Engineering Tips Internet Forum. Greg is a Vehicle Dynamics Engineer. In recent years he worked with Ford Australia. Many of us have difficulty with this statement, especially if we’re familiar with the roll stiffness distribution concept. Our general understanding is that Increasing roll stiffness at the front will increase steady state understeer and therefore the response of the car will be less. The car will be less agile. See more on our Blog "Anti-Roll Bars Part 2": https://www.suspensionsetup.info/blog/anti-roll-bars-part-2

17.01.2022 Tony Stewart's stunning collection of the race cars he's run and won in.

17.01.2022 AUSTRALIAN BUSHFIRES 100+ Homes Lost in Our Area Batemans Bay, South Coast of NSW. The bush fires in Australia have had enormous impact over a number of weeks now and it’s expected will continue to do so until decent rains come. In our area on the South Coast of NSW the fires have passed through with some fire fronts still out of control and continuing to impact new areas.... Where we live in Batemans Bay, the Currawan Fire burnt through to the coast north of Batemans Bay just before Christmas. In the path of the fire, the small village of South Durras is home to my business partner Neville Smith and also our Racing Car Technology workshop. South Durras was saved by the fire fighters - the Rural Fire Service (RFS). The RFS is made up of volunteers from the local community working in brigades supported by a state-wide organisation. The Currawan Fire continued to burn through an area west of Batemans Bay and jumped the Kings Highway, the main highway between the South Coast and Canberra. (This major thoroughfare connecting the coast with the nation’s capital is basically a two lane road winding through the forest. It’s been closed for weeks due to the fires.) They re-named the fire at this point. Now known as the Clyde Mountain Fire. Burning through in-accessible valley’s the fires came out of the forest last Tuesday, this time south of Batemans Bay. Again, the fires burnt through to the coast, this time tragically with 100+ homes lost. However, multiple 100s of homes were saved due to the efforts of the RFS and ariel water bombing with helicopters and buckets on long chains and aircraft with fire retardant. Then on Saturday, the Clyde Mountain Fire worked its way north and threatened North Batemans Bay where my partner Cheryl and I live in Bayridge Drive next to Clyde Rd. We evacuated around mid-day and watched the efforts of firefighters from across the other side of the Bay. Five fire trucks went in to Bayridge Dr, entering the forest at the top of the street. Three helicopters worked for around four hours water bombing the fire and then circling around to pick up water in the river. They each flew off a couple of times to refuel. We are so thankful to these guys and the RFS. As far as we know, no properties were seriously impacted. Today we have power and internet in Cheryl’s office in the town centre, and we are back to work. Before Christmas I posted Slip Angle Truth which you can read on our Facebook page. I’ll follow up with regular posts about race car handling. I do hope you find them interesting. I’ll appreciate you sharing the content and liking our page. It’s in support of the intro of our new E Book 7 Little-Known Hacks Your Pathway to Race Car Handling Mastery. You can be assured we and our clients affected in these bushfires are in full swing to get racing for 2020.

15.01.2022 Congratulations David Stone New Lap Record for Historic Group N: 1:07.4 Wakefield Park HSRCA Autumn Festival Pole position, 5 from 5 race wins, new HSRCA lap record.... When racing can begin again in earnest, with David’s innate ability to extract the most from the car, and with on-going development, I am predicting a period of domination of the category where David set’s new benchmarks. Not only is the car extremely well built, but you’d have to say there is a lot to like about the Mustang as the race car of choice for a quick Group N car, just as it was in touring car racing of the day. The secret sauce is in the suspension set-up, of course. Say no more. But I can tell you about the stiff spring set ups that are now part and parcel of historic touring car and production sports car racing. We wrote the book on this back in the mid-2000s when we developed the suspension set-up for David Stone’s original Group N race car. We achieved a front spring frequency of 126 CPM which at the time was probably the stiffest by design set-up out there. What we are talking about here is a huge increase in steady state grip increasing from around 110 CPM to 120-125 CPM range. There's also still very useful gains as you go stiffer again up to 135 CPM. Check out this free report all about how we’ve come to our current thinking: https://www.suspensionsetup.info/the-story-of-grip-1960s-to

11.01.2022 Here’s how they work out what suspension settings they need for best grip at the tyres in professional racing. Click through to see the video of the tarmac rally car on TRE’s 7 post shaker rig. The suspension vibrates up and down quite quickly in response to the inputs from the shaker rig. Their track replay mode shows exactly what the suspension movements are when the car is in action on a rally stage.... Best dynamic grip comes from minimizing the tyre load variation, minimizing disturbance, minimizing vibration at the tyre contact patch. One big takeaway is the relatively stiff suspension required to minimize the vibration at the tyre contact patch. Of course, it costs thousands of dollars a day to run the shaker rig. So, outside of professional racing, we are not going to see any of the results. But with this better view we get of what’s happening at the tyre contact patch, and with testing at the track, we can get a good idea of what suspension stiffness is required. Click through to see how we work out suspension stiffness for racing. For circuit racing, we find spring stiffness of at least 2 times standard, even up to 4 times standard, is required to make best dynamic grip. Quite a bit more than a regular aftermarket performance spring - usually around 50% over standard. https://www.suspensionsetup.info//making-best-grip-at-the-

10.01.2022 RACE CAR HANDLING MASTERY How many of us can say we already know enough about what we’re doing with race cars? How much do we need to know about the physics of race car handling? There are two sides to this:... 1. How much do you need to know about the physics of race car handling AS A DRIVER? It’s something not covered in the books on race cars or driving. Further, there is so much misleading information out there, it’s scary. 2. As far as suspension set-up is concerned, how much of what you know can you relate to the real physics involved? Trying stuff out at the track is good. But can be highly subjective and burn up expensive track time for very little result. When you know the physics, when you know how it works, you’ll be way more targeted in the developments and set-up changes you try. So, Race Car Handling and Suspension Set-Up is a pretty thorny subject. Right? I’m having a crack at it in my new E Book 7 Little- Known Hacks Your Pathway to Race Car Handling Mastery I’m especially not making it hard to understand with too much maths. However, I’m mindful of the quotation attributed to Albert Einstein, Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. You will need to put in the effort to get your head around this stuff. But nothing more than you’d expect when you’re sport has this very technical side based on the handling capability of the weapon you choose to bring to the competition. Anyone for tennis instead of racing this weekend? Or golf? Ah, I thought not. We’ll just have to get stuck in and bone up on what we need to know to get the best performance out of ourselves and our race car. https://www.suspensionsetup.info/store/mAUyjF2V

09.01.2022 Every racer knows SUSPENSION SET-UP is the key to a FASTER RACE CAR. But how can you learn about this stuff? More often than not, books, magazines and on-line tips are not giving us the practical, actionable steps we need to improve the car.... The suppliers of springs, anti-roll bars, shocks and other performance suspension components can advise on their products. But it stands to reason, they don't have the resources to help you with overall set-up. What if the suspension upgrades you just bought are not optimized, not working together to give you the grip and balance you need? Fact is, it’s up to you to get a handle on set-up yourself. But set-up is complicated, right? For starters, what is going on at the tyre contact patch where the rubber meets the road? This E book from Racing Car Technology, 7 Little-Known Hacks - Your Pathway to Race Car Handling Mastery explains everything in a way that racers can understand. https://www.suspensionsetup.info/7-little-known-hacks-e-book Get an overall perspective on how race car handling works, and then the skills in suspension set-up that will give you a race car with great grip and balance. That’s what the 7 Little-Known Hacks are all about. Why Hacks? Well, there are lots of concepts and procedures around vehicle dynamics and set-up that COULD go into a book like this. But I’ve stripped it back to JUST 7. So, rather than an encyclopedic treatment of vehicle dynamics, what we have here is 7 key insights that can open up the black box for drivers. Put you on the right pathway in developing the set-up on your race car. The 7 Hacks are 7 workarounds that can give you a thorough and effective understanding about vehicle dynamics and a baseline suspension set-up, all within the confines of this short E-Book. Get the E book: https://www.suspensionsetup.info/7-little-known-hacks-e-book

08.01.2022 How do you corner the race car at the limit of grip? Generally speaking, racing drivers say you should push until you feel a sensation of oversteer and then ease back a little to maintain the cornering speed right on the limit. Here’s a more precise interpretation of what's happening from the real world of vehicle dynamics.... When steering into the corner, there's a tiny rotation of the chassis as the slip angles build at the tyres. The race car adopts a slightly sideways attitude to the direction of travel, yet the car is NOT oversteering. At first sight, the rotation motion appears insignificant. Yet it's now well established in the vehicle dynamics literature, that the racing driver develops a high emotional connection to the rotation feeling, even though it may be momentary and will disappear as soon as the race car takes a set in the corner. This chassis rotation feeling guides us in knowing how hard to push in the corner entry. Racing drivers can actually feel the tyres, feel the rate at which tyre slip angles are building. It’s instant feedback about the grip availability at the tyres. Learn More. Get this new free PDF Download from Racing Car Technology: https://www.suspensionsetup.info/seat-of-the-pants-feeling

07.01.2022 In racing, it’s often thought the tyre slip angle is an indication of the tyre losing cornering grip that the slip angle is formed by the tyres slipping or sliding on the pavement. The truth is, tyres build grip with increasing slip angles up to the point where grip starts to level off (see diagram in our blog), In racing, it's important to understand a little about how grip is created at the tyres. See our blog:... https://www.suspensionsetup.info/blog/tyre-slip-angle-truth See more

03.01.2022 Every racer knows suspension set-up is a key ingredient in making their race car faster and improving their driving performance. But how can you learn about this stuff? Books, magazines and on-line tips are of little help. Even the performance aftermarket suppliers and preparation workshops are not truly equipped to give you the advice you need. ... Sales talk is cheap, but costly for you if the suspension upgrades you just bought are not optimized, not working together to give you the grip and balance you need. Fact is, it’s up to you to get a handle on set-up yourself. But set-up is so complicated, right? How can you understand what’s going on at the tyres? It’s about this point that most racers give up on a serious look at set-up. You tell yourself, I have to be satisfied with what I’ve got. I’ll make improvements as I go. You’re chasing one shiny object or idea after another whatever’s the flavor of the month. This new e-book from Racing Car Technology, 7 Little-Known Hacks to Suspension Set-Up Mastery is different. The 7 hacks are 7 little-known insights into race car handling. Taken together, they give you a unique overview of handling that could transform your understanding of what’s required to do your own suspension set-up. (If others do the work, you can tell them what you want done.) At the risk of sounding a bit hypey, the blueprint we show you in this ebook could be your light bulb moment in making your way forward with your racing. At least, I hope it’ll start you thinking. Click through to get a look at the topics covered in the 7 Little-Known Hacks. https://www.suspensionsetup.info/store/mAUyjF2V

03.01.2022 How wrong thinking around the idea that "soft springs make grip" held us back from developing good race car set-ups. https://www.suspensionsetup.info/the-story-of-grip-1960s-to