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Re: Fw: Coil over/damper and wheel rates

To: "allan anderson" <yabanja@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Fw: Coil over/damper and wheel rates
From: Dick Rasmussen <rasmussend@mindspring.com>
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 14:51:33 -0500
At 06:39 PM 11/18/2003 +0000, you wrote:

>Hello!
>
>The car is a 1983 Reynard ff1600.   My passion is autox and I saw that 
>these cars were very competitive at a national level in C mod this 
>year.  I am looking for setup for autocross as opposed to road 
>race.  Also, If you have tire size/brand recomendations I would highly 
>appreciate it.
>
>Thanks for any input!~
>
>Allan
>Salt Lake City, UT

Hi Allan,

Welcome to the world of CM! Since you love autocrossing, you will really 
love CM.

First you need to sign up on the team.net C Mod mailing list and ask your 
questions since there are a bunch of Reynard owners who can give you 
specific info for your car.

Also check out the formula 1600 website   http://www.apexspeed.com/ and 
also check out the link back to the old Formula Ford Underground. 
Incredible information!

Tires are easy. Hoosier R25A or Goodyear 160 compounds. Size for the rear 
is always 22.5 X 13 in what ever section width the manufacturer happens to 
use for formula ford. With Hoosier there are two choices for fronts. For 
many years the best fronts for autocrossing were the 20 X 7 X 13's. I don't 
know if this is still true with the new C2000 construction (I haven't 
gotten any yet). Contact "Hoosier Tom" 
at  http://www.midatlanticmotorsport.com/ for info on what the current best 
choices are for either Hoosier or Goodyear. Tom does a lot of mail order 
business and may be the only reliable way to get fresh tires in the right 
sizes and compounds to you in Salt Lake.

Alignment specs will be car and tire specific but I think in general you 
will need a "little" toe out in front and a "little" toe in for the rear. 
Camber will be at least one degree negative front and rear and maybe more. 
You will need ackermann. At least 100% (steering arms point to the center 
of the rear axle) and maybe more (steering arms point to the roll hoop area 
is also common).

Gearing depends on personal preference and the course designs you will run. 
Most of us only use first to start and for extremely slow corners so we run 
a 40 to 45 mph first. Many guys use a low to mid 50's second and a high 
60's third. Most National style courses will use "all" of the high 60's 
gear and may reward a downshift to the mid 50's gear. I happen to like a 66 
(at 6800 rpm) second. Pick a 4th (or 3rd in my case) that will handle the 
longest National style course which may hit around 80 mph. First will need 
to be an integral style for strength. Taylor in Texas is a great source of 
info on the gearbox and also a source for trustworthy used gears.

My engine has always been happy with normal pump premium unleaded. Of 
course, if you travel to lower altitude events you would have to be careful 
about using lower octane high altitude pump gas at low altitude.

Shocks and springs are very much personal preference and budget reality 
issues. I think a lot of us are somewhere in the neighborhood of having 
wheel rates equal to corner weights.

This should be more than enough for a start. I've copied the CMod list and 
also copied Hoosier Tom.

Holler when you need more. Note, I'm in North Carolina.

Dick Rasmussen
CM 85
85 Van Diemen FF 

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