Slicks are pretty pointless without proper camber, so I'd start with
that. Unless your car is well set up for slicks, in fact, they will
slow you down. Proper camber depends entirely on who made them, but 2
to 4 degrees is the range, and it could be higher. You also need a
rational amount of camber gain, or a suspension that is screwed down
so tight it doesn't move much.
Bump steer is very important with slicks because they track so hard.
You need to eliminate it as much as possible. Stock TR3/4 front ends
have so much it's hard to believe that anyone can race them. One way
that people cope with that is, again, suspension that moves about as
much as a go kart. Or you can really sort it, but that requires a lot
of cut and try.
I'd say step one is get all of Kas's books. Most of the good thinking
on TR suspension is in there. There are some additional gems in the
dark history of FOT, I'd search the archives. you'll find a lot, it's
been talked to death. Only problem with being new--you'll find people
won't be really excited about rehashing this.
toe should probably be zero--your mileage will vary, and your comfort
with low toe settings will depend on caster, which you may not have. I
don't recall what model TR4 starting having some caster, but you can
replace the lower trunnion bearing and the upper control arms and ball
joint with ones from that model and get a couple of degrees. That type
of ball joint (the one with two bolts holding it to the arms) enables
some adjustability of caster through shims (though you need to be
careful not to bind the trunnion) and I've seen them used for some
pretty clever camber adjustment. I highly recommend this. it's
particularly nice to have caster if your steering ever comes adrift.
SOVREN will be fine with your car if it shows up with speedsters,
which can be nearly as good as slicks with the proper setup. I've run
Peyote on slicks, with a lot of tuning to get it right. Good for about
a second over speedsters at PIR with me driving. Someone with more
panache might do better. By comparison switching to Speedsters from
Vintage TDs was good for three seconds. Peyote is a bit underpowered,
it's a momentum car. I put big slicks on it at Road America in a
desperation ploy to move from second to first. With the suspension
properly redialed I lost more than a second (from rolling resistance I
suspect).
I suspect a lot of FOTers recall that race. I was scheming to beat
that Jahmaniac guy (whatever his name is). Would have been better off
to just drive a little harder.
I didn't quite understand your slick size--are you saying you're using
9.5 inch slicks? If so, what on earth are you planning to have for
horsepower?
On Mar 23, 2009, at 7:04 PM, Mark Pendergrass wrote:
> FOT members, new to the group of TR enthusiast. [ yes i did peek in
> websters
> for spelling] .I have a 62-63 tr4 vintage racer which after
> rebuilding the
> entire front-end i am trying to set the proper alignment specs. I
> realize
> there is not alot to do as far as camber angle, but previous parties
> have gone
> to great lengths to adjust camber ie; slightly bent vertical links,
> front
> lower wishbones etc; I thought about changeing to a later year for
> ease of
> adjusting , maybe later. What are you racers out there setting your
> caster,camber,toe ? The car is shod with 23-9.5-15 slicks. Yeh, i
> know, it's
> nothing that Sovern cares to see!!! Any input would be greatly
> appreciated. [
> I peeked there to] Mark Pendergrass (Pendy) #65
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Bill Babcock
Babcock & Jenkins
Billb@bnj.com
503.936.7660
www.bnj.com
Editor
Ke Nalu e-Magazine
Paddlesurfing's Web Journal
Bill@kenalu.com
www.kenalu.com
blog: www.ponohouse.com/ponoblog
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