Nordschleife

[Jetronic]

Went to the Nordschleife today.

Found a picture of me and my car. Had no issues today, although the temperatures went up to mid thirties (celsius) and we're about 5-600 meters high. Brakes held, tyres squeeled like a stuck pig, temperature stayed where it always is. It's quite confusing and fast paced though, for those that haven't been yet. aorund half way through you don't know left from right and certainly not if you're going uphill or downhill. I'm in white.

 

[ag_ghost]

First time? In any event,

Kevin

 

[Ohle_Manezzini]

Nice ride, your Alfa Romeu.

 

[Kuato]

 

[OVERKILL]

+1

 

[Jetronic]

Originally Posted By: ag_ghost
First time? In any event,

Kevin



Been 10 years ago a few times. Means nothing now. The fast cars got a lot faster, and there's more of them. the motorcycles are still in the way, or have a deathwish. I think they don't realise how much slower they are through the bends.

 

[Kira]

How utterly and extremely cool! I'm jealous.

Does changing my Saab 9-5 Aero's heater control valve in the driveway today in New Jersey count?

Seething jealousy spoken here. Kira

 

[splinter]

Good lane discipline...checking the mirrors frequently.

Germany during July is often quite pleasant...thanks for the pic!

 

[addyguy]

Good on you! Would love to do that!

 

[double vanos]

Not to mention that Sabine Schmitz lives right there where all the fun is. Thanks for the pics!

 

[Jetronic]

Trying the new image upload thing..






The car was very composed, a little jitter under braking (in a corner) as the brake distribution thing did it's work, but for an OEM setup very nice. The steering is very neutral (i changed the factory rear springs with stiffer OEM from another engine option) and I can set the direction of the car by using the brakes. first time you feel it can be a bit unnerving though. 1G (and slightly over) is possible in the corners with these tyres. The real track monster however pull 1.6G, I'm told

 

[Jetronic]

If you look at the rear wheel camber, would you say it's spot on in that instance?

Looks like I could use a bit more front wheel negative camber? The only affordable way to do that would be to use lower springs (due to the front suspension setup), but then they would also be stiffer and I might introduce understeer again.

Maybe the thread is best moved to another section now?

 

[DriveHard]

Could you slot the top of your strut mounts?

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: Jetronic

The car was very composed, a little jitter under braking (in a corner) as the brake distribution thing did it's work, but for an OEM setup very nice. The steering is very neutral (i changed the factory rear springs with stiffer OEM from another engine option) and I can set the direction of the car by using the brakes. first time you feel it can be a bit unnerving though. 1G (and slightly over) is possible in the corners with these tyres. The real track monster however pull 1.6G, I'm told

Looks like good fun! How did the front tires wear? I've got similar alignment(lots of camber and toe in rear, near 0 in front) on my Focus but with substantially more body roll, so the outer edges of the fronts take a beating in autocross.
Your front camber might not quite be ideal but if outer edges are wearing OK, and you can already rotate the car easily on the brakes or with dropping the throttle, setting up for neutral handling in mid corner with some power can make the car tricky, especially at ring speeds!
I set up my old Neon with stiffer springs and a rear sway bar and put on as much front camber as I could. Great fun in the 30-60 mph world of autocross, and felt like a hero for the first few track sessions of the day, but at the end of the track day I into the grass sideways... Getting tired and had a little slip in concentration and off it went.

 

[Jetronic]

Originally Posted By: DriveHard
Could you slot the top of your strut mounts?


No, that'd be easy. there's no bolts there, the mount fits through a hole and is clamped on the other side. Identical to a dodge dart.

 

[Jetronic]

Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Originally Posted By: Jetronic

The car was very composed, a little jitter under braking (in a corner) as the brake distribution thing did it's work, but for an OEM setup very nice. The steering is very neutral (i changed the factory rear springs with stiffer OEM from another engine option) and I can set the direction of the car by using the brakes. first time you feel it can be a bit unnerving though. 1G (and slightly over) is possible in the corners with these tyres. The real track monster however pull 1.6G, I'm told

Looks like good fun! How did the front tires wear? I've got similar alignment(lots of camber and toe in rear, near 0 in front) on my Focus but with substantially more body roll, so the outer edges of the fronts take a beating in autocross.
Your front camber might not quite be ideal but if outer edges are wearing OK, and you can already rotate the car easily on the brakes or with dropping the throttle, setting up for neutral handling in mid corner with some power can make the car tricky, especially at ring speeds!
I set up my old Neon with stiffer springs and a rear sway bar and put on as much front camber as I could. Great fun in the 30-60 mph world of autocross, and felt like a hero for the first few track sessions of the day, but at the end of the track day I into the grass sideways... Getting tired and had a little slip in concentration and off it went.


Tyre wear is dead even an all 4 tyres. No issue with outer tyre wear from a few laps around the ring, but they're not really sporty tyres that wear fast.

I'm loooking into Dodge dart lower control arms, if they'd fit, and if they're different size. If they're a few mm longer, this could solve the camber issue. I have a set of stiffer and slightly lower springs for the front (about 1/2 inch lower), but I'm in two minds about fitting them as it'll no doubt introduce more understeer than the lowering + extra camber would remove. Going with grippier tyes would make the camber issue more pronounced, I would think?

 

[IndyIan]

Well there's only one way to find out. If you are going to stickier tires, lower and stiffer probably is a good idea, and if it starts to understeer too much, a thicker rear swaybar can solve that relatively cheaply.
Even just tightening the rear sway bar bushings(on the suspension arms) helped make the Focus more neutral as they are pretty soft and probably allowed a bit of body roll before loading up and making the sway bar work.
I suppose you could loosen the front sway bar bushings as well for tuning purposes.
In autocross there is the odd fwd car that has less understeer with a stiffer front sway bar/springs due the reduction of body roll allowing the tires to work better, but your car stays pretty flat already.