LEFT SIDE WEIGHT ON DIRT

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turtle
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LEFT SIDE WEIGHT ON DIRT

Post by turtle »

I run a Metric chassis on dirt circle track. The front upper control arms can be relocated, but everything else, (front and rear) must have stock suspension mounting points.
I have recently been experimenting with higher than average Left Side weight percentages, in an effort to use ALL the contact patches on my car. At this point, I have been able to get more heat in the LF tire than the RF. I have just gotten to 56% LS weight, with a moderate to high Center of Gravity. The plan is to raise and lower ballast as the conditions change. (tacky vs. slick, flat vs. banked)

Has anyone run this percentage or higher and made it work? I think once I get all 4 of the tires working the same, it doesn't get any better, right?
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ZIGGY
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Re: LEFT SIDE WEIGHT ON DIRT

Post by ZIGGY »

I'll add my humble opinion to that of Bubstr & rkless in the True Trac thread and say your LS isn't going to help you.
Not going to argue your tire patch goal, just your setup philosophy including apparent focus on ballast placement as the primary
adjustment. Obviously you're not the first to try high LS, and maybe some have had success but if so, they're keeping quiet about it, at least around these parts.
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Re: LEFT SIDE WEIGHT ON DIRT

Post by Bubstr »

It's just my opinion, but I've seen LS weights up to 60% and you give too much to get a little forward drive out of the corners.

The first concept you have to grasp, is handling is a matter of forces and all forces originate from the center of mass. They are modified by your roll centers, anti squat and anti dive. The force has a from, it also has a end. That end is your tire contact patches. As these forces are a moving target as you rotate a corner, you have to take in consideration all angles and expected results. Now if you was to pull a short slide job and the guy tags you in the right quarter, are you prepared to take that flip for a warmer right front tire.
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turtle
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Re: LEFT SIDE WEIGHT ON DIRT

Post by turtle »

I understand that there will be a point of diminishing returns. I think that I might be at that point. That is the reasoning behind my question.


Bubstr wrote:It's just my opinion, but I've seen LS weights up to 60% and you give too much to get a little forward drive out of the corners.

I was trying to get better "through the center speed", by utilizing all for tires.

As far as drive out of the corner, that can be obtained a couple of ways. Adding to your rear weight percentage, which is limited. You can only add so much before you lose the front to rear balance through the center.

Or by adding wedge/LR bite into the car. Adding this cross weight is at the cost of now unloading the LF and loading the RF. This now compromises the front to rear balance creating a tight condition, due to the over worked RF.

I am not disagreeing with anyone's statements. I am debating only to provoke thoughts and comments on the subject. Sometimes we can stumble across something that we had not thought of before.

Thanks for all of the input. :D
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Re: LEFT SIDE WEIGHT ON DIRT

Post by Krooser »

It's been my experience that adding weight low and left when the track slicks off will give you more forward drive.

Dry slick tracks were my forte when I raced the SE WI dirts tracks 30 years ago. Never could get the car or driver qualify well enough to run the earlier heats or the feaure so I ran a lot of late night heats and semis after everyone else had run (well over 100 cars each night back then).

Back in the late 70's Ray Dillon,who was building Mark Martin's cars at the time, ran a 3-spring chassis set-up with 70% left side weight. It made the car a rocket ship…. and almost impossible to spin out. But if it did... look out! That deal was the reason pavement tracks now have left side weight rules...
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