RE: 1600 handling question - understeer & bounce

[Jeff Oldham]

Hey thanks for the feedback   I bought the car of a guy who rallied 1600's who bought it of a guy who rallied 1600's who apparrently used it as his drive car but it had carpet stripped out & interior painted, stall light, twin carbs, hand brake between seats (i think this is non std ?) showed a few dents in the floor and has had chasis rail repaired so i assume it has been raced at some stage by someone......or at least driven hard on rough roads ! the engine feels stock to me but i dont really know as far as the suspension goes the back seems lower than std and the car seems to jar hard over bumps but then i am used to driving big heavy cars so maybe this is normal for 1600's ? the front seems high to me and does feel soft all of the tyres seem to be pretty vertical definately no negative camber - front could even be slightly positive.   Ive had this car about six months and have got it registered cause i can afford a car trailer & still spend money making it go faster ! patched up the odd rust spot installed race seats installed 6 point steel roll cage installed extractors & 2 1/4 exhaust into lukey muffler mucked around with the su's way too much :) spent an amazing amount of money on bits of crap like ties and bolts and sandpaper etc. Repaired the gearbox & installed daiken performance clutch - clutch with greater clamp definately the go....chirps in second now !   At the moment i hill climb it and go to supersprints but will eventually use it for group N racing. I dont have a clue what the current suspension set ups are apart from as described above.   oh by the way this the the first race car i have ever tried to build so learning a lot u no. i used to hillclimb an almost stock 5.0 hx monaro before i bought the datsun........lets just say i had lots of fun !   Next year after i buy the correct tyres for group n i will look at suspension & handling before i spend money on the motor as this is probably going to make me faster at the hill climb before engine performance.   i know that most people prefer understeer but for some reason i'd rather get the arse loose ?  maybe thats the wrong view to take with low horsepoer cars ?     sorry for the life story but what the hell somebody has to comete with "MARKS" new usergroup :) :-)     c ya's Jeff   Jeff,   As usual both Terry and Errol are on the money. I would be looking at Tyre pressures first (experiment), then springs and also shocks. Doesn't sound like the dampers are controlling the spring too well.   As for ride height, I used to run the front of my 1600 lower at the front by about 20mm. I found that making the rear end stiffer would reduce understeer, this is good for finding a balance. I would only go for balance once you believe there is no where else to go looking for traction in the front end. By the sounds of the situation, you have a number of options to explore to generate some more front end grip. When you get the front end right, it will probably oversteer like crazy (happened to me), then you can start working on the back end..... It's all part of the fun!   Other factors will be wheel alignment settings, is it set up for road also or soley for the track??? Do you know what Camber, Castor and toe you are running is? ----- Original Message ----- From: Jeff Oldham To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 11:56 AM Subject: 1600 handling question - understeer & bounce Hi troops,     i have a handling question with my 1600 i have understeer that i am trying to equalise also the car feels a bit like the front bounces when it corners and the grip seems to come & go....i can feel it in the steering wheel   this is hard cornering at speed on a race track, not street driving.   will a strutt brace help with these issues ?     thanks Jeff --membersozdat------------------------------------------------------- OZDAT Mailing List Please Note:- Send (un)subscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] No unauthorised redistribution of this email http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/index.htm http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/listindex.html http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- --membersozdat------------------------------------------------------- OZDAT Mailing List Please Note:- Send (un)subscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] No unauthorised redistribution of this email http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/index.htm http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/listindex.html http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- --membersozdat------------------------------------------------------- OZDAT Mailing List Please Note:- Send (un)subscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] No unauthorised redistribution of this email http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/index.htm http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/listindex.html http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------