Recent content by rwstevens59

Ranger Mike, I understand your point, for sure. We do that now, keep track of stagger changes and effects on the cars handling. By 'cut and try', which is not a bad thing, you find the range of stagger for a particular car for particular track conditions on a particular size track. This all...

Agreed. And I understand stagger and its use. My point was that how stagger effects the car will be different when the car is at a drift angle in the corner with the rear tires spinning. Part of the forward thrust is being utilized to keep the car on the current circular path toward the...

Cogitating about rear stagger on spooled solid rear axle on a dirt track when we spin it up either throughout the corner for a heavy track or from mid corner out on a drier/slicker track. The main purpose of stagger on a spooled axle is to match the roll out difference between inside and...

Thanks Ranger Mike, at least I don't feel so alone in the chassis 'woods' anymore, talking to myself. LOL :-) Now if I could just get these boys to listen to me about those tires you mentioned...

Northeast dirt modified chassis stiffness question. Here we go again. Just read a blurb about a new chassis builder up here in our neck of the woods extolling the virtues of his new chassis one of which is a change made to the bracing design under or around the engine area which provides...

On the subject of chassis engineers who write, I also find Mark Ortiz's monthly newsletter to be quite enlightening at times. My only problem with Mark's writing is that dummy here needs pictures most of the time. Seems I can't talk for more than about half a minute about a chassis, or most...

mender, Forgot to mention the 'dry' part. When a dirt track has high moisture content at the beginning of the night during hot laps and qualifying it is much more forgiving on the chassis setup, more driver than car. As the track drys and gets hard packed it can go one of two or more...

mender, Warren is a really neat guy. We have exchanged a few emails (I have been encouraging him to keep writing, although I realize he went through quite some period of illness and is just now catching up). From a practical and educational standpoint his first book, to me, is head and...

Mike, When I can get the car away from its owner and spend some 'alone' time with it all of what you have mentioned about mapping will get done. I'm fighting the usual battle of my slow engineering troubleshooting approach versus the 'hot' fix of the week from the 'rail birds'. I'm sure...

mender, All of your suppositions are correct as I understand the basic design layout of these cars. With 63% to 65% rear weight the cars basically drive off the back with the throttle. I'm not necessarily convinced this is the best way but it is what is currently being produced by three...

Attached is one of my sons pictures to give you a better idea of what the heck we are talking about here. The rear suspension on these cars would technically be considered a two link with panhard. The torque arm consists of two plates bolted to the quick change using the side bell through...

The car exhibits push in all phases of the corner when wet and sloppy early in hot laps depending on the group you go out in. As all tracks in the northeast the track does not stay wet and sloppy for long. The complaint of lack of drive off on late corner exit occurs when the track is dry...

That is the chassis builders recommended setup and brings us to why I am scratching my head. The bodies of these cars don't have a big wing on top but do create a fair amount rear down force which leads to an aero push almost always. The rules really don't allow for a proper aero balance. The...

The cars I am referring to here are Northeastern DIRT Modifieds if you are familiar with this 'breed' of car. The solid front axle has coil over front springs mounted just behind the front axle on the radius rod brackets, think of a T-bucket roadster hotrod only without the dropped axle. The...

Sorry, Mike, Terms and being very specific about what you mean always seem to get us in trouble in this complicated business. I am referring to the amount of roll resistance provided by the spring pair at one end of the car. In a steady state corner when the inertia force acting at the CG...