Bennyfizzle's dicktone 318i build thread.

[JClark]

My $.02, dont hate.

@ninety1two40

So basically you’re talking about alignment? Like what? Bump the front toe out and some neg camber in the front. Rear, toe=0, camber minimal?

Alignment to a small degree, but an alignment only sets the direction the wheels point on each axis all the time. Traction is mostly about about keeping the tires on the ground and controlling the weight transfer on the tire. Damping, spring rate, ride height, and sway bars (suspension ‘independence’) are where the big changes in drivability come from. And you wont need $7000 Motons to make a decent drift car. Considering most of the changes are free (loosening/tightening bars, raising height) and the rest are super cheap (stiffer spring rates), this is as close to free speed as it gets. I keep saying speed/fast/lap times, sorry, it’s drilled into my head. :lol

I’m having trouble coming up with concrete ‘this will work on every car’ examples because I’ve always spent my time getting my cars to not do this. Either way, with a couple quick laps at AIS or Malta, you could real quickly come up with real good changes. I’d start by softening front sway (maybe even disconnecting on a car like Benny’s), raising rear ride height, etc but one at a time to see what changes what and where.

@bennyfizzle

I would think a bit of toe out out back would make initiations easy, but make the slides less stable, and slower. Toe-in in the rear would make it more difficult to initiate, but its more stable and higher speed. Rear Camber I would think is more of a wear issue with us, obviously getting more tire on the ground will improve speed/control, but the only way to truly know how much tire we have on the ground while sliding is to watch the wear of the tires, and adjust accordingly.

I’d think you’d want minimal toe up front, or none at all, maybe toe-in in the rear for stability, and tow out up front for front end response would be best, but then at full lock you’d be dragging the inside front tire, which would make the car want to loop. I’m pretty sure that is where ackerman comes into play, and here we go with custom knuckles, etc.

You don’t need this stuff unless you’re trying to be competitive, which at this stage I’m not.

I’d like to hear input from Dr. Clark though.

Agree with you on toe, I dont think big numbers in or out on either end is the hot ticket. Big toe/camber/caster in or out will benefit you in one specific instance of the corner - initiation, slide, [whatever the term is for a smooth end to the slide with no snap] - but hurt you in another.

There is an optimum “static” state to the car, meaning alignment and things that dont change while you are running the car. This includes tire size and alignment. BUT I doubt its crazy out of the ordinary. Who knows, have to experiment to find out.

@SRS BZNS

On a seperate thought (NOT THAT IM SOME HUGE DRIFTER) I have noticed that for my car when sliding what little bit I can this year my car sucks nuts. I attest that to having 225/35s in the rear with even more camber. It will kick out fine but thats it, car just like blahs right out there isnt enough traction with those tiny stiff walled shits. When I had 255s it was a bitch to break loose but when it did the acceleration availible in the slide actually scared me a bit. 235/40s were the sweet spot for me when i was trying to kick my car out more often. It didn’t take much to get the back to rotate and when it did the throttle could actually control angle and speed. With the 225s and this camber nothing happens just mad one wheel peel. My rears are actually good brand tires too

That snappy action would be affected by that tire size, compound, temperature, etc its not the only cause or way to fix it. [/Cpt. Obvious]

@bennyfizzle

suspension setup is subjective, really. there’s different ways of getting the same results. an alignment that’s ‘better’ or ‘faster’ for one driver/car might not suit another car/driver, given the same purposes/setup.

True, however there is always one best setup on the car (take the driver out of the equation). The real trick is to make the driver able to drive that setup. One of my goals for this year is to lose my preference for a very slightly pushy car on corner entry because a very slightly looser setup is faster. So I’ve been setting my car up that way and then teaching the driver (me) how to get that fast lap out of it.