How do people use a skidpad to setup a car?
I tried to find information on the net and not getting much instruction. An autoX buddy told me how he used skidpad to set the cheap BC coilover shocks on his NA Miata. These shocks act like springs and the each click changes both bump and rebound direction. He said he started at kind of middle and started driving around the circle. If the front washed out first, he add more rear stiffness. If the rear steps out, he added front stiffness. Keep going until he felt front and back were balanced.
What I tried was tuning DWG 350Z and then 240SX KA to be more forgiving. For a newbie, who is still learning, I want a car that is not too snappy, and not too sensitive or responsive to steering input. So I typically started with lowering the ride frequency to around 2 Hz and zero toe front and back. Since most cars come stiff and with a lot of ARB, I went low on those first. I found that at a lower ride frequency and lower roll stiffness, the car’s response is not so quick. I can turn the steering and it would take a bit of time to get the car to reach the roll or whatever attitude, and I like that. By the way, I used Engineer app to check the frequency.
Balancing.. not sure how to explain this, probably why not many are writing about this. I found that many cars with high grip can get into a drift but then it would also snap out of drift in a hurry. That can be driver error or poor throttle control, but I want to minimize that. So again, I started with a lower grip like negative camber about -2 degree. It is not always intuitive, many times I thought I should lower rear grip to get more angle, but sometimes it is increase or decreasing front grip. So there is some trial and errors. But keep an open mind is helpful. Because whatever you believe or think you understand, ultimately it is the clock or the behavior of the car that determine whether the setting works or not.
Oddly, what I get is a pretty grippy touge car. Now these two, DWG 350Z and 240SX KA are both pretty quick cars around Usui.(for me) Both seems to have a mild oversteering at the limit and very stable. So I was able to keep a good pace through the turns with a bit of angle in the back end.
Love to hear how others uses skidpad to setup their cars.
I tried to find information on the net and not getting much instruction. An autoX buddy told me how he used skidpad to set the cheap BC coilover shocks on his NA Miata. These shocks act like springs and the each click changes both bump and rebound direction. He said he started at kind of middle and started driving around the circle. If the front washed out first, he add more rear stiffness. If the rear steps out, he added front stiffness. Keep going until he felt front and back were balanced.
What I tried was tuning DWG 350Z and then 240SX KA to be more forgiving. For a newbie, who is still learning, I want a car that is not too snappy, and not too sensitive or responsive to steering input. So I typically started with lowering the ride frequency to around 2 Hz and zero toe front and back. Since most cars come stiff and with a lot of ARB, I went low on those first. I found that at a lower ride frequency and lower roll stiffness, the car’s response is not so quick. I can turn the steering and it would take a bit of time to get the car to reach the roll or whatever attitude, and I like that. By the way, I used Engineer app to check the frequency.
Balancing.. not sure how to explain this, probably why not many are writing about this. I found that many cars with high grip can get into a drift but then it would also snap out of drift in a hurry. That can be driver error or poor throttle control, but I want to minimize that. So again, I started with a lower grip like negative camber about -2 degree. It is not always intuitive, many times I thought I should lower rear grip to get more angle, but sometimes it is increase or decreasing front grip. So there is some trial and errors. But keep an open mind is helpful. Because whatever you believe or think you understand, ultimately it is the clock or the behavior of the car that determine whether the setting works or not.
Oddly, what I get is a pretty grippy touge car. Now these two, DWG 350Z and 240SX KA are both pretty quick cars around Usui.(for me) Both seems to have a mild oversteering at the limit and very stable. So I was able to keep a good pace through the turns with a bit of angle in the back end.
Love to hear how others uses skidpad to setup their cars.
