Diabolical!

LCAs will help.
It will always be difficult to get traction with 20s, even with super sticky tires.
The spydershaft does not use an adapter.
If you start slipping the clutch with as much HP as you are making, you will probably only get a few passes out of it before it's time to replace it.

exx1976

Yeah, the Nitto's are the ones I've got my eye on. There's a guy on here selling a set of 305/35/20's with 500 miles on them that I might grab, otherwise I can get them locally for $299 ea, mounted and balanced.

Any particular brand of LCA/UCA I should be looking at? What's the benefit of the relo brackets? I thought they were only for if you lowered the car.. ?


Oh yeah.. And speaking of my launching problems.. I got SPANKED tonight from a dig by a Lotus Elise. Bastard. When I caught up to him (after I got traction), he wouldn't go from a 40 roll. So I did the only thing a self-respecting Mustang owner with side exit exhaust would do - Istepped on the clutch and blew 6000 RPM worth of exhaust in hiswindow.

Diabolical!

I like BMR for suspension. Relocation brackets can be used to put more power to the ground, but at the expense of hendling. It's best to use them only to adjust a lowered cars LCA angle.

wow...

exx1976

Wow? LOL Elise's are fairly quick. Google says 0-60 4.7.. Combine that with my tire spinning, and you get the idea.

Didn't I just read somewhere about someone ordered BMR LCAs and relo brackets and had a HELL of a time getting them in the car? And you say the relo's are at the expense of handling.. To what extent? I still like the twisties, so much so that I want to put a watts link in the car as well. How badly will the relo brackets affect this?

ski

If it was an Elise SC, then 0-60flies byin 4.4 sec.

exx1976

I have no way of knowing. It's hard to hear my own SC over the side-exit exhaust..

Norm Peterson

With that much torque you're going to have to learn throttle control - how to keep it at the limits of tire grip without trying for too much, at the very least in 1st gear. Sorry, but there will be no more mindless matting of the skinny pedal for you on street tires in the lower gears. Learn to be 'smooth', develop a "feel" for how close you are to spinning the tires,and learn how fast you can add throttle.

As for the on-ramps, there's an even greater demand for throttle control. Whatever tire grip that's being used laterally while the car is still turning is grip that comes out of your total rear tire traction budget. Go over that and the car will instantly go "loose" as I suspect you've already found out. Actually, I think it's easier to learn the basics of throttle control while cornering - you get a better warning that grip is going away because developing "looseness" is easier to notice than mild tire spin in a straight line if you're paying attention to what the tires are doing instead of watching the tach/speedometer/shifter or staring 2" above the hood line, etc.

What the overall effect of relocating brackets might be I'd rather not guess at - I still haven't gotten around to measuring up this car so I can see what the anti-squat and axle steer look like and what happens as the ride height varies. Generally though, more A-S obtained from LCA-related tweaks will loosen the handling by affecting the axle steer in the direction toward vehicle oversteer. Getting more A-S via relo brackets might end up being anywhere from "less tight" (not necessarily a bad thing) to outright "loose" (this could get scary in your case) depending on the specific numbers.

I think it would be better in your case to look more at tweaking the UCAand forgetting about doing much of anything with relo brackets. Particularly if you can get a longer UCA and have the option to lower the chassis-side pivot. That will give you increased A-S without screwing up the axle steer and handling, and should also slow down the rate at which the A-S itself varies with ride height. Just get the LCAs themselves if you have issues with wheel hop. As for setting the UCA inclination, keep in mind that adding in a huge amount more A-S = too much anti-lift, which can = brake hop under extreme braking.


Norm

exx1976

Norm, as always, THANK YOU for contributing to the thread. You and Sam Strano are probably the two most knowledgeable people I've ever discussed chassis stuff with (F1Fan usually throws in some good stuff too), so your opinion is definitely valued. Unfrotunately, I don't know enough about drivetrain geometry to make TOTAL sense of what you guys usually tell me, so it's a double-edged sword. LOL

With regard to the on-ramp, the particular one I was speaking of is completely straight, with a VERY slight right curve at the end (it merges into a sweeping right curve in the expressway - the on-ramp is a 90* turn from the surface road it comes off of). I know WAY better than to try and mat it while turning, I learned that in my 79TA when I was 19 years old. But when I was that young, not having traction was fun.

Norm Peterson

(Can't find the 'embarassed' smiley . . .)

Anyway, don't be shy about asking for a clearer explanations.

Chase down a copy of Fred Puhn's softcover book "How To Make Your Car Handle". It's getting to be an "oldie", but it's still a "goodie", and even though the cars in the pictures are getting to be Classic-age (or even older) the principles have remained pretty much the same. There's enough math to actually do something useful with but not so much that you'll get lost in the numbers. Arguably, it'sthe best introductory book to this stuff at any price and I still reach for my copy from time to time.


Norm