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PURSUIT PT1- Comprehensive Setup Suggestions From Terry Desouza
Front-End:
Front Shock Pistions - Usually we always use 1.2mm x 1 hole front pistons. 1.1mm x 1 will take away steering, 1.3mm x 1 will add steering but most of the time, the car gets really really twitchy on the straight.
Front Shock Diaphrams - This depends on the traction of the track. My general set-up is to use the Red diaphrams as they give more steering. The standard ones tend to understeer, but can be good if the bite is extremely high.
Front Shock Position - The upper hole in the front shock tower allows the car to release off the corner the easiest (on-throttle understeer) while the lowest position keeps the front end down in the corner giving you the most on-throttle steering. This can be very critical on a track that has a lot of on-throttle sweeping corners. If the track has a lot of hairpin corners, this adjustment will change feel slightly but really provide no difference in lap times.
Front Width - Pretty basic. Wider = less steering, Narrow = more steering. Be careful with this though as it's really easy to make the front end too narrow and think you are going fast because of the steering feel you may have. I've done this several times where I've tried to go really narrow (as narrow as 252mm) to get steering. Then, by the time I got the super twitchy feel out of the car I was off the pace struggling for traction. Now, even on low grip I try to stay over 253mm and up closer to 254-255mm on the width. Good corner speed and easy to drive.
Servo Saver -Front Role is great for if you need a lot of steering and the corners are more high speed and flowing. If you have any tight chicanes or sections where you change directions and the car gets loose then it is best to run (more ackerman) reduces oversteer in the center of the corner while making the car react a lot faster through chicanes without making the rear of the car step out.
Steering Knuckles - 0 degree knuckles are very good for low traction tracks. They promote the jacking that castor induces giving the car more steering into the corner and less steering center out. As you go from 0 up to the 2's, you will reduce turn in but increase center out steering. This is really good for racing on high bite tracks such as the Great Lakes Challenge in Toledo. The higher degree actually negates the castor jacking on the inside front tire yet increases the jacking effect on the outside tire - Basically, instead of having a 0 degree knuckle induce a lot of jacking effect that lifts the inside rear wheel high off the ground, the 2 degrees actually cause the car to still jack, but to jack into the ground more which drops the front end down and keeps the inside rear tire on the ground.
Wheel Base & Castor - Depends on the track and driver. I like the short wheel base with very little castor, likes the longer wheel base with tons of castor. Just try it and see what you like.
Shock Oil - Usually with 1.2mm x 1 hole front pistons I always use 500wt in qualification. If the temp is over 80 degrees then I will switch to 600wt. for the final (45 min). If the final is longer or it is hotter than 80, I might consider thicker oil yet as the shocks really take on a lot of heat and the car will change substantially from the 10-20 minute mark just because of the oil thinning out.
Spring - I run the new Purple springs for Bumper Track and Green fro Nice track. .
Upper A-arm Mounts - These control steering entering and exiting the corner. The 2005 mounts have a little quicker reaction into the corner but from there they have less steering exiting the corner. To gain exit corner steering, switch back to the 2003 upper a-arm mounts.
Toe - Standard is 3. degrees. I run 3 degrees until right at the end of practice and only use this if I am desperate for more steering or more traction. More toe will increase off power rotation.
Camber - Basically, make the tires run with 3 degree of camber in - you don't want them to run flat. The more camber the tires wear in with, the looser the car will become on power. This can help with on power rotation exiting the turn.
Width - Usually, 265mm. I've tried as narrow as 255mm but I've never gone really wide - it's something on my list to try. 256mm will give you more traction until you get to a high speed sweeper or carousel - at that point it's hard to say as sometimes it causes the car to dump over the rear more actually giving you a slide = more steering. It's just not consistant so I try to stay in the relm of 255-265.
Shocks - Almost always standard piston (1.1 x 1 holes) with standand shock diaphram @ 500wt. You can go higher as I've seen the Japanesse run up to 800 with the same piston. I just like the lighter oil as it gives the car a quicker feel and better forward bite.
Springs - This really depends on the shock position. There are 3 holes in the shock tower and starting at the top going down - #3 hole = Mugen Grey, #2 hole = Kyosho white (FM532-5319), # 1 hole = Mugen red or Kyosho Black (FM532-5520), #0 hole = Mugen Red, Kyosho Black (FM532-5520), Kyosho Copper (FM532-4519). These are the usual hole with shock spring combos. At the Nats I actually ran hole #1 with a Mugen white rear spring which is quite softer than we would normally run. The lower the shock position, with the harder spring usually gives less steering into the corner but more steering center off (on-throttle). This makes it easy to dial lots of brake in and just charge the corner and roll onto the throttle to rotate the car carrying extremely high corner speed. The down side is that it is much harder on tire wear. Sometimes (Ft. Myers especially) I will run #1 hole with Mugen red for qualifying and then #2 hole with Mugen white for the final. The difference in lap time will be about .1 slower but the tire wear is so much better that you need to run that for the final. For qualifying it's ok to fry the tires to try and get the pole.
Scrub - Changing the shims on the rear axle to change width/scrub is mainly used to generate steering - If you use all shims on the outside, you create more steering but you also will hurt the rear tires as the car slides more. I normally try to run 1 shim outside and 3 shims inside so I can keep sliding and tire wear to a minimum.
Rear roll bar - Depends on the track and shock set-up. I normally use the adjustable bar and test shocks with it flat so I can get a good feel of things. Once I am happy with the shock package then I will adjust the bar to see if it improves or hurts the set-up. Again, softer bar is better on tire wear and a stiffer usually hurts tire wear more - another reason why I try to use as little rear bar as possible.
Clutch:
Shoe - Green
Gap - I always shim the cltuch (when removing the back bearing) to have .3mm of gap. This is the distance from when the clutch bell touches the clutch shoe to when the clutch bell is completely pulled out against the thrust bearing. Some guys will use .7mm but it is common to see them have problems with ejecting the weights (pucks) from the clutch. Sounds silly that .2mm would cause that but I've never had that problem, unless I have tried running .3mm+.
Endplay - I always try to shim this so only about .1-.2mm. This is putting the back bearing in and making sure the clutch bell is off the clutch shoe then measuring the endplay that is left.
Spring - Start off with the standard clutch spring 20kgs. This is the 4D clutch spring
Weights - The standard weights are fine are good and when your clutch is all set-up and broken in a bit you should be around 1.2mm on the clutch spring setting. If you have loads of fuel left after the run or you want more power you can drill the weights out to a 3.5mm hole (standard holes are 3mm). This will take away a little bit of the pressure to lock out the clutch allowing it to slip just slightly costing a little fuel milage but allowing the engine to rev easier creating more power. When you drill these to 3.5, you should set the spring around 1.0mm. You can go as large as 4mm on the holes and then you have to set the spring around .8mm for proper engagment. Remeber, more slip means less milage.
Gearing - Another thing to watch for is your gearing. I always try to set my clutch on kill and then gear the car as high as possible to control the wheel spin. Rather than running a "soft" clutch that will cause you to load the engine alot, even at low rpm, and kill your throttle response. I like the "Set to kill" clutch setting with overgearing as it makes the power band feel more like an electric car where you can drive with using the full range of the throttle rather than just mashing it all the time. Basically, I just keep gearing the car up until the car starts to push off the corner (no wheel spin). From there I'll drop back 1 tooth on the spur just so I have enough to rotate the car with a little wheel spin if I need it.
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