Geo with Mark from Banchory
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 2:28 pm
Thought I would cross post one of Tuts emails from Yahoo. Another satisfied customer. Sounds excellent. Need to decide If I'm going to get it done before East Fortune.
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Spent yesterday at Marks, he worked on the car for six hours. A pleasure to
watch him in action and work with him. The equipment that he has
fabricated, and his means of setting it up to measure toe, is something
else, but he is a stickler for accuracy, and it is more satisfying and
re-assuring to see it done this way and check the measurements than it is by
laser. Of course I forgot to take photos, but maybe someone else could when
they go along.
Started with corner weighting, and I doubt if he will see a car further out,
The front was 150kgs left and 201 right, a difference of 51kgs. The rear
was better at 20kgs difference. He adjusted this out to 8kgs front and 9kgs
rear. This resulted in a ride height if 110/112 front empty, which evened
out with driver in, and 116/116 rear.
Total weight with empty boot and half tank of fuel was 764kgs, so compared
to Craig’s identical car, the Honda conversion would seem to add about
22kgs.
Front and rear camber was fairly conservative with 0.3deg difference side to
side, so we adjusted to -1.3degF and -2.4degR.
Toe was not too far out front, and was set at 0.3mm out overall.
Rear toe was way out, 2.0mm toe in on the left, but 1.0mm toe out on the
right, a difference of 3mm. This was adjusted to 2.0mm toe in on each side.
He has caster scales, so he measured it at 3.7degs, which is in the middle
of the Lotus spec of 3.6 to 4.0.
We then went out for a run, and the difference in the handling and overall
feel once upto speed was very apparent. Straight line stability was better,
turn in was nicer, and the back end twitchiness and feeling of early
breakaway was improved. However I definitely need to fit a new steering
rack, this one is rather tired.
So at least I now know that any failings on the track are down to the driver
or the tyres, and at least with the tyres I can do something about it. The
driver is probably beyond redemption.
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Spent yesterday at Marks, he worked on the car for six hours. A pleasure to
watch him in action and work with him. The equipment that he has
fabricated, and his means of setting it up to measure toe, is something
else, but he is a stickler for accuracy, and it is more satisfying and
re-assuring to see it done this way and check the measurements than it is by
laser. Of course I forgot to take photos, but maybe someone else could when
they go along.
Started with corner weighting, and I doubt if he will see a car further out,
The front was 150kgs left and 201 right, a difference of 51kgs. The rear
was better at 20kgs difference. He adjusted this out to 8kgs front and 9kgs
rear. This resulted in a ride height if 110/112 front empty, which evened
out with driver in, and 116/116 rear.
Total weight with empty boot and half tank of fuel was 764kgs, so compared
to Craig’s identical car, the Honda conversion would seem to add about
22kgs.
Front and rear camber was fairly conservative with 0.3deg difference side to
side, so we adjusted to -1.3degF and -2.4degR.
Toe was not too far out front, and was set at 0.3mm out overall.
Rear toe was way out, 2.0mm toe in on the left, but 1.0mm toe out on the
right, a difference of 3mm. This was adjusted to 2.0mm toe in on each side.
He has caster scales, so he measured it at 3.7degs, which is in the middle
of the Lotus spec of 3.6 to 4.0.
We then went out for a run, and the difference in the handling and overall
feel once upto speed was very apparent. Straight line stability was better,
turn in was nicer, and the back end twitchiness and feeling of early
breakaway was improved. However I definitely need to fit a new steering
rack, this one is rather tired.
So at least I now know that any failings on the track are down to the driver
or the tyres, and at least with the tyres I can do something about it. The
driver is probably beyond redemption.
