This past weekend I had the opportunity to spend some quality time practicing at 5280 Raceway with my VBC Lightning 12.

- The stock setup has a lot of shims underneath the upper shock ball stud, something like 5 or 6 mm. I found that with the shock angled this much, the car was far too aggressive for my liking. Also, running a lot of shock angle will make you lose rear traction towards the end of the run, which is especially noticeable in a mod car at 6 minutes. I dropped this down to only 2 mm of shims.

- Since I was removing so much shock angle, I then added pod droop to give the car more weight transfer and turn-in.

- The VBC center springs seem good for stock and 13.5, but might be too stiff for mod unless you run the very softest one.

- For mod you will want to run the side springs on the links rather than inboard, which means you will need to use 2.5 mm shims to raise the crossbrace and give you clearance for the side springs.

- If you want to fine tune how much steering the car has, remove the front brace to give the car a bit more steering.

- Running AE .020 front springs (instead of the .018s I have on my setup sheet) will give the car more steering, but can also make it feel edgy. I like running .018s because it makes the car much easier to drive (I ran them at IIC in both 13.5 and mod.) You might have to add side spring preload when running .018s, as the softer front spring with the black side springs can make the car so soft that the inside front will start to lift. Side spring preload will settle this.

I wouldn’t consider this setup to be ‘final’ but rather a snapshot of what I am currently trying. The car feels decent with this setup, but I know there are more details I want to experiment with! I can definitely tell that the car has a lot of potential, now I am just figuring out the details!

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