|
- Tamiya TRF417 - Kenneth - Kuusankoski - 24.04.2011 -
First TRF417 Asphalt Test
he unbelievebly warm and sunny Easter weekend and a trip to the south of Finland for other reasons provided me with a chance to get the asphalt season started early this year. It could not have started in better conditions as I spent a good part of Saturday at the top TC track in Finland - KyPak Circuit in Kuusankoski in beautiful spring weather.
The track was obviously quite green but the grip on-line was decent and made it possible to do some productive first testing with the new platform for 2011 - the TRF417.
I started off with a setup pretty much where I ended up 2010 with the TRF416X. As you would expect with TRF chassis the car was really more than decent right from the start but I did improve it throughout the day just by making small changes. Although a lot is still left to test I ended the day with a car I felt very confident with.
The KyPak Circuit has since it was resurfaced and reprofiled a couple of years ago been one where you need to and can afford to run less toe than at other tracks. This due to a long on-power acclerating section where you're constantly turning right, and it's important for your lap-time to keep a tight line here. In addtion it is also a track where you need a 'free' car that does not scrub of much speed. See pictures of the track at the end of the post (run anti-clockwise).
As I started off with 3 deg of rear toe the first improvement was to reduce this to 2.5 after which I tried to improve overall grip with special focus on front end. Below a list of what worked...
- moved battery to the rear position
- removed carbon brace on top of steering posts
- replace rear front block with split 1C
- replace front rear block with split 1XA
- reduce rear toe to 2 deg
I also tried a couple of other things, as well as the Mazdaspeed 6 and LTC-R bodies. Regarding the bodies on that track it felt like mostly a driver preference thing as both were good at the different parts and you could get away with running the LTC-R without overheating the rear tyres.
That's it for the first test, but I can't wait to run more soon.
There really are very few things more fun than running electric TC on asphalt...
Why are you using a 1C Rear/Rear Suspension mount? What angle does it give on toe-in?
Gives 2 deg of toe. If I would've had split 1X blocks I would have used 1X-1D for the same amount but slightly wider. But this is track specific as less toe always worked on this particular track. Normally I would use 1XA and 1D for 2.5 deg.
Source:
|