Raced for many years with an open diff and got the car to point where i felt comfortable with the sway bar and shock set up.
Rear shocks quiet firm, rear sway bar firm also, front rake a little nose down, front shocks probably softer than most would prefer.
I found a little understeer out of slow corners and neutral to gentle oversteer around fast corners.
Raced at Buladelah hillclimb twice with open diff,very fast track with long sweeping bends. What was interesting was the last corner was fast and tight with a speed trap set up over the finish line. The fastest time i ever clocked was 136kph on a record breaking run. I can remember trying real hard and thinking thats about as fast as i can go.
The next outing at Buladelah i had installed a ZF limo i purchased from Bruce Tweddle in Canada.My very first run, always a slow have a feel run i clocked 140kph over the finish line.
I could definatly feel the limo working even on a fast corner let alone a slow power out corner which will induce rear wheel spin.
My car set up now is still a work in progress around the fact that a limo changes everything. At Raymond Terrace Ben Durie was .4 - .5 sec quicker to the first split than me, he had a limo.
They make a HUGE difference to your cars performance and set up.
Do your car set up once, get the limo first, then work from there. Just another opinion hope this helps with your thought process. Good luck.
So Colin what size bars do you run with the limited slip and how much did you change the firmness and softness of shocks/bars from your open diff setup?
Great discussion guys
Craig Torrens6 times Australian, 7 times State Hillclimb Class Champion
As i said it,s still a work in progress, like most cars in motorsport you never really stop trying to improve your car because when you do you get left behind.
Have done loads of research and data collecting and have started purchasing a few items, have a set of sway away torsion bars coming.Hope to negate the huge squat and understeer the car gets when powering out of slow corners then a new set of tyres are next.
Will run my Whiteline adjustable rear bar as usale but instead of a stiff setting i will go to a more softer setting as hopfully the bigger bars will stop the front from lifting.For the front i am going to try the standard vw bar. Yep thats right, not a typo i prefer a softer front setting than other people hence i run a Superbug i find i can tune the front to work the tyres to there max easier.
Loads of other ideas in my head including softening the rear shocks to transfer weight to front of car to also negate understeer on slow tracks. But on fast ones will stiffen up shocks but soften rear bar more to catch oversteer.
It,s all a big game of try and learn, listen and ask. Thers lots of opinions to listen to but in the end make your own mind up. Don,t rush into anything.
Reading this post and adding a few comments has reminded me it,s June, hell i better get cracking i,ve got lots of things to do before 2010 season.
you get what you pay for my friend. quaife's are brand new and next to unbreakable. ZFs on the other hand, are all second hand now and like all clutch type limos, they wear out.
interesting sidenote. Peloquin makes an 091 torsen style centre that is stronger yet cheaper than the Quaife. They were talking about making a type1 torsen style centre too. keep your eye out for that I reckon.
