I'm taking my B+ sprinting this year in the south east and could do with some advice on setup and tyre choice. Its a B+ with triumph front end, 2.0L pinto and weighs in at 650Kgs on 13" wheels. I'm thinking of 220Lbs front and 130Lbs rear springs how does this sound ? Any idea on Tracking / castor/ camber etc.

Tyres at present are 205/60 rear, 185/70 front.

Do any of you run any F/R brake bias ?

I dont know if its going to be anywhere near competitive but I'd like to get a good basic setting before I start.

How did you guys get on last year ?

Regards Mike.

Will be my first attempt later this year hopefully - when my car is fully sorted.

What springs shockers and ride heights are you running at the moment? - I find 4.5- 5 inches giving a good stance

If the brake balance is good at the moment then run with it - if you find that the balance under braking is not good then fit a twin cylinder set up or a pressure limiter.

The tyres of choice seem to be the Yokohama 048R's in medium or the 032R in super soft - For sprints and hillclimbs its important to get a tyre that works well cold as by the time any heat gets in the tyre the lap/hill is over. - They wear really quickly and are quite expensive and you will be stuck with 205's in the 13" rim size.
It really depends on the class you are going to run in and the regulations of the club competition you are in.
With the dutton tyre pressures are really important and can have a dramitic effect on the handling.

Tracking depends on what bushing you are using - rose / rubber / Poly - The harder the material the closer to parallel from toe out

As for camber all the material I have seen is keep it modest as the tyre works best with its full tread on the ground so 1 degree is about as far as you want - trouble is with the triumph front end you have no adjustment except to add camber its dependant on the ride height and at 5 degrees you get a fair bit of negative.

To counter this and sort out a few other issues I am building new wishbones that use the cortina upright so its ford fittings allround and use the transit top joint so camber can be adjusted. This gives an easy route to all the Ford braking components - 2.8i vents are nice and cheap as are spaced M16 calipers or even the good old Volvo or Princess four pots.

Castor is pretty well fixed unless you intend to build new wisbones new bracketry etc.

At the end of the day the set up is really dependant on you and your style of driving whether you want oversteer or understeer or neutral characteristics. best to find out what you have and work toward what you want.

Cheers

Andrew

Thanks for that Andrew

When you are talking ride height where are you measuring to , I assume its to the underside of the chassis. My setup at the moment is quite soft at the back end as I did a fair bit of quarter miling last year, for this reason I made up adjustable rose jointed rear links and panhard rod, and added the fourth link. Its on adjustable coilovers with 110lbs springs. The front is standard triumph setup at the moment, but I've just ordered some coilovers but have yet to work out spring rates. I've turned up poly bushes for the wishbones as the old rubber ones were shot. I'll measure the ride height and see what it is, I didthink about increasing it but are a bit concerned about the effect it might have on bumpsteer as the steering arms are already at a bit of an angle.

Regarding tyres the regs I have so far state list 1A so I dont think the yoki's you mention are allowed.

Thanks for the info I'll keep you posted.

Regards

:D

You are correct the Yoko -'R's are 1B listed - the 1A list are generally typical roadgoing tyres - _ I picked up some very cheap Comp T/A HR4's (£40) which seem quite good and got some good write ups - although they may be off the list next year they may still be accepted - Toyo Proxes T1S (£75) get a good write ups. - but any good tyre that grips well when cold.

What have you been running as regards tyres?

I will be having a early season paddock chat at the begining of April to see whats what.

Increasing the ride height :blink: I was thinking more of decreasing it - to the 4.5-5 I mentioned - if you are running less than 4.5" I am impressed. you must have some spectacular negative camber. ;)


Do you find the rear shocks at 110lb a bit soft then? - I need to look at the spings on the back end of mine - I thought they were 95lbs but they seem a bit harder than that. - Trouble with mine is that the Atlas axle is a really heavy bit of metal and even with relocation fuel pumps and batteries to the boot the back end gets very light under braking. - infact almost as much smoke from the rear tyres braking than when accellerating :lol:

Bump steer is a bit of an issue with cars of this type and it may be worth seeing if the rack could be relocated to reduce it - Another idea may be having a an anti roll bar made up for the front end. It really depends on what the restrictions for the class are.

Any times for the quater miles? - whats the spec on the Pinto? - why not also drop a picture of the car onto the gallery.

May run the old girl at a Santa Pod RWYB - chance of you being there?

Cheers

Andrew

The back end was deliberately set soft last year for Santa Pod to give maximum weight transfer to the back, I did go quite a few times last year and got it down to 13.5 secs with a terminal of 105mph. If you do go to Santa Pod take the screen off as its worth 0.5 second.

The engine is 2.0 pinto lightened and balanced with a big valve head, piper hr320 cam and 45's. its 156 at the flywheel. I spent some money last year on a heavy duty type 9 with a long first gear, I'm now thinking I should have spent a bit more and got the long first close ratio !

I'm hoping to do the first sprint at north weald on 21st March but havent had the regs yet so I'll let you know how I get on.

Current tyres are Yoki 509's on the back and some colway formula 2 onthe front.

I'll send some pics soon.

regards

Mike.

B) Thats an interesting tip about the screen - as my local hill is about a mile long it should make a difference - admitedly the average speed will be lower but overall it could be worth almost a second. Change of plans now regarding sealing the screen :D

Are you running a Pheaton front end and spoiler or a cycle wing set-up?

My pennies are now being saved to get another engine - same nice light Rover but I want about 350BHP which will take it to 500BHP per ton. Its stretching it on the old V8 - and is twice what it runs at the moment although 250BHP per ton is pretty quick - but I think its possible out of the 5.0L models without loosing the tractability trouble is it means spending about 7 times what the car cost :blink: still one step at a time.

Cheers

Andrew

Regarding the screen you might have to check the regs as I think you have to run with a screen , I dont think you can even use aero screens.

When measuring ride height is it from ground to underside of chassis ? I'll measure it and let you know what mine is.

The front end is B+ bonnet with cycle wings.

Should get my new front shocks on Sat so I can get on with them and try some springs to see what works.

Regards

Mike.

Hows the preparation going Mike?

Did you sell those Starmags?

Got any pictures of the car organised - or have you been too busy in preparation for nexts weeks event?

Cheers

Andrew