//steve\\

^So you'd want to dial in more angle while it's sitting in the garage correct? Just trying to understand this on the side.

FF2Skip

If the car squats, then yes, the AOA would lessen. This doesn't mean you need positive. At our level of driving, I'm not sure we'd even notice the difference in that kind of suspension travel, but Pete is absolutely correct about it changing.

I was very interested in aero properties and their real-world application as pertains to the S2000. Even bought a book, but sadly it didn't deal with production cars too much. FTR, I ran too much wing.

Budman05

I set mine level in the center with a level in the garage. I am not saying that is the right way, but it works for me. Since I am not racing, or running TT, I am not really tweaking anything for optimal performance. Rob knows more than most anyone about this topic.

dollar

F1 2012 rules

This alone will make the show better than previous years.....that is...if the 2nd place car stays with the leader coming to the restart

Olegator

According to the data posted by APR, there is really no magic setting where you get incrementai increase in downforce and little drag. It is observed that as downforce increases, so does drag. The only thing to look out for is not setting the wing close to the stall angle, or any large angle that would disrupt laminar flow over the wing surface... At the end of the day, it is all highly dependent on the specific car setup and track. The only way to scientifically optimise the wing setting is to do test track day with datalogger, running through different setting and comparing the results. I would totaly do it...but I have no means for it at this point.

//steve\\

Oleg, are you running harnesses with those seats or still the stock belts?

I still feel like I'm stuck in a dilemma of whether or not I'll run into tech problems with the setup I'd likely have going for the first few times. I want to pick up that roll bar for sale right now but I have no funds for harnesses or another bucket (currently have Recaro PP for driver seat) At my size I cannot comfortably fit in the car with the OEM seat and HD roll bar. This has kind of been holding me back from trying to get the car prepped and try at least get started going to the track.

robrob

Oleg, your wing is so big that it will be easy to generate excessive down force & drag. Just eyeballing your wing setting in the picture it looks like you have quite a bit extra angle on the wing. Look at where the fast guys run their APR-200s and you'll see them almost flat so your larger wing (with a lot more wing out in the clean air to the sides of the car) will need a little less angle than a 200.

When you start to get into excessive rear wing down force the rear will be rock solid and you'll really like how it feels and it's hard to tell if you have just a little too much down force or a lot. The resulting high speed under steer is easy to deal with, feather the throttle, transfer some weight to the front and problem solved but most people will be faster with a more balanced car. The more skilled you become as a driver the faster you'll go with a balanced or even loose car.

As you know, the best way to set the wing is to time some laps, come into the hot pits and have a helper move the wing (and record the setting) and go back out, rinse, repeat... until you find your best lap time. The setting will be track specific but close enough for most tracks (Shenandoah would need more wing due to more corners and lower speeds than Summit Main).

KAMcDonald

Shenandoah and wing adjustments may be a little odd. There a more corners, but i think only 3 of them are fast enough to where a wing would make that much of a difference, and only bridge/back straights seem to be fast enough that drag might start coming into play.

Like Rob said, it is the lap time that counts, not the trap speed, so you have to run lots of laps on the same day adjusting the wing and trying to do everything else the same to see what effect on times the wing adjustments give you.

being a pilot, he will start talking about temperature, air density, head winds, tailwinds, etc, but for starters, that should not change much on the same day.

over different weekends you have to be aware that some minor changes may be needed. at pocono we were seeing several mph difference between head/tail winds on the straights, and my formula car has a lot less resistance than a street car.

if you get into racing, you may also end up taking doing wing angle bias toward corner/straight performance to help you get by a competitor who is really close to your times. you may never be able to pass him unless you go faster in the straight to get to a point where you can still brake and take the corner away from him, and once in front, he does not have enough of an advantage to get back in front of you out of the corner, or vice versa.

if times are equal, you will only get him if he makes a mistake, gets caught in traffic, or you do a banzai late brake and hope that is not your mistake overshooting the corner and going wide/off that he has been waiting for to get you off his tail

Olegator

Thanks for the pointers guys! I really appreciate it!

Steve,
Don't sweat it too much. If you have a bucket seat for the driver side then just buy the bar and pick up a a harness.
You'll have an stock passenger seat with stock seatbelts that you'll have to worry about for the instructor to seat in...
That shouldn't be a problem if you going to start with HPDE1. But for the third or fourth time on the track I'd invest some money in the passenger safety.

If your funds are limited and you want to get a roll bar for the track, then don't buy the bar and just go out to Shenandoah (roll bar not required by some, especially for HPDE1) If you are tight on funds then you'll most likely won't go to the track that often to justify the purchase of the bar...

e3opian

I thought your passenger safety equipment had to match the driver's?