sprint car wings

[accutron42s]

Hello,

We are running a 360 sprint car on methanol. The car has been good but we are loosing grip coming out of the corners & down the straights. The car is good going in & in the middle. Wing angles are nose 30 deg. & top 20-30 deg. My driver is hell bent on keeping the top wing moved all the way back. My question is could this be raising the center of gravity in the car as the wing is higher in the air & if we move the wing forward will this lower the c.o.g. & balance the car. Any thoughts on this would be great, Tom

 

[OP800]

Join the club!
We can't get grip either until near the flagman then the right front wheel comes off the track with grip.
The one difference may be for us is the car may be nose heavy with a hi deck Ford small block but all kinds of power otherwise.
We tried a lot of different setups but have not hit it even close.

 

[safetydan]

Several questions for you: 1. What track surface are you running on (dirt, asphalt, concrete)? 2. What size track? 3. Are you in a continously slide throughout the track?

I have a couple hundred others for you, but these are the basics I need before I can give you a good answer. The long and short of what you are seeing is both. Your wing angle as well as it's location could be affecting you straightline stability (if you really are going in a straight line). However, there are a few dozen other reasons why you could be having the problems you are having. My background is in road racing with trans-am and cam-am cars, but many of the same principles apply, especially when you have a driver who drives like he is on dirt.

 

[OP800]

For us the tracks are dirt both 1/3 and 1/2 mi with the same results.
I would not rule out the driver ability causing some of this.
The car gets loose in the middle of the turn, out of the throttle and back on with no forward bite.
Seem like sprinters are like swiss watches with so many things to make work togather.

 

[OP800]

I don't really mean to cut in on the original post so appoligize for that.

 

[accutron42s]

Thanks guys,

We are running all dirt in two different touring series, mostly 1/3 to 1/2 mile tracks. I think we found our problem. In one series we have to run the American Racer mc3 on the rr. This is the tire we have problems with as it is so hard. Siping & grooving different patterns has finally got us hooked up. We finally got an opportunity to run a Hossier D12 in the other series & we burned it up, so we eliminated the set up as the problem & focused on grooving/siping the mc3 to get some bite & so far so good. We are finally getting some heat in this tire now. Tom