Wet Setup Rally Sprint

[alync406 4]

Just wondering what setup people run for in the wet for rally sprints or track. Last day I was racing was wet and my car was handling awfully and was way off the pace, in the dry it handles well I got within a second over 3 laps of the quickes car in my class (Mk2 escort), then in the wet cars that were 4 or 5 seconds slower than me in the dry were 3 or 4 seconds quicker than me.

A quick spec of my car is its a 1.6 gti with 145bhp, 3j driveline Lsd. Suspension is bilstein coilovers in front with 200 lb springs, -2 degrees camber and toe out slightly. Rear suspension is bilstein shocks, standard torsion bars, 24mm anti-roll bar and 306 arms which give some - camber and toe in.

The rear of the car is very stable (maybe too stable) the last day in the wet I couldn't get the car to turn in and was having to pull the handbrake at nearly every corner. I know the tyres I had probably weren't the best but I never had the best of tyres and was setting good times in the wet before with a much more standard car.

 

Any advise on setup appreciated.

Thanks.

[welshpug 1,655]

Standard bars will not be helping.

 

Also good tyres.

[alync406 4]

Thing is the car seemed to handle better before and had standard bars and anti-roll bar so I don't know why that is. I would have thought a softer setup in the wet might help?

Do you think I would want to run less negative camber in the wet?

I will be getting better tyres too, the tyres I had on were new silverstone intermediate tyres (well a couple of years old but never used) I would have thought they should have been alright. I was having problems getting the power down out of corners too.

[allanallen 528 2 Cars]

You could try running with the front arb disconnected

[alync406 4]

I disconnected the front ARB the last day to try and it didn't seem to make any difference which I thought it would

[stu8v 68 1 Cars]

You need a softer more compliant setup imho.

 

tyres will help alot too.

[Chris H 10]

For wet and slippy events i run softer springs, 180lb/in vs 225 in dry. maybe disconnect the arb at the front (never tried disconnecting rear) and most importantly i run proper michelin wets, P2B i'd what i normally use.

[camgti 56]

As already said standard rear bars will not be helping especially as the front is a massive 200lbs compared to the rear.

 

Either run 175- springs with the current rear or up the rear tbs a little.

 

For the dry on track 23mm would be a good start.

[petert 585]

To make it turn in better you need to make the rear stiffer (or front softer) and get some +ve toe on the back, or at least parallel. The 306 arms appear ok with their -ve camber but the -ve toe is a minus for cornering. It does make the car nice and stable, almost benigne. But if you want the car boogie it's no good. Also increase the front to +4mm toe out.

 

Do you have more wet days than dry? Are you committed enough to run two setups? If not, I'd add some 21mm rear bars, which will better match your front springs and add the +4mm front toe as a minimum.

[Redtop 14 2 Cars]

With your location i'm assuming you use Mondello for some of the sprints?

It sounds like it is too stiff on the front and too much grip on the rear for the wet. As said above softer front springs will help, but also tyre pressures are important too. Drop your front tyre pressures and increae your rears.

 

The bilstein coilovers you have, are they adjustable with highspeed/low speed damping and rebound settings? If they are, then if you haven't time to swap springs, or get caught out with your dry setup on, then you could soften them off on the clicks, for the wet conditions, to help you. You should have an advantage over the rwd stuff in the wet cornering, as you can get the power on sooner in fwd compared to rwd, if you are using your lsd correctly.

Are you going offline in the wet to get off the slippery rubber dry racing line?

[alync406 4]

Looks like I need to run softer front springs so, would like uprated torsion bars but won't be able to get them for a good while. I might try some different rear arms too if I can find some zx ones or something like that.

 

@petert: normally would have more wet days than dry but has been a lot more dry days this year and only 2 wet days. I am committed enough to run two setups as I could change it the day before racing.

 

@Redtop: don't use mondello, I do mostly Cavan autocross and then some other events like that - rally sprints and that if there are any around.

The bilstein coilovers aren't adjustable but I could swap springs around the day before racing anyway cause would have a fair idea then what it would be like.

 

What's peoples opinion on camber on the front? Do I need to run less camber in the wet?

[petert 585]

Two setups is a challenge. I'd set it up for dry with 21mm bars and run road spec. tyres in the wet, such as the Hankook RS3. Then Yoko A050 in the dry.

[welshpug 1,655]

we don't get the AO50 up here unfortunately, stuck with the old AO48.

[petert 585]

Probably because it's wet all the time.

[camgti 56]

Haha!