On the 8th Day – Falken Tires S13

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The rear suspension uses SPL adjustable links.  The links have spherical bearings that eliminate squishy rubber and are adjustable for quick adjustment of camber and toe.  The lower arm is adjustable for roll center and anti squat with the roll center being raised to compensate for the cars low ride height.  The rear subframe sits on solid SPL Pro bushings.  The bushings are adjustable for instant center location and anti squat.  The bushings also get rid of squish rubber.  The rear antisway bar is an adjustable part from The Progress Group.  It uses spherical end link bushings for direct coupling.  KW Motorsports 3-way adjustable dampers give the crew a lot of setup flexibility.  To improve forward traction, the amount of anti is reduced in the suspension geometry by relocating several links withing the 1″ allowed by the FD rules.

Alhough exhausted, the crew somehow made it and Dai did ok in the first practice although he had to fight the car as it wanted to straiten up off throttle and had no forward bite on throttle.  I made some chassis and damper adjustments to loosen the car up and help it hook up better. Dai got more used to driving the car that had literally not turned a wheel under its own power until it hit the ground at Sonoma.  Surprisingly the car did not falter or have any serious teething problems. The car did well enough to qualify 9th and amaze many doubters even though Dai and the crew was going on 80 something sleepless hours with maybe only cat naps.  Dai made it the way to the semi finals before getting eliminated by Scion’s Ken Gushi, but not before amazing everyone with his performance in the 8 day wonder.

The amount of anti is adjustable to some degree quickly by moving the lower arm in one of two positions

 

From this angle you can see how the lower arm is spaced down at the spindle.  This raises the roll center and quickens the camber curve allowing the suspension to be adjusted for less static negative camber.

 

No we are not doing something ghey, we are adjusting the toe.  We are using Smart Strings, one of the all time best inventions for doing super accurate alignments quickly.  The strings are used to provide a square to the wheels datum so that toe and thrust can be quickly and precisely measured in the shop or at the track with a compact and simple to transport device.  For a racer, Smart Strings are the best thing since sliced bread.

 

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