# wider track



## azkicker0027 (May 31, 2002)

highly commercialized term "wider is better", what are y'alls views on it ??though for solo2 application with a b14.


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## bahearn (Jul 15, 2002)

Ignore commercials and read a book on suspension design.

It's a proven concept but must be implemented during vehicle design. Really hard to do after the fact. And don't think wheel spacers are widening your track.


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## Pbates (Jul 28, 2004)

azkicker0027 said:


> highly commercialized term "wider is better", what are y'alls views on it ??though for solo2 application with a b14.



I read your description of the suspension upgrades and they sound decent. Forget the wider is better crap, its hype. Have you actually run this car in a SOLO 2 event and what class do you expect to or have run in? 

Pete


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## chimmike (Oct 17, 2002)

well...not directly corresponding to this, but I've been told running a wider tire on the front of a fwd and narrower on the rear will help fight understeer...........sort of widening the contact patch (not exactly widening the track)


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## Pbates (Jul 28, 2004)

chimmike said:


> well...not directly corresponding to this, but I've been told running a wider tire on the front of a fwd and narrower on the rear will help fight understeer...........sort of widening the contact patch (not exactly widening the track)


I agree with that, anytime you can put more rubber in contact with the track on the front of a FWD its seems to help. Believe it or not I actually got less understeer by adding a stiffer sway bar in the front along with the wider tires, but thats in autocross. I haven't really pushed any limits on the road at higher speeds, so I'm not sure if this theory works on a larger track where high speed is involved. My car always did have a tendency to oversteer at higher speeds with throttle lift in the corners and the first time it happened it was a real yee hah.

Pete


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## azkicker0027 (May 31, 2002)

well, i've been running STF in my region but was in CSP with r compound tires. just curious cause when i ran my 16x7 wheels with a 38 offset, the rear was more behaved, but with my current 15x6.5 with 40 offset, i find more oversteer. maybe perhaps the front suspension is too stiff, or something else. also being that 40 offset is tucked in closer to the middle of the car and i'm experimenting with pushing them out a bit. just a thought.


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## Pbates (Jul 28, 2004)

azkicker0027 said:


> well, i've been running STF in my region but was in CSP with r compound tires. just curious cause when i ran my 16x7 wheels with a 38 offset, the rear was more behaved, but with my current 15x6.5 with 40 offset, i find more oversteer. maybe perhaps the front suspension is too stiff, or something else. also being that 40 offset is tucked in closer to the middle of the car and i'm experimenting with pushing them out a bit. just a thought.



I assume when you changed from CSP to STF you went from R compund to street rated tires. That may have more to do with the understeer issue than anything. You have a lot going on in that car. Try changing one thing at a time to see what works. What sanctioning body are you autocrossing with?


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## azkicker0027 (May 31, 2002)

Pbates said:


> I assume when you changed from CSP to STF you went from R compund to street rated tires. That may have more to do with the understeer issue than anything. You have a lot going on in that car. Try changing one thing at a time to see what works. What sanctioning body are you autocrossing with?


Houston SCCA. Well, i had 3 setups: 14x6.5's with victoracer v700's, 15x6.5's with falken Azenis RT-215's, and 16x7's with kumho ecsta 712's. i noticed the most difference from the 15's to the 16's.


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## BEJAY1 (Jul 10, 2002)

I've been widening my front track and narrowing the rear on the A32 Maxima (read rear beam) having some success in Solo2. Stock is 59.8"f/59.1"r. I'm currently at 60.7f/59.0r. I'm about to change my rear wheels to end up with 60.7f/58.1r. I still can't get the rear to break out partly because I'm using too soft of a rear tire. Along with the new wheels comes a 380treadwear tire too. And yes I could probably do it with trailbraking but I haven't had the seattime to perfect it.


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## azkicker0027 (May 31, 2002)

BEJAY1 said:


> I've been widening my front track and narrowing the rear on the A32 Maxima (read rear beam) having some success in Solo2. Stock is 59.8"f/59.1"r. I'm currently at 60.7f/59.0r. I'm about to change my rear wheels to end up with 60.7f/58.1r. I still can't get the rear to break out partly because I'm using too soft of a rear tire. Along with the new wheels comes a 380treadwear tire too. And yes I could probably do it with trailbraking but I haven't had the seattime to perfect it.


so you want to have some oversteer?? i did that with different kind of tires on the back, but got carried away, and ended up with an automatic drifter.


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## BEJAY1 (Jul 10, 2002)

azkicker0027 said:


> so you want to have some oversteer?? i did that with different kind of tires on the back, but got carried away, and ended up with an automatic drifter.


I'd like to at least have that option avail. Already have dual RSB's, 450lb rear springs, and no FSB; rear 205 S-02's just don't wanna let go no matter the pressure.


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## ReVerm (Jan 13, 2003)

bahearn said:


> Ignore commercials and read a book on suspension design.
> 
> It's a proven concept but must be implemented during vehicle design. Really hard to do after the fact. And don't think wheel spacers are widening your track.


Actually, track is measured from the center of each wheel to the center of the wheel on the opposite side. So installing wheel spacers _will_ directly affect the track width.

Blindly widening the track (by whatever means) isn't always the best idea though. Changes to a car's front/rear track width are one of those things that affect 30 other things in a car suspension system though, so as Bahearn said here, they should really be implemented during vehicle design unless the person modifying the car knows what it's going to do to the suspension geometry.


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## bahearn (Jul 15, 2002)

Maybe I should get me two more spacers and rent some skidpad time. I use 1/4" in the back to get the wheels to clear the AGX struts but fronts have no clearance issues. *ANOTHER* damn paramater to add to the test matrix.


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## azkicker0027 (May 31, 2002)

it's been tested yesterday and i must say, that my co-driver and i agree that the car is more balanced. we just had to soften the shocks a bit, but otherwise, we had awesome runs. i like the idea of coming around a lh sweeper and a rh decreasing radius sweeper, with slight oversteer at my command with light throttle lift. but then again, we'll see what happens next event.


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