VW Nats SMSP south circuit 26 May

[sambb]

Hey just wondering if anyone is going to take to the track at dub nats on the Saturday 26 May. They are doing the southern loop "amaroo" circuit which I've been told is a lot like doing Wakefield. Pretty keen to get out on the track that day so was wondering if any others from here were going too.

[Sydneykid]

I was looking at it but unfortunately I'll be at Wakefield Park that weekend for the NSW State Championship Round 3.


Cheers
Gary

[sambb]

I've never done that circuit Gary. Is the car setup more r less the same as for Wakefield?

[HaydEn]

Got a few interested.

I need to pull my finger out and get a cams license


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sambb]

L2S 'speed' license is just an online form. http://docs.cams.com.au/CAMS%20Forms...%20Licence.pdf

You need to join a CAMS affiliated club first though. MGCCN Ringwood would be the closest to you for sure - $70 bucks a year. Membership - MG Car Club Newcastle

Then you just need a helmet, battery sticker, front and rear tow points (with stickers) and an extinguisher. Too easy!!

Get that Ringwood membership happening and you'll easily have it all done in time. Need any help with it, let me know.

[MJ Mundo]

Can't say it's very similar to Wakefield. I've only done Wakefield in the V8 drive day but have done South Circuit a few times on the bike. Bit of a climb up out of the pits and then lots of brake work in to the hairpin, climb out and more heavy off camber braking coming back towards the main straight/pit entry (the track usually turns in to a slightly down right hairpin but South Circuit turns left against the camber, catches a few bikes/cars out).

Very rarely get above 3rd or 4th if you're lucky on a bike there.

Won't be entering but could be very tempted to come watch.

[Sydneykid]

I've never done that circuit Gary. Is the car setup more r less the same as for Wakefield?

In the State Championship we don't run the Amaroo Circuit on its own, we used to have one meeting a year on the Bradham Circuit which includes the Amaroo part added onto the Gardner Circuit. So we don't have the 2 x super tight left handers. We aren't running that circuit this year, the Sports Sedan guys reckon they can't get around the hairpin

It's not really much like Wakefield, firstly it's most left hand corners, so the set up bias is reversed to the mostly right handers at Wakefield. No real high speed corners, more tight and/or consecutive corners, so it rewards good change of direction. Opposite the pits, in quick succession there's a left, right, left, right, left. So lots of rear swaybar and toe out, plenty of front caster and toe out there as well. There's only one really high lateral G force corner so you might not need as much camber, front or rear. Overall softer in the front and harder in the rear.

It should suit a light nibble FWD car, with emphasis on torque rather than outright horsepower.


Cheers
Gary

[sambb]

cool. sounds fun. Yep low on horsepower so the more time I spend in the corners the better. I never put the rear bar to the hardest setting of the three at Wakefield because I was always trying to sort the gear linkage drama. I don't have time to re shim the rear stubs for more toe out/neg camber so I'll run the rear bar on hard then. Hopefully that's spot on and I don't have to fiddle with anything other than the dampers. From what I can gather being single adjustable on a 3:1 rebound to bump ratio I should basically treat them in the same way as I would for springs or bars. eg entry understeer = back off fronts or add to rears, excessive tailyness = back off rears. That about it? I know that it gets tricky with single adjustables if say for instance I'm getting power down corner exit understeer because then I need more front rebound and less front bump yeah and I cant have both of those at the same time. correct? then its just a trail and error to find the best compromise and drive around what remains of the problem....

[Sydneykid]

Yep, rear swaybar on full hard and ~3 mm toe out per side on the front. There's a lot of accelerating on corner exit from relatively low speed (in a low gear) so a goodly amount of rebound on the front to hold the nose down. The rear is where I'd concentrate the tuning, ideally you won't want to much rebound, just enough to control the spring recoil because you are going to need to use the ripple strips to get a good time. But at the same time you want a goodly amount of bump damping to slow down the weight transfer off the front. So I'd spend most of my time tuning the rear shocks.

I don't think "excessive tailyness" will be much of a problem.

Cheers
Gary

[sambb]

Cool thanks for the tips Gary. I'll be down at Canberra for rd3 of the hillclimbs middle of April (right hand circuit) and then Vw nats will be the next thing after that. I'm on 3 degrees neg camber a side at the front so hopefully that will work for both circuits.

[Sydneykid]

Fairbairn Park I still get a twinge in the right shoulder from the dislocation after I rolled a car there 7 times, 3 times front to rear and 4 times side to side

Cheers
Gary

[sambb]

Farrk! I bet it was the fast right hander at the top before you go down the hill. That corner scares me.

[Sydneykid]

Farrk! I bet it was the fast right hander at the top before you go down the hill. That corner scares me.

Yep, that's the one, tried a no back off turn in and just clipped the tyre marking the inside of the circuit. Which flipped up under the inside rear wheel and lifted it up diagonally, rather ugly.

Cheers
Gary

[sambb]

Urrghhhh! 99% of the offs I've seen there are on that corner. They just have one of those flexible knock down posts on the apex of that corner now. So at least you can just see where the apex is as you come up the crest and start to turn in. Last year a guy went straight on and ploughed across that rough fire trail ground on the outside and made it all the way to the bush/fence line and was stopped by a pile of timber. I always get down on myself there because I don't feel like I attack that corner like I should but then maybe that's a good thing.. I'm pretty pumped for it. Its going to be a totally new experience running there on the new suspension. I'll be down on power unless I can find a 4 bar fuel reg and do some logging cos I have a bit of a lean top end that I've had to detune to be safe but it'll be set up so nicely for that track handling wise. It'll probably be my A050 softs last hurrah too. Not much meat left on them now.