How to drive that car properly?

[Charles A. Toupin]

Hi Guys,

I'll be having my first real race this weekend with the car nearly properly adjusted for me (driving position). I'll be racing Mont-Tremblant, my home track. I've been racing sedans for all my life, mainly Porsches (944's and 911's) and one GT4 car. I have a fair amount of races under my belt, but the last few years I did not race a lot and the competition was thin to non existent. I got sleepy in my driving.

I do really drive over the curbs and in 3 corners, I always put the inside wheel in the grass. Some curbs at Mont-Tremblant are really high (the esses and turn #10). I've tested in July there and the car can climb these without hitting/touching, except one.

Does climbing on these high curbs upset the aero balance? I have the carbon aero package on the car. And I'm, for the moment, fairly slow anyway as I've never really driven an aero car. I'm looking to get up to speed during this weekend.

Do you recommend staying off the high curbs? Any other tricks?

Thanks.

c.

 

[StratusChaz]

Hey Charles, congrats on your first race in the car! I'll be rooting for you! While I've never been to Mont-Tremblant, I'll try my best to give general advice around driving the car. Curbs won't upset the aero balance per-se, but they can be rough on the car - specifically the back end since the rear suspension is relatively long and crates a lever arm on the connection points. In a sprint race, you have more latitude to ride curbs than an endurance race, but I still wouldn't repeatedly hit high or aggressive curbs if you can avoid them - again just to reduce strain on the suspension/floor. However, it's not the end of the world if you do use them in a short format race - I would just be sure to look over the rod ends in the rear as well as the rear rockers after any sessions with heavy curb strikes or off-tracks.

Here's an in car from the PSSA race at Watkins last year that kind of gives some good reference of what acceptable curb usage in a sprint race would look like:

 

[Charles A. Toupin]

Thanks Charlie! Trying to get used to the aero now. Does the front splitter height matters to get the maximum Aero possible?

 

[StratusChaz]

Yep! The lower the car, the more powerful the aero will be. I recommend checking out the Stratus Setup thread in the Owner's Tech Talk section for reference. We've got the baseline that we like to use and the sheet of how to get to those numbers there. I would also advise not going lower than that setup to avoid hurting the bottom of the car.

 

[Charles A. Toupin]

Thanks for the info Charlie.