Caterham R500 - fast drifting

[track4fun]

Hello guys, from the same crazy Italian driver of R500 vs 996 GT2 at Nurburgring,
here is a new camera car. The circut is Rijeka in Croazia.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra7ot6gEb8Q

[Graham E]

I still maintain thats on of the most badly set up sevens out there.

[James.S]

WOW, thats how to drive a R500 Duratec.

Edited by James.S on Tuesday 15th December 13:55

[atom-ick]

I agree about it being set up terribly - that car looks as if its rear tyres are made of soap! You can tell it has seriously hampered the car's performance by the way he is having to coast into corners to stop it getting turn-in oversteer.

oh well, each to their own...

[The Wookie]

This time I'll agree about set-up. The ring video looked like overdriving, this looks like the car has no rear grip at all

[Roop]

Jesus, it it on ditchfinders at the back or down to the rims...???

[nigelpugh7]

Guys,

I thought that too, at my first track outing of my R500 Duratec at Donnington, I was not happy with the set up, so I got it setup by Stuart at Fauldsport.

Then on the next track day at Oulton Park, I actually had a problem getting the back end to unstick at all.

So as was said what the hell is wrong with the R500 D in this video, it looks almost uncontrollable!!

[subirg]

Anybody spot the Cat that was driving away from him on the first couple of laps? I agree with the inference that this R500D is badly set up. Makes his Ring time all the more impressive! Just how fast can this thing go when it's set up right!!!!!

[ForzaGilles]

The Wookie said:

This time I'll agree about set-up. The ring video looked like overdriving, this looks like the car has no rear grip at all

Agreed. It's almost as if he's driving in the wet, but the track's bone dry

[mickrick]

It looks cold though. Maybe not enough heat in the tyres?

[mybrainhurts]

Anybody know the history of the circuit?

Didn't know Croatia had any. I must have driven past it, unless it's been built recently.

[nigelpugh7]

I am sure it is cold judging by the Snow and the elevation.

However with all that rear end sliding, I think the tyres would be well up to temp after the first couple of corner drifts!

Also to further substantiate the problem with the setup the car oversteers without any turn in flick or other provocation whatsover, its wierd, its like its set up to be a drift car.

And as someone else pointed out the other caterham in front of him leaves him for dead, could be something to do with the fact that he seems to take some better lines than the R500D.

Of course I cant judge, my lines have never been good either!!

[sfaulds]

Cold, and with rock hard tyres on the rear at a guess. Certainly not the tyres/setup it had in the 'ring video.

[Dave J]

looks like great fun

forget the "setup", this is rock hard ditchunters hooning. To get the rears lit up un 4th gear then they have to be akin to the Zv ditchhunters

[Epimetheus]

nigelpugh7 said:

And as someone else pointed out the other caterham in front of him leaves him for dead, could be something to do with the fact that he seems to take some better lines than the R500D.

It's a couple of guys farting about trying to drift. The only reason anyone is leaving anyone else for dead is becasue they are taking it in turns to look at each other's drifting back ends.

[track4fun]

for sure the setup is not ok. We made some test with springs and rear anti rollbar but this time
the car had too much oversteer. The temperature was very very cold, around 0°C and Avon CR500 tyres
almost gone... but the R500 is very funny to drive.

[Finchy172]

Looks like its pretty cold to me!

Id say plenty of rake, too high pressures and the rear too stiff from that Video - what a muppet and waste of a good track day haha!

[Graham E]

The DR500 deffo needs very different geo to the "old" R500 - so far 10mm rake now (vs 30mm rake on a K car), as well as higher front rideheight has the car behaving much more acceptibly than when it first arrived. Obviously more work to do next year as always, but I suspect lots of people have to experiment quite a bit if they've swapped from to the other.

(PS - I know that it makes more sence to get it set up by someone who does it for a living, but where is the fun in that??)

[fergus]

Graham E said:

.....30mm rake on a K car.....

Would sir like turn in oversteer? I find apexes are best approached sideways sir...

[Graham E]

Fergus, it always worked for me..