New Cterham. Set up advice needed please.

[Pugsey]

Hi Guys. My new R400 arrives next week. I'm going to get a few miles on using the car 'as it comes' but then want to get it set up properly. Bit out of the Caterham loop these days so can anyone recommend who to go to? Hampshire/South idealy but not critical.

Cheers

Pugs.

Edited by Pugsey on Friday 6th July 09:49

[Pugsey]

Thanks guys - quite a few names that I remember from old! Think I've raced against Clive Richards and def. raced against Magnus Laird way back when before he set up Hyperion! God I'm an old fart - when did that happen?

[Pugsey]

fcat said:

in which case you should be a member of OFR (old Farts Racing) ?

But that would mean admitting to it! Ok, tell me more.

[Pugsey]

Murph7355 said:

Posted on the other thread Pugs, but add Aryliam to the mix.

My car's currently in the car of Dave at Hyperion.

Have had good experience with Ratrace previously also, but it was a while ago (I'm sure Mark's still the gent he's always been).

Cheers Murph - Clive (Aryliam) looks after our Radical - top bloke and top of my list - but thought I'd ask who else was out there.

[Pugsey]

Cheers all!

[Pugsey]

fcat said:

Casbar - contact Doc John for more info on OFR, he runs the club.
His details are available via www.doctorjohn.laycock.com

regards
fc

P.S. I notice Pugsey has gone quiet on this, in denial about eligibilty perhaps?

I'm saying and admitting NOTHING...............

[Pugsey]

fergus said:

RobM77 said:

Make sure that it's setup up correctly for its road suspension. Race teams that run R400s will be used to setting cars up with firmer racing springs, which will result in different geometry.

changing the spring rates doesn't change the static geometry one bit (once ride height has been set). I think you mean they will have different spring rates and also different geometry?

I would get the car corner weighted with you in the car, and then go from there. The geo isn't hard to adjust (on those cars where this is possible). If the car has an adjustable ARB this is a matter of personal preference. Tyre pressures also play an important role.

Don't get sucked into the whole 'fit some nitrons' argument, as you need to be able to set them up as well as just bolting them on. time spent just driving the car will give you chance to form some objective opinions on the handling to then give this information to whoever is going to help you tune out the handling traits you don't like. There is no 'magic' setup. This will depend on what you want to use the car for, how benign you want the car, and your driving style.

good luck.

Sound advice - the aim is to get it corner weighted and checked out to make sure nothing is stupidly out then play on track for a while before - as you say - getting it dialed into my prefered handling direction. No point in doing that till I know what the 'standard' car does.

[Pugsey]

Murph7355 said:

RobM77 said:

I'd strongly reccomend getting it checked and set against the standard Caterham settings though, before you go fiddling by putting on what a racing team think is the fastest setup. I'd go for standard settings, and do a good bit of driving on and off track, before thinking about how the car handles properly and then going back to aa setup place with some aims in mind.

Depends what we regard as "standard".

Haven't tried a factory fresh one for some time (5yrs) but they used to be rubbish straight out of the box - too much understeer.

A good race shop will be able to interpret what you ask for into a "more or less right set up" that you can then tweak later, without the frustration of something that understeers like a family saloon simply because it's regarded as the safest option...

Neutral to mild oversteer would be where I'd start. Particularly with the cars that Pugs has had hold of recently.

Very much my thinking Murph. Maybe I'm doing them an injustice, but I'm not actually confident that the car will come out of the factory on decent 'standard' settings even and I'd certainly want the car a little more 'pointy' than the two standard cars I tried so far - which differed from each other btw (!) but both understeered way to much.

RobM - I hear what you're saying and basically agree but as I've said have reservations about the basic factory set up and if I'm having that checked I might as well set my own starting point handling wise.

Edited by Pugsey on Thursday 19th July 10:09