Race Track Setup Masterclass - From Theory to Solutions
For Sim Racers and motor sport engineers - vehicle dynamics, aerodynamics and perfecting (high downforce) race car setup
Description
About the "Race Track Setup / Race Car Vehicle Dynamics" series of courses:
Part 1) Race Car Vehicle Dynamics - Fundamental Theory
Part 2) Race Car Vehicle Dynamics - Advanced Theory and Application
Part 3) Race Track Setup - High Downforce Race Car
All 3 parts added together as a bundle deal: Race Track Setup Masterclass - From Theory to Solutions (This course)
Race car setup to achieve the best lap times without resorting to tedious trial and error involves understanding both vehicle dynamics as well as aerodynamics, and being able to put it all together to make quick but accurate setup changes.
Tires, springs, anti roll bars, aero, dampers, tire pressure, wheel alignment, gearing, limited slip differential settings... all have an influence on your ability to achieve a faster lap time. Typical online setup guides or software offer multiple solutions for each individual handling problem, leaving racers having to resort to trial and error, and traditional text books are too long and theory dense to be of help to the typical racer or even race engineer, who just wants to solve a handling problem and go faster.
This series of courses is the filtered and condensed summary of how to get to the fastest setup, the result of having spent 19 years on vehicle dynamics being a sim racer, setting up my own cars for track days at Spa, Zandvoort, Nurburgring, and working for the past 9 years in automotive chassis development (currently active suspension controls).
The course offers a filtered/condensed view on vehicle dynamics, aerodynamics, before focusing on a holistic view on achieving the best race car setup up to and including a high downforce race car:
- the correct and logical order to tackle all the setup variables
- how each of these setup variables influence handling and how each one is optimized
- how to tackle handling problems in an existing car setup
- only as much theory as needed for each component to help you achieve the perfect setup
What You Will Learn!
- Holistic, filtered and condensed summary of the science of extracting speed around a race track.
- Logical steps to setting up a road biased sports car, or a high downforce race car, in the least number of steps.
- Solutions to specific race car handling issues which do so without affecting handling balance elsewhere.
- How to solve the trade-off between "aerodynamic" grip and "mechanical" grip of high down force race cars.
- How to tune using the 3 different components to lateral/longitudinal/cross-jacking load transfer - kinematic, dynamic, elastic.
- How setup needs to be adjusted to suit driver preferences and specific types of corners.
- Why yaw acceleration capability is just as important as lateral acceleration capability.
- The trade offs in race car suspension setup in response, tire load variation, pitch, roll, heave and warp.
- An intuitive view of tire slip angles and other tire behavior which are at the root of all vehicle handling behavior.
- Contributors to oversteer / understeer other than tire slip angle.
Who Should Attend!
- Sim racers, motor sport enthusiasts, Formula SAE/Student engineers.
- Anyone frustrated with online setup guides offering multiple choice answers to setup issues.
- Anyone frustrated with traditional vehicle dynamics text books and wishing there was a more filtered, holistic view.