Increasing road traction
Turbo Mini Forums

Anyone got any comments on how to maximise grip for road use (slicks out then!) for acceleration purposes rather than cornering e.g. R compound tyres - anyone used them?

Any other ideas?

Chris.

perfectly balance camber castor and toe side to side. perfectly balalnce your front corner weights.

limit weight transfer to the rear wheels

once you have done that (the basics) start looking at sticky tyres, otherwise you will go no faster on sticky tyres, youll just torquesteeer more.

imho ofcource :)

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

Jeez that sounds majorly complicated! Does all that make a noticable difference? How to you reduce weight transfer?

Also, does the weight of a 4 wheel drive system undo any advantages it creates?

it helps MASSIVELY, cant stress it enough, having lots of power meens nothing if you can t put it down to the road in a controlled manor. sticky tyres will only make any inbalance in your suspension appear even worse.

google is your friend. lots of info on FWD drag cars thats very applicable.

and with regards 4wd, advantages off the line and in gear (depending on power) far outweigh any disadvantages, drive any 4wd jap crap and the advantages are obvious.

my advice is for a fwd, as i assume your asking about a mini.

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

Yeah it is for a mini. Im contemplating lots of power but I am unsure as to how much hp. Im not sure where to draw the line. i.e. 120hp is the same as 200hp due to road traction capabilities? If it is possible to plant most of a 200hp mini onto the road then I will go that route.

My mini is already weight saved considerably - carbon front end, doors, boot lid, perspex windows etc which concerns me even more about transfering the power to the road!

it should do, you have removed mroe weight from the front wheels than the rear

you can put down 200hp no problems you jsut need to respect teh throttle in the lower gears, suspension setup and cornerweights become very important at this power level and above though, as your reaching the point where breaking traction at 70mph and above is only a throttle press away, breaking traction on only one wheel and torquesteering at this kind of speed is most unplesant, especially in a light car like a mini which is liable to swap ends.

I wouldnt get too obsessed wiht numbers though, 200hp on an a-sereis is not an easy figure to achieve. not by a long shot!

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

[quote=evolotion,7th Apr, 2008]it should do, you have removed mroe weight from the front wheels than the rear


Sorry evolution what do you mean when you say it should do?

toungue in cheek when you said your weight loss concerned you.

at teh end of the day any weight lost is good, but you want to keep most of what weight (or mass) you have over the front wheels.

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

Il just eat a few hundred pizza's later on and that will compensate for it!