Different strokes for different folks. That’s the only chassis I ever ran positive on. It normally ended up neutral’ish loaded on the ground. I wouldn’t be afraid to try going negative on this thing @Yousef_Khalil
Go to 2-4 mm negative and see what it does for you. It’ll either be better or worse, but I imagine it’ll be better and let you release off the corners.
Do you recommend changing the camber and the track width? Or should I try one change and see what that does? I am leaning toward just changing track width because I liked the sharp front end, but I would defer to your recommendation.
I always forget this aspect of kart setup, haha
One or the other, not both at once.
I went 10mm wider in total on the rear, I will let you all know how it goes, thanks for the input.
Just updating this thread, I think this setup is really working. It is definitely an excellent base. At my home track, I have notched two straight wins with this setup. The only thing I change is the rear width based on whether the kart hops through one particular section.
I am still lacking pace at the other track, though I haven’t had a straightforward race there yet… but my pace is just not good. My plan is to go wider in the rear to free the chassis up and see if I can gain time that way.
I found last weekend that on fresh-ish tires and in very grippy conditions, the kart kept getting faster as I added rear width. Unfortunately, I got into an incident with another driver that bent my C1.5 axle, so I will be moving to the C3.2. They are both cut to 1000mm. The stiffer axle should help reduce the hopping and reduce rear grip, right?
I ran into this problem a couple of races back. On the stand, measured at 1 degree negative camber, but on the ground was getting closer to 3 degrees as the chassis flexed under my weight. Outside shoulders of the front tires weren’t even scuffed from contact with the pavement. Adjust back to 1 degree positive and front grip went way up and the tires were making better contact with the pavement.
Subsequently, I turned my first sub 40 sec lap at NTK. Still feels stuck off the corners and 5 to 8 tenths off the leaders.
What do you mean by this reaction @CrocIndy? haha
I reacted and then I forgot to respond because I was working but here we go…
The effect that this axle change is going to have on hopping is entirely going to depend on why it is hopping…
You’re going to unload faster but it is probably going to be a little harder to carry it, so you’ll have to be a little bit smoother on the wheel… I think… You may end up a little bit wider on the rear end.
Tuning is weird voodoo.
The truest most frustrating part of karting.
I guess this thread turned into a Compkart chassis tuning thread, but @CrocIndy is there a pressure window for MG Reds that you generally stick to? I found that at my track, which is very abrasive and grippy, trying to get the tires to the 15.9 psi hot that MG recommends leads to a lot of sliding and slower lap times. I know it is circuit dependent, but does this chassis like lower pressures in your experience? My fastest times this year were at the last race running 11psi cold.
You just gotta find your window on the pressures. I stick to around 14 hot at my home track normally. I know others that run way higher, tho, like in the 20s. It’s really hard to say, “run this pressure”…
Since the compound changed a few years ago, our pressures have been a few pounds higher.
What used to be 11-14psi cold working range is now 13-17 usually. Any lower and I find the tire to be totally gripless.
Just an update on this, I ran the C3.2 (harder axle, medium-hard) for a test day and could get times down to within a half second of my previous best. The race was no better, I was way off my previous best, and on fresh rubber. The hop was slightly better, but this axle was not working at all. I could not get any pace out of it, although I liked the balance it produced, which felt like more gradual sliding out of fast corners where the C1.5 (softer axle, medium-soft) would kind of hop in the middle of corner but feel extremely stable on the exit, there was never a feeling of sliding the rear on the the C1.5.
Since my 3.2 was cut to 1000mm, I am going to buy a new 3.2 that is full length to give me more room to widen the rear.
Do these handling characteristics track with your experience? You mentioned previously that you disliked the C1.5 and couldn’t get it to work, it seems I am the opposite.
Do you have any video?
Also, might have been asked already but have you inspected the chassis for cracks?
I have that on my list to check. I can post some video if that would be helpful.
No cracks I can see.
Here is the vid:
My best time on the day was a 49.8, but most of lap times were in the 50.0-50.2 range, last round I was consistently a half a second quicker. I know it must be the axle, and I am planning to switch back to the softer one, but it would be great to learn how I was losing the time on the stiffer axle. Was it the sliding on exit? General lack of grip? Not sure how much you can tell from the vid but open to your thoughts.
PS, I know I had two horrible starts but that is a separate issue 