In developing my calcs I run into the problem of usually having only myself as a ready source of reference.
I can hope that if I focus on being as open-minded as possible about my builds and tunings that through sheer saturation of variety and generic mindset I can be of some good to others, most of whom have differing techniques, traits, and stylings.
So, every now and again its good to dig into somebody elses toy box and see what their toys look like. "The spice of life", and all that stuff...
BBQ Pete's B-class Lancia Delta AWD
Evaluation -
The build - It's a fairly typical short track grip setup, with slicks and aero, full weight and chassis upgrades, and just a handful of slight power options.
The tune - Nothing too surprising, but the toe settings were an eye opening.
The gearing is set well and best uses the mid-range torque of this little engine. It "scoots" quite well at lower speeds.
It'll do 140mph+ but the pull from around 110mph on where it hits top gear does take a bit. This is a short track car.
The suspension is good and solid, and heavily damped, with a firm rear ARB bias.
If I had to guess where the "tuning center" of the suspension was i'd say just forward, somewhere around the ashtray maybe.
The drive (Positano A) - The Lancia launched off the line very well with little drama, and before I knew it I was in the first "S" corners.....
...where I promptly understeer/drifted straight in to the wall. With a quick bounce and little more hesitation I continued.
Handling overall was very good, the stiff and well damped suspension provided a "glued" feeling of traction to the bumpy track.
The caster setting played a large part in giving rapid response to the stiff front end, so initial turn-in was direct.
Steady state cornering is where I ran into problems though, and the understeer popped up again.
It wanted to be late braked, hard and straight, coasted through the apex, and then aggressively exited. Not a bad way to take a corner but there was something about it that just felt too tight. I am a trail-braking driver, but this car did not seem setup for that. Cresting corners amplifed the understeer issue for me. Aggressive, through-the-apex, exits revealed a neutral balance of raw acceleration.
I ran the track 5 times, in a combination of aggressive, moderate, and controlled runs. Once I knew how to handle the car a bit better the times started dropping. ABS off, auto-shift trans, with a controller I finally ran Pete's tune down to a 101.xx time, but there was potential for me to take it down another second or two with more practice.
Overall, a solid build, nice paintjob, and a good tune. I can't fault it, but I like a different feel in my cars.
Question - Do drive with a controller Pete?
My V7 tune - slightly modified.
The V7 tune I applied to the car came out surprisingly similar to Pete's tune in some ways, but in others it was totally different.
The calc springs ended up being a slight bit softer but with a similar balance.
ARB's were relatively close in value, but biased more heavily to the rear.
I used Pete's aero settings.
The gearing got a slight tweak to try and use more of the engines torque.
The camber was similar.
Braking was similar with a slight variation in balance.
Diffs were very close.
Pete ran slightly lower tire pressures.
The big tuning changes....
Toe settings - The calc uses very slight toe settings, the same as it ever has.
Damping - The calc provided numbers the were lower than half of all Pete's values, AND were biased in the opposite direction, front-to-rear.
Caster - Pete had 5.4, the calc ran a 6.2
A quick comparison of Benchmarking stats revealed no major differences.
Lateral G stats remained the same.
The gearing tweak I made improved accel. times, but the braking tweak I made lengthened stopping distances.
The drive -
The suspension balance point shifted rearward with the calc tune, and my previous understeer observations were history. The lighter damping values brought a bit more chassis movement into the car, but it still felt locked down to me, with maybe a touch more bump compliance.
On my first lap it ran a 99 second pass.
Of course it ran better for me with my tune though, I am very used to what my tunes "feel" like.
The thing that surprised me was the capability of the build.
On first glance it seemed over powered(330hp+) and under gripped(225 wide slicks),....but I think the aero actually helps more than I gave it credit for even at these lower speeds.
Anyways, I need to send the back to Pete, and get an opinion from the person who matters here,....the driver.
It's on it's way Pete...
