| | | | | | | | |  | | | | There has been much talk these last few days about the strange look of a handful of Sprint Cup COT cars last week at the Lowe’s speedway. The look is indeed strange, as the cars appear to be dog tracking down the straightaway. We have all seen it on the highway, following a tractor trailer sometimes you will be able to almost look all the way up one side and you wonder “what is that all about?” Usually a broken or worn bolt in the suspension gets the wheels of the trailer out of line with the box it is carrying, so the box isn’t traveling straight down the highway. Well this is about the same thing, almost.
What the guys are doing is turning the wheels a little by putting toe in them. It is quite difficult to do this and get it right. This is all about engineers working overtime to make these new jalopies handle better and go faster! Modern day ingenuity at its finest.
The rear housing and axles are still square under the chassis. Basically, the bodies have zero offset from left to right. This means the body is centered on the chassis from left to right. NASCAR has gone to great lengths to make gauges to check that the body is perfectly centered on the chassis from side to side, as well as dimensionally correct front to back. What they haven’t made gauges for (and you can bet they are on the way) is how to check that the cars go straight down the straight away as intended.
How they are doing this is complicated. Again, the rear housing is centered under the car within the tolerance left to right that NASCAR has allowed. Then what’s done is to put toe out in the right rear tire, pointing the leading edge of the tire at the grandstands. Then, they go and toe in the front of the left rear tire, pointing it at the grandstands the same amount. So in effect, the tires are still parallel with one another, but pointed at the fence instead of straight ahead under the body. Then the front tires are set up the same way, so all four tires are “tracking in the same plane.”
This puts the car in what is called “yaw” while it is sitting still. Putting the body into “yaw” on the old cars was something that was done purely with the body. They would be twisted all around. The rear bumper cover would be to the right of the car, then the deck lid and back window and roof and everything else would have a weird look to it because it was no longer symmetrical from side to side. The car being in “yaw” all the time creates side force aerodynamically. You will still see this on the current Nationwide cars and ARCA REMAX Series cars. This relates to down force as well and makes the body of the car plant the tires harder into the race track. More grip is the term we use. More grip means the driver is more comfortable keeping the gas pedal planted in the firewall longer, keeping the throttle plates on the carburetor open sooner and longer, making the car go faster.
It will change. A memo will go out from NASCAR this week to all teams that will suggest that they don’t go so far on this adjustment. You can bet there will be a method to police this fairly soon. Until then, the cars will look weird going down the straightaway at the “downforce” type tracks.
All of this causes more expense. It is what we racers do. It is our job to find speed! We are given a rule book. We do as is outlined in the rule book (within reason). But if something isn’t addressed, then we push it to the limits until they stop us. The violent look of the cars causes axles to wear out, so there will be better axles. The axles have a spline on the end. When looking at the end of an axle, it almost looks like a gear in a watch or clock works. The end fits into what is called a drive plate that has a similar shape. Kind of like the imprint a starfish makes in the sand. Take out the starfish and you have a star imprint. Well the axle has this gear look to the end of it that fits into a shape just like it in the drive plate, which goes over the wheel studs on the rear hub. This is what drives the wheels. These “driveplates” are a hardened metal that wears out fairly frequently and require a lot of grease to keep from wearing.
Most teams only use them a race or two at most and throw them away. Now, there are new and improved drive plates being made, as well as new and improved axles, with better metals, to handle the abuse of the excessive toe in and tow out that is put in the wheels doing this. The load that is put on these parts is pretty incredible if you think about it. Today’s top cars are making in the area of 850 horsepower with a conventionally aspirated (read that carburetor not fuel injection like your family car) 358 cubic inch motor. Pretty amazing stuff in its own right. Now try to move that 3400 pound car with 800 plus ponies. Add drag to it from the body and the big wing and all that we are doing to them. Now, go 180 plus miles per hour with it into a banked corner! An unreal load is put onto these parts. An incredible “G-load” that we can talk about in another article.
For now, we will probably see it a few more weeks. Once the method of checking it and bringing it back to some level of normal is figured out, the strange sideways look will go away, well for a little while anyway. Until we figure something else out!
Andy Belmont and his wife Jennifer co-own the ARCA REMAX SERIES number one driven by Tom Hessert III and NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES number 12.
Andy has raced for some 35 years winning races and championships, including the 1987 NASCAR Dash Series Rookie of the Year, 1988 Dash series owner champion and 1992 runner up for Winston Cup Rookie of Year. He is also a Top 10 points finisher 5 times in the ARCA REMAX Series. | | | Permalink | Comments (0) | | | | | | | | | | |
