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NitroSpazzz
06-09-2005, 09:46 PM
Well decided to write a quick guide to help people hat aren't quite sure about what all that fancy terminology is.

Camber: Camber refers to the lean of your wheels toward or away from the top of your car. If the Wheels lean out you have positive camber. If they lean in at the tops you have negative camber.
Example: Good way to think of this is that most roads are slightly bowed to help rain and junk drain off. For the wheels to be flat on this surface they would bow out and you would have positive camber. (Crappy example I know, sorry)
Tuning: Ok think of neutral as kind of stock set up, the wheels are flat with the ground so they get real good grip on straight sections and overall do ok. Most race cars will run negativ camber for two reasons. First by having the wheels leaned at an angle there is less rubber on the road for the straight aways, this means less friction, this means faster. Second in corners a flat wheel will loose tractionas the car and wheels lean in the corner. A wheel with negative camber will get more traction as the car leans. This is a GOOD thing. I can't think of why you would run positive camber unless you wanted it to look funny.

Toe-In: Toe-Angle refers to the angle of your wheels longitudinal to the car. If you look down on your car and the wheels lean towards each other in the front then you have Toe-In, if they are pointing away from each other than you have Toe-Out.
Example: Take your feet and put your heels together, your toes point out...toe-out. Now spread your heels, look your toes point in...toe-in.
Tuning: Ok as for tuning neutral is what a lot of stuff comes as. This gets the most grip as you go straight forward. So if your drag racing give this a shot on the back. Generally a neutral setting is ok. Toe-out is very uncommon it makes both wheels pull away from eachother as you drive. This is BAD as far as I am concerned, your making more friction and slowing your self down. Plus it makes the car want to pull to a side suddenly if one gets more traction. Toe-In on the other hand can be very handy. First off a little toe-in helps your car track striaght, it also helps your tires get some extra bite in corners and straight aways. Tires actually grip best when they are slipping/sliding slightly. I recommend running toe in on the front and if you want the back to grab good run some there as well. If you want the back to slide out however run neutral or very low toe-in.

Caster: Caster refers to the angle made between the centre of the lower pivot point of the axle block to the centre of the upper pivot point of a model car axle block when looking from the side of the car. Negative caster is when the upper pivot point is in front of the lower pivot point. Positive caster is when the top pivot point is further back than the lower pivot points.
Example: An easy way to think about caster is to picture the caster wheels of a shopping cart. Neutral caster would be the axle is directly below the steering point. Positive caster places the axle infront of the steering axis. Negative would place the axle behind the steering axis.
Tuning: Now the H8 comes with 20 and 22 degree caster deals, its fun to swap them and see how it handles but here is a little idea of how these effect handling. Neutral caster will cause a car to be VERY unstable (read undrivable), Positive and Negative will add stability the more there is to a certain point then cause instability(makes car shake/shimmy badly). Adjusting for caster is difficult to do so I just picked a certain set of front deals and stuck with it. Some side notes here front wheel drive is ideal for negative camber while rear wheel drive benefits from positive camber.

Ackerman Steering: Ackerman steering simply means that the inside wheel turns and a greater angle than the outside wheel when cornering. If this does not happen one of the wheels will slip reducing traction/speed/etc. Ideally you want the wheel to follow the inside line and the out to follow the outside line. I'll try to think of a good example and clear this up later.
Example: Donno here its a pain to explain. But this is why the steering rods are at a angle, it allows the inside to turn more.
Tuning: For now I don't think there is much for tuning on the H8 but more ackerman would result in the inside turning more and it could possibly get some traction and help the car turn quicker. Less would result in the front trying to turn at a lesser angle and would result in a bigger turning radius I think.

Now hopefully I didn't mess up any of the definitions too bad. I am just doing this from memory of some stuff I read a month or two back. Hope that helps now get tuning :D

BLACKHAWK444
06-09-2005, 09:55 PM
Nice post! It should be stickied....

NitroSpazzz
06-09-2005, 10:02 PM
Thanks, if I missed any terms just make a note in here and I'll see what I can do. I would like to get a bunch of these mini guides written on things such as picking the right shocks, setting ride height, and other important tuning topics.

BitHed
06-10-2005, 03:34 AM
...great post Spazz...Thanks for all the hard work...I will keep my eye on it and then maybe make them sticky if we get a whole bunch of them...

halfEIGHT
06-10-2005, 05:24 PM
Actually I motion to move this to the FAQ:

http://halfeight.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=15

? :)

NitroSpazzz
06-10-2005, 06:41 PM
Sounds good to me :) I have a couple ideas for other ones. Should I post those directly in the FAQ's area?

halfEIGHT
06-13-2005, 07:39 PM
Yep - note that they require moderation so they won't be visible right away - thanks! :)