Formula D for those that give a hoot...
06-25-2012, 08:58 PM
#1
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Eastern US
Posts: 62
Total Cats: -5
Formula D for those that give a hoot...
Yesterday I went to Formula D at Wall Stadium in NJ. I got a chance to talk to a few teams specifically about their suspension set-ups.
Springs 5-8 kg range
Dampers Set up for maximum grip
ARBs/Sways Stock to mild to none (Friday it rained and the track was wet during qualifying later in the day)
Adjustments: For grip and more ultimate grip.
Biased: Much more rebound than compression damping. Sounds like Autocross? Or Track. A bit of jacking is OK, a lot no.
Some teams re-check or re-build dampers after each event. Some have multiple set-ups for different tracks.
One of the teams told me that they could run any crappy track and probably grip as good as the race cars running there.
Motons, Penskes, and a few other set-ups known to us were there, but I could not find any Racelands or GodSpeed. Honestly I did not look at every car but I did not see any Teins.
Teams seem to pick the proper suspension for the track/car and do final tweaks with sways but mostly with tire pressures.
Thanks to all the Crew Chiefs that took the time out to talk to me. And congrats to JR, Dai and Chris for a job well done.
The judges sucked more than usual. They sat in their Air Conditioned room and missed a lot of the small details. New Jersey crowd knows more about drifting than the judges. They had their favorites and it showed. The commentator was pretty crappy also, making stupid comments like the ones at the Olympics. Anyway, good weather Saturday and fun watching these folks tearing up the track.
Seems that quite a bit of money and thought is going into these suspensions.
The track has a nasty transition from the banked oval to the flat infield and most top drifters figured out that the best way to take that is by having the car sideways parallel to the transition line and letting the suspension do its thing.
Springs 5-8 kg range
Dampers Set up for maximum grip
ARBs/Sways Stock to mild to none (Friday it rained and the track was wet during qualifying later in the day)
Adjustments: For grip and more ultimate grip.
Biased: Much more rebound than compression damping. Sounds like Autocross? Or Track. A bit of jacking is OK, a lot no.
Some teams re-check or re-build dampers after each event. Some have multiple set-ups for different tracks.
One of the teams told me that they could run any crappy track and probably grip as good as the race cars running there.
Motons, Penskes, and a few other set-ups known to us were there, but I could not find any Racelands or GodSpeed. Honestly I did not look at every car but I did not see any Teins.
Teams seem to pick the proper suspension for the track/car and do final tweaks with sways but mostly with tire pressures.
Thanks to all the Crew Chiefs that took the time out to talk to me. And congrats to JR, Dai and Chris for a job well done.
The judges sucked more than usual. They sat in their Air Conditioned room and missed a lot of the small details. New Jersey crowd knows more about drifting than the judges. They had their favorites and it showed. The commentator was pretty crappy also, making stupid comments like the ones at the Olympics. Anyway, good weather Saturday and fun watching these folks tearing up the track.
Seems that quite a bit of money and thought is going into these suspensions.
The track has a nasty transition from the banked oval to the flat infield and most top drifters figured out that the best way to take that is by having the car sideways parallel to the transition line and letting the suspension do its thing.
Reply
-1
-1
06-25-2012, 09:10 PM
#6
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Eastern US
Posts: 62
Total Cats: -5
You may be unimpressed, but the work that goes in the engines and mechanical s is getting to be at a very high level. Components that take over 700 hp are not uncommon. Most engines are NA or supercharged V8s. I went there to mostly check out the machines.
Reply
-1
-1
06-25-2012, 09:13 PM
#7
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Eastern US
Posts: 62
Total Cats: -5
Lastly, the event was oversold to the point that folks could not find parking. Either way, Club Loose the local drifters, did represent well. Racing is racing IMO regardless if you gay Miata pilots Autocross, Track race, HPDE, or just hoon around the hood. Just sharing some tid-bits, but if you no like, i'll go away and you can bench race on MT.net
Reply
-2
-2
06-26-2012, 12:08 AM
#10
Elite Member
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Portland, Oregon
Posts: 3,468
Total Cats: 365
It takes "very high level work" to get 700hp? That's an average street car around here.
Formula D isn't racing. The figure skating comparison is accurate. As with figure skating, I dislike the subjective aspect of the judging. That being said, just because it isn't racing doesn't mean it isn't entertaining. I took my kids to Formula D when they visited Portland a few years back and they spent the rest of the summer trying to make their bicycles smoke the rear tires. Priceless.
Reply
0
0
06-26-2012, 10:29 AM
#16
Boost Pope
iTrader: (8)
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
Posts: 33,019
Total Cats: 6,587
Came into this thread.
Wondered "gee, why is everyone giving this guy a hard time?"
Had no idea what Formula D was. Assumed from the word "Formula" it was a type of auto racing.
Did some googling, learned that the D is for Drifting.
Further, learned that they give trophies for "Best Looking Car" and "Best Personal Style" (which I assume to mean whitest teeth / best hair grooming, aka the Hamster Award.)
Was unimpressed.
Wondered "gee, why is everyone giving this guy a hard time?"
Had no idea what Formula D was. Assumed from the word "Formula" it was a type of auto racing.
Did some googling, learned that the D is for Drifting.
Further, learned that they give trophies for "Best Looking Car" and "Best Personal Style" (which I assume to mean whitest teeth / best hair grooming, aka the Hamster Award.)
Was unimpressed.
Reply
2
2
06-26-2012, 01:05 PM
#19
Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 58
Total Cats: -1
Sounds very "Koni" in their approach.
Reply
0
0
