OptimumLap prediction of your own car + limitations
A great tool, even if there certain limitations.
Using OptimumLap to evaluate car mods
This is such a cool tool!
Also, it seems like my 1:49.1 lap of Zolder in the E46 M3 Compact was pretty good!
Why open differentials suck! LSD might have prevented my crash.
The excellent article discussing LSDs:
https://www.ripublication.com/ijaer18/ijaerv13n2_89.pdf
So Wavetrack might still be closer in performance to Quaife than the clutch type of LSDs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3FTG0RVBJU
Crash analysis - Cayman S crash at Sonoma Raceway
High level:
- Lack of wisdom to stop or go slower when it rains
- Not willing to back off when having too much fun
- Turned off PSM (stability/traction control)
More specific:
- Taking a passenger while not familar with car/track
- Not being familiar with where the dry/wet lines are
- Mid engine rear wheel drive car with open differential
- Loss of focus at crucial moment
More technical:
- Tire spun up over slippery patch, causing major yaw moment when it caught traction again on rough asphalt
- Countersteered too late
- Countersteered too much as a result of being too late
- Came off throttle due to loss of focus
- Violent tank slapper in opposite direction
981 Cayman S repair - lights, fender, mirror
Halfway through the repair process.
New track car - 981 Cayman S, but already crashed?
Not quite the video I wanted to make.
Absolute DISASTER! Buying a Camaro SS 1LE as a European.
Let me know if I've missed anything in the comments! Lessons learned: - Can't trust Carfax to be complete. - Can't trust official dealerships. - Make sure to get a pre purchase inspection on any used performance car - Brake Masters do these for FREE!
Setup changes to go 15s faster around Spa Francorchamps
A lap of Zolder where trail braking was crucial for lap timel
At several corners such as corners 1 and 4, a huge chunk of time could be gained through trail braking, but this of course requires driver confidence in the car setup.
Engineering talk - why tire size influences active chassis' ASIL rating
All opinions expressed are my own and my own only.
My personal Nürburgring story, E91 lap and track advice
- How the Nürburgring got me hooked on track driving - A 8'11 lap in my E91 330dA - Some advice if you want to drive the Nürburgring yourself, dos and don'ts.
- Lap video without me talking over it:
- Forgot to mention that there's racetracker.de where anyone (including rental companies) can easily search for pictures of their cars on the track.
My track cars are no more :'(
Both track cars are gone :'( E91 330d - gone. E46 M3 Compact - gone :'( Forgot to mention, you can't actually register a car if you don't have up to date technical inspection.
Cheap gadget for BIG lap time improvements
If you take your track days seriously, then you should definitely get one of these. I had one in each of my track cars.
How to corner faster in karting!
Shifting your weight forward = more oversteer! (Just the opposite of a normal car)
F1 bounce metric update
Some scope for shenanigans? - Anything less than 3G is ignored - Any section of track outside of designated zones is ingored - But we still don't know the acceptable AOM limit value
Decifering F1's "Aerodynamic Oscillation Metric"
FIA went in an interesting route: - anything under 3G is basically ignored - area under the curve of anything above 3G (once 3G is subtracted) gets summed up over a set distance - this area under the curve is not allowed to exceed a certain threshold value, but what this value is does not yet seem to be in the public domain.
Lando Norris' footwork in Silverstone
Analyzing Lando Norris' pedal cam video
How Ferrari's "bath tubs" create downforce
The inward curved "bath tub" side pods was definitely a conscious design choice to produce downforce with its shape.
Original video with the messed up audio: https://youtu.be/74BCRcSdtrE
The articles I'm referencing:
http://web.mit.edu/akiss/Public/streamlinecurvature.pdf
https://www.ysjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/Issue13/LifeGeneration13.pdf
Why Bahrain is such a challenge for 2022 F1 cars
A perfect storm of banning FRIC, needing stiffer suspension for ground effect and 18'tires for 2022 means that drivers will have a much harder time at bumpy tracks like Bahrain - due to massively increased warp stiffness compared to 2021.
How to study porpoising much more quickly
There's a much quicker method than the coupled CFD - vehicle dynamics simulation approach. Once a downforce map has been created that outputs downforce at the front and rear axles based on: - speed - ride height - pitch angle That can quite easily be fed into a simple ride model to predict and study porpoising.
How "porpoising" could have been prevented with simulation
What I think could have been done by F1 teams to prevent porpoising from happening on their 2022 cars.
Why fixing "porpoising" isn't going to be a piece of cake
My take on what the F1 teams are having to tackle at the moment with the 2022 cars.
Fixing handling at a track day
If you you're at a track day in a car you're unfamiliar with, and the car's handling isn't quite what you expect, what do you do? Adjust the car's handling balance by playing with the tire pressures! Add pressure to the axle lacking cornering stiffness - add pressure to front tires to reduce understeer, add pressure to rear tires to reduce oversteer.
+ A lap from my first track day at Spa in 7 years in a car that's .
Corner balancing
A quick explanation of what corner balacing is for and how it's done.
Setup for slippery Istanbul track and SSC Tuatara speed calculations (Engineering Explained was wrong)
My thoughts on what the F1 teams might do to mitigate against the slippery track surface in Istanbul, and what Engineering Explained missed in calculations of the SSC Tuatara's top speed.
First visit to Nürburgring in 5 years
Nothing quite as invigorating as visiting the Nürburgring after 5 years. I rented a Rent4Ring Swift for the day - with a great setup the Swift was passing GTRs even in my rusty out of practice hands - skip ahead to 1:31 in the video.
Why jerk is important in vehicle dynamics
The speed of driver inputs (steering, throttle, braking) determines the jerk of the vehicle in the longitudinal and lateral domain. The jerk then determines the suspension deflection velocity which determines the speed of load transfer.
Are wider tires always better? Nurburgring prediction.
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What it took to get switchable damper on Mk3 Focus RS
On the occasion of sadly leaving Ford Motor Company after 4 enjoyable years, I explain some of the hurdles that had to be overcome while I was working for Tenneco, for the Tenneco "Dual Mode" switchable damper to be launched on the Mk3 Ford Focus RS.
Monza and Mugello setup
Both Italian, both with M as the first letter in their name, but polar opposites in setup.
Spa Francorchamps setup
Thoughts on car setup for Spa.
Vehicle Dynamic effects of the Aeroscreen
How the aeroscreen will affect Indycar's handling.
Edit: Just noticed a rather big mistake - I forgot to divide the front axle downforce by 2 when calculating "tireload with downforce added"! Corrected numbers for those last 3 lines:
3723 3804 N - tire load with downforce added
1290 1130 N - inside (left) vertical tire load
6157 6478 N - outside (right) vertical tire load
Difference in vertical tire load between inside and outside looks a lot more dramatic now!
Vehicle Dynamics industry and intellectual property
Barcelona setup
State of the vehicle dynamics engineering industry
Intellectual property in automotive and racing
Higher pressures - less failures but more setup headaches?
With Pirelli mandating higher minimum tire pressures, tire failures will be less likely, but they might have given the setup engineers some headaches.
Why front left tire fails around Silverstone
48 hours after I mentioned "challenge is to keep the front left alive", 3 tire failures happened in the last 3 laps of the race. Here's why it was no accident but caused by specific nature of Silverstone and the setup required for Silverstone:
- Anti clockwise circuit with very high speed corners heavily load left side tires
- Need to shift weight distribution forwards as much as possible to enable use of slim rear wing for drag reduction on straights loads front tires even more.
Ferrari's Silverstone setup gamble
I suspect Ferrari is gambling on a very slim rear wing to compensate for the loss of engine power and giving the drivers a hard job as a result.
Silverstone setup
Guide to setting up a high downforce race car for Silverstone:
- weight distribution as far forward as possible to enable use of high downforce front wing combined with slim rear wing for drag reduction on long(ish) straights
- very high roll stiffness for quick high speed direction changes and high amounts of camber
Hungaroring setup - Single Seater
Guide to setting up a high downforce race car for Red Bull Ring (A1 Ring).
Camber and roll stiffness
Do you need more or less camber?
Red Bull Ring setup - Single Seater
Guide to setting up a high downforce race car for Red Bull Ring (A1 Ring).
Bottas' 2018 pole lap where you can see him changing the brake bias: https://youtu.be/wJuJ53P6QQY
Suspension setup trade offs in detail
Suspension setup is a trade off in road holding, comfort and response time. Damping and stiffness are the tuning dials.
Intro to 3 components of load transfer
You have probably heard about lateral and longitudinal load transfer, but did you know that they are each made up of 3 components, with each component working in different amounts depending on the phase of the corner?
All the explanations I have seen merge parts 2 (dynamic) and 3 (elastic) together which is wrong in my view - as their importance varies depending on where in the corner you are.
Tips for winning in racing competitions
Upon request - I reflect on a happy day in my life and what it took to win the 2010 KU Leuven - GroepT Small Solar Vehicle competition.
To win in any racing competition, you need a good team, and you need to:
- Get familiar with the rules of the competition!
- Learn what you can from successful cars of previous years.
- Properly engineer your vehicle.
- Use creativity to look for an unfair advantage.
- Test your car before the competition to improve reliability.
- Psych out your competition (if possible).
- Design your car for easy setup changes.
- Adapt your car setup to the racing conditions.
- Remember that tie wraps and tape are always handy.
Intro to the high level goals of Race Track Setup
The high level goals of Race Track Setup is to maximize the grip or friction circle through maximizing tire traction, minimizing inertia, minimizing losses from load transfer, and maximize the driver's confidence to fully use the friction circle that is available through good setup.
Those paying attention will also realize that the driver's ability to affect car's handling balance using the throttle diminishes at higher speeds.
Intro to the roles of vehicle dynamics and aerodynamics in Race Track Setup
Explaining to my wife: suspension and aero in race track setup - some basics.
Why Sim Racing is hard
Physiological reasons
Although Sim Racing removes the risk of getting hurt and is much less physically demanding, from a pure driving standpoint it might actually be harder than real world driving, due to the brain missing some key inputs.
Why yaw acceleration capability is crucial for corner speed
In cornering, is yaw acceleration perhaps more important than lateral acceleration? We've all heard about lateral acceleration in cornering and how many Gs F1 cars can pull in the corners, but what's rarely discussed is how yaw acceleration might be even more crucial to lap time. Speed through a corner is probably 90% determined at the corner entry where there is actually very little lateral acceleration but the rotation has to be initiated. It's yaw acceleration capability that initiates the rotation at corner entry, and stops the rotation at corner exit to enable power to be put down.
Race Track Setup - like different outfits?
Trying to see if I can even teach my wife about race track setup. She starts comparing car setups to outfits...