CT5 BW Understeer

[Deneed4spd]

So has anyone research how to make the CT5 BW have less Understeer? It’s interesting that the CT4 BW which weighs 260 lbs less is that much more nimble and has more of a balance turn in. But the bigger wheel base and wider tires I thought would neutralized some of the heavier weight issues of CT5 BW. I didn’t see any posts of anyone getting a wider tire for the front? Would a more aggressive camber help the issue?

 

[rdollie]

I have no issues with understeer on the street and find it barely noticeable on a track - and easily correctable with the go pedal. It's so mild that so far, I haven't even used the track settings in the manual which are supposed to give you a more neutral setup.

The 4 is nimbler because it's lighter. The 5 is in all cases faster than the 4 around a road course.

 

[OldGoat]

I have no issues with understeer on the street and find it barely noticeable on a track - and easily correctable with the go pedal. It's so mild that so far, I haven't even used the track settings in the manual which are supposed to give you a more neutral setup.

The 4 is nimbler because it's lighter. The 5 is in all cases faster than the 4 around a road course.

I'm sure there are many that would want to disagree with your last statement. What
I am a 5 owner but would probably be chasing a 4 around a tight shorter track.
Throwing in a few long straights to allow me to take advantage of the horsepower and I would be more apt to agree with your statement.

 

[poor-sha]

Can you be more specific? Understeer where? Corner entry? Mid corner? Corner exit? What are you doing with the throttle and brakes when it understeers? Did you do the track alignment?

I've found the 5BW to be pretty neutral handling unless you overheat the fronts by trying to plow through a corner. It takes some trail braking on entry and you want to make sure it's already rotated before you pickup the throttle. Every car I've ever driven will understeer of you pickup the throttle too early in a corner - that is unless you mash the gas and try to hoon your way out of it. Have you been to Spring Mountain yet? They cover this pretty well there.

As far as the 4BW feeling more nimble, I think that is primarily due to it having a shorter wheelbase than the 5BW. Even at a tight circuit like Spring Mountain the 5BW is faster.

On tracks with big straights like Summit Point it's an even bigger difference. To the tune of several seconds on a 2 mile track.

 

[Berserker]

As far as the 4BW feeling more nimble, I think that is primarily due to it having a shorter wheelbase than the 5BW. Even at a tight circuit like Spring Mountain the 5BW is faster.

I made a post a while back comparing the Lightning Lap videos of the 4BW and the 5BW, through the first 16 corners.

The two cars carried the same minimum speed through Oak Tree. For every other corner the 4BW was 1 to 4 mph faster.

The 5BW was a faster on the straights: 3 to 6 mpg in the short chutes, and a whopping 12 to 16 mph faster on the long straights.

Even through the very twisty first 5 corners, the 5BW was just at tad faster: 26.26s vs 29.53s.

 

[poor-sha]

That was great analysis. 1 MPH difference though could very well be driver. In general, the slower the corner the easier to find the limit. I really wish I had PDR data from those runs.

I will say there were two places on VIR Full Course where I could really feel the weight - T3 and the left hand corner leading in to hog pen.

 

[565565]

So has anyone research how to make the CT5 BW have less Understeer? It’s interesting that the CT4 BW which weighs 260 lbs less is that much more nimble and has more of a balance turn in. But the bigger wheel base and wider tires I thought would neutralized some of the heavier weight issues of CT5 BW. I didn’t see any posts of anyone getting a wider tire for the front? Would a more aggressive camber help the issue?

I thought you weren't going to drive the car until April? Did you manage to run into understeer on the driveway?

 

[jbawden]

Rear sway bar is one way to tune chassis balance.

 

[MatthewAMEL]

Track alignment and a wider tire on the front will mitigate understeer greatly. The only place I expect the BW4 to be consistently faster is at AutoX.

 

[M2Cto4BW]

This will sort that right out:

Although I wouldn't recommend driving in bowling shoes.

 

[Deneed4spd]

I thought you weren't going to drive the car until April? Did you manage to run into understeer on the Yes took a turn around the garage and pushed it into the

I thought you weren't going to drive the car until April? Did you manage to run into understeer on the driveway?

Took an aggressive turn from stall 1 to 2 and slide into the trash can. Ha! Just saw a lot of reviewers talking about the Understeer and pondered.

 

[rdollie]

I'm sure there are many that would want to disagree with your last statement. What
I am a 5 owner but would probably be chasing a 4 around a tight shorter track.
Throwing in a few long straights to allow me to take advantage of the horsepower and I would be more apt to agree with your statement.

They can disagree all they want but the data is what the data is. 5BW has the faster lap times on road courses like VIR. As previously said, 4BW would be expected to be faster on tighter autocross courses (I've stopped doing autocross after favoring the track so much because I can no longer see the route, just a sea of cones!)