Hrant,
Thanks for the compliment
Your comments are correct. Preparation of the car is as important if not more important than a good driver. Without a capable car, a good driver can't accomplish a good lap time.
I am a perfectionist. Maybe because of my engineering background, coupled with my experience and passion in motorsports.
I work my butt off to prepare my car the way I like it. I like to experiment with different alignment setting to dial in the characteristics of the car. Then in the track, fine tune it with shock and sway bars adjustments. Keep in mind I am working with limited resource and equipments. True I can do it with changing springs and more, but that means I need to have bunch of different spring rate, amybe a very good quality triple adjustable shocks to work with the springs. Contrary to popular belief, my car is a street car that I uses to the track occasionally. It is also true that the passed six months I only accumulated 2 track events and about 250 miles on street driving (outside from and to the track) in my NSX. And that is to places where I need to go to get the car better
From recent chat/discussion with one of Kumho Tech guy, for race compound, tire pressure only adjusted to get the optimal tire temperature. Which is 175-200 degree. True tire pressure can be adjusted to dial oversteer/understeer, but only to do so, as the last resort. As adjusting tire pressure to accomplish this means mean you are reducing the tire capabilities. And in a race this can mean disaster if the tires start to
go away.
In preparing a car, there is only one way to do it, do an engineering guesstimate to start with, and do a bunch of testing to see if it stands. I have a stack of notes for the Civic that we built to compete in OTC. Too bad I couldn't secure enough sponsors to make OTC, as I believe we have a winning car.
Everytime you go to the track, make sure to take notes for temperature, weather condition and track condition. Go out and test your car with lap timer, and make complete notes to your suspension settings.
Remember, that no two drivers drive the same way, thus no two cars setup the same way. Also be aware as where your comfort level is. A car setup that makes you nervous, will result in slower lap time regardless if the car actually capable for better lap time than before.
ICBW, YMMV
[This message has been edited by Andrie Hartanto (edited 28 April 2002).]