Good & Bad

[GDH Racing]

I sent three cars to Nationals, which was my second race ever. One was an experiment that failed. The other two were pretty normal builds for me. Good news is one car was 0.01 faster than my first attempt which I was hoping would happen with the improvements I put into them. The bad news is the car I thought would be faster was actually slower of the two, and only ran about 0.002 faster than my cars averaged in March.

The point of this post is to ask about the cant of the DWF. On the slower car the DFW was canted to the point where the dimples on the outside of the wheel touch the track and the car made an obviously different sound on my glass tuning board. I was in such a hurry I did not have time to investigate that issue before Nationals. Is that too much cant? The overall steer was where I wanted it. When I look at it on a piece of Best Track the front wheel is canted so that only part of the tread touches the track and only part of the inner wheel would ride against the rail.

 

[Kinser Racing]

It's normal. I like as much bend as I can get and still get the axle through the bore.

 

[561 racing]

Each car is different so it's hard to say for sure, I do know this, if it sounds bad on the tuning board more than likely it will translate to bad times on the track. In my opinion yes you had to much steer. Have you watched the video and seen if there was much wiggle?

 

[Mister B Racing]

How much does the DFW axle bend affect setting the steer? I heard that an axle with a lot of bend is harder to set the steer. That it is very touchy, and the slightest amount of turning the axle results in a lot of steer.

Steve - Mister B

 

[Obsessedderbydad]

If you run your car with the dots on the wheel
and have a good bend you'll hear them running on the track. The reason you don't hear it on some cars is because there's a NPWDRL mod that removes those and it's quieter. Like Kinser said, the more bend the better. IMO as well

 

[Vitamin K]

What is it about a large amount of bend that is advantageous? Does it have to do with the points of contact that the DFW makes on the rail and the car body?

 

[ngyoung]

For MA's after I installed the wheels I carefully turned them against a 2k grit of sand paper just to make sure none of the tread bumps were sticking out more then the rest.

 

[pony express]

The more the bend the less contact of the tread with the track and possibly the rail as well.

 

[Kinser Racing]

The more the bend the less contact of the tread with the track and possibly the rail as well.

This could very well be. I really don't know. When I started to get fast I did a lot of things and this was one of them. I've stuck with it and it's one of the things that has worked for me.

Mister B. Yes, it's more touchy in tuning because a slight adjustment will cause more or less steer.

 

[Chump Change Racing]

Is 7* not enough? or is that plenty..

 

[ngyoung]

Probably. Don't know how much more you can get before it won't fit in the wheel bore. My last one I had to file the back side of the bend to get it to slide on cleanly.

 

[KTMracer]

If more bend really equals faster why couldn't the DFW just be drilled with a cant? If we're talking 7 degrees, isn't 3 in the block and 4 in the axle the same thing? Not only would the wheel slide on better, it would make it easier to tune since you'd only be working with a 4 degree axle instead of a 7. Plus most everyone on here already has the tools to make the cant.

 

[Vitamin K]

If more bend really equals faster why couldn't the DFW just be drilled with a cant? If we're talking 7 degrees, isn't 3 in the block and 4 in the axle the same thing? Not only would the wheel slide on better, it would make it easier to tune since you'd only be working with a 4 degree axle instead of a 7. Plus most everyone on here already has the tools to make the cant.

Pretty sure that there are folks here who do this. It is my preferred method, because I hate tuning with a super-sensitive DFW (though my total degree of cant has been around 4 degrees up to this point). However, you definitely should not follow my example on any sort of merit basis (yet). /images/boards/smilies/smile.gif

 

[xjarcher]

I build AWANA cars so YMMV. This may be irrelevant for some.
I have tried up to 10* of drilled cant. It didn't make the car any faster than one that was identical but set up with 7*. On my current best time (2.364 on a 32' Freedom track) I only had 3*. I have been drilling 3* of cant and about 2* of toe with a VK axle so I can minimize the bend as the AWANA wheel bores are so soft.