Chassis Tuning Advice and Techniques - Chassis Tips

The argument has been made that by adding more left-side weight, even when it puts the car over the limit, that the car will handle better and therefore be faster. But if your car weighs 3,000 pounds, in order to make a noticeable change on the left-side weight, you will have to add 75 to 100 pounds in the left-side frame rails.

Front-to-rear brake percentages can make or break your weekend.Often overlooked when it comes to the handling of the car, the brakes play a huge role on how well your chassis is going to handle throughout the corner. Dirt drivers run a right-front brake shutoff that allows them to be able to steer while mashing the brakes. The thing to remember about the front-to-rear brake ratio is the more rear brake you have, the looser the car is going to be entering the corner. This is because of the rear tires slowing down at a greater rate than the front. Most brake systems have a dial you can turn to adjust the front-to-rear ratio. I usually start out (on asphalt) with a 65-35 split, and throughout practice keep cranking the rear brake into the car until it tries to step out on me, and then I put one turn back into the front. This ensures that my brakes won't be overheating, because the percentage is just about perfect.

Guard against this common pitfall when weighing a chassis.The most common mistake you will see is a chassis not level to the scales. No matter how level you believe your shop floor to be, be sure to level the scales. For instance, if you put the car on the scales and it starts to slowly creep backwards, you know the scales are not level. This can wreak havoc on the setup you put underneath the car.

Help your chances of winning by using this simple duct tape measure trick.One of the easiest tricks you can do to ensure that your setup and ride heights are staying consistent throughout the weekend involves using a tape measure. When your car is on the scales and is completely scaled out and ready to go to the track, take a tape measure and piece of duct tape, and hook the tape measure on the bottom of your rim in the center of the tire. Then take the piece of duct tape and put it anywhere on the body directly above the tire. Stretch the tape measure over the duct tape. Take a pen and choose a nice even number on the tape measure and draw a line on the duct tape. Don't forget to write the number beside the line so that you don't forget what that line is supposed to be pointing to.

This way, if you want to change a spring, you have a measurement to reference. Just change the spring and then adjust your weight jack to put it back to where your mark lines up, and you are ready to go back out on the track.

Ignoring your chassis percentages can only end badly.Someone once said that ignorance is bliss, which has never been true in racing. Just because you think your setup hasn't changed from week to week, that doesn't mean you shouldn't check your numbers. If you ignore this vital step of weighing your car on a regular basis, you can expect to be running in the back of the pack on a regular basis.

Jackstand - there is no good reason to ignore it.You must consider your safety and the safety of your crew while working on your chassis. Always, and I do mean always, use a jackstand while working on your car. Anytime that car goes up in the air, take an extra five seconds and put a jackstand underneath it. There is no good reason to get seriously hurt, or even killed, just from laziness.

Keep a chassis notebook.The only way you are going to learn from race to race is by having a notebook with your setups from each visit to a particular track. Once you write down each setup, you can easily look back and see exactly where your car was when you ran up front.