- One of the aspects of getting the most performance out of any racecar is the
wheel alignment.
Regardless of how much money you've got tied up in your car, it really comes down
to the contact patch between those four tyres that's going to define how fast or
how slow your lap is.
And when it comes to making changes at the track, this can be a little bit tricky,
particularly if you are relying on a wheel alignment specialist.
It's hard to take your wheel alignment specialist along to the track.
Now we're here with Cole from Lyfe Motorsport at Sydney Motorsport Park
with the Lyfe Motorsport R35 GT-R to find out how they deal with it.
Now Cole, you've already had a pretty good start to World Time Attack 2019,
resetting the R35 lap record, what have you just run?
- I ran a 1:30.0 so a couple of seconds faster than our previous record and it's just the
tip of the iceberg.
- So dangerously close to the 29s.
- Oh that's all I wanted you know, if I could go 29.9 I'd be happy so just being that close
right out of the chute is pretty good.
We know we've got more in it, the data shows I lost about a second with driver induced error
so that's why we're looking at every bit of the car to squeeze the most out of it.
- OK so when you've got a car that's making a lot of horsepower, albeit it's also pretty
heavy, that wheel alignment really does come down to being absolutely critical.
So I've just watched your crew there go through and perform a string wheel
alignment and I want to start by just talking about what you're actually looking for,
what makes you decide on a particular change to your alignment,
be that toe or camber?
- Well that really depends on where you start, you've got to rough it in.
And we know a lot about this car, we know different handling characteristics and
different changes affect it as far as magnitude of change.
And we've really roughed in the car, we've got it working really well and so
we've aligned the car probably six times in the past few days so we're really just
dialling the thing in.
A lot of that is data collected from the car, tyre temperatures, shock potentiometers
and then ultimately it's the driver's decision on what does the driver want the car to do
in a particular corner.
So we take that feedback, put it together and come up with some logical change.
- So a lot of that you've built there from experience, I mean you're no stranger to
this particular car, you've been racing it competitively and winning for years
in the car so you've got that background of data and what sort of camber and toe
numbers for example you're likely to want for a given track.
But you just talked about tyre temperatures so can you talk about how you're using
that tyre temperature data, what that data's telling you and how you then interpret that
and apply it to a particular change?
- Yeah so it's, what you want to ultimately do, the easiest way to say it,
is use all the tyre.
So we want to see an even tyre temperature spread across the entire tyre.
So we'll use a tyre pyrometer that actually goes into the carcass of the tyre that can
read accurately the temperature that you're using the tyre across the way.
So you're working the tyre more, it's going to create more heat.
And we just go back and check it every single time to make sure that we're using all the
tyre and maximising the grip on each particular corner of the car.
- Now I just want to clarify here because when you're talking about a tyre
pyrometer, we're talking about a specialised tool made solely for the job of checking
the tyre tread temperature.
So then important part here is that that tyre pyrometer is actually inserted below
the tread surface so can you tell us how that's important compared to the likes
of the basic, relatively cheap infrared temperature sensors that we see people
use for maybe the temperature of the cooling system or something like that
on the car.
- Right so you'll see people measure with the infrared tyre pyrometer and in a
professional fashion, they'll do it live and they'll be able to see live tyre data,
that's the right way to use an infrared tyre pyrometer.
We use a traditional tyre pyrometer where the probe goes into the rubber and so we're
not on the surface, the surface cools quickly, whereas the inside of the tyre,
you get a lot more accurate reading of what's really happening.
So the probe actually inserts into the tyre, I dunno what it is in millimetres,
probably an 1/8th of an inch, little bit more
- About three millimetres give or take.
- Yeah something like that, and that way we get a good reading of what the core of the
tyre's temps are going up to.
- When you're using a tyre pyrometer like this it's still quite important to be specific
in the way you come into the pits so you don't want to be on the cool down lap
and allow the temperature to stabilise, it still does stabilise quite quickly so it's
important to come into the pits on a hot lap?
- Absolutely, you've got to bring it in hot if you want accurate data so you're pushing
all the way to the very last corner until you get into the pits, get here as quickly as
possible and you're grabbing the data immediately.
So it's something that changes so quickly, that's why a lot of guys with the budgets
and technology, they're measuring it live and that's ultimately what you want,
so the closest thing we can do that with the technology that we have is bring it into the
pits hot.
- Alright so once you've decided based on that temperature profile that you're seeing
with your tyre pyrometer what changes to make, this is the tricky bit because a lot of
people are relying on a wheel alignment specialist.
Now you're using a string alignment system here with a ruler and I know to a lot of
people this might look like a backyardish option but the reality is anything but.
We see this used in the upper echelons of motorsport.
Can you tell us about that system and why you choose to use it?
- It's accurate, it's easy to transport and it's the standard of motorsport.
I've seen Formula 1 cars aligned with strings so it's accurate, repeatable and it's right
in front of you.
So it's the best way that we know how to do it.
- Alright Cole look it's been interesting to get some insight into that,
hopefully the alignment checks that you've just made and any changes you're about
to apply work and we wish you all the best getting into the 29s this weekend,
thanks for that chat.
- I appreciate it man.