All the T440 drivers in a room!
Now that we have the attention of a few T440 drivers, how about sharing setup advice? I had the original Bilsteins with 400# rear and 350# front springs. I had a push that I could not get rid of. I also had to run 2" front ride height and had a grounding problem at T5A Mosport (not uncommon, that is a hard braking zone combined with a sharp uphill transition - I lived with it). I shortened the shocks open length so that I didn't get so much coil rattle when the car was on stands, but they do not droop limit in use,
This year I went to Penske single adjustable, and tried various spring combinations. I went as high as 450 front 500 rear, and as low as 250 front 300 rear. I could make it oversteer but I could not get rid of the push. In some high speed corners it would just wash out completely, and at one point I had the odd experience of having understeer and oversteer at the same instant - quite odd and no one believes me!
The final setup which worked the best was 250 front, 300 rear, 2.25" front, 2.5" rear ride heights (which are the stock ride heights), and front bump stops configured to add rate fairly quickly to keep it off the ground under hard braking in T5A at Mosport, which worked quite well - no grounding. The car was well balanced, easy to drive, but still suffered from what I have decided is a congenital lack of front grip. I think it needs about 2" more front track, quite frankly.
Any comments on all of this?
Brian
Parts found . . .parts missing
We found the original steering rack for our school car but it was missing the special pillow blocks to mount it with two bolts at either end. Does anyone know of a source or am I better off making some out of aluminum. Our entire frame is stripped of parts now and we are cleaning all the paint and rust off every member. We drilled out the rivets holding the aluminum skidpan on. Temporarily we're using a light coat of Rustoleum grey primer to prevent the rust from flashing over and so far it has showed up a few small cracks in the welds and frame that would never have been seen if it were black. Our satin nickel plating has held up on most links and rods and uprights. The pedal assembly was rusted quite a bit and we used a great looking Rustoleum spray called stainless steel. It actually sprays a fleck somehow depositing a stippled brushed SS look that seems durable and looks awesome. Its tough keeping the correct hardware with the proper members if only to replace it at reassembly with new but at least you'll find it, measure it and replace it. Has anyone actually replaced the skidpan with thin steel for strength, stiffness and its easily welded to the frame instead of drilling more rivet holes in the already thin frame? The saga continues. Thanks Bruce