A few weekends ago I was instructing at a DE and there was another SCCA ITS racer also instructing in his 944 race car. Usually I am about 2 seconds a lap faster than him in the dry but on this occasion it was raining and he was faster than me by about half a second a lap. I was using the same setup I usually use in the dry except I softened up the Konis some. He had full tread RA-1s and I had full tread Victoracers and my pressures were dropped from my typical 40psi hot to 32psi. I consider myself a pretty good rain driver but he might be better. However I think his advantage was he had a better rain setup.
My questions are how much do you change your setup for the rain? Do you go so far as to put softer springs and swaybars for the rain? If so how much softer do you go?? The reason I ask is that it looks like there is a good chance of rain at the Texas Grand Prix next weekend and I am debating on what approach to setup my Prelude for the rain I should try.

 

Softer suspension is much more forgiving in the rain. My stock saturn suspension always gives me fits in the dry, but in the rain it works great! Would have won a local event had i not clobbered a cone.

 

The thing I most often hear is to disconnect the rear sway bar in the rain. I have also heard of lowering tire pressures and have heard people softening their shocks (not sure if that's a compression only thing or a rebound/compression thing ?? I don't have both options - single adj. Konis). I had my first rain race/qualifying on my current springs/OE rear sway (this is a leeeetle OE CRX Si rear bar) a month or two ago and changed none of these things - had a blast and was probably a bit more competetive that I ordinarily would have been (in this crowd) in the dry. I run on full tread Toyo RA-1s in the wet on skinny (5.5") steelies. Alex (Hracer) and I co-drove a rain race last fall and at that time, I *think* we softened the rear shocks (didn't touch the rear bar).

 

U might wanna try disconnecting both front and rear antiroll bars or if u have adjustable bars, position them to the lowest setting. I think in general, esp. with a light weight car that is stiffly sprung, will benefit from more roll/weight transfer to maximize the tires adhesion to the road surface.

 

Another thought I have is alignment because that dry setup can cause you fits in the rain..... negative camber, etc. Also, it's possible that the 944 is better for rain somehow....although that seems crazy. But maybe his car is lighter and works better on a low-friction surface. not sure... just some ideas.
Chris

RedShift Motorsports

 

I latched on to a quote from an old racer and it has worked well for me, "a good dry set up will be a good wet set up if properly driven."

However, if you're not comfortable with oversteer, soften up the rear of the car with tire pressure, shock settings and un hook the sway bar.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Track rat &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I latched on to a quote from an old racer and it has worked well for me, "a good dry set up will be a good wet set up if properly driven."
</TD></TR></TABLE>

amen to that. i tried a "rain" setup once. softer shocks, softer tire pressures, etc. the end result was 3 spins in one run and 2 spins on the second run with handful of cones. i gave up with it at that point, went back to my dry setup and set fast pax.

nate

 

Just a context note...the old guy's advice applies to track prepped production based cars. Purpose built cars with wings, huge tires etc = different story!

A couple of other rain tips...to keep oversteer in check, put your tires with the deepest tread in the back. Concentrate on conservative entry speeds and fast exits. Most rain spins occur during the transition from braking to entry, and with too aggressive throttle at exit (RWD). You hear a lot of people talk about "rain line". For me it means just avoiding standing water wherever it may cause problems (apexes, braking zones). Some tracks with polished concrete patches demand different rain lines. Avoid wet exit curbing! Don't be afraid to brake agressively, in most cases you only loose about 20% of your braking ability in the wet.

 

Alot of this is academic. Over the last 3 years I've driven in the wet on my Dirt Stockers 2 times. Each time the days conditions were mixed and I had to make the decision what tires to run at the very last minute. There would have been no time for a complete setup adjustment. IF you knew that the whole day would be torrential then you might have the luxury of going whole hog on a wet setup (which begs the question of when and how do you develop that setup - that's what I thought).

Scott, who thinks abs is good, and so is avoiding standing water (especially on corner exit), and yes there is usually a rain line somewhere and it's worth finding and using...

 

Quote from RR98ITR:

"IF you knew that the whole day would be torrential then you might have the luxury of going whole hog on a wet setup"

Excellent point. I can remember numerous races that started wet and ended dry, or started dry and ended wet, and very few that were wet from start to finish. So learn drive what you're stuck with and keep it on the track. The guys that can't drive their "dry" set up in the rain will be poking, or spinning, and you'll finish ahead of them.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Track rat &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> The guys that can't drive their "dry" set up in the rain will be poking, or spinning, and you'll finish ahead of them. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Or between them and the wall

 

Have personal experience that you want to share?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Track rat &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Have personal experience that you want to share?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Personal experience : yes,

Want to share : no