More downforce at the front. Possible?

[wings19]

I was finally able to get my Emira to the track yesterday. I went down to MSR Houston where I have a membership so track familiarity is a check. The track has a good combination of corner types too, making for good testing. Since I haven't posted much and am unknown outside of the Houston group - FWIW I have extensive track/racing experience which includes chassis setup. However, this was my first time out with the Emira so these are just my initial thoughts. I only did two sessions and didn't really mess with tire pressure except to drop a few PSI when I arrived and ended up over target a bit. BUT... As of now, I'm not convinced we need a splitter.

My current alignment is in the attached photo with Cup2 and sport suspension. My goal here was to create the least understeering car possible with my primary strategy being to remove the rear toe. This is my initial stab at setting up the car and I may fine tune it as I get more time with the car.

With this setup I found I could certainly induce oversteer on turn in and lift off, and also understeer on throttle. This is a great start. I found the car to respond well to throttle steering. Lift to get track in, squeeze throttle to get track out, very predictable. Regarding a splitter, we have a high speed sweeper and kink and through these areas I thought the car handled it great. It seems the camber was enough for now too, surprisingly. I'm used to my Spec Miata where I run -3.5 lol. Maybe a stickier tire will want more.

Again, while this is cursory, my $.02 is that a splitter isn't really needed to balance the car. I had a lot of fun with it out there yesterday and I'll go back down in the coming weeks to play a little more where my thoughts may change.

P.S. Since OP said he was more or less a novice track driver... As an HPDE instructor and racing coach I will say that a lot of issues that get blamed on the car are driver induced. This thing was a blast and has plenty to give us in stock form. If you think you're maxing out the car, put your local track legend in there and see what they can extract.

 

[MiamiBlue]

I was finally able to get my Emira to the track yesterday. I went down to MSR Houston where I have a membership so track familiarity is a check. The track has a good combination of corner types too, making for good testing. Since I haven't posted much and am unknown outside of the Houston group - FWIW I have extensive track/racing experience which includes chassis setup. However, this was my first time out with the Emira so these are just my initial thoughts. I only did two sessions and didn't really mess with tire pressure except to drop a few PSI when I arrived and ended up over target a bit. BUT... As of now, I'm not convinced we need a splitter.

My current alignment is in the attached photo with Cup2 and sport suspension. My goal here was to create the least understeering car possible with my primary strategy being to remove the rear toe. This is my initial stab at setting up the car and I may fine tune it as I get more time with the car.

With this setup I found I could certainly induce oversteer on turn in and lift off, and also understeer on throttle. This is a great start. I found the car to respond well to throttle steering. Lift to get track in, squeeze throttle to get track out, very predictable. Regarding a splitter, we have a high speed sweeper and kink and through these areas I thought the car handled it great. It seems the camber was enough for now too, surprisingly. I'm used to my Spec Miata where I run -3.5 lol. Maybe a stickier tire will want more.

Again, while this is cursory, my $.02 is that a splitter isn't really needed to balance the car. I had a lot of fun with it out there yesterday and I'll go back down in the coming weeks to play a little more where my thoughts may change.

P.S. Since OP said he was more or less a novice track driver... As an HPDE instructor and racing coach I will say that a lot of issues that get blamed on the car are driver induced. This thing was a blast and has plenty to give us in stock form. If you think you're maxing out the car, put your local track legend in there and see what they can extract.

This is really great info from an experienced track drivers. Thanks.

 

[Honcho]

I was finally able to get my Emira to the track yesterday. I went down to MSR Houston where I have a membership so track familiarity is a check. The track has a good combination of corner types too, making for good testing. Since I haven't posted much and am unknown outside of the Houston group - FWIW I have extensive track/racing experience which includes chassis setup. However, this was my first time out with the Emira so these are just my initial thoughts. I only did two sessions and didn't really mess with tire pressure except to drop a few PSI when I arrived and ended up over target a bit. BUT... As of now, I'm not convinced we need a splitter.

My current alignment is in the attached photo with Cup2 and sport suspension. My goal here was to create the least understeering car possible with my primary strategy being to remove the rear toe. This is my initial stab at setting up the car and I may fine tune it as I get more time with the car.

With this setup I found I could certainly induce oversteer on turn in and lift off, and also understeer on throttle. This is a great start. I found the car to respond well to throttle steering. Lift to get track in, squeeze throttle to get track out, very predictable. Regarding a splitter, we have a high speed sweeper and kink and through these areas I thought the car handled it great. It seems the camber was enough for now too, surprisingly. I'm used to my Spec Miata where I run -3.5 lol. Maybe a stickier tire will want more.

Again, while this is cursory, my $.02 is that a splitter isn't really needed to balance the car. I had a lot of fun with it out there yesterday and I'll go back down in the coming weeks to play a little more where my thoughts may change.

P.S. Since OP said he was more or less a novice track driver... As an HPDE instructor and racing coach I will say that a lot of issues that get blamed on the car are driver induced. This thing was a blast and has plenty to give us in stock form. If you think you're maxing out the car, put your local track legend in there and see what they can extract.

Great response. Your setup is quite similar to mine but I have more rear toe dialled in for stability on the road. Did you have this before too and if so can you describe the feel change with less rear toe-in?

 

[wings19]

Great response. Your setup is quite similar to mine but I have more rear toe dialled in for stability on the road. Did you have this before too and if so can you describe the feel change with less rear toe-in?

Thanks!

It's hard for me to compare stock settings to what I have now because my car was delivered with a bad alignment and I could tell right away. I had toe in at the rear and a bunch of toe in at the front, along with some right thrust. The car was very "darty" and sensitive to steering input, especially at speed.

Generally on a road car it's good to have some rear toe in. This will keep the car more stable at speed and under braking. My goal, however, was to destabilize the rear under braking and turn in without making the car dangerous at speed, of course. This is why I went with 0 toe. I went with this not knowing exactly how it would perform but alas, it's pretty good for what I like. When I say "destabilize", it's not that I want the rear end to pass me up under braking, it's just that because we're balanced to the rear and have those wide tires, I want it to be LESS STABIL back there to balance the understeer. Maybe that's a better way to say it.

I was able to top out around 125mph at MSR Houston yesterday and I didn't feel like it was unstable at all. Braking was also fairly stable although I'm on stock brakes so the braking performance isn't amazing, but good. With a more aggressive pad it may be a different story. Rotation under trail braking was lively. It was eager to turn with brakes and definitely "spinable" with the weight on the nose.

If you want to be on the safe side I think keeping a bit of toe in the rear will be totally fine. You can overcome a little understeer with technique.