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When chasing time at the track, weight reduction is vital in helping you reduce your lap times. In this article, we'll talk about ways you can reduce your unsprung weight to yield a better handling car and enhance your suspension system, all while lowering the stresses placed upon it.  Unsprung, Sprung and Rotational Mass A car's weight can be divided into 2 categories, Sprung or Unsprung mass. Sprung weight is everything that is held up by the suspension. This includes the frame, body, engine, driver, seats, even the windshield. Unsprung weight is the mass of everything not held in suspension by your...

Picture this. You're attending a press event at the Bose Audio Company headquarters in Boston. You've heard rumors they've been working on something revolutionary. Stood outside, in the cold, you see a Lexus LS navigate a corner at speed and accelerate towards a railroad tie. What is this madness? Surely the car is going to be heavily damaged? The driver continues driving towards the tie, then, at the last second, the LS400 lifts off the ground and clears the tie by several inches. Everyone is amazed, is this trickery? The driver pulls to a stop, gets out and takes a bow. The...

The suspension system is designed to increase the road holding ability of a car and offer a degree of ride comfort, though that may be less important to a track day enthusiast. The suspension also isolates the chassis and important components from vibrations. Without suspension, your car would likely fall to pieces!  The suspension system on a Caterham kit car The suspension system is made up of a number of components: Damper / Shock absorber / Struts Coil spring Upper and lower control arms Control arm bushings It is these components that are designed to work together to increase the...

I had a Great Uncle who was an engineer and he would always say when it comes to cars, "never cheap out on tyres, brakes or suspension". The more I work on cars in general, the more sense I see in that statement.  The internet has done wonders for track-day enthusiasts and competition drifters, not just in the abundance of advice available online, but also in opening up a market of cheap aftermarket suspension. Many of these coilovers can be purchased for chump change, but are they worth it? And was my Great Uncle right?  First Impressions  First impressions, cheap coil-overs, at-least from...

Don't overlook the set-up of your car for track days. It can make huge differences to how the car handles and can produce drastically lower lap times. With a little effort, you can completely change a cars handling characteristics. Using this guide will help you understand what adjustments you need to make and how to tailor your set-up for different circuits. Compromise Firstly, it's important to understand that the perfect set-up doesn't exist. Every set-up is a compromise of sorts, finding the perfect balance between handling, aero, braking, and power to achieve the best results on the day.  For example, you might...