Page 20 - KCRPCA Jan Feb 2018

TECH ARTICLE
Karl Wilen
it, so it is time to get busy in your shop or garage or wherever you prep your car for the season! One of the most common things you will see at a race track, espe- cially at the professional level are these wild contraptions hanging off the race cars in the garages. Those contraptions are strings used to align the car. At the track, we are constantly making adjust- ments depending on how the car is han- dling. At the pro level, we might make these adjustments 6-8 times a weekend per car, before the car goes out on track, and after it comes back in depending on driver input or just to double check the settings. They are also handy in case of an unfortunate off track excursion or contact with another moveable or im- moveable object which may have thrown off the alignment....or even if you have had to replace a suspension component at the track, the alignment needs to be re- checked. Strings are the perfect way to do that at the track, or in the garage for the home user. A laser alignment sys- tem is fantastic, but most people can’t afford to constantly be paying for a laser alignment every time they make an ad- justment to their car, and you de nitely can’t haul that to the track.
What do the strings do? Well, the pur- pose is to put the car in a perfectly square box. From within that box, you are then able to measure points from the box to the
which were designed by a former race engineer for Flying Lizard Motorsports. I couple that with various other tools as you will see below. There are a dozen ways to skin a cat, so you might nd oth- er options for some of the ancillary tools I use. The string box ensures that your thrust angle is correct, ie, to make sure the front wheels and rear wheels are in line with each other so the car is travel- ing down the road straight, and not with the rear end slightly crooked. This is the big advantage of using strings vs using just toe plates, as with the toe plates you can’t ensure the alignment of the front wheels to the rear wheels.
First thing is to set up your strings. All these tools will come with some basic instructions on how to setup and use the tools effectively, so I might leave some details out here, but they will be crys- tal clear in the paperwork included with these tools.
<Picture 1 and 2>
Above I have the strings set up on a Porsche 944. The smart strings simply hook onto a front or rear attachment as shown above and hang off of the car. All the bars slide in the holders in or- der for you to get everything level, etc. The round bar at the bottom is what will hold your “strings” that run along the side of the car front to rear. The strings
String Theory
AWligning Your Race Car
ith track season now of cially car to set your alignment settings. Initial over for us, it is time to start setup may seem a bit clumsy at rst, but thinking about track season onceyouarefamiliarwiththeprocessit
again! It will be on us before you know is quick and easy. I utilize Smart Strings
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Jan / Feb 2018