BenH
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Set up sheets - Waste of time?After reading a few set up sheets today I get the feeling that they are a total waste of time.
Example of S4 - Outside medium grip, flat grass. There is no comment on the tyres and how many rows removed - So by that a noob would assume none.
Then the camber link has 1mm of washers on the inside.
There is minimal camber set.
There is 1mm of washers on the steering arm.
Ignoring the rest as pretty much standard - the above is a Bump-Steering-grip-rolling-beast-from-hell.
Then there is the ZX - Like many cars, the base set up is strangely, utter rubbish. Many of the interchangable settings are pointless and do not work - AT ALL!
Why have an off road car that out of the box is a bag of bolts and impossible for a noob to drive? Then why have set up sheets that only tell half a story - or do not make sense because it's missing other vital information.
OR - am I missing something?
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andy east
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Re: Set up sheets - Waste of time?You are right Ben, a set-up sheet is only as good as the honesty of the person who wrote it.
A set-up sheet works when you note down every detail, very few people will do this, and those that do go to the trouble will be less than willing to give the information away on the internet.
I do look around at others set-ups, but I will only take key details like damping, springing, shock angles, inserts and gearing, the rest is all pretty much useless to you. You have to adapt the key details above to your own knowledge and experience. It's also a good idea to get a range of set-ups from various drivers of your car to see if there are many differences. A measure of a good car/team is the consistency of the set-ups across the various team drivers. If the set-ups differ a lot then the drivers are all working in different directions and means that they probably don't understand the car very well. If they are consistent then it means they have a good grasp of the car and they are all working well together, if it's like this then you can trust the information.
It is surprising what you can pick up from other drivers set-up sheets, but always take the information with a pinch of salt, and only ever use it as a guide...
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BenH
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Thank you Andy. (Thankfully; as disagreeing would have led to me losing an argument embarrassingly  )
Take out the options of shock oils, springs etc etc. If the drivers from a team - and these are team drivers I speak of above - are running standard components and not anything bodged from another car or bespoke part, (and if they are then they should note it on the setup sheet) then why do they either: -
1 - Lie about what they are doing (If it's this don't bother)
2 - Do not show a level of understanding. (I find this hard to believe)
You cannot pick holes in a set up sheet for shock oils, springs (unless they are completely incompatible ie super thin oil and super hard springs), ride height, etc unless you were at the track to witness (or once again if it's beyond bizarre - BUT - the fundamental issue of bump steer. This is a complete give away to the utter bull pong of set up sheets - If this is wrong, then discount everything else I reckon.
Anyway - thank you for replying - I get to offload a second rant. Especially since building the ZX to spec (See previous ZX5 post  ), to have to undo most of it to do it myself.
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andy east
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Due to sponsorship commitments some are required to hand a set-up sheet in after an event, many of them lie because they don't want to tell everyone all the fruits of their hard work.
Some people can drive very well, but not have a clue about what allows them to run the pace they do. As annoying as it can be to those who have to try very hard, some people are just gifted drivers but have zero understanding of the cars, this is enough to get them by in club racing, but when they get to nationals they are totally screwed unless they partner with a good bolter.
The best thing you can do is build up a basic set-up from all the set-up sheets you have found, then develop your own set-up sheet in MS Word. Enter the details of the car to the Nth degree and watch the set-up develop as the meetings come and go.
There is no substitute for going out there and finding out the information yourself. As I said before a set-up sheet is only as good as the honesty of the person who wrote it. And in this world you can only really trust two people... Jesus and yourself. So when you are confronted with a set-up issue you can either ask yourself 'What would Jesus do?' (all the gullable twats go this route) or you can rack your brain and the knowledge you have gained and work it out for yourself.
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