Netherlands (NL) hence why Zolder is close for him. Box needs to be removed and stripped to get access to the diff. My gearboxes here in the UK are looked after by "Hotgolf".
Should have put my glasses on! NL! That’s helpful thank you, I shall wait patiently for Martin to get back from hols
As Hugo say, experienced racers like a lively back end, it is arguably the fastest chassis set up for FWD race car, so you want the rear wheels toe'd out, so the rear is essentially unstable. This get the car turned as the cars natural tendency is to turn constantly. A bit unnerving to drive at first. When I first stared racing my MK1 on the hills, it was a well developed circuit racer and ran a lot of rear toe, but it just made me nervous on the hills. Was ok on sprints, and was the fastest chassis set up IMHO, massacred just about anything on a twisty trackday, could even push GT3 Porches and Radicals etc. through the twisty bits where aero was not working, but not on the straights lol. I re set it to standard rear geometry early on, as it was so much more forgiving, so that's how I ran it. So much more forgiving and with a limited runs at an event where you need confidence in the car to run at 100% commitment off the line on cold tyres, as Hugo says. I've never added the toe back in, and have won national championships like that, but I know the fastest FWD hill climb cars run rear toe, so my my next version of my MK1 will likely run rear toe and I'll just have to hold my breath and commit to the gods of traction :-).
A bit of rear toe, a shed load of castor and a tight diff makes for a rapid fwd. But yes, you need to be on your game...
Car setup in general...depend much on what the driver can handle, or feel confident with, to be calm and relax ...even on the limit even when the car badly understeers or oversteers, or when tyres going off or driving in the rain or with many cars around you, so there is no way to drive ideal trajectory ..... to get to that point, most drivers need a lot tracktime and endurance racing delivers that....to expand your own limits. Brake late... you hear that so often....while in the beginning its better to brake earlier and get well into the corner and get a fast exit speed.... To brake late, that comes later with experience and confidence...
After reading all the tips here, I am going towards a ATB diff, probably Quaife. Two friends have a gripper and are absolutely satisfied, then Nigel also replies and says it's way better than a quaife. So now I'm back at square 1.
Nige drives his car exclusively as a track car and is fast. I on the other hand, am no where near as fast, I’ve been on track with him and cannot keep anywhere near him and do not have the confidence to push the way a gripper would like for maximum effect. So for me an ATB is more than sufficient, it decreases that inside wheel spinning and you can really feel it working, I can only imagine a plate diff to feel 10x’s better in that sense. From what I’ve seen they don’t really lose value, so fit one and then flog it if you don’t like it or drive your friends one
My car is also trackday only, even when it had a valid license it would just be for test drives. That's an option I am also considering
