Increasing track width.

[magicmitch]

i have reason to believe that my ra28 has modified track width in the front...as u can see in the pic it looks wider than normal..from wat i can see i dont see any spacers or anything..wat could i look for so i know for sure wat mods were done?

[Billzilla]

I widened the front track of my Sprinter about 50mm, by making the lower control arms longer and using the camber adjusters on the tops of the struts to keep the camber how I wanted it.
The extra width was well worth it, the car handles much better.

[45aken]

the wider your wheels are apart, the lower your centre of gravity. it is effectively the same thing as lowering your car. if you increase front track, you will have better turn in, better response and the car will want to oversteer more. increasing the rear track will make the car harder to turn, and more likely to understeer.
increasing the front track is worth it, as long as it is done properly, if you are modifying the track fron tand rear, i would suggest a little more on the front. you'll be amazed in how it changes the feeling of your car.

[RobertoX]

^^ huh? you could have a higher centre of gravity and a larger track width...

the track width and CoG height determine the weight transfer for a given lateral load, wider track gives less transfer as does lower centre of gravity. Less weight transfer between sides is generally a good thing as it increases the overall cornering potential of the car.
I think having a wider front will induce some forward weight transfer also, in a FWD car this might be beneficial particularly (similar to adding a stiffer rear sway bar)


I did the sigma control arm thing with camber adjusters on my sprinter, something like 20mm each side I think and the effect was much better than I expected,
Less body roll and turn in seems to be a lot better now. I was worried that the reduction in ackerman might have an effect but it hasn't done anything noticible.


magicmitch I believe that this can also be done on an ra28, if you really want to know check the length of the front lower control arms on your car and compare them with standard. There are plenty of different length toyota ones that could have been put in also. Another thing to check is whether your struts/hubs are the standard ones, I know that when I changed to ra40/ma61 gear on the front of my last car it pushed the wheels out marginally. (nice celica btw )

[Billzilla]

the wider your wheels are apart, the lower your centre of gravity.

How do you work that one out?
You can have the track as wide as you like, but it'll make no difference to the height of the centre of gravity.
It does, however, increase roll stiffness.

[45aken]

how doesn't it work out.
"The centre of gravity height, relative to the track, determines load transfer (side to side and front/rear) and causes body lean."

"In addition, lowering the center of gravity will always help the handling (as well as reduce the chance of roll-over). This can be done to some extent by using plastic windows (or none) and light roof, hood (bonnet) and boot (trunk) lid materials, by reducing the ground clearance, etc. Increasing the track with "reversed" wheels will have a similar effect, but remember that the wider the car the less spare room it has on the road and the farther you may have to swerve to miss an obstacle. "

straight out of my race car handling book.

[oldcorollas]

note the word similar
it does this by increasign the moment arm that track has on the CG..

ie decreasing (CG height off ground : track width) ratio..

both decreasing CG and increasing track result in a decrease in this ratio...

think of a thrown cat.. with it's legs spread out it is more stable, but may be no closer to the ground.. (or so i am told )

[45aken]

My bad. was ment to say that it has the same effect of lowering your COG in the previous post. obsivously if doesn't make ur car lower to the ground!