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front and rear track differences
beaver34 - 30/3/11 at 07:53 PM

ive got wider rear archs as am wanting to fit wider rear wheel and tyres to aid my grip and performance,

going from 6 x14 to 8 x 13 or 8 x 15 not yet decided

now the rear of the car will be around 2" each side wider than the front, will this be an issue and adversely affect the handling of the car?

also running a lower offset on the front of the car and making the front wheel further away from the hub does that effect suspension setup massively?

thanks for any help

daniel mason - 30/3/11 at 08:06 PM

i thought the rear should be slightly narrower than the front? but this is a question im wanting the answer too so i can measure up for my drive shafts

franky - 30/3/11 at 08:09 PM

There rears normally wider, look at all high power RWD cars. I think!

daniel mason - 30/3/11 at 08:11 PM

my last mnr was defo wider at the front. not sure what to do woth my new one though!

beaver34 - 30/3/11 at 08:17 PM

quote:
Originally posted by franky
There rears normally wider, look at all high power RWD cars. I think!


That's what I thought, I presume due to getting the power down with running bigger and wider wheels

Richard Quinn - 30/3/11 at 09:22 PM

Shamelessly stolen from Eng-tips...
Here is a cut from a SAE paper that at least is on of its own.

"When selecting the track width, the front and rear track widths do not necessarily have to be the same. For example, track width is typically wider in the front for a rear wheel drive race car. This design concept is used to increase rear traction during corner exit by reducing the amount of body roll resisted by the rear tires relative to the front tires [4]. Based on the corner speeds and horsepower to weight ratio of FSAE cars, this concept should be considered by the designer".

I did a table of "supercar" comparisons once but can't find it now. Most of them had a slightly wider front track than rear.

daniel mason - 30/3/11 at 09:27 PM

i thought this was the case!

Chippy - 30/3/11 at 09:39 PM

quote:
Originally posted by daniel mason
i thought this was the case!


Yes! but it's the track there talking about, not the wheel width. When selecting wheels you either go with the same front and rear, OR, fit wider at the rear which will give better grip to the driven wheels, wider wheels at the front would do nothing for the grip and just make the steering very heavy. IMHO Ray
Edited to add, Whoops! got that wrong thought you were talking wheel widths, just re read the start and realised it was track widths. Ray

[Edited on 30-3-11 by Chippy]