Quote:
Originally Posted by acammer
A big part of the problem is that these are just big, heavy cars for the amount of tire under them. Understeer does not equate to a grip level, it simply relates to balance. You eluded to this yourself when you said something like "don't tell me it's the tires" - and I agree with that, tires impact grip level and even responsiveness, but not steady-state chassis balance.
However, there is something to be said for getting the chassis rotating into the corner better by getting the chassis balance closer to where you want it. Just because the front tires are loaded much heavier than the rear tires on entry does not mitigate the fact that more rear grip will keep that end of the car more firmly stuck to the track. That shows up as understeer, and will hurt entry, and can even hurt the maximum cornering speed.
The chassis designers of these cars had some decision to make, and in the case of the ZL1 that was their high power, grand tourer. Having the biggest power, the compromised on chassis balance into vs. out of the corner, and put some extra width on the rear to help corner exit deal with all that supercharged power. However, the 1LE and Z/28's cars with less power and more grip (yes, the 1LE has the same tires, but it's significantly ligther) got the squared treatment to improve that balance.
40mm of tread width difference isn't going to be life changing to the chassis balance, but it absolutely does matter. On a regular SS chassis you have 245/275 and so that difference is a little more noticable when getting square, and I can promise you that it helps get the chassis closer to neutral. You can get there with enough swabar/spring rate as well, but unless you're got a pretty powerful setup I suspect you probably don't need the 305 out back on slow corner exits as much as you'll appreciate better chassis balance everywhere else. If you square the wheel and tire, then you can rotate, and that will definitely get more life out of the tires by getting the fronts to the back when you start to murder the shoulders.
Just my two cents.
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The 1LE I am keeping makes 550 wheel, I am not flooring the car on exit up there anyway as the car is too unpredictable in it's current state. Power does you no good in the mountains, it's all about entry speed and momentum at Tail of the Dragon.
I will lower the car and put the DSE 35mm rear bar on it and see what happens.
I learned to drive in the ass happy platform that is the 4th gen Fbody so a little loose doesn't phase me.