I'm a bike racer, not car, but have been watching car racing literally my whole life. This made so much sense of stagger and offset! Huge upgrade to my race-watching enjoyment. Thank you!
Im picking up my first race car tomorrow (9-27-24). I've never been in a race car before. it's a 100% race ready factory stock chassis with an engine built for a local class called Fireball. This is definitely helping me understand this, i know nothing, but i am trying to learn. Thank you for your videos.
I do race car fabrication and know people interested in getting started in racing, I passed this video to them because it is gerat education on the basics, Great Work Jason!
Thank you Patrick, Going to try and make a few targeted videos this spring going through all the basics in a way that newer folks can get what they need.
A big point is the difference between Hoosier and American racer. When you order Hoosiers you can order them , at least we do , in near the size you want. And from my experience they come very close. American racer you simply get what you get. The racers seem softer and the hosiers seem a little harder (before we juice them 😉). They seem to last a little longer.
The Hoosier H500's are a whole lot tougher on abuse as well but I do not like how the sidewall on them is so dad gum stiff. If I could have this tire compound but with the sidewall flex of a American Racer G60, we would have a fantastic tire.
Happy New Year's hey to give you advice. When you set up your car with leaf springs for a hard track at end of night and when you run Ur heat race or time trills and car is tight U can reverse Ur front tires put bigger tire on left front it will loosen up Ur car and U can put more stager in rear or a little bit more air in right rear or left front put more air in. That is when track is wet or heavy! All of that will loosen the car and don't have a adjust anything or change any shocks. Just wanted to respond on one of Ur blogs
Jason a boat load of info man ! Another thing to talk about on wheels, if you pay attention to how they are built and the inner beads that hold the tire there is a difference between right side wheels and left side wheels ! That may have been why you rolled a left rear off the wheel on the inside of the tire ? You do a good job and it's hard to remember everything when preparing to make these videos and I've done it and so has a lot of others, that's what note books are for ! But you covered a lot of material in you videos and ang do a great job.
Tom, that answer is not a paragraph I can sum up here. its multiple different setup and racing videos I have done over the last two years. I just cant do it justice here but Inwill suggest also watch this video where I dive into how stagger works: ruclips.net/video/Agm11HtrQb4/видео.html
Left side tires should be even with each other. Watch a late model when it is rolling through pits the rear is pulled forward on left side and left front wheel bottom of wheel is in and right front is out on bottom. The more the right front is out more will tighten car more left front wheel out will loosen car more right rear out loosen the more left is in will loosen car and more out will on left will tighten.
I think good baseline is to always start left side even. Move the LR in to loosen and out to tighten. So sounds like me and you are on the same page on this aspect.
only thing I disagree with is the wheel offset. No matter if you're using a spacer or not, the wheel will still roll differently based on how much wheel you have on the inside vs outside relative to the center of the tire itself, would it not?
The geometry is affected by where the tire is in relation to the hub. Whether you wheel center is welded in at a certain spot or you add a spacer is irrelevant. Its just hub location compared to tire track. The car doesn't know how you did that in the makeup of the wheel.
Is this the same across all tracks or is this like a default starting point? Where I am hoping to race is Lake Cumberland which is somewhat low banking, but my bucket list place is Tazewell Speedway.......extremely high banked.
I made this very generic on purpose and is applicable for most any 1/4 to 3/8 mile dirt tracks. As far as going from a low bank to a high bank track, in general you shouldn't need as much stagger when you go to the higher bank track.
And when running a heat race or time trills rase tire pressure a little when you finish heat race check air cause if car feels better at end of heat and Ur faster at end of heat race then start at that for heat race or time trills U will go faster. Then lower air for final race lower cause by end of race they will be too hard and U will be running on center of tire!
I can get a LITTLE BIT out of them. Here's what I do. when I mount the one chalk marked to be smaller (say is has 87 to 88 wrote on it for a 27.5) I will mount it and set the air to a race pressure and I don't leave it at higher pressure any at all. On the ones chalk marked 88 to 89, that I plan to use on the right side, I will air them to 40 psi and leave them overnight. It will get the belts stretched and settled all they are going to. I never get more than 2 inches but it seems fairly easy for me to get to 1.5 inches of stagger. Last year I was using some 27.0 tires on the left rear to run 3 inches of stagger at one of the tracks. I don't ever buy the 26.5 size and I have quit buying the 27.0 as well for now because it ends up creating to big a stagger change.
So you’re saying you want the 2 inch backspace on rear i’ve had a hard time last season and this season setting Car up I’ve change the shocks and springs I am new to the sport and I want to run well can you please explain to me what you would run on a G body front right front left rear left rear right I am outside messing with the car now jacking it up trying to get it a little bit dialed in for testing tune tomorrow your input is greatly valued thank you
John, I don't recall saying you need a 2 inch backspace on the rear. I do recommend having the RR be setting inside the RF by 1 inch for most situations. Be careful not to confuse backspace and stagger. On a stock metric with all stock suspension a good plan is to start out with a 2 inch backspace on the RF and then put 3 inch backspace on the other 3 (LF, LR, & RR).
If my rr is inside my rf and my lr is even with my lf what would happen if I move my lr away from the centerline of the car like an inch, would this free the car up
My normal go to set up is with the left side tires even and the RR sitting one inch inboard of my RF. This setup slightly tightens the car on throttle. In the last race with Rachel I moved the RR out to be the same as the RF and that helped free her up on the throttle (helped the car keep turning in the middle of the corner while on the throttle). If you move the LR outward more to the left it will have the effect of tightening you some coming off the corner. But its limited because as you move the rear tires left it is having the effect of moving weight to the right (which will also take drive away). Everything is a trade off. A little can help sometimes but a lot can be a bad move.
Good morning I am just getting started in the street stock I follow you on every new video that you have I am looking at Tires staggered and air pressure shut up test in tune is tomorrow I want to get the best set up to start with as I canI do have 2 inch staggered on the front on tire size rear is probably a half inch what would you suggest and what tire pressure would you suggest I know I watch the video but I am running G 60s Hoosiers please let me know at your convenience
John, I would look at swapping tires around. If you have 2 inches on the front, then you should be able to swap front to back to move that stagger to the rear. You can get a small permenant increase in a tires size by increasing it to its max safe air pressure and let it sit for several hours then return it to your running pressure (I think most Hoosier's will show 40 psi as the max seating pressure but check the sidewall where it says it and confirm on you tires). You have to do this a day in advance at least because the tire will shrink back down most of the gain afterward. Overall it's worth maybe a 1/4 inch and I am not a fan of doing it. On g60's just running 9 on the lr and then coming up to 14 or 15 on the rr will help make a bigger stagger difference as well. But first... swap tires around and use the right tire to start with on back to get some stagger.
Bryce, I truly wish I did have some experience with the FWDs but I just do not and the one thing I do know is they are flat out different and a whole nother level of complicated to make work well. I apologize but I sure don't want to mislead you with bad info.
Ok, thanks. I drew a picture of a car on the board and the direction matched the car the board was sitting on. It would have been confusing to had it opposite with the board literally sitting on the car and me pointing at the car. Sometimes you just have to roll with it ;)
I'm a bike racer, not car, but have been watching car racing literally my whole life. This made so much sense of stagger and offset! Huge upgrade to my race-watching enjoyment. Thank you!
I sure appreciate the feedback! I am doing scaling again as my next one along these lines.
Im picking up my first race car tomorrow (9-27-24). I've never been in a race car before. it's a 100% race ready factory stock chassis with an engine built for a local class called Fireball. This is definitely helping me understand this, i know nothing, but i am trying to learn. Thank you for your videos.
I do race car fabrication and know people interested in getting started in racing, I passed this video to them because it is gerat education on the basics, Great Work Jason!
Thank you Michael, I appreciate the feedback. I am working on a basic scaling and ride height video next.
I really appreciate this video!finally someone explains air pressure and rim offset.
Thanks!
We're tryin!
THANK YOU for the video Jason. So much useful information!! Gonna help abunch
Thank you Patrick, Going to try and make a few targeted videos this spring going through all the basics in a way that newer folks can get what they need.
That was an awesome lesson on how to set up my dirt track street stock camaro.
I really enjoyed it.
Thanks!!!!!!
I'm glad it was helpful!
A big point is the difference between Hoosier and American racer. When you order Hoosiers you can order them , at least we do , in near the size you want. And from my experience they come very close. American racer you simply get what you get. The racers seem softer and the hosiers seem a little harder (before we juice them 😉). They seem to last a little longer.
The Hoosier H500's are a whole lot tougher on abuse as well but I do not like how the sidewall on them is so dad gum stiff. If I could have this tire compound but with the sidewall flex of a American Racer G60, we would have a fantastic tire.
Happy New Year's hey to give you advice. When you set up your car with leaf springs for a hard track at end of night and when you run Ur heat race or time trills and car is tight U can reverse Ur front tires put bigger tire on left front it will loosen up Ur car and U can put more stager in rear or a little bit more air in right rear or left front put more air in. That is when track is wet or heavy! All of that will loosen the car and don't have a adjust anything or change any shocks. Just wanted to respond on one of Ur blogs
That sounds like a good quick fix that you could do in the pits in very short amount of time if you need to
I seen u last weekend at Camden didn't know you had a channel keep up the good work
Thanks and we'll be back up there this year so by all means holler at us. 😉
And put a little bit of lead in right front will help car turn when running a small track.
I see people do it, I'm assuming it is to help pin that RF when you dont have the time or ability to drop spring rate.
Jason a boat load of info man ! Another thing to talk about on wheels, if you pay attention to how they are built and the inner beads that hold the tire there is a difference between right side wheels and left side wheels ! That may have been why you rolled a left rear off the wheel on the inside of the tire ? You do a good job and it's hard to remember everything when preparing to make these videos and I've done it and so has a lot of others, that's what note books are for ! But you covered a lot of material in you videos and ang do a great job.
Good info Dana 👍
I would like to know how the changes in offset front to back and stagger left to right will affect whether you're tight or loose
Tom, that answer is not a paragraph I can sum up here. its multiple different setup and racing videos I have done over the last two years. I just cant do it justice here but Inwill suggest also watch this video where I dive into how stagger works: ruclips.net/video/Agm11HtrQb4/видео.html
Good info as always
Thanks Yall, Had a few calls recently helping a few folks and thought this would be a good video to get out there.
Great video Jason.
Thank you Eddie, much appreciated
Left side tires should be even with each other. Watch a late model when it is rolling through pits the rear is pulled forward on left side and left front wheel bottom of wheel is in and right front is out on bottom. The more the right front is out more will tighten car more left front wheel out will loosen car more right rear out loosen the more left is in will loosen car and more out will on left will tighten.
I think good baseline is to always start left side even. Move the LR in to loosen and out to tighten.
So sounds like me and you are on the same page on this aspect.
only thing I disagree with is the wheel offset. No matter if you're using a spacer or not, the wheel will still roll differently based on how much wheel you have on the inside vs outside relative to the center of the tire itself, would it not?
The geometry is affected by where the tire is in relation to the hub. Whether you wheel center is welded in at a certain spot or you add a spacer is irrelevant. Its just hub location compared to tire track. The car doesn't know how you did that in the makeup of the wheel.
Is this the same across all tracks or is this like a default starting point? Where I am hoping to race is Lake Cumberland which is somewhat low banking, but my bucket list place is Tazewell Speedway.......extremely high banked.
I made this very generic on purpose and is applicable for most any 1/4 to 3/8 mile dirt tracks. As far as going from a low bank to a high bank track, in general you shouldn't need as much stagger when you go to the higher bank track.
U are a great teacher
Thank you Junior
And when running a heat race or time trills rase tire pressure a little when you finish heat race check air cause if car feels better at end of heat and Ur faster at end of heat race then start at that for heat race or time trills U will go faster. Then lower air for final race lower cause by end of race they will be too hard and U will be running on center of tire!
On these H500s I am usually seeing at least 1.5 lb gain on air pressure in a feature. I have seen 2lbs on the RR as well.
How do you grow and shrink tires we run h500 and everytime I buy them there’s maybe inch difference if that
I can get a LITTLE BIT out of them. Here's what I do. when I mount the one chalk marked to be smaller (say is has 87 to 88 wrote on it for a 27.5) I will mount it and set the air to a race pressure and I don't leave it at higher pressure any at all. On the ones chalk marked 88 to 89, that I plan to use on the right side, I will air them to 40 psi and leave them overnight. It will get the belts stretched and settled all they are going to. I never get more than 2 inches but it seems fairly easy for me to get to 1.5 inches of stagger. Last year I was using some 27.0 tires on the left rear to run 3 inches of stagger at one of the tracks. I don't ever buy the 26.5 size and I have quit buying the 27.0 as well for now because it ends up creating to big a stagger change.
So you’re saying you want the 2 inch backspace on rear i’ve had a hard time last season and this season setting Car up I’ve change the shocks and springs I am new to the sport and I want to run well can you please explain to me what you would run on a G body front right front left rear left rear right I am outside messing with the car now jacking it up trying to get it a little bit dialed in for testing tune tomorrow your input is greatly valued thank you
John, I don't recall saying you need a 2 inch backspace on the rear. I do recommend having the RR be setting inside the RF by 1 inch for most situations. Be careful not to confuse backspace and stagger. On a stock metric with all stock suspension a good plan is to start out with a 2 inch backspace on the RF and then put 3 inch backspace on the other 3 (LF, LR, & RR).
@@DIRTRACELIFE Thank you for your input I will definitely reach out to you and let you know how it goes thanks again
Awesome video
Thank you!
If my rr is inside my rf and my lr is even with my lf what would happen if I move my lr away from the centerline of the car like an inch, would this free the car up
My normal go to set up is with the left side tires even and the RR sitting one inch inboard of my RF. This setup slightly tightens the car on throttle. In the last race with Rachel I moved the RR out to be the same as the RF and that helped free her up on the throttle (helped the car keep turning in the middle of the corner while on the throttle). If you move the LR outward more to the left it will have the effect of tightening you some coming off the corner. But its limited because as you move the rear tires left it is having the effect of moving weight to the right (which will also take drive away).
Everything is a trade off. A little can help sometimes but a lot can be a bad move.
When you did the h500 air pressure was that on 8 inch wheels ?
Yes sir, I race G60s and H500s on 8 inch wheels and asphalt scuffs usually 3035s, 3045s, and F40s) on 10 inch rims.
Ok just wanted to make sure it was on 8 inch wheels thank you for the reply ...
Good morning I am just getting started in the street stock I follow you on every new video that you have I am looking at Tires staggered and air pressure shut up test in tune is tomorrow I want to get the best set up to start with as I canI do have 2 inch staggered on the front on tire size rear is probably a half inch what would you suggest and what tire pressure would you suggest I know I watch the video but I am running G 60s Hoosiers please let me know at your convenience
John, I would look at swapping tires around. If you have 2 inches on the front, then you should be able to swap front to back to move that stagger to the rear. You can get a small permenant increase in a tires size by increasing it to its max safe air pressure and let it sit for several hours then return it to your running pressure (I think most Hoosier's will show 40 psi as the max seating pressure but check the sidewall where it says it and confirm on you tires). You have to do this a day in advance at least because the tire will shrink back down most of the gain afterward. Overall it's worth maybe a 1/4 inch and I am not a fan of doing it. On g60's just running 9 on the lr and then coming up to 14 or 15 on the rr will help make a bigger stagger difference as well. But first... swap tires around and use the right tire to start with on back to get some stagger.
Does this also work the same on a front wheel drive car??
I just don't have the experience with front wheel drives to answer this. Sorry for that, but the last thing I want to do is mislead you.
Can you help me with fwd dirt setup? Pleaaaase
Bryce, I truly wish I did have some experience with the FWDs but I just do not and the one thing I do know is they are flat out different and a whole nother level of complicated to make work well. I apologize but I sure don't want to mislead you with bad info.
The corners are aways written,
L/F R/F
L/R R/R.
Anyone... then can follow this.
Ok, thanks.
I drew a picture of a car on the board and the direction matched the car the board was sitting on. It would have been confusing to had it opposite with the board literally sitting on the car and me pointing at the car. Sometimes you just have to roll with it ;)
Where are you from
I small town named Halls is West Tennessee, USA