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Racing Software Technology is pleased to announce the release of the all
NEW Computerized Chassis Setup 2.0. Originally
released in 1987, Computerized Chassis Setup is a tried and true circle
track chassis setup software for use on ¼ to ¾ mile dirt or pavement
tracks. Over the years
Computerized Chassis Setup has been updated to keep up with the ever
changing chassis setup. Now it
has been completely overhauled for ease of use and to work with the latest
computer operating systems. All
of the screens have been enhanced to make it easier to visualize the
measurements needed for the software to compute chassis setups.
Like it's predecessor, Computerized Chassis Setup 2.0 will
calculate Weight Distribution, Center of Gravity location, Front Roll
Center, Tire Patch, Minimum Stagger and Wheel Rates just to name a few.
New to Computerized Chassis Setup 2.0 are Anti-Dive, Anti-Squat, Rear
Roll Center, Average Corner g, and Dynamic Weight Transfer.
The software that WILL setup YOUR race
vehicle.
Below are screen views that
demonstrate the capability of
Computerized Chassis Setup 2.0
| Order Hotline: |
714.639.7681 |
Fax your order: |
714.639.9741 |
All of the screen views are using Windows Vista.
Your screen borders may look slightly
different.
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When the software starts the Main Menu screen is the first screen to appear. To get
started, click on one of the Menus. File,
Weight.Distribution, Roll.Center,
Setup, Spring.Rates,
Weight.Transfer, or Help. If this
is the first time in the software, then it's best to start at the left of
the Menu Screen and then work down then right. |
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Included
with Computerized Chassis Setup are two car files. These are example
files to view and learn from. The carfile CCS Setup.RST uses English
measurements and MetricSetup.RST uses Metric measurements.
To see
the files, click File on the Main Menu, then click Open. The Open CCS Car File box
opens (see the screen shot). Click on the file you want to open, then click Open.
This website example will use the CCS Setup.RST car file.
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The CCS Setup.RST carfile has been opened and the Open CCS Car File box
has disappeared. On the Main Menu, Weight.Distribution was clicked
and then Wheel Weight to Percent was clicked. |
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The Wheel Weight to
Percent section is used to determine how the weight is distributed in the
vehicle. In
this section, just type in the weights that the scales have. Notice
that the input box for the Left Front Wheel Weight is highlighted in a
light red and the numbers are highlighted in blue. This means that
the Left Front Wheel Weight input box is waiting for an entry. If the
weight is correct, then just Tab over to the next input box. If
not, type in the correct number and then Tab. Keep typing in the scale
readings until the Menu Screen button is highlighted. This screen is an
active screen. This means that whenever the cursor leaves the
current input
box, the software computes the percentages, the lateral and longitudinal
weights. |
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The
Percent to Wheel Weight software section uses percentages to determine how
the weight is distributed on the tires. It's useful if the vehicle
is going to be raced at a track that requires say a different left
percentage than is on the vehicle now. Just type in the percentages that the
vehicle needs and the wheel weights will be calculated for you. Now
it is just a matter of moving weight until the wheel weights are achieved.
That's made easier for you too in the Ballast/Fluid Weight software
section! |
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The
Center of Gravity software section will determine where the center of
gravity is located laterally, longitudinally, and vertically. To
determine the vertical center of gravity, one end of the vehicle (usually
the rear) must be lifted. After doing so, then the inclined wheel
weights can be determined. |
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The Ballast/Fluid
Weight software section makes it easy to determine what-ifs about static
weight movement in the vehicle. For example, about 10 gallons of
fuel is being burned in the race. In the above example, this vehicle
has the fuel tank 130 inches from the front suspension centerline, 38
inches from the left rear tire centerline and the tank center of gravity
is 16 inches from the ground. The fuel weighs about 60 pounds.
At the top left Liquid/Ballast Weight (- = loss)
input box, -60 is typed in
because that is the weight of the fuel used. Notice that in this
example, because the fuel tank is mounted to the right of the vehicle
centerline, as fuel is burned off, that left side weight is increased by .316676%, rear weight is
decreased by 1.572471% and the center of gravity increased by 0.023992
inches. |
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Now instead of fuel
being used, imagine that there was 60 pounds of ballast in the previous
example instead of the fuel tank. The track being raced at will allow 57% left side
weight. Instead of actually taking the ballast off and bolting it on
elsewhere and then weighing the vehicle and if its not right then doing it
over again; determine where the ballast can
be bolted and retype the numbers. In this example, the ballast could
be placed at 105 inches from the front suspension centerline, 10 inches
from the left tire centerline and 8 inches from the ground. At the
top left Liquid/Ballast Weight (- = loss)
input box, 60 is typed in because that
is the amount of weight that will be put back on the vehicle. So now
in this example, the left side weight is almost 57%, up from 56% and the
rear has dropped from 52% originally to about 51.5% rear and the total
weight is still 2800 pounds. All this without getting hot, tired and
dirty, well almost, somebody will still have to move the weight. |
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Now let's explore
the Front Roll Center software section. |
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Knowing the location
of the front roll center is very important to the handling of the
vehicle. Two reasons many racers do not know the location of the
front roll center is that it's hard to calculate it and difficult to measure
for it. Computerized Chassis Setup
2.0, makes it easy to calculate it. Unfortunately, it's still hard
to measure for it. Well you can't have everything. When all
the measurements have been obtained, enter them into the Front Roll Center
software section then click the Calculate button. |
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The next screen
appears and at the top of the screen are several informative measurements
including the roll center height and width from the vehicle
centerline. Below that is an accurate depiction of the front
suspension made easier to visualize by drawing just the pivot points and
the lines to connect them. The suspension control arms, steering knuckle and tire
centerlines are in black. The imaginary lines that make up the
moment/instant centers are lime green for the left suspension and red for
the right suspension. The solid blue vertical line is the chassis
centerline and the vertical dotted line represents the center of gravity
of the vehicle. The blue circle is the roll center location.
Scroll down to see the screen when the More
Info button is clicked. |
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At the top of the illustration more information about the suspension is
shown. The software will calculate the
actual 2 dimensional pivot point of the upper and lower control arms, the arm lengths and the height of the spindles
(actually the distance from the upper ball joint to the
lower ball joint). The box at the lower center of the screen will calculate where the mouse is in actual front
suspension dimensions. The
illustration can also be zoomed in or out and moved up, down, left or
right. |
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Another helpful
section is the gear ratio section. This could be used if the vehicle
is not running at the correct Engine R.P.M.
for the track. Vehicle Speed is
used as the baseline. In this illustration, all information was
entered except Vehicle Speed, which
the software then calculated to be 84.015073. The the Engine
R.P.M. desired (7000) is entered and the Rear
End Ratio is zeroed. The software then calculated that
the Rear End Ratio needs to be
6.65:1. Check out your rear end chart and see which gear is close
the 6.65, stick it in and race. |
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In the corner
you have a few springs that the spring rate tags are missing. This
section will help determine the approximate spring rate for a coil
spring. It could also be used to tell you about how much of a round
of coil to remove if you need a stiffer spring in an emergency. The
software also will rate a leaf spring, an anti-roll bar and a torsion
bar. Notice this is just an approximation, the spring could have
weakened from use. Use a spring checker to make absolutely sure of
the rate. |
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For vehicles using a
fifth coil, this can help you out. This illustration and the three
following will demonstrate how this section works. Notice that Engine
Torque is zero, this will be determined. This is actual
engine torque that the tires can control at the rear wheels. All of the
other information has been entered and when tabbed through will calculate
the Engine Torque. |
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The software has
determined that the Engine Torque
at the rear wheels is 225.56391 foot-pounds. This will be the
baseline. Notice that the Amount
of Spring Deflection is only 2 inches of travel and 3 inches of
travel is
desired. |
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Tab back through the
input boxes and at Torque Arm Spring Rate enter
0 and for Amount of Spring Deflection,
enter 3. Tab to the Menu Screen
button. |
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So to get 3 inches
of travel take the 225 pound/inch spring out and put in a 150 pound/inch
spring. Sometimes it's better to put a slightly stiffer spring than
recommended in the fifth coil because with more spring travel, the vehicle
will hook up better and allow more engine torque traction than it would with the
225 pound/inch spring. |
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This next section, Dynamic
Weight Transfer, is really interesting. It demonstrates
the weight transfer of the vehicle when accelerating/braking and
cornering. First, enter a few easily obtainable values and then
click Calculate. |
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This next screen will show the basic calculations. The g input boxes
are at 0 so there is no weight transfer. |
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Now the screen is showing an acceleration of .2 g and cornering left at .7
g. Notice that the weight transfer is from the left front to the
right rear.
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Here the mouse is over the Right Front Wheel Weight calculated box and a Help balloon showing the original
weight appears. Every calculated
box has a Help balloon to remind you of the original inputs (if the Help
balloons are turned off then they will not appear). The Right
Front Wheel Weight is now 801 pounds, up almost 160 pounds from
the original static weight of 644. The Right
Front Tire Patch has also increased over 6.5 square inches up
from 26.8 square inches and the Left Rear Tire
Patch is still 13 square inches more than the Right
Rear Tire Patch even while cornering left. The Left Weight
Percent has decreased almost 9 percent from 56 percent.
It's a great learning experience to see what happens when the weight transfers. |
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This
is the Chassis Setup software
section. Here the information from the vehicle is used and turned
into a setup that can be implemented. There
are several screens that take easily obtainable information from the
vehicle. This first screen gets General Information about the
chassis. |
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On the General Information screen, the Type of
Front Suspension button selected is A-arm. The
information about the front suspension is entered. As you tab
through the input boxes the illustration at the lower part of the screen
will change to show examples of the information requested. If
Straight axle front suspension was selected on the first screen, then a
different screen would have appeared asking for information about the
straight axle suspension. |
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This screen is for the Rear Suspension. Enter the information
requested then go to the next screen. |
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Here the software is asking for specific information about the
chassis. Notice toward the middle of the screen there is an input
box labeled Suggested Cross Weight Percent. The software recommends
that the cross weight should be 57% to run this setup, instead of the 54% that
the chassis has now. |
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The Chassis Setup screen contains all the information about the setup. Looking at the right front
the original Right
Front Wheel Weight scale weight is 644 pounds. The Right
Front Ideal Weight of 686 pounds will be the scale weight when
the cross weight percent has been added to the original weight (the weight jack bolt or
coilover is adjusted until the scale reads this weight). It would need a spring
rate of about 825 pounds, a shock of about a 76 or a 77 and a sway bar rate
of 200 pounds at the control arm. The other 3 corners of the chassis
is set up the same fashion.
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Other
software sections available:
Rear Roll Center
Moment Arm
Anti/Pro Dive
Anti Squat
Wheel Rates
Tire Patch
Minimum Stagger
Split Spring
Leaf Spring Rates
Torsion Bar Rates
Hollow Torsion Bar Rates
Aftermarket Anti-Roll Bar Rates
Stock Anti-Roll Bar Rates
Average Corner g
Uses English or Metric Measurements |
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| Order Hotline: |
714.639.7681 |
Fax your order: |
714.639.9741 |
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If more information is necessary, email us at:
info@rstsetup.com
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