Sal routinely sets up our vintage Ferrari's with 1/4 inch of wheelbase stagger. Left wheelbase is longer than right. He feels that the cars handle a lot better and the factory used to set up the race cars like that. Thoughts??
Can't be that as some are right hand drive. There are more right turns on a race course so it may have something to do with that but on the street it seems to work as well.
That could be it. I measured P 4/5 and it's Enzo wheelbase is also 1/4 inch less on the right side. Pretty interesting.
Was there some sort of design flaw inherent in the the steering gear back then? I don't doubt Sal is right, but it's really strange. Edit: P4/5 is set up the same.?!? If its torque, wouldn't the modern diff in P4/5 eliminate the need? Hm.
When you say wheelbase stagger, do you mean your mechanic is setting the caster on the left to have more positive caster than on the right side?
I mean the wheelbase on the right side is 1/4 inch shorter than the wheelbase on the left side of the car.
It's Italian. The left is more sinister. Literally. Sinistre. LOL. Happy New Year to the Neapolitan One. Thank You James for your generosity in sharing anything and everything about your journey with these wonderful old overpriced sewing machines. My Best to you and everyone else along for the ride. We all look forward to seeing what the new year brings for 0854, 0846, 002, and on and on. Regards, Dave
Also used on some MB's. "Interestingly, the wheelbase measured from star centre to star centre (wheel centre) is 2707 mm right side, and 2725 mm left side, could this difference make a difference to the pull? I have had a very quick discussion with an MB tech who said something to the effect that there is an MB fix for the pull to the left that involved altering the wheel base on one side of the car by up to 25 mm, but only if the customer asked for it. If this is correct, I wonder if this has been done, or if it needs to be done to bring the left and right sides closer to an equal measurement."
It's to counter torque steer. It's inherent in a lot of front wheel drive cars not so much in rwd cars. Most memorable one were the old jelly bean Taurus/Sables one side was much shorter.
I think you are the only one on the ball here. What comes to MB they do it by request only because it can be very dangerous. As a manufacturer you cannot afford that; some of your customers having bad accidents is bad for business, they know it by experience.
Kare you're quite wrong. It's done on a lot of powerful cars to prevent torque steer. With equal wheelbases side to side on hard acceleration cars with a lot of torque hunt.
Hopefully the Judges at Pebble will deduct points from any 60ies racing Ferrari that isn't set up with it.
Aye we do it on drag cars except we do it with the rear suspension as most of the track the front tires are off the ground. The side that the torque is transferred to is made to have a longer wheel base than the other side. Example a clockwise running engine (from the drivers perspective) the passenger side has a longer wheel base as torque is being transferred to the right rear on launch and visa-versa.
They probably will now! I'm envisioning some anxious phone calls to a few restoration specialists tonight.
it makes sense if being to counter a torque reaction (i.e. rear axle wind up)....old mopars (and others) did this with stagger set rear leaf springs, etc. ...this axle movement could happen under braking as well as accelerating or, the factory race cars may have been set up this way to prompt a quicker turn-in to the right, same as some track cars stagger tires to aid quicker turn-in it's interesting to learn these details about these wonderful cars
