squared setup - handling/steering response only thread

[accel]

There's more than enough technical/appearance threads on squared setups, so I suggest to share your experience for dd and high performance driving only (track/autox) for this topic.

I've been liking staggered setups for quite a bit for cars with enough power to send to rear wheels as it seems very rational.

But real life experience with two staggered cars I had tells me it has a thing or two to keep in mind while being staggered.

Common belief is that staggered means understeer. Well, yes and no.

When your tires are fresh that might be true, but as you wear your tires fronts will have more/better rubber than rear and that will change the balance. From my experience when you have rears that are fairly worn (but still goid as far as rear indicators are concerned) - it is almost like having different brands of tires front vs rear.

Implications might be pretty bad.

Squared lets you maintain equal layers of rubber front/vs rear if you care to rotate tires.

I.e. if the car is more neutral/oversteer to begin with, overall car balance will stay the same as tires go down to wear indicators.

Personally, I would not go lower tire width that stock. Which in case of 15-17 PP would mean 275 all around.

Going with 275 tire width for front tires should affect steering feel and have other unexpected implications.

So this thread is to share driving experiences.

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[BmacIL]

Unless you're in the rain, the wear aspect is not going to have a significant play into grip unless your rears have many more heat cycles than your fronts. Compound differences between front and rear is a much bigger change.

With a big, front-heavy car like this, you need as much front tire as you can fit under there to get this car to handle optimally. Staggered setups are for looks or drag, and the extremely minor stagger of the GT350/350R are there to provide some safe understeer.

 

[Cardude99]

With my new setup drove a bunch this past weekend. Was really nice to reduce the understeer so much. Went into a turn yesterday, slightly too fast, got a little bit of understeer at first, then a little gas corrected into a slight oversteer. Both instances were very minor. Makes me believe that my car is nearly neutral at the limit now but not quite there yet. Currently have 255's all around and soon 275's.

 

[accel]

Unless you're in the rain, the wear aspect is not going to have a significant play into grip unless your rears have many more heat cycles than your fronts. Compound differences between front and rear is a much bigger change.

With a big, front-heavy car like this, you need as much front tire as you can fit under there to get this car to handle optimally. Staggered setups are for looks or drag, and the extremely minor stagger of the GT350/350R are there to provide some safe understeer.

not sure about heat cycles, but front/rears work in different conditions.

rears apparently get more heat to the thread as they push the car , fronts are taking heat from the engine.

 

[BmacIL]

not sure about heat cycles, but front/rears work in different conditions.

rears apparently get more heat to the thread as they push the car , fronts are taking heat from the engine.

If one is driving the car hard, the tires will get worked similarly hard and come to relatively similar temps. Pressures need to be set accordingly. The fronts have to do steering and most of the braking, the rears doing the acceleration. Both have similar portions of lateral loading. The point is that a tire that's seen a lot more heat cycles is going to be harder/less grippy than one with less.

 

[NightmareMoon]

Driving experiences? Well I switched to square setup pretty quickly and never looked back. On a track or autox, the fronts will heat up a bit more than the rear. On track, I rotate based on visible wear.

On the street, I just try to remember to rotate them regularly to prolong their life.

Indeed, handling balance doesn't change much as the tires wear down when you're on a properly rotated square setup. Overall grip declines as the tires age and harden from use, so that makes it easier to induce throttle oversteer or corner entry push, and different people have different driving styles, so YMMV.

 

[LastNightsPants]

Something else, I thought about, in like a winter or two i think im gonna lower the car. I have magna ride so it wont be much (I think steeda's is an 1" and Ford Performance and BMR are 3/4").

You guys think that will be an issue with the 285s up front?

 

[NightmareMoon]

Something else, I thought about, in like a winter or two i think im gonna lower the car. I have magna ride so it wont be much (I think steeda's is an 1" and Ford Performance and BMR are 3/4").

You guys think that will be an issue with the 285s up front?

No, lots of us, myself included are lowered on 285s. This week im riding around on the 305s squared while I wait for the 285s to be replaced.

 

[LastNightsPants]

Lol I meant to post this in a different thread... O well...

No, lots of us, myself included are lowered on 285s. This week im riding around on the 305s squared while I wait for the 285s to be replaced.

Great! Did you had you change much else to get them to work or just lowering springs?

 

[NightmareMoon]

Lol I meant to post this in a different thread... O well...



Great! Did you had you change much else to get them to work or just lowering springs?

No if the wheel offsets are right they just fit. 285 isnt so large as to cause problems.

 

[LastNightsPants]

No if the wheel offsets are right they just fit. 285 isnt so large as to cause problems.

Is +40 good for the offset?

 

[NightmareMoon]

Is +40 good for the offset?

Yup, 19x10 ET40 or ET35 with a 285/35R19 are common fitments for our cars. I'm actually having a new set mounted as I type.

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