Let's be clear. I'm not what you would call an avid sim racer. Sure, I'll occasionally hop on Forza with friends for a few Sunday races around Road Atlanta. But that's a world away from that of competitive sim racing. So I was surprised as anyone else when I found myself lining up on the grid in an official virtual series run by a real-life racing sanctioning body. And my competitors weren't your average sim racers - They were all pro drivers from the real-life US Touring Car Championship. Welcome to the USTCC. Virtually. For those of you who aren't familiar with the name, the US Touring Car Championship is the most affordable Professional Touring Car series in the United States. They are the spiritual successor of the Speed World Challenge Touring Cup series, combining modern production-based cars and talented racers with professional TV coverage to put on an impressive show. Well, prevailing conditions meant that the series couldn't start their 2020 season as planned. So series organizer Ali Arsham and his son Reza started a virtual series to keep their drivers from going stir crazy during quarantine. This being the USTCC, it wouldn't be a few open lobbies in Forza. These would be proper sanctioned races using Project Cars 2 with live commentary, streaming on Twitch and Facebook Live, and prize money for podium finishers. This was the real deal. That first 2020 season was immensely popular. 15-20 car fields filled the track at every race, and it was everything you'd expect from touring car racing: Close, aggressive wheel-to-wheel racing in 300+hp sedans, punctuated by spectacular crashes when things went awry. It was great fun for both drivers and spectators. So much so that Ali and Reza decided to bring the series back for the 2021 off-season. Unfortunately, the 2021 season started with a whimper rather than a bang. Between real-life commitments and technical issues, most of the drivers from the 2020 season couldn't attend the season opener. Just three cars took the green flag at the first race at Long Beach in what looked like it would be a lonely race. Despite this, the race went on. And it was surprisingly good. Series organizer Reza turned out to be both exceptionally fast and exceptionally crash-prone, resulting in a suspenseful cat-and-mouse game as he tried to escape from the consistent Michael McColligan and animated Ali Arsham, who would close the gap with every incident. The commentary team at Team Supernova Racing & Designs carried on with professionalism and bravado, delivering a steady stream of racing insights and amplifying the on-track action when it happened. It looked like genuinely good fun. Enough fun for me to buy a copy of Project Cars 2 on Steam and put down the $50 entry fee to join the season from the next round. And just like that, Team StudioVRM.Racing had made its foray into the world of competitive sim racing. Project Cars 2, Controller Style The USTCC Virtual Series' sim of choice is Project Cars 2, a racing sim praised for its realistic handling as well as diverse selections of both cars and tracks. It also happens to have the most epic menu music of any game I've ever played. The USTCC organizers chose it for its solid physics model and the fact that the Touring Cars in the game handled similarly to the cars in the real-life US Touring Car Championship. After doing some practice laps in single player mode, I thought they chose well. The Touring Car class in Project Cars 2 offers a choice of three cars (with a fourth if you buy the DLC). In traditional StudioVRM style, we opted for the least popular car - the Mercedes-AMG A45 Touring in the blue and white Team Dominum Racing livery. The AMG has a reputation for being a bit of a wooly handler, but that was the least of our concerns. Our big handicap was our hardware. Due to a basement flood that destroyed our old Logitech racing wheel, I would be racing with an Xbox One controller. Driving a car on track requires the use of very small, precise inputs for things like unwinding the wheel or making small adjustments under hard braking. These types of things tend to be rather difficult on a controller, even with mods like these thumb stick extenders that we bolted on later in the season. It was probably not the best choice of hardware against a field of experienced racers equipped with Fanatec and Thrustmaster setups. Too late to back down. Before we could do anything about it, it was Thursday night - Race night for rounds 3 and 4 at Watkins Glen. Hopefully we wouldn't be lapped too often. We Like the Racing Fortunately for me, the USTCC virtual series turned out to be very friendly to newcomers. The cars are restricted to one of two default setups, all assists are allowed, and qualifying is determined by a random grid to prevent runaway wins from the fastest drivers. Damage is turned up to Authentic to stop drivers from playing bumper cars in their touring cars, and the tracks are announced only 2 hours before the start to prevent drivers from spending their entire day optimizing their line around a particular track. In practice, this formula worked well. Despite having never turned a competitive lap around Watkins Glen, I was able to settle in quickly and get comfortable going side by side with the USTCC regulars. By the end of the 20-minute official practice, the #8 AMG A45 was lapping at a solid mid-pack pace. Not bad. The race was even better. Our fears of being left behind at the start proved completely unfounded, as the random grid thrust us into a tight three-way battle with the Renaults of Brad Austin and Ali Arsham. And it was a good, close fight. Run a little too wide and a brightly colored racecar would go flying past. Defend well or risk going two-wide through the next three corners. The first race was 30 minutes of nonstop position changes punctuated by an occasional incident to mix up the running order. It's a good thing that both the cars and drivers were as tough as tanks. Halfway through the first race, I misjudged my closing distance to Ali's yellow Renault and inadvertently put both of us into the Armco at the end of the boot. We immediately pointed our cars down the track and kept fighting as if nothing had happened. There was no time for anger, no time for apologies. Another moment of hesitation and Michael McColligan's green BMW would have snatched 3rd place away from both of us. It that close. Before I knew it, the 30-minute race was over. I crossed the line 4th, just half a car's length behind Ali. My hands were shaking. My heart was pounding. It was the most fun I ever had in a racing game. Even though I knew all well that it was just 3D models circulating around a rendered track, I felt the same rush as what I feel after a strong race in our Prelude. The racing felt real. The commentary team invited Ali and me to the broadcast group on Discord to give live interviews. Ali gave cool, professional answers to Team Supernova's questions, while I babbled out some mindless adrenalin-fueled responses about how much I enjoyed my first USTCC virtual race. Before long it was time for the second race of the night, a wet-weather thriller that included moments like this 3-wide entry into the bus-stop chicane. It was insane. I was hooked. The next round couldn't come soon enough. Cars, Competition, Camaraderie While the series organizers chose a good sim and put on a good event, it's the people that makes the USTCC virtual series as good as it is. As it turns out, the USTCC grid contains a wide variety of personalities, driving styles, and sim racing skill levels. Running up front are the serious sim racers like drift king Reza and lightning-quick Nik Romano. Mixing it with them are the ultra-consistent Dave Brown that punches in fast laps with metronomic consistency and the affable Andy Chittum who shrugs off shunts with a smile before charging through the field without batting an eye. Red Panther Motorsports team boss Reto Baumann proved to be blindingly fast over one lap but a bit of a magnet for incidents, allowing hard charger James Gouveia and the comradely Brad Austin to draw him into battles for position. High-energy driving from real-life series founder Ali Arsham and assertive attacker Michael McColligan kept us on our toes through the full length of every race. And towards the back, we had the super-friendly Mark McManus who filled the in-race Discord chat with friendly banter while proving that you don't need to win to enjoy competitive sim racing. While I suspect the running order of the drivers is a little different from that in real-life USTCC races, it was a good field all the same. While the drivers ran the races, it was the commentary team that turned it into a show worth watching. Team Supernova proved to be naturals at commentating races. Talented sim racer Brandon Hodges, up and coming car livery designer Austin Rahn, and touring car racer Thomas "TJ" Pitre showed off their natural chemistry while toggling effortlessly between sim racing banter and astute observations on the on-track action. It didn't take much to convince my fellow east coast racers to join the grid. ProjectCRX's Andrew Yoon was the first to register out of our local group, buying a secondhand Thrustmaster setup to dive head first into the next few rounds at Zolder. He instantly made his mark by putting a black and white Megane on the podium in his first race. One round and one Steam Sale later, bombastic SCCA racer Martin Szwarc and time trial whiz kid Firoze Mehta joined the grid to add some serious heat to the races at the Dubai Autodrome. The new racers added so much excitement that the organizers decided to extend the series by an extra three races. But not before Midwest-based rallycross driver Alton B. Worthington crashed the party with an elbows-out style of racing that he himself describes best as "rowdy." And boy was it rowdy. There were so many close races at the Algarve rounds that the commentary team went dead silent while trying to figure out which cars to commentate on. Thursday night quickly became the highlight of our week, and no wonder. The USTCC Virtual Series wasn't about racing online. It was racing online with a friendly group of talented people that knew how to race hard and still have fun. It was fantastic. Crescendo to a Grand Finale The weeks and races flew by in a flurry of bumps, scrapes, and spraying of virtual champagne. Before long it was time for the series finale. Some of us had made a bit of a game of trying to guess the event venue before the Thursday evening announcement and we were thrilled to discover that our guess of the Circuit de Catalunya was completely incorrect. The grand finale of the 2021 virtual series would be a three-race triple header at the traditional home of British touring car racing, Brands Hatch Circuit. None of us were particularly comfortable racing on the Grand Prix layout of Brands Hatch. The sweeping downhill turn one through Paddock Hill will unsettle even the most experienced driver, and as expected, multiple racers found themselves riding into the gravel runoff during the pre-race open practice session. It was a similar story with the uphill left known as Surtees Corner, with multiple front wheel drive racecars finding the outside wall before the race even started. These 20-minute races would be fights for survival. The winners would be the ones that made the fewest mistakes. I focused on getting a handle on the rhythm of the track during the short open practice. Ignore the lap times, don't worry about being a second off the pace. One-lap pace was secondary to consistency. If I could drive a clean race, run consistently, and maybe get a little lucky with our randomly chosen starting position, I could put the #8 Mercedes AMG A45 Touring in the top 5. Luckily for us, the RND gods were merciful, and we started 6th on the grid. Unluckily for the Team Supernova commentators, connectivity issues prevented the chaotic first race from being broadcast live. But believe me when I say it was chaotic. We made it through three turns before a multi-car incident took out a third of the field. With generous use of defensive driving, we avoided the calamity and got the Merc in fourth behind the red, yellow, and white BMW of Dave Brown and the Renault of Reto Baumann. Dave and Reto were both too fast for me or my XBox One controller, so I made it my mission to keep them within striking distance. If either of them made a mistake, I wanted to be there to take their place. It took all of 7 minutes before the first incident happened. Nik Romano and Firoze Mehta had charged up from the back of the grid locked in a dead heat. I briefly considered joining them in that fight but decided it would be wiser to stick with the original plan. That decision proved correct. Reto joined their battle only for the three of them to come together on Hawthorn Hill and plummet back down the order. I latched onto the back of Dave Brown intent on keeping him in sight. All the while, I could hear screams over the Discord-powered in-car radio as cars bumped, rubbed, and flew off track behind me. Don't get distracted. Stay focused. Stick to the plan. I managed to maintain a consistent pace for 18 minutes before Nik and Firoze recovered from their earlier clash and caught back up. Despite the damage to their cars, I was powerless to defend as they swept past in the third sector. As they did, Dave took a little too much curb through Westfield and spun into the wall on the inside. Although the podium had slipped out of reach, the strategy worked. The #8 AMG A45 finished 4th on the road behind the lightning-fast trio of Reza, Nik, and Firoze. Then came 2nd practice. And the rain. Lots of rain. The rear-drive BMWs started drifting wildly through every turn as the front wheel drive Renaults and AMGs drove squiggly lines down the straights to avoid the huge puddles that started forming on the edges of the track. These last two races were going to be something else. The start was something else indeed. The random grid put our #8 Mercedes-AMG A45 on pole ahead of the BMWs of James Gouveia and Mark McManus. James ran similar times to us in the dry and Mark was a few seconds off our pace. If we got a clean start, maybe we could pull a gap on the field and snatch a podium spot before the faster cars could catch up. Green light, and away we went. James sprinted ahead with a wild, tail-wagging start, snatching the lead. I tucked in behind James, trying to stay as close as possible while keeping the front end clean. Dave Brown and Nik Romano leapt up the order to take 3rd and 4th while Reza found himself going into turn 3 backwards, facing Alton Worthington who had a big moment in the first three turns of the race. As we went down the Hawthorn Hill and into the first sweeping right known as Westfield, James lost the rear end of his purple BMW and speared straight into the inside wall. And just like that, Team StudioVRM.Racing was leading the race... If only for a few corners. Dave and Nik were all over the rear bumper of our AMG and itching for a fight. As much as it pained us, we knew that getting involved in a 3-way brawl on Lap 2 would only end in tears. So I made the decision to take the conservative strategy and let the two of them by. Maybe they would tangle and open up an opportunity for us to get out in front. While all this was happening, the black, red, and white Renaults of Reto Baumann and Andrew Yoon had quietly made their way up from the back of the grid and were now knocking on our door. A small mistake in the second sector allowed Reto through, while Andrew Yoon streamed up the inside going into Hawthorns a few laps later to push us down to 5th place. And even that wouldn't be for long. A few laps later, Reza got past in his battle-damaged yellow BMW. Our conservative strategy was not paying off. Reto and Reza endured a few off-track moments which resulted in us getting back one position before the checkered flag. I crossed the line fifth behind Nik, Dave, Andrew Yoon, and Reto. I was disappointed. I suspect most racers would be. No racer wants to finish off the podium after starting on pole. There was one race left - One last 20-minute sprint in monsoon-level conditions. Damn the strategy. For this last race, we would be giving it everything we had... and then some. Finishing Flat Out So the curtain lifted on the very last race of the 2021 USTCC Virtual Series. Brandon, Thomas, and Austin in the commentary booth could only laugh when they got their first glimpse of the torrential downpour that we would be racing in. It was raining so hard at this point that puddles were forming on the grid. These would be nightmare conditions for most. For us and our seventh-place grid slot, it was game time. One last green light, and 13 racecars scrambled off the grid. As expected, conditions were treacherous. Mark McManus caught a puddle on the grid and speared off into the wall before he even crossed the start-finish line, nearly taking Alton's blue and white Opel with him. I took an aggressive line through the middle of turn one, taking 6th from Andrew Yoon and getting in position to attack Dave Brown and Nik Romano ahead. Before I could attempt an overtake, Dave and Nik suffered synchronized spins on the exit of Graham Hill. Andy Yoon and I got past with four wheels on the outside kerb and were now running 3rd and 4th. James Gouveia had emerged from the early chaos to take the lead ahead of Andy Chittum's white AMG, with Firoze Mehta, Andrew Yoon, and me hot on their heels. That running order only lasted for a few corners as James and Andy Chittum hit a big puddle on Hawthorn Hill and hydroplaned into the wall. In the blink of an eye, the east coast trio of Firoze Mehta, Andrew Yoon, and Roger Maeda were running 1-2-3. Getting past Firoze and Andrew Yoon would be tough. When we were running time trials together, Andy and Firoze were consistently amongst the fastest drivers in their classes. But I wasn't about to waste this opportunity to end the season on a high. So I dialed the brake bias rearwards, slid the rear into every corner, and hung on as my AMG strained every mechanical sinew in its blue and white body to keep up with the leaders. Reto, Reza, Dave, and Andy Chittum did their best to close the gap in their damaged cars, with little success. I watched the clock ticked down as we pulled away from the pack. Firoze and Andrew Yoon were running within a few tenths of each other, with me just a few seconds behind. If we could keep up this pace, we would all finish on the podium. But then, with just under 3 minutes left on the clock, I saw headlights in my rear-view mirror. Nik Romano had clawed back the losses from his first lap spin and was closing fast. Nik caught up on the penultimate lap at Graham Hill. I wasn't going to just let him through this time. He made a move into Westfield, I held my ground. We went through the last three turns side-by-side, leaving just enough room for each other. Once again, I could feel my heart trying to pound itself out of my chest. It was one last wheel to wheel battle to sign off a month and a half of hardcore competition. In the end, Nik got the upper hand through Stirlings and claimed the last podium spot for himself. I crossed the line fourth, with my head held high. it was a fine race to cap off a brilliant series. I never thought I would enjoy sim racing as much as I had in these past five weeks. This wasn't just a random online race series with nameless, faceless strangers from the internet. It was real racing with drivers of real cars who understood the thrill of close racing as well as the consequences of getting it wrong. It's a shame I won't get to race with these guys in real life when the actual race season starts. Oh well. Thanks to my two podium finishes and series sponsor The Speed Traveler, I now have an extra $20 that I didn't have before. Maybe I'll put it towards a wheel and pedal set for next season. Watch the Races Here's where you can watch all the race replays from the 2021 USTCC Virtual Series, with commentary from Team Supernova: Team Supernova on Twitch.tv United States Touring Car Championship Videos on Facebook The drivers and organizers all expressed interest in doing this again. We don't know yet if it will be a 2021 summer series or if we will have to wait until 2022. Look for the announcement here so you can join us: USTCC.com Lastly, here's where you can watch the full, commentated replays of every real-life USTCC race: Final Drive TV on Youtube In the meantime, I'll see you at the track.

The very first article on this StudioVRM Racing Secrets blog was a list of tips and tricks to make FWD cars fast around a racetrack. 6 years later, it remains one of the most read and visited articles on the site. So for the blog's sixth birthday, I thought we would keep the series going with three more tips and tricks to get the most out of your FWD track or race car. Use Rear Toe-Out on Newer Cars As many of you know, we at StudioVRM recommend running small amounts of toe-out in the back of FWD Honda racecars. It keeps the rear end from dragging through the entry and middle phases of corners, helping with cornering speed and keeping tyre wear more even. What we haven't talked about is how this has become the standard for pro-class FWD Touring cars. The main reason for this is that almost all new sporty front wheel drive cars use a Macpherson strut layout up front. Despite all of their advances, these front suspension systems are still camber challenged compared to the double A-arm setups on FWD cars from the 80's and 90's. To make matters worse, many Touring Car classes limit the amount of camber you can add to the wheels. This is all bad news for cornering grip on a front-driven racecar. Fortunately, the engineers at pro touring car teams are resourceful. They realized that if they can't add grip to the front, they need to make the rear tyres work for them. So that's what they did. By adding more rear camber and dialing in extraordinarily high amounts of rear toe-out, they effectively use the rear tyres to help steer the car through the first few two phases of a corner. This takes some work away from the already overworked front tyres while allowing the driver to rely on load transfer rather than steering lock to rotate the car. How high is "extraordinarily high"? Well, just to give you an idea, reliable sources at several TC America teams have admitted to running over a full degree of rear total toe-out. Of course, this is something that applies to newer (2012+) cars with limited front suspension geometry and very small rubber bushings. If your FWD racecar was built in the 80s, 90s, or early 2000s, start with a lot less, say 0.1 degrees of rear total toe-out. Don't attempt anything more than 0.4 degrees of total rear toe out unless you have replaced your squishy stock suspension bushings with spherical bearings. Add a Rear Wing In the early 2000's, big wings on front wheel drive cars were regarded as a bit of a joke amongst car enthusiasts. In 2021, nearly all fast FWD track cars have a big, downforce-producing rear wing. So what changed? The answer is that racers and track day drivers started setting up their cars for corner entry oversteer. In the 1990's, only the fastest and most aggressive racers would use a big rear anti-roll bar, stiff rear springs, run narrow rear tyre, or run extreme-looking alignment settings in pursuit of that razer-sharp cornering performance. In the 2020's, it's common knowledge that you need to do one or more of these things to get the best possible lap time out of a FWD track or race car. However, all of these setup changes come with a drawback - corner entry oversteer through high-speed corners. And yes, that is a bad thing. Unlike in the world of autocross and stage rally, high-speed oversteer is both slow and scary on a road course. If only there was a way to retain that tail-happy behavior through slow corners while keeping the car stable through fast sweepers. That's where a good, downforce-producing rear wing comes in. A well-designed, well-set up rear wing will give you that much needed stability through the fast sections without sacrificing that low-speed cornering agility you worked so hard for. You also don't need anything exotic. A 9Lives wing or an APR GTC-200 mounted a few inches below roof height is more than enough to make a significant difference in how the car handles. Use a Softer Rear Tyre for Sprint Races I learned about this counter-intuitive trick from a fellow Honda racer, Fusion Works Fabrication's Brett Whisenant. As we all know, it takes a little while to warm up the rear tyres of a front wheel drive racecar. If your FWD track car runs on DOT R-compound or full racing slicks, you're probably already used to wrangling the car during the first few laps of a race due to tons of corner-entry oversteer from cold rear tyres. A rear wing does wonders to fix this behavior, but there are many racing classes out there that won't allow you to run one. So what can you do? Brett's solution to this problem is to swap the road-race oriented Hoosier "R" DOT racing tyres on the rear end of his Integra with the softer autocross-focused "A" compound of the same size. These softer Hoosier As are designed to come up to operating temperature within a few corners instead of within a few laps. This means he can aggressively push the car from the very first lap without worrying about spinning the car. As the race goes on and the rear tyres get hotter, that extra grip will fade away. On a rear wheel drive car, that would be annoying. But in a front wheel drive race car, you can use that to your advantage. A 30-40 minute sprint race will generate enough heat into your front tyres that their grip will start to fade, resulting in more and more corner exit understeer. If you play with the tyre pressures on the rear tyres, you can get the rears to fade at the same time as the fronts, neutralizing that late-race understeer and keeping the handling of the car consistent through an entire session. While this strategy might not be necessary for those of you living in warmer climates, it's something to consider for sprint races during the cool autumn months. That's all I have for today. Thank you very much for reading. I will see you at the track.

Splitters are amazing functional aero pieces on a track or race car. Unfortunately, they can also be unwieldly, and can cause a lot of collateral damage to your car if you ever hit anything while it's attached to your car. We at StudioVRM can't afford to buy new bumpers and subframes on a regular basis, so we use a mounting mechanism that not only makes it easier to live with a full-length splitter, but has some built-in safety mechanisms in the case the worst case scenario becomes reality. Here's how we do it: Quick Releases Everywhere In order for a front splitter to make a significant difference on track, it must be large, it must protrude forward of the bumper at least a few inches, and it must be within 4" of the ground. This also means that you will need some very low ramps or have a quick way to remove and reattach the splitter in order to do anything under the car (or for that matter, load it onto a trailer). Due to the high cost of low-profile race ramps, we recommend the latter. Instead of bolting the splitter blade directly to the chassis, we used PCI-Style quick release splitter brackets for a Civic and modified them so they would fit into the factory tie-down mounting holes. These quick release brackets have an ingenious design. When locked in place, the brackets are solid. The weight of the splitter (as well as any downforce it generates) is supported by the two burly bolts in between the top and bottom halves of the bracket, and there's very little play in any direction. But if you pull the detent pin in the middle of the bracket, the two halves slide apart, allowing you to unhook the splitter and remove it from the car in a matter of minutes. Because the Super Touring Under class' Advanced Aero regulations allow for a splitter that extends 3" past the bumper, we need splitter support rods to prevent the splitter blade from bending excessively. Our support rods of choice are the DIFTech quick release splitter rods. Similar to the splitter mounting brackets, these support rods use detent pins that you can pull to quickly unhook them from the car. These rods are designed so you can replace the fasteners that attach them to the splitter and bumper, which for reasons we'll get into later, are very important. They also have two built-in weak points designed into the threaded parts of the rods, which are a very handy safety feature in the event of the worst-case scenario. Built-in Breakaways In addition to being an almost essential convenience, these quick releases serve an important secondary function: They act as built-in weak points that allows the splitter to break away from the car in the event of a big hit. Why do you need a breakaway? Well, splitters stick out a fair bit from the front of the bumper and are therefore the first thing to contact a wall, a ditch, or another car. If a splitter is solidly mounted to the chassis of your car, the forces of any impact will transmit right through the mounts and bend or break whatever it's attached to. Sure, the splitter will absorb some of those forces, but not all of them. And even if it does, you don't want a big chunk of splitter piercing your radiator or wreaking havoc in your engine bay. Especially if it happens to be made of aluminum, carbon fiber, or Tegris. Fortunately, the pins and fasteners in these quick release mounts and supports are thin enough that they can act like this type of fail-safe. Just by using this type of mount over a solid bracket, you get an added level of assurance that, in a crash, the splitter will separate from the car safely without tearing up the body. Use the Right Fasteners Many splitter mounting brackets and support rods come with round head, recessed hex bolts to secure the hardware to the splitter blade. While they have a nice low profile and do look good, they are a terrible choice for this application. Throw them out or save them for something else. The reason is that splitters spend most of their working lives scraping across the ground as you brake, corner, and straddle the red and white striped kerbs at your local racetrack. By the end of the day, the shallow hexagonal hole in the head would have been worn down that you won't be able to get an Allen key in it, making it impossible to remove and replace the bracket. If possible, replace these round head bolts with elevator bolts. Elevator bolts have flat bottoms that sit flush against the bottom of your splitter blade once tightened and won't be subject to the same wear as regular bolts. If you can't get elevator bolts, use regular hex-head flange bolts. Not only do these bolts have the advantage of being cheap and readily available, but they can also be easily removed even when the heads have experienced a bit of wear. Some companies sell bolt-on wear plates that you can bolt to the bottom of your splitter. While these do look very good, they aren't necessary. Instead, take a page from the handbook of pro racing coach Todd Reid and bolt a few stubby large-diameter bolts on the edges of the splitter. These bolts will serve the same function as those expensive wear plates and will be much cheaper to replace. Live Demonstration So this is all well and good. But how do we know whether all these measures work in real life? Well, due to a clumsy off-track excursion by our team's official test and race driver (me), we have real data that shows how these breakaway mounts work in real life. Here's an in-car video that shows exactly what happens when you run into something hard with your chassis-mounted splitter. That divot in the outfield is quite a bit deeper than it looks on video. When we drove over that bit, the splitter dug into the dirt and the car launched into the air by a few inches before thumping back to the ground. Fortunately for us, the breakaway mechanisms worked exactly as planned. The entire splitter blade broke away from the car in one piece, leaving the delicate underside of the StudioVRM Prelude untouched as it bounded through the bumpy grass-covered runoff. Aside from a pair of slightly dented splitter brackets, the only other damage to the car were these holes on the sides of the bumper cover. This was our fault. We had bolted an additional set of support rods to the sides of the front bumper cover to help support our extra-wide splitter through fast sweepers. While this did help keep the edges of the splitter held high enough so they wouldn't drag on banked turns, it also meant that the plastic holding the support rods were weaker than the breakaway points built into the support rods. Fortunately, this wasn't a big problem. Plastic repair kits are so cheap and are easy to use that even the ham-fisted of home mechanics will be able to patch up a broken front bumper. All we did was a bit of ABS plastic filler, shaped it with this $12 hot iron, and sanded it flat. All we need is a bit of touch-up paint, and our damaged bumper cover will be ready to go back on the car. Conclusion and Recommendations While it's natural to assume that everything on your car should be as strong and durable as possible, it's not the case with things like front splitters. Take the time to design weak points into the car to ensure that a small mistake or a minor bump with a competitor won't result in expensive, race-ending damage to your car. Remember, splitters are cheap and disposable. Don't be afraid to sacrifice it to save your car... or, for that matter, to save your race.

In the mid-2000's, a motorsport enthusiast in the UK designed a metal device that would let you lock the lap portion of your car's 3-point seatbelt and use it like a cheap racing seat. This device was called the CG-Lock and it was a fantastic tool for autocrossers and track day enthusiasts alike. Yours truly had one for his street-driven Nissan 200sx and loved it. In the late 2010's, nostalgia drove this author to look for another one, only to find that they were no longer being produced. Instead, the inventor had adapted the concept and turned it into an ergonomic device to help prevent back pain from long drives in your street car. This new device is made of a softer neoprene-like material and is (rather oddly) called the SHOFT. So being a sucker for random car gadgets, I bought one. As it turns out, it's actually quite useful - probably more so than the old CG-Lock. See for yourself on the StudioVRM youtube channel: Where to Buy: Direct from the manufacturer at Shoft.co.uk (yes, they ship to the US) Update - 12.13.2020: Shortly after we released this video, I received a message from Graham Cox, the inventor of the SHOFT. He thanked us for our candid review and offered to send us one of the discreet black-on-orange version of the SHOFT for us to try out. According to Graham, it would be "as black as James Bond's bowtie." Well, a few days later we got his package. Curiously, instead of coming by Royal Post, this package came through the US Post Office. It turns out that Graham's generous gift came from the desk of Wil Jacques, Graham's US-based distributor for SHOFT. Apparently the SHOFT is called CINCH in the US and comes in a package that has been redesigned for the US market. Based on the catchy name and the eye-catching packaging, it looks like it should do well on store shelves here in the US. Graham was right about the look too. The black version is finished in a classy deep satin black. While we attention-seeking racecar drivers love safety orange, this black version disappears into the shadows on a modern car seat belt. I suspect this will be the more popular option for most fashion-conscious drivers. Disclosure section: Neither StudioVRM nor Roger Maeda are affiliated with SHOFT. All products tested were purchased at full price out of Roger's own pocket. Thankfully, international shipping from the UK is still cheap. The black SHOFT in the last picture was sent to us by Graham Cox and Wil Jacques, maker and US distributor of the SHOFT (aka CINCH) device as a thank you for publishing the review. Since we already had enough SHOFT devices for our entire fleet of street cars, we gave this new device to our team's Race Engineer. We'll update this article if we have any new findings with this model.

They say it's "third time lucky." But in the world of racecar testing, there is no such thing as getting lucky at a test. Tests are for finding and fixing problems so they don't become an issue during a race. If you owe your trouble-free test day to luck, you did not have a successful test. That's why we came away from our final test of the 2020 season with the same accomplished euphoria as when we finish on the podium. After being stymied by problem after problem, the StudioVRM Prelude was finally running the way it was meant to. And we knew it wasn't down to luck. With ambient temperatures near freezing and 20-30 mph winds threatening to tear the State Flag of New Jersey off its pole, we knew we wouldn't be breaking any lap records at this cold November test. Fortunately, gasoline engines love cold temperatures. And our 2020-spec H23A1 loved it. The painstaking re-work of the Prelude's ancient electronics had paid off. Gone were the intermittent misfires and fuel flow issues that stopped us from turning a single fast lap at our last test. The Prelude's cast aluminum heart roared to life and gently shook the cabin through the new engine mounts it received since our October test. On track, the motor rewarded robust applications of throttle with excellent response in the middle of its 3500rpm-wide powerband. This enhanced drivability is a welcome addition, as it will help us make overtaking moves where our torquey Honda has the advantage over its competition. On the other hand, there seemed to be a noticeable lack of top-end power, though the AFR gauge showed us why: Despite the cold, dense ambient air, the gauge showed an air fuel ratio of just 10:1. When we dyno-tuned the StudioVRM Prelude, it still had the Prelude's original Honda fuel pump. While it seemed to be adequate at the time, it wasn't enough to allow the 410cc RDX injectors to pump fuel to their full potential. Now that we had upgraded to a 255LPH Walbro unit, the engine was getting much more fuel than what the tune expected. Extra fuel is good for cooling the engine, but it isn't ideal for power. By running the engine so rich, we were leaving more than a few percent of power on the table under full throttle. That wasn't the only issue of the day. An off-track moment during an early morning session tore the BEMS-built splitter right out of its mounts, leaving some big holes in the front bumper and relegating the Prelude to a state of perpetual understeer. There was also an elusive oil leak somewhere near the timing cover that caused the car to puff clouds of blue smoke during right-hand turns. Yet, despite all this, the Prelude kept pounding out the laps. Team StudioVRM spent the afternoon chasing down drivers in high-dollar sports cars, briefly pausing to observe Martin's equally productive test day in the ProjectCRX Si. In six on-track sessions, we gathered enough data to get the best out of our Hoosier road race slicks and plan a slew of handling and aero setup changes for the 2021 season. It felt great to have our first productive on-track session in months. It felt even better knowing that these strong laps would translate to a strong start when the tracks reopen in 2021. Of course, there's still plenty of development work to be done over the off-season. In addition to repairing the bumper and replacing the splitter, we plan to refine the aerodynamics of the car to reduce parasitic drag and make the most of our power. Speaking of power, we also have a new intake manifold previously ported by Bad Guys Worldwide which we hope will help extract a few extra hp at the top end of the Honda H23A1 powerplant. No doubt, this will be a very busy winter. But for the first time in years, we will go into this off season with great expectations from our first race of 2021. Time to get to work.

I'm sure you all know about the double-wrench trick, where you can link two combination wrenches together to break stuck nuts. But how many of you know about the double-screwdriver trick to help loosen over-torqued screws? Well, it turns out that the hanger holes on the tops of hardware store screwdrivers are quite strong - Strong enough that you can stick a second screwdriver into them and use it as a T-handle to get some extra torque. It might not look like very much, but that few extra inches of leverage are enough to multiply the torque applied to the fastener by a factor of 3-5x. It's enough to break most stuck and rusty fasteners in cars, appliances, and your home. It's a handy trick for when the power drill is out of reach, or when you leave your impact driver in the other toolkit. Just don't use that trick to tighten the screws, or you'll never get them back out. Special Thanks Thanks to ProjectCRX's Martin Szwarc for this tech tip. Check out https://ProjectCRX.racing to learn more about his wild misadventures in our Honda CRX endurance racer.

If you have ever seen Amazon's Grand Prix Driver series (or are just a fan of Formula 1), you will know all about Honda's engine woes in the 2017 season. That was the year that Honda's F1 engine team decided to ditch its innovative but underpowered compact turbo setup in favor of a Mercedes F1-style split turbo with a much larger compressor. The new turbo design resulted in some impressive gains on the dyno - Enough to catch up to the Ferrari and Renault power units that Honda had trailed so far behind in the first two years of their F1 return. But the newfound power came at the cost of reliability. Due to teething issues with the engine oil system, McLaren-Honda completed only a tiny fraction of its scheduled pre-season testing. I remember the grim expressions on the faces of the Honda engineers during those first few races. It was a mix of pain from seeing their hard work fail to live up to expectations and a stiff-lipped determination to make things right. After experiencing our second unsuccessful test in 2020, I'm starting to understand how they must have felt. Just a few short weeks after our disastrous August test, the one-man StudioVRM Test Team returned to Thunderbolt at NJ Motorsports park to continue where it left off. In the short time since the last test, the Prelude received a new fuel pump, fuel strainer, and filter, as well as a fresh Bosch wideband oxygen sensor. Bench testing in the garage indicated that the fuel delivery issues were no more. Hopes were high that we had gotten it right this time. The day started with lots of promise. The StudioVRM Prelude fired right up and effortlessly cruised through its first laps of the day without any hint of the engine issues that plagued our truncated first test. There seemed to be some sort of handling problem that kept the car from turning in as sharply as it could. But that was ok. We came well prepared to handle suspension issues. Yours truly broke out the portable alignment kit and honed in on the problem - A full degree of toe-in across the rear wheels. It seems one of the toe adjusters had shifted in the rear end. No matter, a few turns of the rear toe adjuster bolts put us back on track with 0.1 degrees of toe out: Not quite the 0.3 deg total toe out that we normally race with, but close enough for today's engine test. That adjustment restored the car's handling and finally let us open up the new engine. While our 2020-spec H23A1 did seem to lose some of its low-end grunt, it made up for it with a ton of usable power in its powerband. Since this was a DE event, I drove conservatively so not to cause any trouble for the other participants. Even then, the Prelude clocked a 1:34.7 around Thunderbolt- Almost a full second faster than it has ever run on this track. Pleased with this promising start, we took a few minutes to relax and enjoy the atmosphere. We even took a few minutes to put this little shot on Insta to show the world just how well the test was going. The only explanation I have for what happened next is that I jinxed it. We went out during the first afternoon session hoping to get some 9/10 pace laps in clear air. But within seconds of leaving the pit lane, we were greeted by an intermittent misfire down the back straight. Oh boy. Not this again. Unfortunately, it was that. Again. Back to the paddock, disconnect and re-connect the wiring for the injectors. Do a test drive around the paddock, make sure the engine runs ok. Go back out, get to the main straight, immediately suffer another misfire. Back to the paddock. Rinse, repeat, suffer. Before we could get to the root of the issue, the day was over. For the second time in 30 days, we loaded the car back on the trailer and headed home with a broken car. We only found the problem after the car was back in the Studio: Two of the four injectors were cutting out due to faulty wiring. At some point in the Prelude's life, someone had replaced whole sections of the injector harness with brand new wire. While they had done a fairly decent job of soldering and insulating the connections, years of vibrations from the high-performance engine had caused those joints to crack and fail. To add insult to injury, our cheap injector clips weren't seating properly on our RDX injectors. Even though we had strapped them down with zip ties on top of the plastic clips, they still had enough play to lift off of the injector contacts, further complicating matters. And so here we are, sitting back at the Studio, painstakingly inspecting every millimeter of the chassis harness on the StudioVRM Prelude, replacing old wire, patching up broken insulation, and changing out the cheap injector clips with higher quality adapters from Rywire. As painful and annoying as this all of this is, we know it's all worth it. One day, in the very near future, the StuidoVRM Prelude will get us onto the podium where no one expects us to be. All I can say at this point is: That day can't come soon enough.

Over the winter, Powertrain Wizard Robert Oliver rebuilt our H23A1 with a host of reliability improvements in the block and a head that was built to the limit of the rules in the SCCA's Super Touring Under class. Now it was time to see what our new engine could do on the dyno at Evans Performance Academy. Return to the Dyno Our last dyno outing yielded some very stout numbers with a peak horsepower number around 180hp. With the more aggressively ported head, bored out intake manifold, and our new cams, we expected to see some further top end gains. What we didn't expect was the deafening roar that erupted from the back of the Prelude when tuner-owner Jeff Evans put the hammer down: That distinctly un-Honda like exhaust note is the product of the Powertrain Wizard's latest custom-built exhaust. As a side project, Robert had replaced the worn-out Burns stainless muffler and replaced it with a baffled unit designed for a much larger 6 cylinder motor. This was the first time that anyone had heard what it sounded like under full throttle. Jeff thought the exhaust made the car sound angry. He was right. Travel restrictions had kept the StudioVRM Prelude trapped in the garage like a caged animal. There's no doubt that it wanted to see the liberating expanse of the racetrack as much as its driver. And it seemed it would do so much faster than it ever had. With one last bellowing scream, our 2020-spec H23A1 recorded a peak figure of 194hp and 172 lbs-ft of torque on the Evans Performance Academy Dynapack. Critically, most of those gains registered above 5000 rpms. Our Prelude had previously struggled to keep up with its competition due to its lack of top-end power. This welcome gain would help even the odds down those longer straights. Of course, dyno figures don't win races. So it was back to the track to see what we could do with this newfound power. Track Testing, Truncated Coincidentally, our first full track outing of the year would take place at the very same event where we had our catastrophic engine failure - the SCCA Summer Thunder weekend at NJ Motorsports Park. Except this time, we would be taking part in all three days, including the Friday open test session. And boy were we glad we did. A myriad of technical glitches plagued the Friday morning sessions, with everything from random misfires to missing hood pins to an oil sump that was filled a full quart over full. Unfortunately, the last of those three issues fouled our wideband oxygen sensor, causing the ECU to dial back the engine tune to preserve the engine. To add insult to injury, the car started showing signs of a failing fuel pump in the late morning. Trackside repairs were attempted, but to no avail. We needed replacement parts that local auto parts stores simply didn't stock. Team StudioVRM packed up and headed home without being able to put a single fast lap on the new 2020 spec engine. Back to the Studio Not all track days are good days, and not all test days are successful days. Our first outing of 2020 was a painful reminder of these realities of racing. The one consolation is that we squashed a dozen other teething problems during this first outing and are a fuel pump and an oxygen sensor away from being ready for our next test outing. That day is not too far away. At the time of writing, the new parts have already arrived and are waiting to be installed. It won't be long before the StudioVRM Prelude takes to the track again.

Testing a racecar is one of those things that are simultaneously loved and hated by race teams. Engineers love it. It's their chance to check their work and gather data for their next big technical achievement. Even if the car breaks, it teaches them something new. Drivers hate testing. It's boring, repetitive, and it forces them to suppress the competitive instinct that makes them good racers. If the car breaks, you sit on the sidelines and wait around until something changes. The only part that everyone agrees on is that testing a necessary part of running a racecar. For a small team with a limited budget, track testing is both a necessity and a luxury. Because of this, StudioVRM.Racing does almost all of our driver training away from the track, opting for cheap rental karts and a routine of regular mental imagery exercises in lieu of expensive track outings. Like sim racing, it's a mediocre substitute for doing real laps in your own car. But it works. Unless you have to test out new hardware of course. So we ventured down to NJMP's Thunderbolt track one day early to run the official SSCA test day prior to the Summer Thunder race weekend. People say that social distancing takes the fun out of events, but I think it helps at these types of events. Contactless check-in and socially distanced tech made administrative chores a cakewalk and no one complained when we set up our paddock spot hundreds of feet from the next team. My oversized mask prevented me from picking up painful sunburns on my face while a lack of social commitments meant I could rest in the comfort of a pop-up tent kept cool by a Walmart box fan. Testing requires focus, and the conditions were perfect to do exactly that. And boy did we need to focus. Just 1.5 laps into the day, course workers called the Prelude back to pit lane with the orange and black flag. The right front hood pin had parted from the body, allowing the carbon fiber hood to flap wildly at speed. Rush back to our paddock, install a spare pin, and trundle back to grid... only to be stopped at the entrance. It took a minute for me to be able to see why. On the other side of the pit wall, a Trans Am 2 Camaro sat stranded on the entry to pit lane. A team of panicked grid workers swarmed upon the stricken Chevrolet, manually pushing the massive car clear before another driver could come in and slam into it unsighted. A few short minutes later we were released back on track, right behind a pair of Spec Miatas. Perfect. Spec Miata racers tend to not waste time warming up, so they won't hold us up in the early sessions. All we have to do is to follow them through the corners for half a lap to get the tyres and brakes up to temperature. Then make an easy pass down the main straight... or not. Instead of unleashing the ~200fwhp promised by the dyno, the Prelude's new H23A1 rumbled like an old 3-valve tractor engine and refused to rev. It was an ugly sound, something between a spun bearing and a combustion chamber that was filled with gravel. Time to lift, coast, and crawl to the paddock. This truncated first session would set the tome for the rest of the day, a litany of passages from the book of trial and error: Park the car, lift the front end in the air, and discover that the motor was ingesting oil due to an overfilled oil system. Drain 1.25 quarts of engine oil, fire it up, notice an odd misfire. Find a loose injector clip, secure all of the injector clips with zip ties, go back out for the second session. Immediately come back in after hearing the splitter scraping under braking. Come back in, find that one of the splitter mounting bolts have fallen out. Scramble around, discover that we don't have any M12x1.75 bolts in the hardware kit, hack together a fix, go back out. Notice that the engine still had no power, come back in. By noontime we had completed just 8 laps and were no closer to finding the cause of our biggest problem. We repeatedly checked the usual culprits - spark plugs, TPS, MAP sensor, Main Relay, injectors, and ignition module, all to no avail. Aside from a few spots of white on the spark plugs, there was little to indicate that there were any issues. It took until the fourth session of the day to find a meaningful clue - The display on the AEM air fuel ratio gauge started going blank whenever we put load on the engine. Pulling the oxygen sensor revealed part of the problem - Some unburnt engine oil had made its way all the way through the engine and had fouled it. Calls to local auto parts stores revealed that none of them had the Bosch 17025 we needed (although they all seemed to have the similarly numbered but physically incompatible Bosch 17205). But a bad oxygen sensor didn't seem like the sole cause for this problem. Most ECUs are tuned to ignore the oxygen sensor under full throttle, and ours is no exception. Fortunately, several mechanically inclined friends* saw my vaguely disappointing Facebook updates and started troubleshooting our issue remotely. The conclusion? Our 27-year old OEM Honda fuel pump was on its last legs. With the day coming to an end and no spares on hand, we made the decision to withdraw from the race and head home early. Thus ended our first track outing of the year. The StudioVRM Prelude is back in the garage, waiting for the arrival of a Walbro 255LPH fuel pump and a replacement Bosch oxygen sensor. I'm watching the Indy 500 in the comfort of my home when I'm supposed to be sweating it out in the heat of an on-track battle. Yes, it's annoying, and yes I would have liked it to have spent the weekend differently. But at the end of the day, the team can seek solace in the fact that at least this didn't happen on race day. So yes, I'm ok with how this test went. On to the next one. *Thank You Thank you Chris Nickolite, Ross Shull, Chris DeShong, Greg Amy, Todd Reid, Robert Oliver, Charlie Greenhaus, and Don Stellhorn for your help in diagnosing the problems this weekend. Although Mechanical issues ended my weekend early, thanks to you it didn't end in disappointment.

An emergency seatbelt cutter isn't the first thing that comes to mind when you think of racecar safety equipment. But close friend and fellow racer Chris "Cessna" Eng insisted that it would help him feel more comfortable behind the wheel of his Improved Touring S prepped Subaru Impreza. So what better way to test his idea than to get two of the most popular seatbelt cutters out there and try them on some brand new seatbelt material? Here's the full video of what we found: Products Featured: Resqme Keychain Car Escape Tool VicTsing Window Breaker Seatbelt Cutter (Not recommended) Disclosure Section: All products shown were purchased out of Roger's own pocket, at full price. That said, StudioVRM is now an Amazon Associate, which means that we get a tiny bit of income if you buy a product using the Amazon links above. All that said, I would strongly recommend against buying the VicTsing seatbelt cutter for the reasons shown above.

If you've read our first look / review of the B-G Racing String Alignment Kit, you'll know that it comes with some of the most confusing instruction manuals we have ever seen at StudioVRM. So to help out first-time buyers and users, we've written step-by-step guide on how to assemble the kit, get it set up, and how to do your first 4-wheel alignment with this kit. Here they are: You Will Need A B-G Racing String Alignment Kit A metal straightedge, at least 12 inches or 30cm long, where the markings start at the edge of the ruler Optional: A small bubble line level to attach to the straightedge to make sure you are holding it in a consistent way A bit of double-sided tape to keep the level from sliding off the straightedge How to Assemble Your Kit N.B.: Print out page 2 of the official B-G Racing User Manual. The letter codes used below are the same as what B-G uses in the official manual. 1. Take the short square bars (E), small rectangular junctions (K), plastic end caps (N) and set them aside for now. 2. Grab the four 3-way junctions (I) and lay them out so the yellow and black B-G Racing labels are facing. Make sure that all of the labels are right side up. Pair them up so that the wheel-shaped knobs face away from each other. 3. Grab one pair of the junctions and insert one of the long bars (C) through the horizontal channel with the labels. Take care to ensure that the metal shims do not fall out while inserting the bar. If they do, put them back in so that they are on the same side as the oval shaped knobs. Space the junctions so they are roughly the same distance from the ends of the bar. Tighten the oval shaped knobs to hold the horizontal bar in place. 4. Insert two of the long square bars (C) through the 3-way junction so they are perpendicular to the yellow and black labels. Make sure that the holes on the ends of the tube are facing outwards. Position them so they are roughly the same length on both sides and tighten the knobs on the junction to hold them in place. 5. Insert two of the medium length bars (D) through the remaining channel in the junction. This time, make sure that the holes on these tubes are facing the same direction (to your left). Position them so they are roughly the same length on both sides and tighten the knobs on the junction to hold them in place. 6. Stand the rack up so the labels are right side up. This is how you will hold it when you install it on your car. 7. Grab four of the soft foam bumpers (J). Slip two of them over the two vertical bars (C) from underneath the horizontal bar, then insert the remaining two over the two bars (D) coming out of the back of the rack. 8. Install hook (G) onto the bottom of one of the vertical bars, using the provided allen key (P) and allen screws (M). Make sure the hook points towards you during this step. 9. Install the alignment bar holder (F) onto the bottom of the other vertical bar, using the provided allen key (P) and allen screws (M). Make sure that the tube holder and adjuster knob are facing you. 10. Install two of the double-sided chassis hooks (H) on the two bars coming out of the back of the rack. Make sure that the hooks are pointed downward. 11. Grab two of the longer round bars (A), one of the round center sections (B), and two brown washers (O). Screw the longer round bars into the center section, with one washer in between each of the bars. 12. Insert the assembled alignment bar into the holder (F) so that it sits roughly in the middle of the rack. 13. Open the hood or trunk of your car, loosen the oval knobs on the horizontal part of the junctions, and slide them so that the rack hangs securely from your radiator support or trunk lip. Adjust the length of the medium length bars with the hooks (H) so that the vertical bars are perpendicular to the ground. If necessary, adjust the large round knobs to adjust the angle of the rack to get the vertical bars perpendicular to the ground. If necessary, adjust the vertical bars so that the round alignment bar is the same height as the centers of your wheels. 14. If any of the bars are so long that they get in the way, you may replace them with the next shortest bar from the kit (replace C with D, D with E as appropriate). If any of the bars are too short, use the small junctions (K) to attach additional lengths of square tubing (E). 15. Once you are happy with the length and positioning of the bars, tighten down all of the adjustment knobs. Install plastic end caps (N) onto the ends of the square bars. Repeat the instructions above to assemble the other rack. How to Set Up Your Alignment Rack 1. Park your car on a flat, level surface with the steering wheel set straight ahead. Engage your parking brake and put the car into gear (or in Park). Set all four tyres to the same pressure. Torque all lugnuts to the recommended torque value for your wheels. 2. Open your hood and trunk. Attach the racks to your car and adjust the pads so that the metal rack does not come in contact with the bodywork of your car. 3. Hook the round loop on the end of the yellow string reel to the outermost groove of the round alignment bar. Lift the lever on the back of the spool to unlock the reel and walk it to the alignment rack on the other end of the car. 4. Wrap the string around the other alignment bar twice, and lock the handle back into place. 5. Adjust the height of the two vertical bars so that the string is the same height as the centers of your wheels. 6. Get your straightedge and measure the distance between your string and the center of your wheel. You want this distance to be between 2 and 4 inches (50mm - 100mm). Move the string to a different groove if the string is sitting too far away from the wheels. 7. Loosen the adjustment knob holding the round alignment bars in place. Use your straightedge to measure the distance between the center of your front left wheel and the string. Compare it to the distance between the center of your front right wheel and the string. 8. Move the front alignment bar left or right until the string is the exact same distance away from the left and right front wheels. 9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 for the rear alignment bar. Note that the wheel center to string measurements may not be exactly the same for the front and rear axles. This is normal, since most production cars have a different track width across the front and rear wheels. 10. Re-check the distance between the wheel center and the string in the front. Adjust the front alignment bar again if necessary. If you make any adjustments, re-check the rear as well. 11. Once all four measurements are the same, carefully tighten down the knobs for the round alignment bars. 12. Your alignment rack is ready to use. How to Measure Toe using a String Alignment Kit 1. Go to any one of your wheels with your straightedge. If you have a small bubble level, attach it to your straightedge with double-sided tape. 2. Measure the distance between the wheel rim and the string on the rearmost part of the wheel. Hold the straightedge just below the height of the string, and keep the straightedge as level as possible (this is where the bubble level helps). Write this number down. 3. Measure the distance between the wheel and the string at the front. Write this number down. 4. Subtract the number in step 3 from the number in step 2. This is your toe measurement. If the number is greater than 0, you have toe in on that wheel. If the number is less than 0, you have toe out on that wheel. 5. You can convert your measurement to degrees by using the following formula in a scientific calculator. Remember to convert all measurements to Metric or Imperial, and to set your calculator to degrees (instead of radian): [Toe in degrees] = Arctan( [Toe measurement in mm or inches] / [Diameter of wheel in mm or inches]) For example, if you get 1mm toe-in on a 17" wheel, the calculation would be: Arctan(1 mm / 431.8 mm) = 0.133 degrees Toe in FYI - I recommend using an online arctangent calculator like this. Additional Tips and Tricks If you have a low-slung sports car, try using the medium-length bars (D) for the vertical sections instead of the long bars (C). On cars with retractable headlights or trunks that are set into the bodywork, use the long bars (C) when hooking the racks onto the chassis. Always adjust the soft foam bumpers (J) before resting the rack on the car. The corners of the square tubing WILL scratch your car's paint if you let them touch. Adjust ride height, corner weights, caster, and camber before attempting to do a 4-wheel toe alignment. Don't worry too much about getting the spacing of the 3-way junctions perfect. What matters is the distance between the strings and your car. Have any questions? Feel free to ask away using our contact form. We do a lot of alignments here at StudioVRM so we are pretty familiar with common issues. Cheers.

One of the advantages of double wishbone (double a-arm) suspension designs is that they gain a lot of negative camber when you compress them. It's a big advantage over the MacPherson strut and Chapman strut designs that are so common in new cars, and is one of the main reasons that 90's era Hondas and Mazdas handle so well. The harder you take corners, the more you compress the suspension system. The more the suspension compresses, the more negative camber you gain on your two outside wheels. The more negative camber you have, the better your chances of keeping the tread parallel to the ground, and the more grip you'll have. Sure, you can achieve a similar effect by large amounts of static camber, but there is a downside to running too much negative camber: It reduces the size of your contact patch when you are driving the car in a straight line. This can make the car difficult to control under hard braking and can significantly increase braking distances from high speeds. So yes, if you are the proud owner of a car with double wishbone suspension, you should be happy that you have this inherent advantage over your competition. You should also take every opportunity to maximize this advantage so you can beat them even harder. As it turns out, there is an easy way to enhance this effect to get even more dynamic camber from your double wishbone-equipped car. All you need is a handful of M18 stainless steel washers. They cost about $8 US from your average industrial supply store and are very easy to find: When you first get the washers, take them out of their packaging and lay them flat on a table for inspection. You want to do a visual check to make sure that none of them are significantly thicker or thinner than the others (more than 0.5mm thicker or thinner than the others). You can measure the washers using calipers or by comparing the thicknesses by eye. 0.5mm doesn't sound like very much, but it's enough of a difference that you can see it with the naked eye. Once you have a handful of washers that are of consistent thickness, jack up your car, remove the wheels, unbolt the inner pivots of your upper control arms from the chassis, and slip one or two washers on the upper control arm pivots. Then reinstall the control arms and torque down the top nuts according to the spec in the service manual. Depending on whether you have OEM or aftermarket upper control arm anchors, you may be able to fit more than one washer in this space. Just make sure you leave enough space so that there are at least one or two threads showing above the the top nut after you bolt the control arm back into the chassis. And that's it. By adding these washers, you lower the pivot point of the upper control arm by 3-6 mm, which increases the rate at which your suspension system gains negative camber as it's compressed. The amount of dynamic camber you gain will vary depending on your car's suspension geometry and ride height. On our Prelude, this simple modification gave us an additional 0.5 degrees of negative camber when the dampers are compressed 40mm (approx 1.5 inches). That might not sound like very much, but remember, alignment settings are measured in tenths of a degree. 0.5 degrees can easily be the difference between making full use of your tyres' contact patch (good) and riding on the outside edges of the tread (bad). The good news is that you can get all added benefit without affecting your car's performance under braking or acceleration. The fact that it only cost you a few dollars is just icing on the cake. See you at the track. Disclosure section: Neither StudioVRM nor Roger Maeda are affiliated with McMaster-Carr, or any industrial supply store for that matter. All hardware was purchased at full price from Roger's own pocket. It's a good thing it was cheap.