First and foremost you should be very weight conscious when constructing your car. You would be amazed at how all of those little things add up to extra weight. Be sure to look for any weight savings. It is very difficult to find weight savings in five-pound blocks. Look for quarter pounds! Those little things will add up if you pay close attention. Strive to build a car that is as lightweight as possible. Never compromise safety for weight savings. There are plenty of places that you can save weight but safety should always be the paramount concern. We race for fun, make sure that you build a safe racecar.

Now that you have a good lightweight car you will need to add ballast to get the car up to the minimum standards set by your sanctioning body. Check your rulebook for the maximum left side weight allowed. You will want to be as close to the maximum left side weight allowed as possible while maintaining the minimum total weight. Never run your car heavy for the sake of more left side weight.

Next, check with your car builder for his recommendation on front to rear weight percentages. Verify that your car is "race ready" excluding the ballast operation. Now that you know what you want for rear weight you can begin finding a home for the ballast.

You need to locate the ballast as close to the Center of Gravity of the car and as low as possible while maintaining the minimum total weight rule, maximum left side weight rule and car builder recommended rear weight. In other words, you want the ballast to be located in the smallest area possible. Insure that you properly attach any ballast to the car. Do it right to insure safety.

For example, lets assume that your car weighs 2500 pounds race ready but without any ballast. Lets also assume that you have a 200 lb driver, your minimum weight allowed is 2900 pounds, your maximum left side is 56% and your recommended rear weight is 50%. With these assumptions you will need to add 200 pounds to get up to the minimum weight. Lets also assume that your car has 50% rear weight without any ballast installed.

We now need to mount the ballast to our hypothetical car. Since we are starting with a rear weight percentage that matches our car builder's recommendation we need to add ballast and reach our goal of 50% rear weight at the rules mandated 2900 pounds. When mounting the ballast we want to concentrate the ballast in the smallest possible area. To illustrate the point, we would want the 200 pounds of ballast to be mounted in a concentrated area within the car to meet our target. We would want to avoid placing 100 pounds near the front of the car and the other 100 pounds near the rear of the car.

By concentrating the ballast into a small area versus spreading it out your car will go faster. The same idea holds true for the left to right weight distribution as well. You want to mount the ballast in a small area rather than taking the easy route and placing some ballast in the left side frame rail and some ballast way out on the right side frame rail.

Take the extra time to build proper ballast brackets between the frame rails to attain the desired left side weight. Avoid placing ballast (or anything heavy) to the right of the Center of Gravity. You will see that your static weight numbers can be the same whether you mount the ballast in a concentrated area or if you spread out a 100 pound block on the left rail and the other 100 pound block on the right rail. Statically this will look fine on the scales but dynamically the spread out scenario will slow your car down and wear out your tires faster.

The same idea applies to front to rear weight. Avoid placing some ballast in the front of the frame rail and then another amount of ballast at the rear of the rail with an air space in between. Slide the two chunks of ballast together. Focus on concentrating the ballast into the smallest possible area and spend the time building brackets to meet the goal.

Why will the spread out ballast placement slow you down? Lets picture a simple example. Picture a playground teeter-totter. The teeter-totter pivots in the middle. The pivot is compared to the Center of Gravity in your racecar. Now picture 500 pounds of weight on both seats of the teeter-totter. The seats compare to the left and right frame rails. You can see that in the static position that the 500 pound weights would balance out. However, when you put the teeter-totter in motion that much weight would require much effort to get started and even more effort to stop once it got moving. If the teeter-totter were moving fast you would be crushed trying to stop the movement with 500 pounds out on each end. Your springs and shocks would have to control all this dynamically moving weight that is rocking back and forth. Front to rear movements would have to be controlled as well.

Now picture the same example with one revision. Instead of having 500 pounds on each seat with a balanced teeter-totter, lets move the 500 pounds in from each seat until we end up with 1000 pounds directly over the pivot point (this would be the same as our CG in our racecar). You would notice that the teeter-totter is still balanced. The weight would be carried directly at the CG or pivot point. Once the teeter-totter were put into motion it would be much easier to control compared to the spread out version that had the 500 pound weights clear out on the seats. Just think of how much easier this situation is on your springs and shocks!

By concentrating the ballast into the smallest possible area you reduce the amount of weight that has to be controlled once the car is in motion. You reduce the amount of back and forth motion in the turns and front to rear weight transitions under braking. Weight transfers occur in more controllable amounts, which will result in a more efficient, and stable handling racecar.

Another way to think of it is using your own body as an example. When you carry heavy items you hold them as close to the centerline of your body as possible. Typically you hold heavy items against your chest. With the weight against your chest you can carry the weight with less effort and you have more control once you begin moving. Most people do not carry their groceries into the house with a bag in each hand and their arms fully extended. Obviously with the weight extended way out at the end of your extended arms the groceries would be difficult to control and you could be thrown off balance very easily. Keeping the weight closer to your body or CG is much more efficient.

Now that you understand this principle lets take it another step forward. When building your car you should strive to keep all support items as close to the CG as possible. Avoid mounting the battery out on the right frame rail. Batteries are heavy and need to be located just like ballast. Try to mount all of your tanks, electrical items, fuel filters, hoses, drink bottles, radio boxes, or any support items to the left of the CG. Avoid mounting anything to the right of the CG whenever possible. Using this strategy will allow you to place more ballast in a concentrated area.

Simply by planning your mounting locations you can make your car faster by properly placing the ballast and support items. It may require more initial effort but the cost is effectively zero and the benefit keeps giving throughout the life of you racecar.

If you are conscientious mounting all of your racing components you will be able to place your ballast closer to the CG and low to the ground while still maintaining your maximum left side weight and desired rear weight. The result of placing the ballast in a concentrated area is a racecar that is more nimble. The car will change directions much quicker. The racecar will be more responsive. Tire temperatures will be reduced, tire wear improved, lap times will go down, your car will have more grip, be more consistent and your chance for victories will rise.

The soft set up is designed to take advantage of spec tires that are now commonplace. New age tires put up with more abuse and resist blistering as compared to those from the tire war era. Taking advantage of aerodynamic benefits created by body designs that are sleeker is part of the soft set up as well. Maximum stability is created through less side body movement. By understanding the goals of the big bar soft spring set up you can find ways to improve your lap speeds.

The new soft set up buzz involves a big sway bar to control roll and the softest front springs possible that are just big enough to keep the nose from bottoming out. Ironically, the new buzz has been referred to as the “soft set up” when in actuality there is much more spring rate added by the sway bar verses the reductions in the front spring rates.

Higher shock rebound rates are needed to control the added spring rate introduced by the bigger front bars. Added rebound helps to tie the body in the lowest nose position possible. Typically, the package is coupled with rear springs that are stiffer than traditional set ups. The stiffer rear springs can be vital to the so called soft set up for a variety of reasons which we will analyze.

Why soft front springs? A big benefit is getting the nose down on the ground. Air that gets under the car creates lift which is just about always bad. Getting the nose down creates more airflow over the entire body creating more down force literally pushing the entire car into the track promoting more corner grip. While the front springs are softer, the big sway bars are adding a large amount of overall spring rate to the car. As you go up in bar diameter the rates increase exponentially.

Why a big bar? Since the soft front springs let the nose settle down to the pavement we then need to keep the body position low throughout the turn. A big sway bar is utilized to resist roll and it adds spring rate as the car enters the turn. We are trading roll rate from the front springs and moving that work to the sway bar. We are also adding overall spring rate and taking advantage of the aero grip created by modern day body designs. The benefit of the big bar is that it helps to hold the left front down as you roll through the turn and on acceleration. With the sway bar holding the nose piece low throughout the turn more air flows over the entire body surface creating additional down force and grip. The car being held down low allows for less overall side travel through the turn, hopefully resulting in more overall stability and consistency. With the suspension linkages traveling less after corner entry, the dynamic changes are controlled and the car becomes more predicable throughout the turn. Minimizing travel in the center of the turn is a big piece of the new package and the added bar rate enhances driver confidence. In addition, the center of gravity is lower in time with when the corner loading is at its maximum point. The big bar creates a quicker responding car that feels more stable due to the elimination of nosing over on the RF.

To enhance less lift at the left front tire additional rebound is utilized in the shock package. Shocks with more rebound and less compression are a common practice when utilizing the soft set up. Once the nose settles during braking, keeping it down there becomes the goal. The added rebound helps to keep the car flat and added rebound controls the spring oscillations as well. Shocks need to control the spring rate included both in the springs and in the sway bar. As always, the teams that best match up the shock package will go faster for a longer period of time. In fact, matching the shocks to the overall set up package, track, temperature, and driver style is still a critical piece of the puzzle. Remember, there is generally more spring rate to control and these forces need to be considered when matching your shock package to the new concepts.

Controlling the body angles in the turns helps to create consistency. You can imagine that if the nose piece were low on entry and then lifted on exit that you are introducing variables resulting from the continually changing body position. Constantly changing linkage angle changes have an affect on the handling as well. Lift at the nose and squatting in the rear reduce down force at a varying rate throughout the turn. Nose raise creates additional front lift and rear squat moves the spoiler out of the air for less rear down force. With traditional set ups, the front aero lift and the rear spoiler moving down occur at the worst possible times. Obviously more rear spoiler on corner exit would be good for forward bite and a lower nose piece throughout the turn is going to create more speed. These two gains are included in the Big Bar Soft Set Up. A more constant body position allows the driver to chase the car less as the aero change throughout the corner is more consistent.

With the soft front springs, big front sway bars, and additional rebound the front end is now doing its part. Big rear springs pitch in to keep the rear spoiler up in the wind for more exit grip and forward bite. Added right rear spring rate holds up the right rear corner helping to keep the left front low promoting more air flow over the body for more overall down force. The big bar soft spring set up gets the front and rear to work together for maximum aero balance and grip.

So now that our soft set up has the body flat, the nose low, the rear spoiler held up in the wind and body movements controlled promoting consistency, this now brings new chassis parameters into the process.

We can look at each corner of the car and think about new dynamics created by the soft set up as compared to traditional set ups. Each corner is affected differently and we can think about the new challenges and consider the adjustments required to make the big bar soft spring set up work best. All adjustments must work together. A complete package is the goal and you must tune the entire car to achieve improvements. A traditional set up that is completely dialed in would be much better than a big bar soft spring set up that did not address all of the variables.

LF
The left front starts out at the tech approved minimum ride height. The soft front springs allow the front end to drop under braking and the big bar, big right rear spring, and added rebound hold the left front suspension for maximum nose drop on entry and throughout the turn. You can see that the added downward travel will have an affect on the camber patterns and adjustments need to be made. With the LF A-arm being shorter than the LF lower control arm your car will lose camber under the left front suspension compression created by the big bar soft spring set up. The shorter upper A-arm decreases in length faster then the lower control arm causing camber loss. This camber loss is opposite of traditional set ups that promote camber gain during upward body movement.

The soft set up usually requires high amounts of LF static camber as compared to traditional set ups. Top crew chiefs check the camber at ride height and then recheck the camber at the anticipated corner ride height. The camber in the center of the corner is most important and static settings need to be adjusted for optimal camber at the center of the turn. The new approach creates static camber settings that seem radical as compared to traditional set ups.

RF
The right front starts out at the approved minimum ride height and drops during braking and moves down even more when the body rolls. Our soft set up with a big bar and high rebound actually allows for more RF drop from static ride height to the middle of the turn. The additional amount of travel created allows for more camber gain as the RF A-Arm is shorter than the lower. Our new big bar soft spring set up will require dramatically less static camber allowing for more optimal camber in the center of the turn. You can see that experimenting with the camber curves and static adjustments require a change in thinking from past ideals.

LR & RR
Bigger springs in the rear create new thought processes as well. More spring keeps the spoiler in the air allowing for more down force and less downward movement of the body. With less movement you may experience the need to vary anti-squat adjustments. Again, our thought processes are different with the new set up. You may find that you need to run more split in the panhard bar to get an equal amount of rear steer as the stiffer springs coupled with the stiffer sway bar create less roll. You might want to experiment with more trailing arm angle as well to help rear steer the car through the center of the turn. The whole mind set relating to the rear linkages needs to be based on less travel. It is very common that you will run considerably more RR spring rate than LR with this set up.

The soft set up should really be reserved for those that already are consistently fast and have a handle on traditional adjustments. In order to achieve improvement it really helps to understand the dynamics behind all adjustments from springs to shocks to weight adjustments before experimenting with the unknown.

Once the decision is made to experiment with soft set ups experience has shown that it is an all or nothing proposition. The soft set up is an entire package versus just a spring adjustment. Moving up one sway bar size and changing 25 lbs. of spring rate is not really embracing the concept. The new bar rates and spring choices are eye popping as compared to traditional set ups, an open mind to these ideas is truly required.

Suspension design over the past twenty years is virtually the same from Nextel Cup to Saturday night. If that is the case then why is this big bar soft spring set up gaining popularity? There are several things that have changed during that time allowing the concepts of the new set up ideal to be possible. First off the new bodies are very sleek as compared to old body designs. Aero grip is something that has increased steadily over the years. In addition, most people are running tires that run longer. Harder longer wearing tires that do not fall off much have become common. The aero advantages really help to create grip in harder tires. While the aero advantages are vivid, the new era tires are the main reason that the new set up concepts are to be considered. Further, big bars speed the loading to the contact patch and the new harder tires are up to the challenge. We also have more horsepower and more RPM as compared to twenty years ago and more forward bite makes that horsepower more effective. Shock technology has improved and better shock control reduces tire temperature increasing tire wear. Current shock adjustability allows for more grip by keeping the tire on the ground.

If you ran super soft tires it makes sense that the big bar soft spring set up would be fast for qualifying but the tires would fall off or blister on a long run. Blistering tires were common in the tire war days but for now it seems that most divisions are currently being supplied harder, longer wearing tires that easily go the distance allowing more stress to be placed on the contact patch. It makes sense that bigger front bars and more rear spring rate transfer load to the tires more quickly. The point is that sleeker bodies and better, harder tires have made the bigger bars and soft front springs possible. In addition, radial tires create a lot of grip through superior side wall design further enhancing the big bar soft spring concepts.

The big bar soft spring set up does seem to work better, at least to date, on tracks with less banking. Why? Banked tracks compress the suspension due to the higher speed and additional travel. Banked tracks keep the nose piece close to the ground throughout the turn. Sway bars simply do less work on banked tracks as cars compress into the banking where as on flat tracks the roll is much more evident. The aero advantage is created by the banking. Certainly the big bar soft spring setups can still work with banking but you can see that the banking creates some of the benefits naturally. Thinking out the dynamic movements on flat and banked tracks will help you take advantage of the positives on all track types.

Big Bar Soft Spring Benefits:

* The car reacts quicker
* Roll centers and move less in the turn creating stability
* More grip due to Aero advantage
* Lower center of gravity throughout the turn
* More forward bite
* The added front sway bar rate enhances entry confidence

Drawbacks:

* More stress on the tires
* Lots of trial and error testing to identify new baselines
* Sway bar neutral setting and preload becomes critical
* Camber settings become more critical
* Your old set up book will be junk!

Where the big bar soft spring set up works better:

* Experienced drivers and successful teams
* Flat tracks seem more conducive to the principles but it can help anywhere
* On tracks with reasonable grip
* With tires that can take some punishment

Like all new things trial and error testing is a big part of the process. The teams that best understand the dynamic movements will be able to maximize the benefits. The learning curve is dramatic as the big bar soft spring set up breaks many of the rules of the traditional mechanical grip set ups. It is important to remember that while the racing community has labeled this concept the “soft set up” the reality is that there is more spring rate in the car both front and rear. Many of the dynamics change from past ideas and you will find that keeping an open mind to what the driver and car want will result in changes that seemed insane just last week. Testing and persistence just might find you more speed and push you softly into victory lane.