Quoting me:
"Second when the axle is rotating, stagger creates a difference in tire surface speeds between the right and left rear tires. When a change in stagger is made, the difference in tire surface speed between the left and right tires is changed."
Bryan, there's no need to injure yourself physically abusing your head. Read what follows on here. It will make everything become so clear you will no longer have need to bang the cob webs out. ...
There's another consideration I did not cover in the letter. The consideration is what is changed when you alter tire size, going to larger or smaller tires on both sides in the back and the difference in tire surface speeds across the back remains the same. What happens is it alters ride height in the back. How you will look at and deal with it depends on what your racing. Though the principals remain the same and my theories still fit the change, how the change is looked at generally depends on what your racing. If your racing a sprint car the change because your measuring ride height from the ground might be considered a significant change. If your racing a latemodel measuring ride height from the axle, it might not even be considered. But I have even seed latemodel drivers crawl under their car and measure ride height from both the axle and the ground. When the change is made to a kart, I don't think most even consider the ride height change in the back.
Here's a story from observation of how I think similar stagger with different tire sizes across the back, effected outcome. I don't remember the years, it was over ten years ago but not 15, Rod George and Ed Lynch would compete Friday at Lernerville and Sunday at TriCity. Lernerville a banked 4/10 mile that slicked up for the feature and TriCity a big 1/2 mile that slicked up for the feature. Long story short Ed pretty much had Rod covered at Lernerville and Rod pretty much had Ed covered at TriCity. So much so that Ed would win the points at Lernerville and Rod would win the points at TriCity.
We also raced both tracks every Friday and Sunday, we were new and especially Rod and his crew cheif Ron, and Ed would answer anything we asked helping us greatly. During that time frame my son and I were in the stage, which we still are, of grabbing and trying to grasp everything we could about setup and who was setup how. Long story short if there was a difference in equipment that allowed one to win at TriCity and the other to win at Lernerville, I felt it was Rod ran American Racers and Ed ran Hoosiers. Sure it's easy to just say it's the tires that made the difference. But both tracks slicked up to the point of real slick come feature time. Yes one was bigger but in general though higher speeds were involved at TriCity, proportionally I think the cars entered the corners the same at both tracks. Notice the word 'proportionally' in the last sentence. Back to stagger and ride height. My observations told me both Rod and Ed ran about the same stagger, at both tracks. The only real difference between equipment I saw was tire size in the back. Rods American Racers were over all smaller then Ed's Hoosiers. When I realized that one difference, I made drawings of both cars with proportional measurement to see how and if over all tire size might be a factor. I also projected the cars in terms of my observations of any differences in track banking and configuration. Sure my observations could have been flawed or biased incorrectly one way or another, but I did my best to be objective. The whole point was to see how to make our car faster not there's, so I tried my best to be objective.
Long story short as I like to say, when I looked at how weight projected and knowing they usually used the same rim inset, over all tire size from my observation gave Rod an advantage at TriCity and Ed an advantage at Lernerville. All that to say a stagger change in the back might not alter the difference in surface speed between the two rear tires, but it can effect other things. What I've presented again on here is not about a lot of other things, it's only about how a staggered solid axle needs to be made to interact with the track, in the ideal way to be fast. The sole reason behind how it needs to be made to work with the track is because there is a difference in tire surface speed between the two rear tires. Everything you do to get the back to rotate when using a staggered solid axle, boils down to your ability to push each tire into the track at the right time. Because there is a difference in surface speed, each tire can independently be made to give you either negative, neutral or positive acceleration. You cannot get the same negative, neutral or positive acceleration, independently our of a solid axle, unless there is a difference in surface speed between the two rear tires.
What follows next should be familiar to you if you've been reading on here for years. You set up what you race with its staggered solid axle, so when decelerating and turning you are able to push the LR with it's slower surface speed, into the track well enough for it to out brake the RR and allow the RR to roll around the LR. Next comes transition from deceleration to acceleration. The transition is simply rolling as needed until the start of acceleration. At that time your LR smaller tire will ideally be loaded and allow for the start of acceleration to come from the smaller 'low gear' LR tire. Ideally then it's on to accelerating and exiting onto the straight, during which time you control the amount of weight transferred over to the RR. Again ideally, you only need to transfer to the RR the amount of weight needed to allow it, with it's faster surface speed, to out accelerate the LR. How much you make it out accelerate the LR and how quickly it does so, will depend on how soon the turn ends and an actual straight begins, if any. And if Al's reading on here; Al, follow the sequence of events. It's the LR mainly carrying the load even on to the straight, which is >ideally< and it's just that the ideal IMHO situation. Here's the key Al, even on the straight or so called straight, with a staggered solid axle you only need to transfer enough weight to the RR so it can out accelerate the LR, as needed. The only reason it can be done that way and the weight can be mainly carried on the LR, is because there is a difference in surface speed between the left and right rear tires. Al you have often asked about the concern of speed being scuffed off on the straight and I'm sure others have the same concern. I think it's best to simply consider it a non issue. I can say that because unless your traveling a radius where the difference in size of the rear tires exactly matches your travel, one or the other or both rear tires are slipping anyway. It then becomes a matter of which rear tire can you slip, in a way which will give you the best advantage. The answer again turns out to be carry the load on the LR because it's smaller and offers less resistance carrying the load down the track. Slip the bigger RR if at all possible because slipping it will eliminate the biggest threat of resistance to forward travel. What I have just written describes the ideal of using a staggered solid axle. Circumstances and the ability of what your racing to use a staggered solid axle in the ideal way, be it a Winged Sprint Car, a Late Model or a kart, will determine how close you can come to the ideal, which my theories describe.
thanks for reading,
paul