TRF419 Steering Bridge Track report

One of the things that I have also been experimenting with on the TRF419 is the idea of a steering bridge. With the car working well with the Low profile shock towers I did thing that the extra steering response could become more consistent with a slightly stiffer front end on the car.

I had 2 bridges made at the same time as the shock towers in anticipation of this so after testing the towers I thought it would be time to see if the steering bridge could make a difference.

Track Test

The venue was a small friendly club and the first indoor meeting after outside. So the carpet was not going to give the best grip after months of storage. So precise steering would be even more important as you push the car to find maximum grip and then quickly correct it when you go over the edge.

In the nature of a test I thought I would alternate between running a bridge and not running one. The first race was without the bridge and the car felt really good anyway, I managed to gain a comfortable lead and the car felt good. There were a couple of times where I had over-steer, I was able to correct it but overall I was happy with the car. The best lap was 9.4 seconds.

The steering bridge is installed

I fitted the steering bridge for the second race and was keen to see if the car felt any better. The car raced away at the start and I was able to keep on the pace I had before. It was the second round so the grip was always going to be better but I was able to race harder and was really enjoying the drive. I actually noticed a little bit of under steer on one of the corners which I didn't have before. The car was so easy to drive and I was able to weave around and post a quicker race time and a best lap of 9.1 seconds.

Heat 3 times. The car was on fire and I had an advantage that I had been racing indoors a lot more than the others

The third race came and I moved to the slightly thinner steering bridge (The one in the picture). This time the car was even faster (Again though there would be more grip as the day continued). The corner where I had some push was now very neutral and I was able to take that corner quicker and this was shown in the overall race time (FTD) and the best lap was 8.896

You can add a post to make the front end even stiffer.

For the final all of the of the TC cars were running together so I knew the times would be potentially lower as I had 6 cars to race with other than the two in my heat. I was still able to comfortably race through the field and the car was quick and consistent throughout the whole 5 minutes, I was not far off the Round 3 times even with more passing on a small tight track.

Overall I am very happy with the new steering bridge. It's staying on the car for now as I keep tuning and testing the car. This part will also be available in the in the next week or so at a cost price for any interested TRF racer.