Wheel lock in NASCAR.

Just what exactly is wheel lock? After reading the page in the manual on wheel lock over several times, and testing several settings, I still can't seem to figure out just what wheel lock does. My guess is that it affects how quickly a car turns, all other things being equal. Hopefully someone out there can correct me if I'm wrong. Bill.

(Crankster) writes:

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>Just what exactly is wheel lock? After reading the page in the manual >on wheel lock over several times, and testing several settings, I >still can't seem to figure out just what wheel lock does. My guess is >that it affects how quickly a car turns, all other things being equal. >Hopefully someone out there can correct me if I'm wrong. >Bill.

Wheel lock is how far left and right your front wheels can turn. -- ____________________________________________________________________________ Have: Edward Carter | The Red Hot Chili Peppers Rock!!!| '92 Honda Accord Newport Beach, CA, USA | IndyCar Racing Rules!!! | '95 Corvette ZR-1 White Male | Al Unser Jr. Kicks *** | '95 Suburban 454 4X4 ________________________________________________________________________________ Want: "Love Lone" on KROQ in | NASCAR Racing is cool too! | Vector Avtech WX-3 L.A. at 10:00pm RULES!!| Jeff Gordon And Rusty Wallace | Dodge Viper R.R. and D.D. are cool!| RULE!!! | Ferrari F40

> (Crankster) writes: > >Just what exactly is wheel lock? After reading the page in the manual > Wheel lock is how far left and right your front wheels can turn. What it affects is the sensitivity of the car to the steering device you use. By using less wheel lock the car is more sensitive to your steering input in a turn (you'll turn more for an equal amount of input). The danger in using to little lock is that you can easily oversteer the car and overcorrect (not to metion turning around after a crash will take longer). The danger in using too much lock is the loss of precision during a turn. Mike

: Just what exactly is wheel lock? After reading the page in the manual : on wheel lock over several times, and testing several settings, I : still can't seem to figure out just what wheel lock does. My guess is : that it affects how quickly a car turns, all other things being equal. : Hopefully someone out there can correct me if I'm wrong. Wheel lock controls how far the front wheels turn (in degrees) from one lock on the steering box to the other. With a smaller amount of wheel lock, you will have to turn the wheel farther to get a desired response (or in my case hold down the directional key, as I'm too broke to afford a steering wheel package), while with more lock, the same response will come much sooner as you turn the wheel. As you play around with different settings, be careful not too adjust too far, or you'll find yourself staring at either the wall on the outside or the grass on the inside.

>Just what exactly is wheel lock? After reading the page in the manual >on wheel lock over several times, and testing several settings, I >still can't seem to figure out just what wheel lock does. My guess is >that it affects how quickly a car turns, all other things being equal. >Hopefully someone out there can correct me if I'm wrong. Wheel lock limits the amount of movement in the steering arm. In effect, if you use real low wheel lock numbers, you will need to put more turn into your wheel to get it to do something. On the other hand, if it's too high of a setting, just the slightest movement may send you into the wall. I picked up my lap speeds at Talladega by lowering my wheel lock, because I was *smoother* thru the turns, thus losing less rpms and pure speed. Hope that helped some. If I'm wrong, I'm sure I'll be flamed :) Professional Consultant

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>> (Crankster) writes: >> >Just what exactly is wheel lock? After reading the page in the manual >> Wheel lock is how far left and right your front wheels can turn. >What it affects is the sensitivity of the car to the steering device you >use. By using less wheel lock the car is more sensitive to your >steering input in a turn (you'll turn more for an equal amount of >input). The danger in using to little lock is that you can easily >oversteer the car and overcorrect (not to metion turning around after a >crash will take longer). The danger in using too much lock is the loss >of precision during a turn. >Mike

Thanks Mike, but shouldn't that be "...using MORE wheel lock the car is more sensitive to your steering input"? All I know when I increase wheel lock from 10% to 15%, the red cone graphic gets larger, implying to me that I can turn more with the same input. The manual really doesn't do much of a job explaining some of these elements to car setups. I guess Papyrus assumed I would be a real NASCAR junkie. Thanks again for your help (and everyone else's). Bill.

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> >> (Crankster) writes: > >> >Just what exactly is wheel lock? After reading the page in the manual > >> Wheel lock is how far left and right your front wheels can turn. > >What it affects is the sensitivity of the car to the steering device you > >use. By using less wheel lock the car is more sensitive to your > >steering input in a turn (you'll turn more for an equal amount of > >input). The danger in using to little lock is that you can easily > >oversteer the car and overcorrect (not to metion turning around after a > >crash will take longer). The danger in using too much lock is the loss > >of precision during a turn. > >Mike > Thanks Mike, but shouldn't that be "...using MORE wheel lock the car > is more sensitive to your steering input"? All I know when I increase > wheel lock from 10% to 15%, the red cone graphic gets larger, implying > to me that I can turn more with the same input.

No, actually it is more responsive to your commands with *less* lock. If the throw of your joystick is considered a -10 to +10 band with 0 as center and you hiccup to -3 with a low steering lock the car will attempt to join with the inner wall. Very bad. With more lock and the same hiccup, the wheels barely start to turn. In short, less lock yields high sensitivity while more lock yields smoothness (as long as you don't go too far). Once you find an acceptable amount of lock, don't bother changing it. It doesn't really do much for the performance of the car provided it isn't wildly out of position. No, but they figured (probably correctly) that you would become one! I know that's how it worked for me! You are most welcome. Mike

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>No, actually it is more responsive to your commands with *less* lock. If >the throw of your joystick is considered a -10 to +10 band with 0 as >center and you hiccup to -3 with a low steering lock the car will attempt >to join with the inner wall. Very bad. With more lock and the same >hiccup, the wheels barely start to turn. In short, less lock yields high >sensitivity while more lock yields smoothness (as long as you don't go >too far). Once you find an acceptable amount of lock, don't bother >changing it. It doesn't really do much for the performance of the car >provided it isn't wildly out of position.

This really doesn't sound right to me. I run with less lock (5 degrees) on fast ovals like Talladega as I don't need to turn so much and this makes my cornering smoother. At somewhere like Bristol I run with more lock (18 degrees) as I need to turn more for the sharper turns... Or am I just being stupid and imagining things?!? Andy

>>No, actually it is more responsive to your commands with *less* lock. If >>the throw of your joystick is considered a -10 to +10 band with 0 as >>center and you hiccup to -3 with a low steering lock the car will attempt >>to join with the inner wall. Very bad. With more lock and the same >>hiccup, the wheels barely start to turn. In short, less lock yields high

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>>sensitivity while more lock yields smoothness (as long as you don't go >>too far). Once you find an acceptable amount of lock, don't bother >>changing it. It doesn't really do much for the performance of the car >>provided it isn't wildly out of position. >This really doesn't sound right to me. I run with less lock (5 >degrees) on fast ovals like Talladega as I don't need to turn so much >and this makes my cornering smoother. At somewhere like Bristol I run >with more lock (18 degrees) as I need to turn more for the sharper >turns... >Or am I just being stupid and imagining things?!? >Andy

Well, if you're imagining things, at least we're imagining the same things :-) I use 10 degrees of wheel lock at faster tracks like Atlanta, Talladega, etc., and I'm convinced that it's much easier to control my car smoothly that way than with more lock (like 15 degrees). On the other hand, I'm having problems being competitive with the computer opponents at 100% speed (I ruled at 95%), but I doubt wheel lock has much to do with that. -- Ralf Grisard LEXIS-NEXIS, Technical Communications, P.O. Box 933, Dayton, OH 45401 voice: 513-865-7314 fax: 513-865-1655

Think of it this way: the steering lock value represents the extent of wheel deflection for a given amount of control input. The larger the value, the greater the wheel deflection. Mike.

The degree of wheel lock determines the angle of wheel deflection from one extent to the other on the steering wheel. Thus a wheel lock of 10 degrees will in effect turn each wheel 5 degrees to both sides of straight (left and right) when the steering wheel is at its respective left/right extremes. Thus more physical input on the wheel is required to achieve the same response than when the wheel lock is 30 degrees. In this case, you would have 15 degrees of movement in both directions, needing only 1/3 of the steering wheel movement to achieve the same 5 degree turning of the front wheels. Thus: high wheel lock = sensitive steering response low wheel lock = less sensitive -- Eric T. Busch Emory University

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>>No, actually it is more responsive to your commands with *less* lock. If >>the throw of your joystick is considered a -10 to +10 band with 0 as >>center and you hiccup to -3 with a low steering lock the car will attempt >>to join with the inner wall. Very bad. With more lock and the same >>hiccup, the wheels barely start to turn. In short, less lock yields high >>sensitivity while more lock yields smoothness (as long as you don't go >>too far). Once you find an acceptable amount of lock, don't bother >>changing it. It doesn't really do much for the performance of the car >>provided it isn't wildly out of position. >This really doesn't sound right to me. I run with less lock (5 >degrees) on fast ovals like Talladega as I don't need to turn so much >and this makes my cornering smoother. At somewhere like Bristol I run >with more lock (18 degrees) as I need to turn more for the sharper >turns... >Or am I just being stupid and imagining things?!? >Andy

Andy, this is my understanding as well. At least, the red cone that adjusts with your input seems to suggest that the steering arc is wider the higher the wheel lock setting.