Setup Sheets, Part 4

We'll wrap up the series on setup sheets with some specific thoughts about parts of the sheet's content. For the most part, you can refer to the basic sports prototype sheet from Part 1, reproduced below.


Sports Car Prototype Setup PDF

Tolerances
You and the crew need a mutual understanding of the tolerances for any given adjustment. There are two pieces to this. The first is your knowledge, as engineer, of what constitutes a significant change in any adjustment. The tolerance, of course, should be tight enough to avoid changing the car by missing the target. The second is the crew's ability to hit your target and your tolerances, either because of finite steps for some adjustments, or because of inability to either measure or adjust tighter than some tolerance. For example, if you call out a toe-out setting to a tolerance of .002", you are way tighter than adjustment repeatability, measurement accuracy, and large enough difference to effect the car.

Specific hardware
When you know it, call out the specific part number, hole number, shim thickness, or other part or adjustment specification that should lead to a specific setup target. The setup sheet above, for instance, is for a car with front camber slugs, rear camber shims, caster shims, and specific holes for wing adjustment. In each case, both the setup target and the hardware spec are called out on the sheet. In the event that the crew can't hit the setup target by following the hardware spec, something is either wrong or misunderstood, and discussion will be required.

Standard setup conditions
For the sake of repeatability and comparison, it helps to always set up with the certain setup conditions always the same. Tire pressures, driver weight, and fuel load are chief among these. If you're not using "setup wheels", the devoted metal fixtures that replace wheels and tires, then you should always use the same set of actual tires and wheels. Actual running conditions for the start of the session will vary. For instance, we'll set up at typical hot tire pressure, but start the session lower than that. Starting fuel load may be more or less than setup. You get the idea.

Actual vs. target
Some fields on the sheet may have spaces for actual vs. target. This is helpful if you want to record what you intended vs. how the car actually ran. The difference could be from tolerances, measurement precision, or simply error.

Corner weights
If you have a good grasp of the total weight and the percentages for front and left side, you should be able to predict the actual corner weights for any given cross weight within a couple of pounds. I tell my crew that, if they miss the target corner weights by more than a certain margin, they should contact me so we can figure out what's up.

Wings
Lots of folks call out wing angle as relative to the reference plane of the car, which is usually defined as some part of the underfloor. This seems simple enough. Time and again, though, it seems that zeroing the Smart Level against the floor isn't a totally repeatable process. I've come to call out wing angles as absolute, versus the ground. The results, for me, are more repeatable.

I learned this the hard way, in my early days in IRL. We had a flawed zero against the top of the tub floor inside the car. For part of the weekend, we struggled with lack of grip as we ran less wing angle than the series actually would have permitted us to use.


That about does it for setup sheets. Hope you've enjoyed it.

Setup sheets, Part 3

We now veer from the content of setup sheets to focus instead on using them. Since the setup sheet is primarily a communication tool, that will be the theme of this post. The final post will cover specific content items on the sheet.



What happens on the first usage of a new setup sheet?

Some teams want you, as a newly-arrived engineer, to use their existing setup sheet. OK, then get on with it. If you need to make changes to the sheet, phase them in as needed, with agreement of all concerned. No surprises allowed.

Other teams will allow you to use your own format. Or, maybe, you've decided to rework the existing format. In either case, it's absolutely essential to sit down with the crew and review the format and content of the setup sheet. The compressed layout needed to convey so much information will almost certainly lead to misunderstandings if you bypass this step. Remember, communicate!



When does the setup sheet need to be done?

Let's talk about the pre-event sheet first. You could wait until a day or two before the car goes on the setup pad. You'll probably only get one or two opportunities to do that, though, before someone gives strong verbal feedback, or worse.

On the engineering side, we often want to review notes and data from the previous event before deciding how to set up for the next event. Maybe we've got wind tunnel or 7-post testing coming soon, too. Maybe some significant analysis or simulation work will reach conclusions soon. All this work could have a significant effect on the setup, and not just on adjustments. We may need to make (and test-fit) aero or chassis parts, revalve shocks, buy parts, and more.

Meanwhile, the team typically has a limited amount of time to turn the car around. There will be a finite amount of manpower available to deal with changes. And, all this will usually happen on a schedule without much wiggle room.

It isn't really possible to say exactly how long ahead of the next event you need to be done. The correct answer is "it depends".

• Are you taking the same car to the next race as the previous one?
• How time-consuming are the changes envisioned, beyond simple parts swapping and adjustments?
• When does the car need to go in the trailer? How far ahead of that must the car be set up?
• How important are the non-adjustment changes, in terms of performance potential? How sure are you of their value, and how sure is the crew of their ability to complete them?
• How "non-routine" will the setup pad work be?

I can't, repeat cannot, overemphasize the importance of communication with the crew. If you envision changes, then you absolutely must discuss them well in advance of actually asking for them. Jointly review their probability of actually happening, the work required to accomplish them, when you can realistically have them defined, and what the possible pitfalls might be. Then, jointly decide on a plan.

A few thoughts:

• The optimal time for the setup sheet to arrive is just before reassembly of the car begins, and with enough lead time for all the changes.
• It may help to produce a preliminary setup, to be revised as engineering work finishes. Be advised, this approach is full of pitfalls and requires a clear understanding from everyone involved.
• When the races are coming hot and heavy, maybe on back-to-back weekends, you're likely to have to prepare setups for several races ahead of yourself.

Here's a clue - when the crew is consistently asking you for a setup, then either you are too late producing them, or they want them too far in advance. Talk with each other, figure out the situation, and fix it.

How to deliver the setup sheet?

I prefer to add a "cover memo" to draw attention to anything important. Maybe you're changing something that has remained constant for a long time. Maybe there are exercises to be done on the setup pad, or some specific instructions on how to do part of the setup. It's easy to have this discussion verbally, but there's always some risk of misunderstanding.

Now, what about between sessions at the track?

The basic situation between sessions is much like the pre-event setup, only compressed in time. As an engineer, you want to debrief the driver, look at some data from the car, punch some numbers into the calculator or software, and maybe crank out a sim run or two. The crew wants to get the car ready for the next session. Here's how you do it:

On the way back to the paddock or the garage, tell the crew chief whether you need a setdown. If not, then he can start on the maintenance issues while you work on the setup. Tell him what changes you're considering, if it entails a significant job (for instance, changing brake master cylinders can be a challenge on some cars), and agree on whether the change needs to happen now or can wait until the end of the day. Changing ratios in the gearbox, for instance, typically needs some lead time - you know you're going to do it, even if you don't know what ratios to install yet. Finally, agree on when he needs your final answer on the changes you just discussed.

Spend the rest of the walk back deciding if you can call out the setup changes NOW. If you can, you are now officially a hero.

Put out a job list for the crew, DAG, shock guy, etc. immediately after arriving at the paddock or garage. No ifs, ands, or buts.

Get into your job deciding on the setup changes with energy and focus. Debrief, analyze, and decide. Now. Take it as a personal challenge to avoid agonizing over decisions. This is going to sound brutal, but if you repeatly have to agonize over the setup, then you either aren't ready for the job or you aren't decisive. Either that, or there's something you haven't learned about the car and desperately need to figure out.

If you spend two hours fussing over the setup, with the crew waiting on you and the next session looming, only to decide on a big change like tearing into the gearbox (stressing the crew) or a trivial one like a minor spring change (insulting the crew), you are not a hero, and will not be able to repeat this behavior forever - unless you and the driver win a lot of races!

Once you've decided, communicate your setup changes clearly and concisely. I found out, the hard way, that a new full setup sheet IS NOT the way to do this between sessions. There is too much information on it for the crew to pick through, while searching for the changes. I simply provide a list of the changes. Sometimes the setup worksheet from the previous post in this series is a good way to do this, sometimes it goes on the job list. It's best to discuss it with the crew chief, no matter what format you use. Avoiding misunderstandings is the goal.

That's about it for today.

Setup Sheets, Part 2

Let's review the setup sheet layout. There are two fundamental layout concepts: by topic and by car location.

Sheets laid out by topic group similar items together. All the ride heights are together, all the shock info together, all the aero info together, and so on. For example, here's a prototype sports car sheet. This layout, although well done, omits some detail on brakes, tires, suspension geometry. It is used with "setup wheels", machined aluminum fixtures that replace real wheels and tires on the setup pad. Ride heights are calculated from measured drops to a point on top of the chassis, rather than actual measurements up from setup pad to the floor. Blue items are user input.



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Sheets laid out by car location group information into a birds-eye view of the car. For each corner, you have alignment, tire data, springs, and so on. Information that doesn't fit that layout is placed on the center of the sheet or in a separate section. In a slightly different twist, the sheet that I use has chassis-mounted items and measurements like AR bars, ride heights, and packer gaps in the center, reducing the amount of info listed at the individual wheel. Here's a Swift 008a Formula Atlantic sheet. Note that this sheet includes some engineering calcs. It also has non-printing separate worksheets for vehicle dynamics and for shock build specs.


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So, which layout to use? Both are popular, and both can be effective, if they are done well.

The main advantage of the topic layout is in grouping similar items together. For example, all the corner weights are in one spot, just like on the scale display. With so many different types of data to show, it can be a little scattered, unless it is carefully organized. The example posted here is one of the better ones.

The strength of the car location layout is in its ease of use. If you want to know something about the right front corner of the car, look at that part of the sheet. Some items, like brakes, corner weights, rake, or cooling, don't fall into the layout that well.

I use a layout that mixes some elements of both approaches. Go back and look at the sports car sample included in the Part 1 post, it's mine. Stuff mounted or measured at the wheels is out on the corners. Stuff mounted or measured on the chassis is down the middle. Front aero is at the front, rear aero at the rear. Gears, brakes, and weights are clumped together at their approximate location on the car. The next incarnation might get a new section for configuration file names for the data system, ECU, ABS, paddle shift system, etc.

Now, let's look at a layout for the worksheet that accompanies the car to the setup pad. This worksheet is a hands-on working document for use at the setup pad. Most of the teams I work with lack either the time, money, or resources for this to be used as a networked document on an smart phone or touch-screen PC. So, it's filled out by hand, and may or may not be scanned, depending on who needs copies and when. I like the cheap HP all-in-one printer/scanner/copier units for the trailer.

On the front, there are fields for Setdown, where we document how the car was found as it rolled off the track and onto the setup pad after preceding on-track session. The center column is used to enter the changes to make. The changes are then made, on or off the pad, and the car rolled on for adjustment. And then, the righthand column documents how the car rolled off the setup pad. On the back side, there is a worksheet for actually making the adjustments.

Yeah, I know, there's some redundency here, and opportunity to introduce error. We'll talk about this again in a later post, but cutting to the chase, I've found that a complete setup sheet doesn't work too well for calling out between-session changes. So, we do a setdown, fill in the changes, and finish the setup.

The example below is a scan of both the front and back pages of a setup worksheet after use. The links immediately above the form will download it, as well as blank versions of the front and back pages.



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Tools and organization

OK, how about computing tools? Your choices are basically spreadsheet or data base. PDF forms with fillable fields don't have enough function. Spreadsheets offer plenty of formatting and calculating power, and are the near-universal solution. But, I've always wanted to try a database. The initial setup would be lot more work, but your setups would be available for the full power of database searching and reporting. I suspect that the ever-evolving nature of much racing might be responsible for the relative rarity of databases, since last year's setup is often no longer relevent. Series where you take the same basic car back to the same tracks, year after year, probably stand to benefit the most.

One thing is for sure. You have got to be diligent and organized in file naming and directory structure, or you will soon have an unworkable jumble of setup sheets files. Here's the file naming convention that I use:

Setup Seb090307 A04 P1 Start.xls

• Sebring is the track
• March 7, 2009 is the race date (not the creation date of the setup sheet)
• Chassis number A04
• This sheet shows how the car started the first official practice session

I place all the sheets for an event into a directory exclusive to that event. Use real-time archival software pointed at the location of all the setup sheets. You don't want to lose a year's worth of setups when the notebook hard drive crashes at the track.

Remembering that a setup sheet is a vehicle for communication, the next post will get into the process of using it. Once that's done, we'll dig deeper into content.

Setup Sheets, Part 1

I'm kinda excited about this multi-part series, since it's a bit of a departure from recent posts. We're going to review setup sheets in fairly complete detail, so this isn't your usual short-attention-span blog post. You'll be able to download PDF samples and working Excel spreadsheets from Scribd. Here we go...

What is a setup sheet, anyway?

In simple terms, it is a document that details the configuration and adjustment of a race car.

And what is it used for?

• Define all the setup adjustments, like alignment, ride height, etc.
• Specify commonly swapped parts, like springs, gear ratios, anti-roll bars, etc.
• Document the car setup, for later reference
• Possibly, link to analysis or simulation software to provide vehicle dynamics details

Let's talk first about general content. Future posts will cover how to actually use a setup sheet, communication issues, options for layouts, computing tools and storage, some recommendations, and more.

The simplest setup sheets are handwritten onto a basic blank form. In this guise, it is mainly a working document for crew adjustments to the car on the setup pad. It probably has no more than the following content, and maybe less, depending on what items may be non-adjustable, non-changeable, or non-existent on a specific car:

• Ride heights
• Spring rates
• Anti-roll bar sizes and adjustments
• Shock adjustments and gas pressures
• Camber, caster, and toe settings
• Aero adjustments, such as angles and dimensions
• Corner weights and percentages

Here's the catch. If the setup sheet is to be a complete and unambiguous definition of how the car is configured, there is inevitably more information required. Sometimes, lots more. The possible list is endless, but here are some common items, in no particular order:

• Bump rubber spec and packer gaps
• Third spring and damper components and adjustments
• Optional aero components and how they are installed or adjusted
• Cooling configuration, both components and blanking
• Gear ratios and differential setup
• Optional suspension geometry and components
• Brake components, pad/rotor material, master cylinders, bias setup
• Multiple ride heights - aero components vs. structural/suspension
• Specific assembly instructions - part numbers, shims, etc.
• Tire sizes, compounds, and constructions
• Tire pressures for both the setup pad and the grid
• Driver weight and fuel load for the setup pad, starting fuel load for the track
• Shock build spec
• Part numbers or serial numbers for specific components and assemblies
• Spring and/or pushrod installed length. Rocker ratio and position.
• Ballast weight, configuration, position

This can get out of hand. Still, we absolutely have to be able to completely and unambiguously define how the car is expected to be configured when it rolls onto the track. At some time in the future, we need to be able to completely and unambiguously recall that configuration by reviewing the setup sheet.

Taking things a step further, there are two additional types of information that sometimes show up on setup sheets. They are specific component serial numbers, for use in part lifing, and vehicle dynamics calculations, such as wheel rates. I personally choose not to include these on my setup sheets. They aren't essential to defining the car configuration and clutter up its use by the crew. If needed, I think they should be on a separate document, or an "engineer's version" that can be separately printed.

We have to remember that a race car is always changing, and we race or test it as a snapshot in time. Some of these evolving changes are permanent, some not. They rarely seem to fit the existing format for the setup sheet. We have to decide whether, when, and how to indicate these changes on the setup sheet. I tend to mention permanent modifications in the comments section at the time they first appear, then delete them on future sheets - a solution I'll admit to being imperfect.

Sharp readers will have noticed no mention so far of engine configuration and tuning, nor of configuration options and file names for ECUs, data acquisition, traction control, no-lift shift, ABS, or any other electronic systems. Engines tend to be assembled, tuned, and maintained by a separate group which may or may not be part of the team. The electronics are typically maintained and tuned by one or more specialists, a process that can be a bit undisciplined, if nonetheless superbly executed. In an oddity of how things have evolved, the setup sheet is typically the configuration for the rest of the car.

One possible solution to some of these concerns is a "build sheet", produced either as a separate document or as a different print option, similar to what we've discussed for components and engineering data. It can include all sorts of information, like serial numbers, part numbers, modifications, file names, and so on.

So, here's my recommendation:

Use a comprehensive setup sheet that defines everything adjustable or changeable on the race car. Permanent modifications are either excluded or get a mention in the notes section at the time they are done. If it's appropriate for your situation, create a separate build sheet, either to define the car more fully or for part serial numbers. Keep engineering calcs off the main sheet. A worksheet accompanies the car to the setup pad for note-taking during the setup process.

To give you something to think about until the next post, here's a recent sports car racing prototype setup sheet. This sheet is fairly comprehensive, yet this car lacks certain suspension geometry and aero options that I've had on other recent setups. Numbers and other fields, of course, are changed to disguise the real setup. Fields calculated internally by the setup sheet show in blue. If you purchase the full XLS, you'll see the non-printing calcs for ride heights and gears.

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