They had an Bristol test during the trial IIRC with Preece, Bowman and I think Bell. They are testing on Monday or Tuesday with a representative from each organization.
I knew about the Bristol test and the most recent one upcoming. I could have sworn I saw a post from either Trackhouse or Zilisch of the 88 team at NWB early in December. But it's very possible that I am mis-remembering.
My crazy guess? Limiting the independent rear suspension or doing away with it. Aero I'd say something to improve side force and aero push.
This car seriously needs help when driving off the right rear on short tracks. It's weird to me that everyone has to drive off the right front and the aero push is horrendous.
They 100% are not getting rid of independent rear suspension, the transaxle requires it and would require a complete redoing of the entire rear of the car.
Control arms are the key part of independent suspension. They hold everything else in place. You can change the design of them to change the geometry of how it all works but you can’t get rid of them.
I misspoke, I was moreso saying getting rid of the double wishbone style control arms, toe links. Basically make it more or less to where it's just transaxle axle shaft to the upright and be like a solid rear axle more or less. Remove as much compliance as possible and make it rigid. The toe link it the main part there, they can keep the double wishbone setup, I was suggesting just to get as close to how it is with all the other stock car series with the trailing arm solid rear axle setup.
I know people bitch about the toe links being weak but that's literally what they are designed for.
A more rigid toe link, or complete removal, is going to make a those bumps that bend/break those toe links day ending damage.
Those are designed to keep more important pieces, that cant be fixed on pit road with the removal of two bolts, from being what bends/breaks on impact.
Facts 100%. I wasn’t saying to get rid of them because they are bad in concept. I was moreso saying that from a perspective of making rear toe fixed as I assume with the slugs/shims, toe links can add or remove toe to the rear tires. Compare that to pre-Next-Gen when teams would be trying anything and everything to induce rear toe because you would turn so much better if you could figure out a way to do that whether it was with twisting the axle/messing with the trailing arm bushings, etc.
I don't know anything about suspensions, but I do know that Next Gen cars don't look like short track cars. I really like the Next Gen but it needs a lot more grass roots DNA in it rather than being a Lamborghini badged with a Chevy/Ford/Toyota logo
The next gen mechanically has a lot more in common with a Mustang or Camaro than the previous gen cars did. Niether have had a solid rear axle in decades, corvettes have used transaxles since the 90s, and they haven’t had 4 gears in decades either
Supposedly from what I picked up on is it might be limiting certain rear geometry values which is stupid because then every single team will just migrate to the same rear geometry
I noticed this bit from Bozi on how the second half of Tuesday's test will be for testing aero and suspension changes. The suspension part is news to me since all these short track tests to improve the product has been mainly focused on tires and aero. I wonder what they could be doing here. I doubt it's testing any beefing of any parts since you don't need an on-track test to really validate structural changes. My only guess is potentially finding a way to constrain movement in the rear end and make the independent rear suspension behave like a solid rear axle (which I think is a key to the old short track product). Or maybe it is just new parts that are more or less the same as before but a new supplier.
I feel like it’s gonna be related to the the indie rear suspension. They’ve just about wrung out everything they can from the aero package minus going without a rear spoiler. Another commenter mentioned them maybe working on which “tire” they drive on, so that could be something. But suspension seems like low hanging fruit with this new car so maybe we will see some noteworthy results.
Suspension is a minor issue. It's an issue, but the least of the sports worry.
The issues are horsepower, tire width, and too much downforce.
The fix? It's easy actually. You just throw out the next gen and go back to the COT/Gen 6/Xfinity car. The Xfinity car perfected the downforce package for that style of suspension. You simply add 200 horsepower to the Xfinity car and you are done.
Now that Phelps is out, you have to hope the sport realizes they need a real race car. If you put me in charge, we'd be running the Xfinity car with 200 extra horsepower by 2027. I'll figure out how we limit the teams from spending too much money by limiting the changes that can be made and bring costs down. It really wouldn't be hard, the Xfinity car has been unchanged since 2020. It's simply just a matter of making more of them and limiting the allowed changes.
Haven’t they run two N.W. tests now? One during the trial and one in the last week or so? What did those cover?
They had an Bristol test during the trial IIRC with Preece, Bowman and I think Bell. They are testing on Monday or Tuesday with a representative from each organization.
I knew about the Bristol test and the most recent one upcoming. I could have sworn I saw a post from either Trackhouse or Zilisch of the 88 team at NWB early in December. But it's very possible that I am mis-remembering.
Nothing, they didn’t happen
Lift kits
My buddy who works at the track confirms seeing the Carolina Squat setup
Stunna Empire sponsorship
Lmao that's hilarious. Couldn't run them at Darlington though, they're illegal in SC now XD
My crazy guess? Limiting the independent rear suspension or doing away with it. Aero I'd say something to improve side force and aero push.
This car seriously needs help when driving off the right rear on short tracks. It's weird to me that everyone has to drive off the right front and the aero push is horrendous.
They 100% are not getting rid of independent rear suspension, the transaxle requires it and would require a complete redoing of the entire rear of the car.
Watch this video https://youtube.com/shorts/OqXpUR0kZxQ?si=rERIVgcuyEkAKaaN
Thanks for that. I will admit I am terrible when it comes to being an armchair engineer, I was just making a best guess but I don't know anything lol
Yeah that’s definitely not what’s happening. Probably some sort of shock/spring adjustment
Yeah I figured it was a crazy take
car can't drive off the right rear because the tire has no sidewall to lean on.
I was thinking the exact same thing as for reducing/removing IRS without changing/removing those control arms and the general configuration there.
Control arms are the key part of independent suspension. They hold everything else in place. You can change the design of them to change the geometry of how it all works but you can’t get rid of them.
I misspoke, I was moreso saying getting rid of the double wishbone style control arms, toe links. Basically make it more or less to where it's just transaxle axle shaft to the upright and be like a solid rear axle more or less. Remove as much compliance as possible and make it rigid. The toe link it the main part there, they can keep the double wishbone setup, I was suggesting just to get as close to how it is with all the other stock car series with the trailing arm solid rear axle setup.
I know people bitch about the toe links being weak but that's literally what they are designed for.
A more rigid toe link, or complete removal, is going to make a those bumps that bend/break those toe links day ending damage.
Those are designed to keep more important pieces, that cant be fixed on pit road with the removal of two bolts, from being what bends/breaks on impact.
Facts 100%. I wasn’t saying to get rid of them because they are bad in concept. I was moreso saying that from a perspective of making rear toe fixed as I assume with the slugs/shims, toe links can add or remove toe to the rear tires. Compare that to pre-Next-Gen when teams would be trying anything and everything to induce rear toe because you would turn so much better if you could figure out a way to do that whether it was with twisting the axle/messing with the trailing arm bushings, etc.
I don't know anything about suspensions, but I do know that Next Gen cars don't look like short track cars. I really like the Next Gen but it needs a lot more grass roots DNA in it rather than being a Lamborghini badged with a Chevy/Ford/Toyota logo
The next gen mechanically has a lot more in common with a Mustang or Camaro than the previous gen cars did. Niether have had a solid rear axle in decades, corvettes have used transaxles since the 90s, and they haven’t had 4 gears in decades either
we see where that has gotten us though, Road Courses and Short Tracks now produce shit racing.....so maybe they fixed what wasn't broken
the intermediates are better than ever and the RC/STs have gotten significantly better since 2022 also
um....you didn't watch the RC races in 2023 did you?
the only reason Short Tracks have gotten better is because Goodyear cheated.
Did you watch the RC races in 2024 and 2025? Significantly better. Not sure how having tires that are better is “cheating”
great intermediate racing is great and all...but there are less of those on the schedule than in recent years
They are probably finding a way to stop teams from letting the front of the car be neutral at max load.
Supposedly from what I picked up on is it might be limiting certain rear geometry values which is stupid because then every single team will just migrate to the same rear geometry
Very minor suspension stuff. Mainly just a limit of how much rear camber you can have at inspection.
Thank you sir!
harder bump stops so they can run the floor closer to the ground
I noticed this bit from Bozi on how the second half of Tuesday's test will be for testing aero and suspension changes. The suspension part is news to me since all these short track tests to improve the product has been mainly focused on tires and aero. I wonder what they could be doing here. I doubt it's testing any beefing of any parts since you don't need an on-track test to really validate structural changes. My only guess is potentially finding a way to constrain movement in the rear end and make the independent rear suspension behave like a solid rear axle (which I think is a key to the old short track product). Or maybe it is just new parts that are more or less the same as before but a new supplier.
I feel like it’s gonna be related to the the indie rear suspension. They’ve just about wrung out everything they can from the aero package minus going without a rear spoiler. Another commenter mentioned them maybe working on which “tire” they drive on, so that could be something. But suspension seems like low hanging fruit with this new car so maybe we will see some noteworthy results.
Everyone is testing the 50's suspension set up from 2023 Daytona
Suspension is a minor issue. It's an issue, but the least of the sports worry.
The issues are horsepower, tire width, and too much downforce.
The fix? It's easy actually. You just throw out the next gen and go back to the COT/Gen 6/Xfinity car. The Xfinity car perfected the downforce package for that style of suspension. You simply add 200 horsepower to the Xfinity car and you are done.
Now that Phelps is out, you have to hope the sport realizes they need a real race car. If you put me in charge, we'd be running the Xfinity car with 200 extra horsepower by 2027. I'll figure out how we limit the teams from spending too much money by limiting the changes that can be made and bring costs down. It really wouldn't be hard, the Xfinity car has been unchanged since 2020. It's simply just a matter of making more of them and limiting the allowed changes.
Is it easy because you have a printing press in your basement for the teams to use to pay for it?
NXT gen bad me so smart i fix nascar