I've been getting more into stock car racing recently, since I've spent the majority of my life looking at it with disdain, but I've started to appreciate the barebones engineering that goes into them and just the really simple formula they use to produce cars capable of high speed stability and being able to handle on road courses. This makes me think however, since solid axles were standard equipment on them up until the most recent generation. In addition, I've also read before about the olds fe3x test mule, and that car outclassed the c4 corvette on the track, and was able to pull over 1g through corners while also having a solid axle. So what exactly is the limit with a solid axle on tracks? Is it a serious bottleneck, or is it just something thats always going to be slightly worse than irs? Obviously the camber angle is fixed at 0 on them, but is that really that much of a hinderance in corners with how rigid it is? Are the only real downsides just weight and surface contact in niche areas?

You can absolutely camber a solid axle

>>28455098 (OP)
the issue with solid axles is that every force enacted on one wheel gets transferred to the other. say, you roll over a kerb, the inside wheel gets jacked upwards which upsets the outside wheel and will influence traction. IRS, the wheels are independent so this doesn't happen.

the result is IRS has a higher ceiling for performance, yes, but solid axles can still be blisteringly fast. in regards to stock cars and old school IMSA stuff, they made up for it by having giant tyres and absurd P:W ratios relative to other tin top cars of that era.

>>28455098 (OP)
they operate on farely smooth surfaces so the limitations of solid axles are not so important.
there is also a lot of weird stuff specific to oval racing such as fitting wider tires to the outside edge of the car.
.eg the front right tire will get hotter and wear out more quickly than the rest, so the width, compound, tire pressure can be altered to suit this per wheel.
and also other things like panhard rods and track bars (crabbing lmao)
>looking at it with disdain
for me is more an indifference, its kind of neat from a technical stand point but bland compared to the chaos of midget car racing

>>28456253
>IRS, the wheels are independent so this doesn't happen.
>the result is IRS has a higher ceiling for performance, yes
Anti-roll bar blocks your path.

Irrelevant, start investigating in tires

>>28455098 (OP)
On tracks with good surfaces and mild curbs, live rear axles are fine.
It's when the track is bumpy as fuck where axles struggle.
Every road imperfection that hits one side also affects the other unlike IRS.
Axles have advantage of being mostly parallel to a surface at all times.
They also have a little bit of rear steering built into the geometry.
& Have vastly superior anti squat characteristics.
You can also have Cambered solid axles as well But require routine maintenance.

Basically, solid axles arn't nearly as bad as people think.
.t race with a GM axle

>>28457797
ARBs work opposite of a solid axle, when the inside wheel gets pushed up the ARB pushes the outside wheel down into the road increasing traction.
besides, ARBs can be tuned. solid axles can't.

>>28458033
No thats not how it works.

>>28458039
yes it is. the purpose is to transfer energy from one side to the other in a controlled manner to increase traction.

>>28458073
>Transfer energy
This nigga thinks sway bars have a large affect on load transfer.

>>28457868
>You can also have Cambered solid axles as well But require routine maintenance.
Explain pls...

>>28458329
the ends of the axle shaft splines are a oval shaped.
That allows you to set negative chamber on a solid axle.
But that also means you have to routinely remove the axle shafts to clean them off and regrease them.
I have seen some cambered CV axle solid axles.

>>28458710
Do you know anything about the axles TA2 cars run? I saw footage of one once and it looks like a giant aluminum box running from right to left, and with a 9" center section in the middle of it.

>>28458720
Those are quick change rear ends.
They are super loud and you have to change out the fluid every race.
But you can swap gear ratios on the fly.
I believe they are cambered, but not that aggressively.

>>28458033
that's backwards
you described an arb as how a solid axle works, but an arb is just a spring.
an anti-roll bar actually pulls the opposite side up, it opposes any difference in suspension height by increasing the effective spring rate on the corner being compressed by leveraging against the opposite side of the car under decompression.

it is the solid axle that pushes down on the opposite side when one side is compressed. you can even put an anti-roll bar on a solid axle to counteract this effect.

>>28458898
This is what I'm asking about
https://www.pixnoy.com/post/6745347230375964445634/

>>28458951
Looks like some sort of trick full floater 9 inch housing.

>>28458951
surely it would be simpler to just hack in a solid-mount diff IRS instead of doing whatever the fuck this crazy shit is

>>28459029
it's not crazy it's just a housing for a diff pumphin and axles made from solid aluminum plates bolted together instead of cast and welded pieces. it can be completely disassembled and overhauled or modified easily.

>>28458951
Weird, never seen a sheet metal fabbed 9in like that

>>28459029
Likely not allowed in the class.