Tthere were some comments about the 66's last night from Arf and Ronnie. Maybe I can help...probably not, but anyway you are going to get it!
Generally I find the 2 litre cars very much like the 65's, but the 3 litre beasts are a law unto themselves.
The only common ground seems to be the total lack of torque at low revs for all cars ( except maybe the 2.7 and 3.0 litre Brabs which seem slightly better).
This I find is the biggest headache when developing a setup. You need a 1st gear that is low enough to punch off the grid and out of those slow corners, but this often means that the other gear ratios now have to be spread out so that you do not run out of revs in top gear. With the narrow rev range in which they can deliver the power the timing of gear changes is critical, as you need to hit max revs in one gear so that when you move up a gear and the revs drop you do not hit a dead spot. Only trial and error will tell you when you have it right.
So, once you have got the ratios somewhere near workable.. The 2 litre cars I set up similar to a 65. They are not quite as sure footed as the 65's and the extra horsepower when the engine is "on song" can make things a little exciting if you are not careful. The go pedal needs to be applied with some care out of medium speed corners to avoid the tail breaking away. I run roll bars maybe front 15-20lbs higher than rear and bump rebounds at 3 all round. Diff settings might be a bit radical for some, I think I ran 45/60 with 3 clutches. Brake balance was around 53%, but I left foot brake so that might need some tweaking if you use your right foot.
In last nights race I was able to keep my 2 litre Brab BRM on the tail of Tristan's 2.7 litre Brabham for the whole race, even managing to get alongside occasionally. Tris had much more power on the straights and could pull a gap, but I could close up under braking and through the corners. It was a great race as I was looking for a mistake from Tris to steal the lead, but it did not happen.
For the 3 litre race I chose the Eagle ( mainly because I had a setup from somewhere else and I love the engine note lol) I expected to be outgunned on the straights again, but was hoping that the handling would pull me back through the corners. Probably that was a big ask for the Eagle around Imola, but it was a fun race and I was looking for some close racing.
For the Eagle with less BHP, 1st gear is critical, but the power band from that lovely V12 is quite good, so the gears can be reasonably spread although I tend to make 4th and 5th quite close as the grunt drops off at the top end of the rev range. Compared to the Lotus 43, BRM etc which are like pendulums with their tails likely to overtake the front wheels at any moment, the Eagle feels nicely balanced and with my setup I can get the power down early out of the corners.
Again roll bars were about 10-15 higher at front, bump/ rebound 3 all round but front bump might have been 2 to aid turn in. Diff was 60/60 with 3 clutches and brake bias at about 52%.
I am a firm believer that a setup has to suit your driving style in order to extract the best times, so what I suggest here may not suit your needs. I know that JR did the defaults and for the 66's, and for drivers with a similar style they will work fine. But I cannot get them to work for me, so I have to start from scratch and develop my own.
After many years driving only one make of car, I now have a huge choice of projectiles to play with and very few setups that work as I want. I am sure that it something to do with the colour of the car but I cannot find where I change that in setups!!
So prepare to see some interesting cornering techniques as things develop with Blue Moose. lol
I will share my setups with anyone who wants them, just drop me a PM.
