I was at an autocross school the other weekend and the instructor I had was a road course instructor at VIR. He was asking me about my set-up as we were rolling on the skip pad so he knew what I had.
Just so you all know, here's my set-up suspension wise: BC inverted coilovers with standard rates, Hotchis sways, front and rear STB's, Prothane Front LCA bushing and rear tension strut bushings
After I gave him the details, he said that for front wheel drive cars you want the front suspension softer than the rear. I've heard this for drag racing, but not for auto-x or road racing.
Anyone ever heard this or have any comments? Any comments appreciated as this is just the start of my second year auto-x'ing. Thanks!
Don't quote me, but I believe he is correct. You want the rear to be stiffer strut/coilover wise. Not necessarily for the other parts of your suspension though. Search a little bit, and maybe the vets will chime in more.
He is correct ... he means 'relative stiffness' ( or softness, compliance etc etc ) =] I dont believe he is advocating you to soften the front suspension. I will add more later
He is correct ... he means 'relative stiffness' ( or softness, compliance etc etc ) =] I dont believe he is not advocating you to soften the front suspension. I will add more later
I think what he was also referring to is the spring rates and sway bar settings. I have 850lbs front and 1000lbs rear springs to create a little extra oversteer and less understeer, what front wheel drive cars can use to their advantage.
Well with open diff. FWD cars you need to keep the front soft so the inside front tire stays on the ground better and lets you come off corners with more power without spinnig the inside tire.
Well what if you have damping adjustable coilovers and your spring rates in front are higher than back.. can you turn the damping up higher in the rear and leave the front softer for the same effect?
Thanks for the info. He was talking about spring rates. I have the BC Racing inverted coilovers with the standard spring rates (can't remember what they are off the top of my head). I wonder if I can swap the front a rear springs to have the softer springs in front and stiffer ones in back? I think they are different lengths and diameters though.
Does anyone remember how much you could change the spring rates with the BC's without having them revalved? I'm thinking it was like 2kg...do you have to order the springs through them or do vendors that sell the coilovers also deal with the custom springs?
Thanks for the info. He was talking about spring rates. I have the BC Racing inverted coilovers with the standard spring rates (can't remember what they are off the top of my head). I wonder if I can swap the front a rear springs to have the softer springs in front and stiffer ones in back? I think they are different lengths and diameters though.
Does anyone remember how much you could change the spring rates with the BC's without having them revalved? I'm thinking it was like 2kg...do you have to order the springs through them or do vendors that sell the coilovers also deal with the custom springs?
I also have the BC Inverts with stock rates (which I was told were 8k/6k). I also was told by a couple suspension tuners that 2K either way is safe without a revalve.
I thought standard rates were 8k 4k. I know a couple of people that have gone with 7k front and 5k rear to change up the balance a little more to get a faster turn-in. I personally went with 6k front 4k rear because my ass see's alot of daily driving to the tune of 20k miles a year on average. I didnt want a real stiff ride in the front and still wanted a faster turn-in when I head to the track.
My question for this thread......I have the budget pt/acr sway bar set up, would it be a better choice to put the stock front sway bar back in to get a little more over steer for the road course? Or will my spring rates take care of that for me? I also just recieved a set of energy susp. front endlinks which appear to be a little longer than stock and have a center collar, which looks like they will put a little more downward tension on the ends of the sway bar. will this make the front end stiffer than it already is, cause more understeer?
The adjustable endlinks are to ensure proper geometry of the swaybar in height adjustable cars (sic. height adjustable coil overs) and to fine tune the car to different tracks and to get rid of ( or add ) preload to the swaybar. they are great for setting the sway bar neutral when corner balancing the car with driver. Handling is much improved when there is no preload induced by driver weight. AND if you are not running perfect slalom ( like on any road course ) then you can fine tune the suspension to make turning one direction or the other, easier. (basic rule: lengthen outside by 1/4 turns from neutral until it feels better)
If you raise or lower both at the same height there is not effective change in the car except to move the swaybar's ends up or down. Nothing but geometry is changed. So no , moving both in any one direction will not affect stiffness to any measurable degree, unless binding occurs (which is bad).
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FWD Suspension Set-up...Front Soft vs. Stiff
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