Re: [A2-16v] Suspension Report Auto X

[Marshall Grice IV]

The main reason for understeer in our cars is from uneven weight transfer.  
The outside front tire gets all the weight and the others(specificly the 
inside rear) don't get shit.  Max grip will happen when all tires are loaded 
evenly.  I think we can all agree that our suspension design is absolute 
crap(if you don't like it buy another car) and the car is going to handle 
its best when we basicly take the suspension geometry out of the 
equation...aka real stiff so that nothing moves.  From there you align the 
car so that you have maximum contact patch in corners...aka >-2.5deg camber. 
 Of course most of us also drive our cars on the street(with bumps) and no 
movement in the suspension is not an option, so compomise is the issue.  In 
my case i run the stiffest springs i think i could handle on the 
street(400f/300r-first itteration gonna change it soon), the biggest bars i 
can buy f/r, and the shocks that are stiff enough to control my outragous 
wheel rates when i'm in a turn.  Swaybars have their disadvantages but do 
exactly what i want, increase roll resistance with out increasing ride rate.
As far as tuning the car goes...yes at some point we have to just accept 
what ever level of max grip we have and get the car balanced.  It basicly 
boils down to this, if your car understeers it's slower.  Real race cars 
start with spring rate tuning and then add just enough bar to make it 
balanced...we however don't have the luxury of adjustable swaybars, or at 
least not adjustable enough.  Slap on the bars and tune with spring rates is 
my plan.
As for my car i'm running ground controls with 400f/300r with eibach 25/28mm 
bars and bilstein sport shocks.  It has much more grip then it did when i 
had the eibach prokit springs with the bilsteins/bars and it understeers 
less.  It does still understeer though.  I'm trying to decide if i want to 
go higher rear rate or lower front.  I'm leaning toward lower front becase i 
really don't want to go any stiffer, but then again i don't want to lower 
the front rate because then my car will roll more...but i'll be able to 
handle bumps in turns...ahhhh.  Anyways, i'm not completely happy with the 
shocks.  they are able to control the spring rate over bumps but i don't 
feel the are stiff enough to control the car when turning.  My next plan is 
to send them in to be rebuilt to group b specs and i think that should take 
care of that.

ok ok i'm done.
marshall
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