JThor

Thanks! I will be calling you after Christmas to dial all this in.

Sam Strano

I'll be the first to admit I do not know it all. I don't believe the wheels were 9" wide until the Brembo cars, but I might be wrong. And part of the issue is people don't measure wheels correctly, I see folks claim wheels are .5" wider all the time because they aren't measuring from bead to bead but the overall width. Here's how you find out. You find a wheel from such a car and you see what it says on the spoke for width and offset.

And 3.73's are not a good idea for autox, too short in general. I'd say start with what you have, we'll do the dampers and the rear bar and work from there. A gear swap (assuming you don't have 3.73's already), and the other parts are going to add up and maybe not end up as a better car. The tires were worth a LOT in terms of the time they picked up at the tracks.

JThor

Thanks! It sounds like a good plan. It will be interesting trying to find a 2010 Track Pack II car. They showed up late in the model year. Mine does have the 3.73 diff. However, the tire outside diameter is 27.7" on the stock tires. So I am able to get about 65 mph out of 2nd. I'll be interested to hear your perspective on what tires to use. I look at Tirerack and I don't see any "Extreme Performance" tires with anything close to that diameter that I could use on a 8.5" rim. This year I used Bridgestone S-04's and was pretty impressed with them. Once they wore down a little the traction was amazing.

Sam Strano

And you will never compete competitively anyway on 27.7" tall tires. First competitive tires don't exist in those sizes. Second you are running around with the car higher in the air than it needs to be (which isn't good) and shorter tires lower the Cg without any compromise to the suspension.

Not as easy as it all looks is it?

JThor

You're right!

etrigger

This might have been covered. but.

for stock you have to run stock sized wheels. so no swapping to 18's. but put as much meat on them as you can, and the stickiest you can get.

you can also run a K&N drop in filter, a catback exhaust, and a big front sway bar. youll want the bar, oh and get a good alignment. if its a street car, 0 toe front, slight toe in for rear (oh wait axle, duh), and as much camber as your willing to live with, and max the caster in front.

I think you can go with camber plates now in the street class. youll want those. mark your street setting, then at events max the neg camber.

if you want more mods than the above, you might want to consider STX.

Sam Strano

Not exactly all true.... at least these days. There have been changes, and depending on the model year 18" where a stand alone option that he then could run. But that's in stock category which is only around one more year. "Street" category is coming online (where you can't run R-comps) and it has a really f-ed up rule where you can change the diameter (but not the width, offsets) by 1" from any wheel that would have been available on the car, like under stock rules.

See... this is why it pays to deal with folks who are involved, so you don't get hosed with these kind of rule changes.

I don't agree he'll 100% want a big front bar, that depends on what category and what tires he opts for, but we've been running my thin wall 1" adjustable bar on both the '11+'s and on the 2005-2010 cars instead of a front bar, and on street tires you will NOT want more front bar like you do on R's.

kjdad

Update:

Had my first autox of the year. MAJOR oversteer was the theme. Also could not get the power down. Time to really think about tires. I made the following changes in the off season. koni yellows and hellwig rear sway. Set to the "stiffest" setting which I think was a mistake with the all season tires. Going to dial the bar back a little. I only had time to install the rear shock which I had set to soft. Fronts are going on now.

Now back to tires. I'm sticking to f-stock on a 18" wheel option that my 06 came with. I would love to run a star spec or rival but don't want to lose too much tire height since my car has 3.55 already. That leaves me with choices like pole positions and DW connies..which I don't think compare to the star specs..or rivals. Any insight on tires sizes? I am open to changing the wheels out. Ideas?

I had star specs on my 07 Si and they gripped like mf-ers. I really would like to be competitive this year. I finished 5th in my class..but could not touch the front runners.

Jande063

I am very happy running that rear bar on full soft. I also have my shocks set to 1 turn above full soft in front and half a turn over full soft in rear. The Bridgestone RE-11s have done very well by me, I have come in first in my class(STU) for a few local events running this set up. The downside to the RE-11 is that they are very heavy tires, but they hold up to this car very well.

Sam Strano

And now you know why I don't make, or use, or recommend HUGE rear swaybars, and certainly not without a massive front. You used a solid 25mm bar set full stiff. I make a hollow 25mm rear bar (very think walled) that's 3 way adjustable.

Bottom line, I don't know how you came to choose that bar or one like it, but I could have saved you some trouble. If you want some help