Robertatl123

Again, thanks for the advice.

There are times when I want to say screw it and build the car that I want with the idea of competing in CP on street tires. I know it seems ridiculous, but the guys in the class are nice, regularly show up, and they are not the fastest at the events. I vaguely recall only being behind the leader by 2 seconds when I ran in my well-under-prepared Saleen (I added a triangulated strut tower brace, DOH!). I am still leaning towards STU especially if the SCCA relaxes the rear suspension rules like they indicated in the ?October? Fast Track (can replace LCA and can add LCA relocation brackets). CAM is also a big contender if not to only annoy a particular individual who believes that the class should only be meant for "true classics." But I would go into CAM if there is a PAX created for it. I thought the PAX is calculated using data from several national tour events, and I only know of CAM being run at nationals as an invitational class...I'm probably wrong though.

I am going to spend the weekend doing even more research, and may bug you guys some more, but I will at the very least let you know what I decide to go with when I figure out my build list.

CMcNam

There's no drawbacks to using a Watts Link over the panhard setup except price. It is superior in every other way.

Norm Peterson

The only PAX index that remains fixed is AM (at 1.000). All other classes are subject to getting adjustments made to their PAX factors annually, which sometimes amounts to as much as or 0.012 or 0.013. Meaning that PAX indexes are at best roughly predictive rather than exact.

That individual who's set on limiting CAM to cars of certain years only (a) does not know how to read a wide-open ruleset, and (b) does not understand that the SCCA left up to the regions the option to split "?AM" into "Classic" and "Modern".


Norm

chrumck

I strongly believe that sport springs + Koni Yellows is a no-brain way to get a 95% (if not more) out of the S197 suspension wise.

I'm a road racing guy myself (TTC and instructing with NASA) and my impressions after changing from stock is that the car is stiffer AND more comfortable at the same time. The Yellows are just awesome both with controlling body roll and also high speed dampening. The best example of that I had was the turn 14 at MidOhio (the last before start/finish line). It was really scary to cut that corner deep on stock suspension because of the back skating away and the car ricocheting into the inside wall. After the swap the problem was gone (well, almost, you can't defy all of the live axle weaknesses ). On top of all that, the yellows have the rebound setting so you can play with transient handling characteristics of the car as well to better suit your riding style.

What I'm trying to say here is that Yellows provide awesome dampening right out of the box. That is far from being obvious for other shocks, be it coil-overs or not. Coil-overs might give you more tuning options but I believe you have to be extremely knowledgeable about suspension tuning to surpass the Yellows performance-wise. Additionally, I would never slap on the coil-overs without proper corner balancing of the car afterwards. That means buying the scales or having it done by a shop experienced in racing setups. That is a lot of variables to worry about!

As for the springs and sway bars, I ride on Steeda Sports and Strano adjustable bars. I like the car on the loose side so I replaced the rear springs to 200lb ones at some point and I have the bars set to front stiff/rear stiff or medium/stiff. The car is pretty tail happy at higher speeds that way but it lets me fight better the natural push of the front-heavy car at low speeds (Mustang is a heavy pig after all ).

As for the wheels. I have a set of stock GT500 rims (needed for my Brembo calipers) and I use 275/35/18 on all corners. I have no rubbing issues whatsoever with that setup (although things are pretty close here and there).

Norm Peterson

I'm curious - is your Strano rear bar the older 7/8" bar or the newer 1" one? I have the older one at full stiff.

If you don't mind me asking, what sort of lap times are you seeing at Mid-Ohio in the stock and modified conditions? I ran there a couple of times this past year, and I've seen (secondhand, fortunately) why you might not want to drop a wheel off there.


Norm

Robertatl123

Thanks Tom. I have a fairly reasonable budget to work with and one of my concerns is buying more than I need. I completely forgot that corner balancing is needed with coil-overs. So far my parts list will comprise of:

Koni Yellows
Steeda Ultra-lite Springs
Steeda Heavy Duty Upper Strut Mounts - I decided against camber plates since I probably will use a compromised alignment as this is my DD.
Watts Link - Steeda or Whiteline? Still debating.
Front and rear adjustable sway bars - Steeda, Strano, or Whiteline. Note: The rear sway bar will be dependent on the type of Watts link I get.
Brake Pads - Hawk HPS - I like the pads and they work well for DD.
Wheels - Vorshlag/Forgestar 18X10 with Dunlop Direzza ZII Star Specs 285/40 (I believe).
Rear Upper Control Arm - I figured I should go ahead and do it since my rear suspension will be in pieces anyway. Steeda, Whiteline, or any others?
Lower Control Arms and relocation bracket - Will research if I do go into CAM. Steeda, MM, Whiteline

Regards,

Robert

Robertatl123

Norm, I told the guy at one of the events that he needs to go to the club racers in American Sedan and tell them to that they need to get out since their cars are all coupes. I think he is in the doesn't like it, but will accept it category. Anyway, it's his problem.

chrumck

Yes, I've got the 7/8 one on full stiff and the front on stiff or medium. I could probably still go tad looser than that on sticky tires like Kooks Z214 C51 or Hoosiers R6's. I noticed those tires like the Mustang set loose.

The best I managed to do was 01:42.751 in TTC on Club Course in 2012. I moved out to Seattle soon after that and I did not have a chance to go back.
Unfortunatelly I don't have any comparable data on stock suspension to really compare apples to apples.

chrumck

I would totally go for camber plates. I've used MM ones and loved them.

The beauty of it is that you can have two settings - slide the plates in for the event and then back them out for the street. You can mark the plates with a sharpie to know where the settings are. All you need then is a jack stand, hydraulic jack, 13mm wrench and 5 minutes.

With the S197 suspension, when you increase negative camber, you add to the toe-out (and vice-versa). That is exactly the combination you need for the track and then for the street. In my setup, I have -3.1deg camber and -2mm toe for track and -1.7deg and +2mm toe for the road. And again, this is 5min work between the two. You can play with the two numbers to suit your needs.

I don't have any experience on rear suspension upgrades. I couldn't do anything more to the car without being bumped to TTB. Besides, I never compained on rear wheels grip anyways.

jRaskell

The Dunlops are 285/30, not 40, which get a little short for our cars. They're about an inch shorter than the 285/35 tires out there, over two inches shorter than stock. That decrease in diameter gets split evenly between ground clearance and fender gap (ie 1 inch shorter = half an inch less ground clearance and half an inch more fender ga). So it gets tough to eliminate that wheel gap without throwing ground clearance out the window (and not doing great things for suspension geometry either), and makes that 3.73 rear gear even shorter than it already is (and for AutoX, it's already pretty short).

My 285/35 Hankooks are about as short as I want to go, and I'm running the stock 3.31 rear gear.