What is the best setting for the street and drag combined?

 

I find my self changing the settings a lot. I don't drag race so I can't help you there but here is what I've come up with:

- Long Trips on the Highway: 6 turns
- Normal around town, no passengers (pretty rough ride IMO): 3-4 turns
- AutoX: just tried it at 2 turns and it seemed to work pretty well, I didn't adjust them between runs though, will try it in the future.

I would think that you want different settings for Street driving vs Drag. It takes like 5 minutes to change them so develop a couple prefered settings. My car is not a daily driver, if it were I'd probably set them at 4-5 turns all around for the Street.

 

I think theres other post about this, give the search a try. I know Ive looked at them before.
Its always good to see what others likes. Also what other suspension mods they have might be good to know also.

Mine will be going in, in the next month or sooner.

 

 

Some (FiFan?) have found a slightly staggered setting, front vs rear, to work best for the street and activities involving cornering. I'm not going to trust my memory on which end might be best made firmer than the other (and it depends a bit on the rest of your combination anyway), so I'll suggest makinga search to turn up something more specific.

For the strip, the usual solution is to soften the front and firm up the rear.

If you don't care to adjust them for the track and then back again for the street, perhaps a staggered setting that's slightly softer in front and slightly firmer out back is what you're looking for. Plan on experimenting a bit to get it at some "good overall average" for your total situation.


Norm

 

Since the car's natural tendency is to understeer, for a more neutral handling balance, increase grip in the front - keep the front suspension slightly softer than out back.

Once again, it all depends on what you'll be doing with the car. For track days, racing, and autoX play around with your settings a little bit after you've become a good enough driver to recognize how the changes will effect your performance. Its a matter of fine tuning. As far as starting with something to try out - try the front's a quarter to a half turn softer than the rears and see how you like that.

Also remember, stiffer isn't always better - overall stiffness should depend on the environment you're racing in. On a road course its easier to control body roll and softer dampers will help deal with the chatter bumps. On AutoX, the fast transfers will ask a lot of the dampers with regards to quick reaction, so tighten 'em up to help control the body.

With regards to drag racing - you want to take as much advantage of the weight transfer to the rear as possible - keep the weight to the rear for as long as possible, which means softening up the rears and tightening the fronts.

 

I always read on the drag strip its the other way around. You want the weight to get to the rear wheels quicker. So less travel in the rear is ideal. (stiffer)

 

If the dampers on the rear are too stiff, they will shift the weight off the rear wheels much quicker eliminating traction after you get off the line. Idealy, we could all wheely our cars, meaning the entire car's weight is supported by the rear tires. However, this is goofy and dangerous.

Shocks provide a damping force to resist the motion of the springs, the idea being that the damping force returns the springs to their equilibrium position without too much back and forth malarkey (critically damped). The idea in drag racing is to keep the weight of the car over the rear axle for as long possible to provide the most friction for the rear tires.

If we consider the forces acting on the rear springs, we have the weight of the car acting down, the damping force acting up (while the car's weight shifts back) and down (as it starts to shift forward) and the force of the spring acting up for the time it is compressed. So if the dampers are too stiff, the upward force resisting the compression of the spring will force the weight forward too quickly. Bye bye traction. ;_;

 

Makes sense

 

If you have adjustable shocks and struts you might as well adjust them to the best settings for whatever the situation requires.

I have always been under the impression that full soft in the front and firming the rear (from full soft) just slightly to keep traction was the best setting, the D-spec manually actually has this in there. This method seems to be working for me (front=7 turns rear=5.5-6 turns), best 60' has been a 1.82 with the suspension set up on the stock 235 pirellis.

GotMunchies, do you frequent the strip? Maybe I can give your setup a try (I'm going to TnT tonight). I am always open to new ideas.