What do you use your car for and how important is suspension to you?

[OkieSnuffBox]

Originally Posted by jvincent

Not yet, but I'm keeping an eye out for it.

Great! At least you are recognizing the desire to improve your craft vs just throwing parts at the car.


One of my favorite things with old track car was getting point bys in Corvettes?Supras/etc, in my little 1.6 Miata.

Although granted our local track is a technical track vs a power track.

[DAEMANO]

Originally Posted by Calum

I'm not an experienced track driver. I'm an average guy that likes to find fun turns on my way to work and take them at speeds that make my wife pee a little. That said, I agree that the stock set up is good. What got me in was mid corner, with a steady steering line, small bumps would upset the chassis enough that it made me nervous. It never got really out of shape, but I found myself holding back to avoid the chance that it would, long before the stock tires let go. Maybe it never would have happened. Maybe a better driver never would have cared and would have driven the car right past that point. I'm not that guy. I know racers hate this, but I'm modding my car to suit my abilities instead of modding my abilities to suit my car/class.

IMO this behavior has a lot to do with the stock tires.

They seem to be designed to lose grip when the car's attitude is abruptly altered laterally, but still have a pretty fair amount of grip when the car's attitude is instead gradually turned. A jolt (like a high speed mid-corner bump) will make the car feel unsettled, even though it still has plenty of grip left. This makes it easy to coax the car into oversteer with a flick of the steering wheel or abrupt throttle change (e.g. a Chris Harris-like drift), but still provide plenty of grip when the driver's inputs are slower. This behavior is bared out in the stock car's skidpad numbers which are remarkably high given the narrowness and compound of the OEM Primacys.

The stock car on more aggressive aftermarket tires of the same size loses this wiggly tendency. It feels more planted and less prone to oversteer without any suspension changes at all, even if the absolute skidpad numbers are barely changed.

[jvincent]

Originally Posted by OkieSnuffBox

Great! At least you are recognizing the desire to improve your craft vs just throwing parts at the car.


One of my favorite things with old track car was getting point bys in Corvettes?Supras/etc, in my little 1.6 Miata.

Although granted our local track is a technical track vs a power track.

Yeah, it's nice to pass the big guns. At least this season I won't be the newest guy out there.

The track I go to is quite technical as well. 20 turns in 5.2km.

[Calum]

Originally Posted by DAEMANO

IMO this behavior has a lot to do with the stock tires.

They seem to be designed to lose grip when the car's attitude is abruptly altered laterally, but still have a pretty fair amount of grip when the car's attitude is instead gradually turned. A jolt (like a high speed mid-corner bump) will make the car feel unsettled, even though it still has plenty of grip left. This makes it easy to coax the car into oversteer with a flick of the steering wheel or abrupt throttle change (e.g. a Chris Harris-like drift), but still provide plenty of grip when the driver's inputs are slower. This behavior is bared out in the stock car's skidpad numbers which are remarkably high given the narrowness and compound of the OEM Primacys.

The stock car on more aggressive aftermarket tires of the same size loses this wiggly tendency. It feels more planted and less prone to oversteer without any suspension changes at all, even if the absolute skidpad numbers are barely changed.

OK, I get it. I can't drive for shit and the stock car is perfect. I'm not here to argue with anyone. I just wrote what I experienced. I don't need a bunch of guys asking if I know about the new TPS report cover sheets. I still have my stock parts, I'll put them back on and sell everything except the MPSSs.

[DAEMANO]

Originally Posted by Calum

OK, I get it. I can't drive for shit and the stock car is perfect. I'm not here to argue with anyone. I just wrote what I experienced. I don't need a bunch of guys asking if I know about the new TPS report cover sheets. I still have my stock parts, I'll put them back on and sell everything except the MPSSs.

Erm... I wasn't really saying that. Sorry if it came off that way. Although the MPSS are a pretty amazing upgrade for the stock car.

[OkieSnuffBox]

Originally Posted by jvincent

Yeah, it's nice to pass the big guns. At least this season I won't be the newest guy out there.

The track I go to is quite technical as well. 20 turns in 5.2km.

Nice! Here is a video of Emilio from 949 Racing at Hallett in his seriously quick Miata.

You don't really get a feel for the elevation change, but I think from the highest to lowest to point is just over 100ft.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yXFoA5cmrM"]Crusher @ Hallett - Miata lap record - YouTube[/ame]

[cjd]

I don't see the car's lines when I'm in the car having fun, but I hate having more gap front/back of a tire than above it; Good thing for me the best performance appears to be only slightly into this range.

Technically this is a daily driver, since we'll road-trip in it. However, I don't actually drive it daily (walk/train to work,) and may put on just as many miles in a year to/from AutoX as everything else combined once I get started up on that again this season.

There are two key factors for me in the suspension setup: handling/performance, and WAF. If my wife can't knit on those road-trips, the suspension is crap. I think that means I get to spend a good bit to upgrade, but that's the plan.

Stock tires are... interesting. Not bad, talk plenty, and reasonably well matched to the stock suspension - stay within its limits and it's nice. Pushing hard into a turn, and it requires more attention to throttle than I'd like to avoid walking the tail around, and even to apply throttle to get going again. Brake early, ride the edge, wait for it to settle, another tiny bit then go - I was able to be more aggressive with my old FWD (for that matter, had to be to get it to turn in nicely.) I need more negative camber, which will probably help this. But I'll be getting more spring (and a properly matched damper) first. Tires with it (17x8 MPSS for daily, not sure for AutoX yet.)

I'm solidly in the "thought I knew enough about suspension, learning just how little I know pretty quickly" camp. Whee!

[mav1178]

I bought this car as a chance to own a brand new S13 240SX. No joke.

It's about as close to that type of car as I'll ever get without buying a used car.

As for the suspension... "2nd" car that somehow sees over 20k miles a year. I don't have enough time dialing in all sorts of suspension settings with multiple adjustments, hence my choice of Ohlins R&T.

-alex

[meWant]

Daily Driver, soon also the track too.... hopefully.

Cant really speak about handling for now, but my plan of getting RCE Yellows would be primarily for looks as of right now.

[Turdinator]

My 86 is my daily driver. I try to take it up to the mountains any chance I get, that first drive was a revelation for me, I loved how the car changed direction. It has really highlighted to me how little I have known about suspension with my previous cars. I have changed my tyres and added camber bolts to the front struts. I plan to go with some lowering springs (probably RCE Yellows) and some better dampers (probably Bilstein B6 or B8) as I would like a little less wheel gap and occasionally I find the front a little too soft in stock form. The dampers are mostly because I would like to experience some quality ones and Bilstein seems like a good entry level option.

[Vracer111]

The FR-S has been my only vehicle for the past few years (first time in a long time I've only had one vehicle to rely on). Suspension is still stock...only relevant changes have been steering rack bushings changed to solid aluminum ones (which helped out very much with the weird mid corner steering trait of the stock car) and running 205/45-17 tires on lightweight 17x7.5 wheels with more than 4lbm of unsprung weight removed from each corner. Car is much more composed than bone stock and quicker in reflexes at the same time while having greater stability at higher speeds as well (...lower CG from reduced tire diameter and rear factory diffusor delete just works better.)

Perfectly content with the stock suspension and only plan to upgrade to non-adjustable Bilstein B6's when the originals have noticeably degraded below acceptable handling. Don't feel like messing with suspension on this car....don't even want to change the springs, even though i would like it just a little lower (but I want to keep the same stock ratio F/R). They pretty much nailed the suspension from the factory, and after 3 years getting to know the car I've pretty much explored what it has to offer and am very satisfied... my rear tires wearing down to the tread bars evenly across the width in less than 6k miles can attest to that...LOL That's why I buy inexpensive tires... I drive with some slip angle every turn I can because that's what the car likes and it feels great doing that (very slight force on the steering wheel in the direction opposite of the turn means you nailed it perfectly). Alignment has never even been touched from how it left the factory either.

I've had some track cars in the past with adjustable suspension setups....didn't really even messing much with the suspension once I found a good setting for the condition. No reason to bother with adjustable dampers for my DD FR-S... I want it simple and highly dependable while being a vehicle specific tuned application - can't get better than non-adjustable Bilstein dampers in that regard.

In racing sims I don't mess with cars settings except for tires and gearing...I just drive, drive, drive the car on the stock setup and try to maximize what it can do and what I can learn from it. You get a lot from doing that.

[Lunatic]

In the past I have had several track cars I could drive on the street, but not comfortably. My FRS is a daily driver street car I can drive on the track. My goals are to make my car handle as good as possible with out engine modifications.
It is the automatic.
Mods, 4,88 rear end gears with Cusco LSD.
Tein SRC Coilovers.
Corner weight and alignment at West End Alignment.
Enkie 17 by 9 wheels with Maxis RC-1 tires.

[FRSfan111]

I habe DDed my car since day 1 (may8th 2012) and have participated in every hpde and autox day my work schedule allows. Also lots of mountain road driving. I love cornering. Sadly I still haven't ordered the struts and racing camber/caster plates I want yet. This summer though for sure!

[Kostamojen]

My BRZ is my only car.

I also plan on autocrossing this entire season in it.

My current setup I admit is more for looks and honestly, I've been disappointed because of it. It looks fantastic but it has lost something since I went with this setup. Over the last year, I was OK with it because I only autoxed a couple times and didn't really drive much otherwise. This year I plan on changing this, starting Saturday.

I've fiddled with Subaru's and suspensions/handling off and on for almost 15 years now, mostly on my own but almost everything I've done with my cars has been up for public record (via forums).

I've had a daily driver with crummy coilovers and a very buttoned up chassis, I've also had excellent daily driver setups that left something to be desired on the track. With my BRZ, the goal is to find the perfect medium, and I have a few ideas I plan on implementing soon enough...