Thanks to you both for the input so far!
To get my excuses side of things out of the way I have gone and ordered a Bilstein B12 Pro-Kit after much debate between them and entry level coilovers like the H&R. With the mileage on my car I felt it was worthwhile, and at $800 shipped for the whole set I couldn't complain! I figure if I'm going to play with my alignment, I may as well do it
after replacing my 60 thousand mile shocks.
With that in mind, what should I expect my current alignment to do when I plunk them in? I understand that I'll get more negative camber as a result of the drop, will it also have the effect of messing up my front and rear toe? The kit estimates a 20mm front and 10mm rear drop. How long can I comfortably drive on it before the alignment? I get mixed reports on the suspension settling after a few hundred miles on most new spring installs which would of course change the alignment specs.
When I do the alignment, I think I'll be going this route. Will I need camber washers with the new suspension height to achieve this result?
Front:
-2.00° camber, 0.00° toe, stock caster (tire wear aside, should I go further negative camber? What about the trick of marking and adjusting for track days? I am not going to be using camber plates)
Rear:
-1.50° to -1.8° camber, 0.10° toe in
Quote:
Originally Posted by The HACK
You mentioned the E30...Did that have squared tires?
Yes it did, 205/55-15 square, track rubber is 225/50-15 but I've never had a chance to use them (rained every trackday before the engine rebuild started)
The next logical step, is if the "understeer" is so much and so undesirable that it's making it impossible for you to get decent time in the car, then giving up rear grip may not necessarily be a BAD thing. Go 255/whatever on the rear and see if you can get better results.
Due to cost restrictions and because I'm not super competitive I'll like stay with my staggered setup and learn to work around it
LASTLY. Since you're on MOSTLY stock suspension, keep in mind that it takes smoother inputs, both hand and feet, to get the best results. You mentioned:
So in other words.... Suck less? 
This would suggest to me that one of your multiple inputs up front on turn-in was too quick, resulting in the car going into an understeer state before the suspension sets. I'm going to share a simple adage that was an epiphany for me as a driver. 90% of going fast happens under braking.
Now, not having the opportunity to sit in the passenger seat, and not having video to review, whatever I have to say here is all hearsay (and wild @ss guess). But I suspect either your brake release prior to turn-in was too abrupt, causing the front end to come up too quickly and losing grip to allow you to transition into the turn smoothly, or the timing between brake release and turn-in is off leaving you in a perpetual state of understeer.
My standard disclaimer applies here though. I'm not an autocrosser. Heck my CR buddy who's NEVER AXed beat me by nearly 1 full second on a 27.5s AX course in the same identical car. So take my advice with a giant grain of salt. But I suspect, fix the braking and 90% of your understeer problems may go away. If you're still willing to take my unqualified advice, I have 2 things for you to try.
1: Brake earlier. I know it's counter intuitive, but it's the BIGGEST issue that most drivers driving heavier cars than what they're used to have a trouble grasping. And on this chassis it's imperative you don't try to be "Mr. Brembo" or play "hero" with the brakes.
2: Brake LESS. Again, counter intuitive. And this might be specific to this chassis, since it's short-ish compared to your average car, and the fact that you sit over the rear axle making the pendulum of momentum swing faster and harder, but the two combined makes it easy to overbrake and overwhelm the front end.
Of course, I'm going to tell you that if neither one of the above works for you, try braking later and brake harder. 
I see nothing wrong with your advice, in fact I can almost exactly picture that whole bunch of tips being completely in play in my case. An example of my run where I tried driving the course backwards:
I was going into a tight left hander after a hard but short burst of acceleration. I went from the gas and onto the brakes, turned in, made it about 20ft and found myself facing the apex.
Best guess going on what you're describing is that I was too abrubt on my transition from gas to brake, and from brake to steering. The rapid transition to loading up the front tires. This would unweight the rear on corner entry and with the front end overbraking the rear. Just enough grip to tuck the front end to the left and me and the ass end went for a jolly good pendulum ride. If I can smooth everything out I can fix this, I'm sure. I'm well aware that a better suspension can mask problems in my driving as much as it can help me. |