H&R/Koni/Dali sway setup

[ak]

Hello guys,

I just aquired/installed all of those and had questions. I went to autocross this past weekend, and the car was understeering quite a bit. I suspect this is the doing of the large negative camber in the rear(-2.6). I just had 4 wheel alignment and everything else is in stock spec. I made the rear struts full stiff while leaving the fronts half stiff, and this helped some but it was still understeering. My next move is to move the rear sway bars to the 3rd hole...currently I have both front and rear on the second hole. I also have 17/18 wheel combo with 215/265 tire size which is probably inducing more understeer. In my opinion, some understeer is good for bad driver like me but not too much.

Any suggestions on this setup would be appreciated.

ak

 

[sjs]

I have a car with similar pieces but different tires and it does not understeer badly. However, I don't autocross which requires a significantly different balance since the turns are so tight.

You thought to change the rear bar is a good next step. Move to the holes that make the "arms" of the bar the shortest, and if that isn't enough then change the front to make those arms longer. But be careful because what works best on an autocross course may surprise you with oversteer on your favorite high-speed highway ramp.

Have you played with tire pressure? Autocross pressures are typically much higher than normal driving when you run street tires. Put more in the front or less in the rear (within limits) to get better grip up front and reduce understeer.

 

[ak]

I agree with you that what works on Autocross course may not work elsewhere. However, the understeer seemed a little excessive... Hopefully I'm going to a track event in two weeks so I'll find out how it handles on the road course. I won't make any drastic change till then probably.

BTW, I didn't even think about tire pressure...that's a good point...but wouldn't higher pressure in the rear and lower pressure in the fronts make it less understeer?