When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
"Danno, where you at least faster than the evo in the straights?"
Nope, they got me beat pretty badly. I was breaking in a fresh engine (that took me over a year to install with countless headaches). So I had boost set fairly low at stock 11-12psi levels. Additionally, I had this rule about robbing my GURU inventory, so I used an old check-valve boost-controller I had laying around. Unfortunately it didn't have a bleed-hole on the section between the valve and wastegate. So as I went up through the gears, the pressure built up and kept the wastegate open. Result was each higher gear got lower and lower boost: 1st=12psi, 2nd=8psi, 3rd=4psi, 4th=0psi . I was running in NA mode most of the time and was probaby putting down around 150rwhp. Those EVOs passed me like I was standing still! Of course, I didn't figure out this boost-problem until every was over and done with...
"Danno; So it's not unheard of to get 1G and even more with our cars?"
Not at all, piece of cake! Just go out and get come R-compound tires and you'll immediately be at 1.0g or above! It's a quick and easy way to get immediate grip. Worth about 4-6 sec/lap on most tracks.
But it won't feel good because you'll still have understeer at the limit and the roll and lean is tough on the driver trying to hang off the steering wheel and bracing himself against the door with his left elbow and knee. Reducing roll a little and getting stiffer springs & sway-bars to give more neutral cornering make sthe car immensely more pleasant to drive and control.
"i have a formula here proving that the weight of a car plays no factor in the handling (on a banked corner)."
I've measured steady-state cornering in the 1.05-1.20g range using Yokohama A032R-S and the old Khumo V700 Victoracers. That's around U-turn type corners like the bottom of the Streets of Willow course, or turns 2 and 9 at Willow Springs, also turn-2 at Laguna Seca or turn-7 at Sears Point. I suspect I can get even better with lightening the car by another couple hundred pounds and getting better alignment and corner-balancing.
I doubt any of those corners are truly flat, most likely will have a small amount of superelevation on them.
There was also a good article in an '83 issue of Car & Driver that tested all the high-perf tyres on the market using a 944NA. Wish I had saved that issue.
"Danno; can you please specify which springs / sway-bars you consider worthy?"
Well, there's really no one right answer to that question. I really depends upon what you want to do with the car and what kind of results you want to get. Suspension set-up even depends upon the ambient temperatures, types of tyres and wheel-sizes you're using, driving-style, even phase of the moon!
I went through quite a few permutations with the suspension. First upgrade was to 200lb/in Weltmeister springs and TurboS sway-bars. Then coil-over front with 250lb/in springs, 26.5mm torsion-bars and Bilsteins all around with 968 M030 sway-bars. The adjustments on the rear was too coarse to be useful, so I dumped the 968 M030 bars.
Third incarnation of the suspension has 350lb/in springs in front with Koni adjustable inserts, 28mm torsion-bars in rear with Bilstein Sport shocks and Weltmeister sway-bars. I like the bars because they're adjustable over a continuous range. So on the street, I have them at full soft. Then at the track I crank the front to full-stiff and put the rear about mid-way. Then fine-tune using just the rear bar in 1/4" increments.
Here's a picture of what the car looked like at various 1st stages of suspension mods (TurboS swaybars vs. 968 M030):
TurboS picture actually from a magazine article because I didn't have any pictures of my car in the middle phase.
And the final incarnation with Weltmeister bars and 350 lb/in springs:
Now, remember that it's not the roll-resistance that gives you better grip, but it's actually the reduction in bad chamber-change that does it. Due to the old McPherson strut front end, the tyre tends to stop gaining negative camber and actually go positive with suspension compression over 1" or so. Then combined with body-roll, you effectively have positive camber on the outside tyre.
If we had a more sophisticated suspension, like unequal-length wishbones like on the Corvette, SupraTT, newer BMWs and Ferraris, we can get the same grip with lower spring-rates and more body-roll.
For example, that E46 M3 in the last position on the photo above out-cornered me and the E30 M3 easily, even with lots of body-roll and an extra 1000 lbs! But it did a better job at keeping its tyres' contact patch flat on the road.
I would like to dig up this thread as it is the only one I found on Rennlist regarding this subject.
944 CE, yellow Koni, Michelin PS3 205 front and Bridgestone Potenza S-02 225 rear, concrete surface:
RLM, whats your static alignment? do you have long ball joint pins in the front, or any other geometry correction?
Standard ball joints and A-arms though I am looking at the Racers Edge A-arm with geometry correcting pins. I do have the Elephant Racing Bump Steer kit Racers Edge A-arm solid bushing kit.
Alignment is:
Front:
- Toe: 0
- Camber: 3.0 (due to tire width, higher increases wear with no recordable improvement)
- Caster: 1.75
07-28-2004, 10:37 PM
