Jimjacqmx5

Hi all,

After much great advise on the forum, I purchased and installed a set of KW Clubsport coilovers and a full set of powerflex bushes. Can I please get advise on recommended settings for the shocks for track set up. Current settings giving lots of push, and rear seems too soft.
What I'm after is a tried n true setting for damping settings, ride height, camber, caster n toe settings.
I'm running 24mm front bar, 22mm rear bar, both 3 way adjustable.

KaiB

Where are your current settings? What tires are you running, what pressures and have you stuck a pyro in them hot? What are your spring rates?

Where are you experiencing push and what do you mean by the rear end seems "soft"...?

From there we will figgr it out, because I am an interyweb expert and love this stuff, tehe.

Vandit

The out of the box rates for that kit should be 340lbs in front and 685lbs in back. I'm surprised they feel soft.

Jim, can you share some pictures of the units? Is the adjuster on the bottom the new style w/ the numbered ****? Or is it still the Allen wrench setup?

Also, did the kit include the top mounts, front and/or rear?

Goughary

anyone have pics of the top mounts?

NineMeister

Jim,

We need info, info and more info before we can make your call:

Static ride heights (photo will do)
Corner weights
Current geometry settings
Tyre choice
Tyre pressure hot/cold
Tyre surface temperature spread, 4 tyres, inner/middle/outer after few laps
Top mounts, which?
Use: one lap sprint, 20 minute race or trackday?

Let everyone have everything that you can think is relevant (or not), then we can help you....

Jimjacqmx5

Hi all,
Car is used for both street n track. Ride height I haven't measured but just fit a finger between top of tyre n guard front n rear.
Spring Rates are as per kit. I suspect the damping and compression has been wound right down. Adjusters are key for rebound (top) and built in wheel for compression (bottom). I run dunlop starspec (Z1 Sport )for road and Dunlop DZ03G for track. 32 psi hot.
I am after a good base set up which I can then tweak once I get to the track. I got these over previous koni/HR red set up as rear rates were way too low (@300lbs). So rear rate is now much higher but I suspect as stated above that adjustment settings are way too soft. They also ran only 1.5deg neg camber where previously I ran about 3deg front n rear.

NineMeister

Please post a side view photo of the car on level ground so we can see the relative heights.

The KW come factory set in a decent starting position, however if that has been lost start by setting them to middle position all round.

You can't set the car up as a compromise between street and track, so let's forget about the street and focus on the track performance which is measurable in terms of handling, cornering speed and lap times. Dunlops do not need a lot of camber as they have a relatively stiff sidewall, so start with 2 degrees negative all round. Toe setting of +5' front overall and +25' rear overall will be good for starters. Set the front castor to the maximum even setting you can get. Anti-roll bars in the centre adjustment.

Take it to the track and with a pyrometer or infra-red surface temp gauge set the tyre pressures to get an even temperature gradient across all the tyres.

Then tell us what the car does.....

sml

this was my alignment settings that worked well ...

rear
camber -2 (max we could get)
toe in 1/8 in

front
camber -2
caster +2 (max we could get)
toe in 1/8 in

surprisingly close to the 9m tips!

EDIT -> obviously I'd go with the 9m tips .. I was just surprised that mine were quite close .. i must have some good research on the forum here many months ago!

Jimjacqmx5

Cheers guys. I'll corner weight and set to your recommendations. Any idea what road to guard lip height should be?

sml

why dont you just use the correct measuring points? it is just as easy as measuring the guard lip and more accurate. there is a pdf around the forums here showing the measuring points.

around RS height seems to work well for everyone.

NineMeister

Please post a photo to show us where you are now, but RS settings are the best place to start. Bottom line is that you should not run the car too low as the suspension needs travel to work correctly and whilst a slight downward front rake is desirable for high speed stability, too much will have a negative effect on the cornering performance.

evoderby

I've seen these rates quoted as well on various reseller sites. If these are stated correctly they are totally....

....OUT OF SYNC!!!!!

Calculating suspension frequencies shows 685lbs rear springs require 485 - 515lbs front springs.

340lbs front springs are way too soft and a very probable cause for push / understeer. My advice would be to check actual spring rates first, then even out spring frequencies, and start adjusting roll bars from there.

SuperUser

KW run a larger split front to rear than most manufactures. V1 and V3 are something like 175F and 450R. It was my understanding that the stiffer rear spring actually lessens understeer.

Jimjacqmx5

I agree that a stiffer rear spring will reduce understeer and I am also under the impression that 911's don't like too stiff a front end.
If I can enquire re advised settings, my car already feels tardy to turn in so I would have thought that max caster and toe in at the front would exacerbate this. Wouldn't it be better with minimal toe or possibly some toe out at the front?
I will add that I have upped the rear compression and rebound to 6 turns off hard each and it is noticeably better. The rears were set about 10 turns on both from hard. KW default setting for this shock is 6 turns from hard. Have a photo but can't upload from my mobile!!

boxsey911

Jim, what do you mean by a 'turn'? On my KWV3 both bump and rebound are adjusted using an allen key. With both there are only about 3 full turns between hard and soft. So, the KW booklet gives recommendations in part turns. However, by feel and listening carefully I can hear the click of the valves as I turn the key. I've found that there are six clicks to a turn.

With that in mind I've found the best track set up for my KWV3 to be (all are clicks open from full hard):

Front bump: 6 clicks
Front rebound: 6 clicks
Rear bump: 4 clicks
Rear rebound: 6 clicks

BTW I agree with Colin that you want the max caster you can get (I think it's 4'15" which is RS spec). With that sort of caster you get a lovely weight to the steering and the front is much more predictable in high speed corners which the 911's forte.