I have the Sparco prototype harness bar in my car, Speedwear had my car for awhile and used it to make the bar, I've had it for a few months. (I'll try and get pics up)

I run in SM, the single most important mod you can do is tires. Im not talking good street tires, but Hoosiers (or equivalant). Any tuning or adjustment of your suspention now is just a waste of time, once you put on autocross tires you'll have to thow out your current suspention setting and start over.

About tires-- getting the widest tire you can is not always the best, heres why -- the bigger the tire is, the longer it will take to heat up to proper operating temps (autocross tires need to be hot to work properly) so if you stay with a 245 instead of a 255 or bigger, the 245 will perform better than the bigger tires due to it getting up to temp faster. Remember autocross runs are short, you dont want to wait till your almost done with the run before the tire starts to work properly.

Looking at the list in the first post, it looks like your only initially concerned about power. But suspention is were you need to start. Heres proof -- my friend runs a MG miget against corvetes, it has maybe 1/3 the horse power but he still wins due to his awesome suspention set up.

 

JIC Suspension. Without a doubt.

You've already got boatloads of power for AutoX. The Nat'l Championship Street Mod car for 2002 & 2003 was recently reported (by its owner) to have 330 HP.

Forget (for now) about the trunk bar, rear strut bar, etc. That's extra weight with unproven performance gain. Once you have adjustable coilovers, you can "dial in" any handling balance you want, so the only reason left for braces is chassis stiffness. Also, which "lower bars" are you talking about? The Cusco braces? Check on legality for Street Mod. I'm pretty sure that the Cusco Type II brace is illegal in SM.

There are two reasons that I did the power mods first. I decided to prep the car for Street Modified in December. Vishnu was coming to my area to do a Stage 1+ tuning day in January. I wanted to have my power modifications done so that I could have the car tuned in January. It was a good plan -- I haven't touched the drivetrain or retuned the engine since January, and the car has been totally reliable as a daily driver.

The other reason I did power first is because the car was a daily driver on snow tires all winter -- sometimes in nasty weather -- and I didn't want to put on a stiff suspension which might not be appropriate for the conditions.

The suspension didn't go on until the end of April -- not because I didn't think it was important, but because of availability issues with the JIC FLT-A2 coilovers. I don't regret waiting for the JICs -- I could have gone with Teins or Cuscos which might have been easier to get my hands on. (And I'm not saying either of those would have been a bad choice.) But the car is just amazing with the JIC setup. And note that the rest of my suspension is fully stock -- sway bars are stock, front strut bar is stock, no rear strut bar.


And I've already posted this in the latest thread discussing our local autoX series (https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=84784), but here's the modification list as my car sits today:

- 3" full exhaust from Buschur (downpipe, high-flow cat, midpipe, lightweight muffler)
- HKS cams (264 intake/272 exhaust)
- Adjustable cam gears
- Walbro 255lph (GSS342) fuel pump
- Vishnu XEDE engine management, custom tuned by Shiv
- Vishnu XEDEflash ECU modifications
- JIC FLTA2 single adjustable coilovers with custom spring rates
- Baer Eradispeed+ two-piece front brake rotors
- Autometer electronic boost gauge
- 5Zigen FN01R-C wheels, 17x9, with 245/40R17 Hoosier A3S04 tires
- Kartboy exhaust hangers
- Trunk trim removal (UD/BD to Evolution RS)
- Back seat removal

 

For what it's worth, here is my experience to date with regard to suspension. As I am a road racer, many of my comments may not apply to autocross. Most of my testing has been done at Limerock in Ct., a very technical and bumpy track with high and low speed corners. Without going through how I got where I am now, here is the current car set-up. Tein flex coilovers, 9k springs front and 8k rear. Perrin 25mm rear sway bar, set full stiff. Custom CCW wheels 17x9.5 front and 17x8.5 rear. 275/40/17 Hoosiers up front and 245/45/17's in the rear. Camber is -3 front and -1.8 rear with 0 toe all around. 30 psi cold in front, and 32 psi rear yeilds 42 psi hot tire pressure front and rear. Currently, the front struts and springs are on their way back to Tein. I am having them revalved for 6k springs to restore the cars original motion ratio. This is being done as a result of my latest round of testing. Damper settings were 6 rear and 13 front. Range is 1-16 with 16 being the softest. The problem up front right now is that if you set the damper any stiffer, the front of the car hops but at a setting of 13, there is not quite enough strut damping to control the spring rate. With the softer front spring, if tire temps tell me that there is too much rollover up front, then I will probably go to a stiffer front swaybar to preserve the contact patch. Although this is counter-intuitive to reducing understeer, it is effective if the stock bar is undersized to begin with. I have tried running with the front bar disconnected, but outside tire temps reached 230 degrees! Once I get the front and rear ratios correct, it may turn out that the springs could be stiffer on a smoother track.
As you can see, virtually every change I have made on this car is to combat understeer. My goal, although I don't believe it possible is to achieve oversteer. There will then be plenty of room to get back to neutral. Almost forgot, this car also has a helical front LSD which has helped considerably on a road course, and is a must for autocross. I have discussed all of my mods with Jeff Dennmeade, who was the first guy to run an Evo in World Challenge and who knows these cars inside out. He confirms that I am on the right track.
Cheers,

 

Thanks for the great advice! It seems the consensus is to buy the RRE JICs. WTZ thats a hell of an informative post! I'll let RRE do the work for me I'm hoping to try a track day or two out also (both tracks are 3-4 hours from my house though).

One question, since most of you have ran the hoosiers, how newbie friendly are they? I plan on waiting until I have done the Solo2 school, and then putting them on. Our track is an airport with runways etc. (It has to be one of the best courses in the country). The surface is gritty in some areas, and an older camaro flatspotted one of his hoosiers due to the surface. One of the guys who runs the event, and is a roadcourse instructor, warned me. But there are still a lot of people who run victoracers and hoosiers.

And WTZ I will have my set of hoosiers available for a two-day at beaverun (two day event, first time out on a roadcourse), should I use them or my MXs? I'm not too worried about the cost issue.

 

And does anyone have any brake pad recommendations for the Evo that can do Solo2 and track events without squealing? My dad can't take the noise.

 

If cost isn't an issue, run the Hoosiers. As for a quiet brake pad, you're sacrificing a little, but I think EBC makes a fairly quiet pad. My Porterfields are relatively quiet, but they squeal when cold. Or if you really want, you could go with a cross drilled rotor and semi-metallic pads.

 

If cost is no object, go ahead and run the Hoosiers. Beaverun has a very abrasive surface and in the Evo you will really wear out the front left. If you are running the same size wheels, at mid-day swap you fronts and rears. I run the Ferodo ds2500 rear and ds3000 front. As race pads go, they are relatively quiet but all race pads will squeal.
Cheers,

 

Just realize that if you do Hoosiers on a stock suspension, you're not going to be able to get enough camber to get the Hoosiers into their "sweet spot" -- and furthermore, you'll wear through tires at a faster rate.

If you're already decided on Street Prepared or Street Modified autoX class, don't spend too much time autoXing on Hoosiers with a stock suspension -- you don't want to be that friendly with your tire suppliers/mounters/balancers.

 

Ok! Selling the JUNs and my Meth injection kit, and buying the RRE JICs. I'll talk to RRE about settings for my alignment. Going to go order my Bell M2 and I'll be ready for Solo2 at beaverun on July 4th!

And I may sell my Carbotech Pantherplus, used for one week, about 50 miles so far, no racing. PM me if your interested, I need to do something about this squeal!

EDIT: I'm going to sell the Pads. Asking $175 shipped. They work fine, I just can't take the noise on a daily driver pad. I'm just going to get more familiar with changing the pads myself and buy a set of Ferodo 3000s for the track only and hopefully someone will come out with something like the Stasis rotors for a lot less money to pair them with. I'll use the stock pads for Solo2, although they seem to fade a little (get a bit weaker after several hard stops and several long runs).

 

Show me your SM Evos!
If anyone is interested in attending some long (70+ seconds plus usually 5 runs a heat + 5 runs in noncomps) and fast Solo2 events come up to central PA.
Held at a airport, with long and fast slaloms.

About 3 Hours from Philladelphia, DC, NYC.
15 Minutes to Penn State University and 15 Minutes off of I80.

www.scca-cpr.com
July 11th and 25th next month

 

July 11th I'm in Oscoda (MI) for the ProSolo.

July 25th I'm in Aberdeen (MD) for the Northeast Divisional.

Maybe later in the season...

 

I know, its just that on a regional level (local events) I run in street mod but at the national tours and the championship in kansas I'll be running in stock class.

Ya, they know me, I sell my old ones and buy new ones every year, just so I can have fresh tires.

 

It's good to see so many serious Autocrossers! I'm trying to find a second location to attend in my local regions off-weeks. Either Pittsburgh, Wilkes-Barre or DC Metro.

And as for the original thread,
Can I take out the rear seat and everything in the trunk?

 

Events run by the DC Region SCCA are seriously big, very well organized, and they fill up quick. The typical event has around 240 drivers, with 4 runs each. Over 100 of the entries are taken up by season subscribers, and the rest of the slots generally fill up within 10-15 minutes after Internet registration opens.

Last event I went to, we had 236 drivers with 4 runs each, and got in some 950 runs using only about 7 hours, even with a mid-day break to allow course walks. There was enough time left at the end of the day to allow probably another 60-80 fun runs.

Courses typically run 50-60 seconds on an asphalt lot. I would rate the pavement quality as an 8.5 on a scale of 1 to 10.

Click here for information on the DC region events -- look for the events at FedEx Field. If you're interested, be sure to take note of when registration opens (usually 8 PM on a Sunday) and be ready to register at that time -- have your SCCA membership card handy (if you're a member) because the registration form will have a space to fill in your member number.

 

Yes. See https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=83574

In Stock class, you can remove the spare tire, jack, tools, spare tire cover, and trunk carpet.

In Street Prepared, you can additionally remove the trunk trim, as an "update/backdate" to the trunk configuration of the Evolution RS.

In Street Modified, you can additionally remove the rear seat (both the seat bottom and the seat back) and the rear seat belts. The seat belt retractors are a pain in the butt to remove and to re-install, so I have left the seat belts in the car, but removed the three seat belt buckles.