true that. our AX season is done in November and resumes in March. it's a really nice run with at least one event per month (except for October due to the fair coming to town). oh, and another reason i like doing AX: the course is setup about 10mins from my house. i don't even have to swap to street tires to get there LOL.

 

sweet! I'm on street summer tires but I still swap out for long distance events lol

 

of course. i do for any track day. Buttonwillow is only 120mi each way. not bad, but my luck i pick up a nail LOL.
i'd like to tow the car to the track.. but i'd need a trailer. oh, and a truck. haha.

so yeah. i load my track wheels/tires into the car for those trips, too.

 

so now I'm thinking - I'm on 8k/10k springs with a lot of front end nose dive on braking.. would going from 8/10k to 10/12 reduce that? stiffer front, and perhaps slightly less rotate-y/roll-y?

 

What coilovers are on the car?

 

ohlins dfv with their springs in 8/10 f/r

 

it would, but that's not always the best idea. i spoke with Robi about all this for about an hour. i wanted stiffer springs to tame roll/pitch/dive. right now i'm on 9/11 and the car seems pretty neutral. he recommends going to 8 in the front to give me the rotation i want in the rear.
he SWEARS by 8/10 or 8/11. to prove his point, he showed me results of races they had won. while the cars with heavier spring rates did well, they ate their tires in no time flat.
i don't WTW race or more than a few hot laps at a time, so i'm okay with my 9/11. i'll buy tires on a more-frequent basis if i can cut a slightly faster lap time. i meant to ask him if i was understanding that or not, but i forgot.

i ran 8/9 on my KWs and the car did REALLY well. i never overworked the tires and the car was plenty fast. i like the feel of the 9/11, though.

i run 140-200 treadwear tires, so i can't go TOO stiff on springs. i'd say where i'm at is my limit until going to r-comps.

this is all just my experience. we all drive different. we all have different preferences. so it's really about finding what you like. but i started with Robi's suggestion and continue with them because he knows a HELL of a lot more than i do LOL

 

I would look into valving, and swaybars.


Where are your clickers set? I wonder if your dive on the brakes is actually the rear lifting, not the front diving.

 

+1. i'd rather control roll with sway bars than stiffening up the springs. and i never thought about the rear coming up instead of the front diving. interesting point.

 

Main reason I brought up the rear lifting is that he has the 10k springs put in the rear, which is a 2k change in rate, which is about the limit of the change in springrate the ohlins can deal with before a revalve..

 

good inputs -

clickers are set fairly soft, 15-17 clicks from stiff or somewhere around the middle. but as mentioned above, these are single adjust, so compression is coming along with rebound.

From what I've been told (trophy STU driver in the region driving STI) the front looks great - controlled etc, but the rear is really coming up on me during braking, etc and that I should adjust rebound if I can - I cannot, without touching compression as well. May be counter productive.

If 10/12 makes me more understeery I have several degrees of freedom as far as loosening up the car - I'm on the mildest setting of my ACD tune and softest setting on my sway bar.

Also keep in mind I'm mainly talking about autox - where guys are running 12/16 on street tires and their body movement is only theoretical lol. Finally, the RE71Rs that I will probably get have been likened to worn out r-comps - THAT sticky. And from what I've seen, I believe it.

I realize 12k is on or above the limit quoted by Ohlins for the rear, but the shocks will be rebuilt eventually as they are a wear and tear item. As far as actual damping, given the range these have it seems they could handle the firmer spring.

 

I would try stiffening the rear.

 

I've got another event in the evo before the year is over - I will give it a shot.

 

FWIW it's worth, this is my car with stance coilovers, 9k/11k springs, clickers at 4 out in the front, 2 out in the rear from full stiff. Stock sways, 255/40 Dunlop Z2's

 

thanks for the pics, good to see. going to try to use my 11/8 as a test n tune to see how much of a difference I will get ramping up the shocks, probably five clicks at a time. if that ends up really controlling things I may stick with these springs another year.

if not, I think 10/12 will bring me a little closer to neutral from loose, and then I can set the acd to loose and mess with the rsb if need be. I'd rather not touch the fsb if I don't have to.

the irony is I was fighting understeer at the end of last year, but only because my shop put the springs on backwards (fwds per ohlins instructions), at 10/8k. now I've gone too much the other way.