Braineack

iTrader: (62)

i love the illumina/FM combo. I recommend that still as the best DD setup.

I don't recommend tiens.

Philly Miata

iTrader: (1)

It really is a nice DD setup with my limited experience. I'm curious about a good AX setup. I realize I can throw money at it and get Xidas but I'm just nowhere near good enough to get a lot out of that quite yet, or so that's my understanding. I'll do some reading, this is another deep rabbit hole I know I'm getting into. It's gonna take a lot and a long time to get remotely competitive in SSM, but I wanna start honing in on a ball park setup for the next year or so. Holla holla spend dolla y'all.

Bronson M

iTrader: (1)

To get to the pointy end of a class like that you need to jump from below 400lb/in spring rates and long soft bump stops to 700/350 - 1000-550 lb/in range and invest in shocks that will control those rates.

This is where you'll find a lot of opinions, exida's are a proven commodity. Afco's are also an option, but no shock will be worth the money without the proper valving. In fact even lowly old Bilstein's with the right valving can kick some butt.

(Personal opinion alert) I've looked at the valving of hard s and MSM Bilstein's and calculated the critical dampening % and the low speed numbers look pretty decent up to 800/450 range. The high speed numbers are a little soft, so they won't be as good on rough tracks. A revalve by someone who knows what they're doing and I betcha they would be darn close to the high end stuff without adjustability. I'm running stock hard s shocks with 800/450 rates and the car does pretty darn good.

Philly Miata

iTrader: (1)

"Pointy end" I like that haha. So you introduced me to a new term, valving. A google search later and my understanding is that valving is the size of the hole that allows the fluid to travel through (damping?) on compression and rebound, so the two parts of the assembly are the spring and the shock(?)... I'm figuring spring is for rebound and the shock itself controls the amount and rate of compression... am I right so far?

Bronson M

iTrader: (1)

Shocks are a deep rabbit hole that most people see as a black art because they don't have access to a shock dyno to be able to tune them. I can try till I'm blue in the face to explain it but this site does a much better job.

Autocross to Win (DGs Autocross Secrets) - Shocks

hector

I haven't done any research on your shocks but you might be able to retrofit them with sleeves to work with your springs. Whether it would be financially feasible is another thing, especially if you are considering getting new hardware. Having adjustable sleeves gives you the opportunity to get a real alignment and get your cross weights and hopefully side weights even, which makes for a more predictable/balanced handling car.

Re: rear bar, I always ran with the rear bar (can't remember NA6 or NA8 right now) back when the car was still early in development and the balance was fine. Since it is an autox car (CSP) and it was about 100#'s overweight and I refuse to get rid of the AC, certain things had to go and the rear bar was one of them. It saved 7#'s IIRC, but it was also the last place where you would want the weight to come off (low/behind driver). The balance obviously went to push and 50# heavier springs were added to bring the balance back. This in turn introduced sporadic wheelspin in a car that barely had 120 wtq. This was with Koni Race shocks and 6" 2.5 Eibach springs. When I switched to ARE Penske's, he sent me 400# springs for the rear and I immediately thought the car would push without a rear bar. I was dead wrong and even now with just over 130 wtq, no wheelspin ever.

So that big wall of text was just to say, you gotta try things and see what they do. And certain things are compromises while other things just compromise the wallet.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

i also personally dont understand spending money on an autox car, but that's me.

Philly Miata

iTrader: (1)

Well my thing is that I built the car with what seemed good and autocross was an afterthought. So i ended up in this class and figured i might as well try to have a car that can be near the others timewise

hector

Troll much? Do you? Mr. Brain?

Philly pay no attention to Brainy. He spends all his free time playing video games and trying to become Milo Youknowhedonteatanypuss's next heterosexual boyfriend.

And he drives a Benz.

Philly Miata

iTrader: (1)

Brain, do you receive typically give the brain or receive it from Milo

hector

HAHAHAHA! Brainy would be the hetero so he would do the poking.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

autox is stupid. you literally spent $20-40, plus at least a 4-6 hour commitment to "race" your car about 4 minutes total. When you go down the path to modify a miata for specifically for autox, you end up with a car that sucks on a real track, sucks on the street, and you start finding yourself in debates about how .001ms of extra throttle response wins races. The best autox mod is learning how to drive your car. I was pwning STS in my 2000 altima.

I am proud and confident to say my Benz would beat Philly's miata in autox; no question about it. My shocks tune themselves w/AGILITY CONTROL, it has more torque than is generated when your mom sits, and the 4‑ETS awd system would make a wrx fanboi cry. Hell, I could still be sipping my latte and listening to tunes via bluetooth from my phone through 11 speakers, all while running the heated seats.

hey gays, ever heard of 69? it was invented for a reason. sharing is caring.

hector

Brain I was a big fan of yours until you bragged about owning an Altima. And 69's just create too much confusion.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

i didn't brag about owning it; i bragged about doing well in autox despite owning it.

hector

Pictures of this glorious autox killer Altima please.

And since this is the suspension tuning section, what suspension tuning you did to beat the Mighty Miatas?
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Oh and was this at FedEx field? Ive been there for an autox at least three or four times. Love both lots.
​​​​​

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

it looked like a stock 2000 altima in platinum silver.



not many miatas to beat in STS.

no, I don't do MD.


what are you trying to accomplish here other than to gay bash?

hector

Not trying to accomplish anything. Carry on.

Art

.

vitamin j

iTrader: (5)

Wants to learn how to tune suspension and figure how changes "feel."

Goes to first ever auto-x on 215 tires.

Decides he needs 275 tires before the next auto-x.


Not quite the path I would have chosen. Maybe some 195s or 205s and a tunable suspension would have been a better place to start. Hell, no one has even mentioned alignment settings yet.

Alumilo

iTrader: (1)

Whoa nelly!
I hope you don't plan on dumping all that into the car in one fell swoop. Stick with what you have and learn to drive it fast. Once you feel that you have exhausted all the adjustments to the car as is, then put money into making it fast.