even still. If I was on the street on a perfectly ideal day and taking a fast corner I could loose the rear without warning, now I can go balls deep without worry, if it starts to step out I can feel it and correct.

I'm pretty sure I can get close to -2.5 now, if not I'll just go for the max I can make. I'm at 12.5" F and 12.75"R.

what kind of toe are you going to run? I've been playing with the idea of zeroing my toe.

I have 1/16" out F and 1/16" In R. 3.80° Caster.

where's one find a skidpad around these parts? or how much is the summit point skidpad for rental? :)

$20 for the entire day when the drifters are out using it. No joke.

I was having the same trouble as you, severe understeer. Pulled my 1 1/8" RB front bar and installed 7/8"FM. (no rear bar) then I had severe oversteer. However, I noticed that the RB was pretty much seized on the bushings when I pulled it. Went back to RB 1 1/8" hollow bar, oem rear, handles awesome now.
So, try lubbing up your front sway bar.
'91, FMII GT2554R, 4.1 Torsen, AFCOs 400/275 springs Trackdog I/C, DIY water injection, 2001 Sport brakes, etc.

need full alignment numbers

My alignment is currently:

Front:
Camber: -1.8L -1.9R
Caster: 3.8°
Toe: 1/16" out

Rear:
Camber: -1.9L -2.0R
Toe: 1/16 in


I have a set of coilovers coming my way, looking at Shaikh's spreadsheet just swapping them in will result me in his recommended "stiff" setup for his FM2 car.

Honestly, looking at the comparison with the NC run, its looks to me that you are braking too late and causing the understeer. I can't tell where you are in relation to the cones, but the NC driver is on the brake earlier, rotating, and back on the gas at the apex. Slow in, fast out and shortest distance will always win.

In the 1st and 3rd hair pins you are almost all the way to the back of the feature before you can get the car turned (and you seems to be still braking). Try braking a little earlier and get the car rotated a slower speed.

As for no rear bar, from what I've experienced with an open diff and from what I've been told by people experienced with a Torsen, its the way to bandaid the situation slightly. Most people have told me to skid a Torsen and go to a "real" diff. I also run more camber in the rear than the front to compensate for the extra roll in the rear (2.0f/2.5R). Worked out well, but I was fighting blown shocks most of the time.

I ended up taking that line to make the late apex, if I turned slower/earlier it was worse and slower overall. And I was plenty slow before I took them, you can see in 2nd gear I was under 2000RPM, major slowness. The first corner I might have come a little hot in, but the rest I wasn't. Just look at that sweeper, its a fairly easy corner. It's 180° but its not tight. I couldn't give the car gas through the corner else it would head straight for the pointer cones. Same thing with the last one, I took out the cone you see at 0:38 once or twice that day. And I did try a few different approaches each run.

I've been autoxcrossing this car for close to 10 years now, I used to be pretty fast with -2F and -2.5R...when I had 90rwhp.

The real problem is it's hard to find solid advice from people who autox/race high powered miata.

new setup: 550/300 + that rear bar you were talking about

I still think you should take 5 minutes and disconnect your front end links, and make sure your sway bar moves freely. I was suprised to find mine was seized up, couldn't budge it. too stiff front=understeer.

I just moved it to the stiffer setting last week. while it was a bitch to do, it was not binding. Before going stiff, it had too much oversteer and felt shitty altogether. I liked how it handled but for those corners. I just need to be a real man and run new springs with better rates. FM springs are great for a GT car with leather seats and cup holders.

Cool. I found that I oversteered like crazy with the FM bar set on stiff. I don't like the angle of the end links on stiff. Had to back off the throttle on fast sweepers or it would over rotate. Times went down almost 2 sec when I switched back to my 1 1/8" hollow bar because I could keep on the throttle. My friend "Deerhunter" with his 435 rwhp stroker had same problem using the FM bar, temp. cure was to turn down the boost. We were both running AFCOs with 450/300 springs. (recently changed my springs to 400/275)

They posted the results from that autox finally. I'm in the top third this time, not the bottom third :P Still a good number of miatas faster than me, but a few were on r-comps.

woot:

http://boostedmiata.com/projects/coilovers/DSC_0001.jpg

How much did they set you back?

By no means have I managed to figure out this autocross thing since getting more power but one thing I learned is that you should try and always keep your hands on the wheel. You feed it through a lot and adds time, we've got quite a good steering ratio so if you're moving your hands a lot it may mean your turning too late and having to over compensate.

It was at a test n tune day where I had someone sit next to me that they pointed out the same thing with me. I smoothed my inputs and while it was a bit slower at first, I managed to cut down my overall times and didn't have to do as much steering.

Life was certainly easier when I had stock power!

Scott, if you rotate too much with the new rates, get a tubular front bar and keep your rear bar installed. Rotating the car at low speeds without a rear bar is near impossible, especially on street tires.

Looks like ebay sleeves + QA1's.

What's the logic behind the 550/300 setup? Especially with no rear bar you're going to have trouble getting the car to turn. I'm on 450/300 with OEM rear bar and I still have too much understeer. Might be okay for the track, but I'd try to loosen the car up for auto-x.

he has aftermarket rear sway bar that will go along with these