Along with old tires, trying to tune your car at Stockton probably isn't the
best idea either. You're probably better off playing with your shock
settings someplace where the surface is relatively bump-free. Those bumps
in Stockton seemed to throw everyone around pretty badly, from what I could
see watching them (and what I could feel going over them!).
As for settings, I am pretty much accustomed to soft compression and stiff
rebound. John's advice on setting your shocks is pretty good, but I'd start
tweaking rebound first. As I understand it, rebound controls the motion of
sprung weight while compression controls the motion of unsprung weight. You
shouldn't need TOO much compression unless you're running really heavy
wheels. Go too heavy on compression damping, and the shocks can end up
stiffer than your springs. This can be a Bad Thing(r).
BTW, you have the shocks I wanna get, you dirty dog! ;) How much did they
set you back?
Scot
----- Original Message -----
From: "John J. Stimson-III" <john@harlie.idsfa.net>
To: "James Creasy" <james@thevenom.net>
Cc: "ba?autox" <ba-autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2003 4:14 PM
Subject: Re: adjustable shock tuning?
> This is coming from a very theoretical point of view, given that my
> "racing" shocks are non-adjustable and the extend of my input into the
> valve spec was "I want to go fast".
>
> I assume that you've read Koni's instructions on how to get in the
> ballpark: Set compression and rebound to full soft, then up the
> compression until the wheel stays on the ground going over normal
> sized bumps at typical racing speed -- stop before the chassis gets
> launched in the air going over the same bumps. Then increase the
> rebound until the body motion on turn-in and braking is a smooth,
> quick, single motion. I may not have gotten that exactly right, but I
> hope you have the real thing in your hands and can refer to it.
>
> Once you have the compression setting right, you shouldn't have to
> touch it again.
>
> To reduce corner exit oversteer, stiffen front rebound
> To reduce corner exit understeer, soften front rebound
> To reduce corner entry oversteer, soften rear rebound
> To reduce corner entry understeer, stiffen rear rebound
>
> Don't try to make tuning decisions based on old worn-out tires -- some
> sage advice passed on to me yesterday by Mr. McKee.
>
> Finally, when you get thoroughly frustrated with all the confusing
> adjustments you can make, give the shocks to me as revenge for my bad
> advice :-)
>
> --
>
> john@idsfa.net John Stimson
> http://www.idsfa.net/~john/ HMC Physics '94
|