Coilovers - faster autox times by 2 seconds

[shomesomesho]

Recently installed a set of Ground Control coilovers with Eibach springs (450 lb/in front, 300 lb/in rear), in place of the MOOG CC's. Much stiffer, much faster transitions. (Not to mention the coilovers are a LOT lighter and probably save around 25 lbs.)

Took her autox'ing this weekend and basically matched or even beat cars that were usually 2 seconds faster than me. Cars usually 3-4 seconds faster were now only 1-2 seconds faster--

AutoX Results

Placed 46th in a field of 117, and while that's nothing monumental, it's not too shabby for a relative beginner (< 10 events under my belt) in a slow, heavy, grocery-getting Taurus.

The car still pushes too much in tight turns causing me to lose time, so I think a softer spring in front and stiffer in the rear, and a little more toe-out in back might do some good. I've already disconnected the front sway bar.

If I can shave off another 2 seconds with this setup (and, of course, improved driver technique), I should be able to reach top 25 by end of season. I think this is a realistic goal.

You should hear the comments I get.. my favorite so far, "Dude, I admire you. It takes some serious balls to bring a Taurus to an autox"..

 

[MYSHO1]

So you think that set up would be better than tokicos and intrax? Sorry this coil over set up is very new to me, what could i use from my current set up to use that set up? what would i have left over?

 

[Shoaz]

How big is your rear bar and what tires are you using?

While I'm not doing autocross I'm about to change the rear springs on the Pumpkin so that I have 500/400 instead of the 500/350 rates that I have now, and that's with 20.5/23mm bars. This is in response to overheating a front tire at PIR this spring and trying to get some better handling out of the beast.

So we're kinda doing similar things, and getting the SHO to turn tight corners is definitely challenging.

 

[shomesomesho]

I have a 26mm rear bar; tires are 225-45/17 Kumho Victoracer V700's.

I'm gonna take the 450's in front and put them in the rear; take the 300's off the rear and put them in front.

I'm also thinking of taking the rear hitch off my white Plus (which suffers from a bad case of snap oversteer) and put it on the autocross car. I'll get this done by this weekend's event and see if things improve.

 

[nc89sho]

* coilovers now officially added to my list of things to get this year.

thanks. so you think maybe.. 450 front, 400 rear?? my car is very nose heavy (no rear interier) and only weighs 3180 with half tank of gas.

 

[shomesomesho]

I'm going with 450 front, 450 rear this weekend. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

 

[batchman]

FWIW I found the rotation I was after by simply adding air to my rear tires.

My usual weapon is a 99 Cobra but I've been setting up the SHO as a rain event car.
Eibachs and Tokikos, stock bars both ends. Very good grip and neutral handling can be found with tire pressure adjustments. Can't quite make it rotate like RWD but damn close.

I run 0 toe both ends, -1.6 deg front, -.5 deg rear. Oh, and the Quaife may be part of the difference too.

BTW one thing to try is to simply keep under 1/4 tank of gas in it. Did a fun run in a friends' SHO with a lot more gas. The sloshing liquid makes a big pendulum back there.

Cheers,
- Jeff

 

[somedude_001]

I have run a few events with my intrax/tokico and 11.6" brakes and i have a problem bottoming out the front struts when i got from full power to full brake and the bottoming out causes a quick hop. NOTE I HAVE A ATX. I get to run first gear the entire run thanks to me bumping my redline upto 7500 @53mph (thankyou tweecer and laptop ) so i can get some pretty good power comming out of corners.

I ahve found that a bit of trail braking will get the ATX to rotate nicely although it would benifit from a slightly larger bar in the rear.

another thing i'm going to try is making some negitive camer for my self next time the SHO makes is out. my damn ALSFB's put me in SM so now i have to drive even harder.

 

[somedude_001]

these 2 pics will tell a lot about the car. my front struts definately don't like the hard bang from gas to brake.

and before the swaybar comment, yes my car has some roll but not as much as this guy!

buhahaha stay back there where you belong BMW

 

[MYSHO1]

holy crap who stole my sho?

 

[LeddZepp8687]

holy crap who stole my sho?

Me?

 

[MYSHO1]

HIS^
Mine

 

[FoeSho]

Nice looking SHO!!

 

[MYSHO1]

what one? AWW screw it i guess it does not matter, not much of a diffrence anyways!

 

[somedude_001]

hahaha i think the black rims with chrome lugs looks good

 

[NJSHO]

I have run a few events with my intrax/tokico and 11.6" brakes and i have a problem bottoming out the front struts when i got from full power to full brake and the bottoming out causes a quick hop. NOTE I HAVE A ATX. I get to run first gear the entire run thanks to me bumping my redline upto 7500 @53mph (thankyou tweecer and laptop ) so i can get some pretty good power comming out of corners.

I ahve found that a bit of trail braking will get the ATX to rotate nicely although it would benifit from a slightly larger bar in the rear.

another thing i'm going to try is making some negitive camer for my self next time the SHO makes is out. my damn ALSFB's put me in SM so now i have to drive even harder.

Did you cut your front intrax? Also, with the coil overs what ride height is everyone using, and do you do your daily driving at that height? Do coil over themselves put the sho in a different class for scca events? Anyone know up to what spring rate the koni inserts are valved for?

 

[shomesomesho]

Also, with the coil overs what ride height is everyone using, and do you do your daily driving at that height? Do coil over themselves put the sho in a different class for scca events? Anyone know up to what spring rate the koni inserts are valved for?

Going to-and-from autocross events, I run mine about 2.5" lowered. The ride is annoying but tolerable. I do not use my autocross car as a daily driver. It would probably be tolerable as a daily driver with softer springs (my opinion).

At the event I lower them another 3/8" (which is to the point where they bottom out on hard bumps), then after the event as I swap tires raise them back another 3/8".

From what I recall, coilovers are legal in SCCA street touring and higher.

Setting the Koni's on stiffest rebound, they are adequate for the 450 springs. My guess is the Koni's will barely be adequate up to around 550. Higher than that they should probably be revalved.

 

[somedude_001]

no i did not modify any of my springs, keep in mind the ATX is quite a bit heavier than the MTX but they both use the same springs. plus i was braking in both of those turns

 

[Shoaz]

no i did not modify any of my springs, keep in mind the ATX is quite a bit heavier than the MTX but they both use the same springs. plus i was braking in both of those turns

Actually, ATX and MTX stock springs are different. Sometimes they're the same rate, but the ATX front springs are typically longer. When I did the ATX->MTX swap on the Pumpkin I took it to the track a couple of times on the original suspension and it sat _very_ high in the front...enough that several wags went out of their way to stop by and point it out (like I hadn't noticed).

On setting ride heights with the coilovers: Be careful about lowering too much...you can run out of strut travel in a hurry. I have only about 1" of suspension travel in the front right now and need to drop the strut in the knuckle to get a bit more.

 

[NJSHO]

At the event I lower them another 3/8" (which is to the point where they bottom out on hard bumps), then after the event as I swap tires raise them back another 3/8".

Doesnt that change your alignment?