Autocross Setup Suggestions?

[cavero]

Hi Everyone,

So I have been on the forum for a while and enjoy reading everyone's build posts and now its time for mine. I am a newbie to the autox world, so I am looking for some guidance.

Since I have a little extra cash, I figured its time to do some upgrades to my 2006 GT. The car has been mine since new and currently has longtube headers, off-road mid pipe, steeda motion control deletes, JLT CAI, Magnaflow mufflers, and Comp mutha thumpr cams.

At first I was into drag racing and had fun, but once I found autox, I couldn't go back.

Suspension wise, the car is stock. I do however have upgraded SS brake lines and Hawk HPS pads that I have used for past Autox with good results.

Now my goals are to keep it a weekend warrior as the car likely will see limited street time. I am on a budget so a full on coil over set is not in the cards.

Here are my planned items:
-Koni Adjustables
-H&R Race Springs (linear)
-Whiteline F&R sway bars
-MM Camber Plates
-Steeda Adjustable Panhard Bar (had for years in box)
-Steeda LCA (also had for years)
- LCA relocation brackets

I am looking for suggestions in regards to the parts I plan on adding, so any are welcomed.

Thanks!

Cool, AutoX is a lot of fun. I started getting into it back in '07 and '08 because one of my buddies was into it and recruited me. Haven't done AutoX in a while, but I remember a few beginners' tips.

With your mods you're looking at, I think you're either going to put yourself into the Street Prepared or Street Modified category( like me on the latter). If you're looking to be competitive in your class, it's going to be tough once you get into Street Modified because there are guys that spend tens of thousands of dollars on their cars. I think it was my Al driveshaft that put me into SM, which meant there was pretty much no way I could be competitive anymore. In which case, you should be in it more for the fun. (more experienced people can give you better advice on this than I can though)

Rules for the different car classes are here:
http://www.scca.com/solo/content.cfm?cid=44517

You can get in touch with local SCCA instructors and set up AutoX school events. When I did this, it ran around $2000 for 8 - 12 people, so broke down to $200 - $250 each. It's a great experience, you learn useful skills and car control, and you get a lot more runs than in an actual competition. If I remember right, we got 20+ runs each, compared with the 4 I would have gotten in a regular event. They get a big parking lot and your group has it to themselves for the entire day.

You can also set up a Test and Tune day. Pretty much the same setup as the school, minus the instruction. It's a little cheaper and you can potentially have more runs because you're not stopping for lessons.

Other than that, a lot of it is all about the driver. During the AutoX school, we had a range of cars: an S2000, MR2, Mustang GT(me), two V6 Mustangs, RX-8, Mazdaspeed6, and a Corvette. Most of us were in the 52 sec range on this course, except for the MR2 and S2000 drivers, who were in the 49 sec range. They AutoX'd pretty often and were pretty good, but still had a tendency to slide out, spinout, etc. Then Jack took is 3600 lb Mazdaspeed6 through the course. Looked slow and boring as hell to watch. But he drove smoothly, and nailed a 48 sec time.

 

[cavero]

I've had both the Koni adjustables and the Tokico adjustables. In my opinion there is no comparison. The Tokicos are much more refined on both dampening and rebound.
Ford Racing formed a business relationship with Tokico and now you need to get them from Ford racing which refined them a bit more.
Here:
http://www.americanmuscle.com/frpp-shockstrut-0510gt.html
You will notice that they also say Tokico on them as well.
I have no bias as to any company unless their product is superior. I believe the Koni yellows to be an inferior, coarse product. If you like very firm suspension all the time with lesser refinement get the Konis. If you want to go from a very soft controlled ride to a controlled tightened ride get the Tokicos.
If you drag race you will also have trouble with the Konis as they will not allow you a soft enough setting to squat your car.
I had the yellows on for 4 weeks after I bought the 2011 and immediately sold them on EBAY and replaced them with the Tokicos which I had on my 2009 Bullitt.
Just trying to save you from the mistake I made.

Really? I had the opposite experience w/ my Tokicos vs Konis (both adjustable). The Tokicos never seemed to control the car as well, and groaned/squeaked every time it was under 40 deg out.