rear sway bar/what now

[pieperz06]

so i installed my rear sway bar today

i could kind of feel a difference driving it around today taking a few corners

it felt like my car was staying planted on the ground better then normal

i will be going to autox in the morning so i can see if it helps there at all



now i get annoyed as the rest of yall with the what to do next thread so it pains me to say this but.....what the hell should i do now

my plan was originaly to get adj konis but im not sure if that is the best thing for me to get next. i still feel like i need more seat time because i know i am not taking my car to its limits as it is now. so im worried that getting the shocks will mess me around on learning to drive better but im not sure. my autox times have been going down around like a second every time i run so i know i am getting better.

any thoughts on this about what i could get next to improve my times more.

i have gotten to a point in my suspension mods that i don't know what i should get to help me out.

i was thinking about a P/H rod and relocation bracket with better bushings

i also have front sway bar bushings on the way to see if that helps any thing

beyond what i have listed i don't know what would help me the most or if i have like hit all wall after what all i mentioned. the mods i curently have are in my sig if you are wondering what all i have. im not relay wanting to get springs at this point because the roads are so bad in my city that i think i would scrape it all the time.

 

[SoundGuyDave]

Honestly, you have the basics covered. Dampers will make a huge difference in the way the car drives, but I honestly think that your best "return on investment" would simply be more seat time. I would hold off on anything else until you hit a plateau in your abilities on track, and are hampered by a specific issue, like understeer in, or oversteer out, or whatever, and then work to address that specific issue.

 

[pieperz06]

Honestly, you have the basics covered. Dampers will make a huge difference in the way the car drives, but I honestly think that your best "return on investment" would simply be more seat time. I would hold off on anything else until you hit a plateau in your abilities on track, and are hampered by a specific issue, like understeer in, or oversteer out, or whatever, and then work to address that specific issue.

yah i have been trying to get more seat time i just cant go autox more than once a month and i dont have time/money to go to a track day that often. but i have somewhat hit a plateau on my turning i get crazy under steer and i can not carry much speed through like 180's. but i don't know that shocks are going to help that.

 

[pieperz06]

forog to say i was also thinking about SS brake lines

 

[pcdrj]

Watts link?

http://s197forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12744

 

[SoundGuyDave]

Nah. Sticky tires... Wide sticky tires... The SAME SIZE wide sticky tires all the way around...

 

[pieperz06]

Nah. Sticky tires... Wide sticky tires... The SAME SIZE wide sticky tires all the way around...

that is what im thinking after today

what kind of tire would i be able to run well on a dragstrip and autox

o yah and my times at autox today improved by 5 seconds from last month(last month it was a little wet so i was thinking i could subtract 2 seconds from last month for that so it was realy about 2-3 seconds i took off today) and that is after 6 runs today and i have 6 more tomorrow maby i can knock another second or 2 off

 

[Random Asshole]

Granted, I'm obsessed with fantasies of what I can do to my car as much as anyone else on this forum, but why you stressin' so much? Times don't drop incrementally with the money you put into your car. That my friend is drag racing...not corner carving.

 

[irishpwr46]

did you change out your brake fluid yet?

 

[pieperz06]

Granted, I'm obsessed with fantasies of what I can do to my car as much as anyone else on this forum, but why you stressin' so much? Times don't drop incrementally with the money you put into your car. That my friend is drag racing...not corner carving.

lol i realise that to bad it isint but i only relay have my thanks giving brake that i can work on my car and so i was wanting to do it then. i know my driver mod needs some work which is why i dont want stckey tires to hid all my mistakes just yet.

i was wanting to get a s/c so i had already had the money spent in my mind so 900 bucks for shocks is sounding like a deal.

no i have not changed my fluid yet i was going to do that when i did the lines

 

[SoundGuyDave]

lol i realise that to bad it isint but i only relay have my thanks giving brake that i can work on my car and so i was wanting to do it then. i know my driver mod needs some work which is why i dont want stckey tires to hid all my mistakes just yet.

Translation for the non-drink-impaired"

LOL, I realize that. Too bad it isn't, but I really only have my Thanksgiving break to work on my car, so I wanted to do it then. I know my "driver mod" needs some work, which is why I don't want sticky tires to hide all my mistakes just yet.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled post...

i was wanting to get a s/c so i had already had the money spent in my mind so 900 bucks for shocks is sounding like a deal.

no i have not changed my fluid yet i was going to do that when i did the lines

Think hard about what Asshole is saying, it's truth. In the corner-carving world, you can't buy performance, that all comes from the driver. I'm another mod addict, so I know exactly where you're coming from, but at some point, you just need to stop, and learn how to drive what you have right up to (and slightly past!) the limit. Once you do that, you'll know, without a doubt, what you need to start fixing.

 

[pieperz06]

Translation for the non-drink-impaired"

LOL, I realize that. Too bad it isn't, but I really only have my Thanksgiving break to work on my car, so I wanted to do it then. I know my "driver mod" needs some work, which is why I don't want sticky tires to hide all my mistakes just yet.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled post...

lol no comment

how would 4.10s work for autox/trackdays

lol yah im defanitly a mod addict. im just wanting to get a mojor kind of mod on my car over the thanksgiving break. and then i will slow down on what all i will be doing may be just a few small things here and there but over all done and start saving my money for my house/track car

 

[Kaldar142]

i think 4.10s are perfect for the road course if youre a midly modded N/A car, but then again it really depends on the track

 

[Sleeper_08]

IMHO it would have to be a pretty slow speed road course to make 4.10s work. In another forum, also frequented by people running their S197s on road courses, the general consensus is that 3.73 is the highest you want to go.

 

[SoundGuyDave]

IMHO it would have to be a pretty slow speed road course to make 4.10s work. In another forum, also frequented by people running their S197s on road courses, the general consensus is that 3.73 is the highest you want to go.

Agreed. I run a pretty typical setup, with a 3.73 screw and the typical 275/35-18 tire package, and I run out of third gear around 100-104mph. On typical club tracks, that means I am pushing the revs from corner to corner to avoid the shift, usually only changing up two or three times per lap on the longer straights, layout dependent. On the "big" tracks, I have run the revs out in fourth to avoid going to fifth, which is just too shallow for any meaningful acceleration. Granted, 4.10s would give me a little more pull on corner exit, but I think in the long term, the car would be slower just due to all the shifting.

Now I have NO autocross experience, and in a parking lot full of cones where the speeds are considerably slower than on an open track, the steeper rear gear may well pay dividends. I can't comment either way with any authority.

 

[irishpwr46]

general consensus is that 4.10s are better for the automatics, or if you want a "usable" fifth gear. and that they are mostly for drag use anywa. seeing as you arent really going to be hitting speeds where you will need that fifth gear, 3.73s should be more than ample.

 

[pieperz06]

that makes since i was kinda keeping track of my rpm today at auto x and with the 3.55's i never have to shift to 3rd but i get dang close to it so i was thinking that i will not be getting the 4.10s or 3.73 because i dont think it will help me that much.

P.S i totally found my limits today i did my first 360 spinout on a shakain and i never realized how much that would teach me lol it got my car kinda dirty tho

 

[Cookiemonster]

P.S i totally found my limits today i did my first 360 spinout on a shakain and i never realized how much that would teach me lol it got my car kinda dirty tho

same here!!

I hit the revlimmiter in 2nd at the end of a couple of chicanes.

spinning at 70mph takes a little bit longer to slow down than i thought haha.

good times though

 

[Vapour Trails]

Now I have NO autocross experience, and in a parking lot full of cones where the speeds are considerably slower than on an open track, the steeper rear gear may well pay dividends. I can't comment either way with any authority.

4.10s are a drawback in Auto X. The engine will hit the limiter quite often, but at the same time there is nothing to gain by upshifting to 3rd because you will almost immediately have to go back into 2nd. Call it the rock and the hard place scenario.

I know on several courses I would have been faster with a taller gear because the gears were limiting my speed.

I would like my 2nd gear to reach 70 mph @ 6500 rpm, which requires 3.55 gears. Gears are for drag racers, not real racing.

To the OP: Do nothing to your car, just get experience. Forget the whole sticky tires hide mistakes nonsense and get real tires. Crap tires will just teach you how to drive slow really well, but you'll still be slow.

 

[SoundGuyDave]

I would like my 2nd gear to reach 70 mph @ 6500 rpm, which requires 3.55 gears. Gears are for drag racers, not real racing.

70mph is 6500 rpm with 3.55 gears and 275/35-18 tires, OR 6500 rpm with 3.73 and 275/40-18 tires, or.... you can use tire size to adjust the NET final gear ratio quite a bit. Final drive gear and tire size (rollout) are only tuning tools to use to match the engine's best operating range to suit the track it's running on. I certainly don't have budget to swap rear gears and tire sizes on a track-by-track basis, but you can bet that the pros do...

The stock engine honestly makes it's power from around 3000 up to around 6200 rpm, and then it starts to fall flat. If you've modded the engine to let it breathe better at higher rpm, you'll need to adjust your final drive ratio to place that powerband where you need it. With 275/40-18 tires, the stock 3.35 gear effectively eliminates the utility of 5th gear on-track, since a 6275 shift from fourth puts 5th gear at about 4300 rpm and 151 mph, and unless you're making beaucoup power, you're aero-limited at that point. Gears aren't a drag-only deal, they're a tuning tool. Period.

To the OP: Do nothing to your car, just get experience. Forget the whole sticky tires hide mistakes nonsense and get real tires. Crap tires will just teach you how to drive slow really well, but you'll still be slow.

All sticky tires will do is make him fast and sloppy, and when he does lose it, he'll just be doing it at a higher speed, that's all. Not-so-sticky street tires are great to learn on for a variety of reasons. First, they talk to you, and you can really start to learn what your car's doing by listening to the feedback from the tires. R-comps are dead silent, except for a split second when there's a tiny bit of growl. Then you spin. Second, street tires are usually very predictable in breakaway. They warn you that it's coming, and you can feel them gradually let go once you push too hard. They also recover pretty predictably, as well. The skills (throttle-steer, snap-opposite-lock) that you learn controlling and recovering on street tires are lifetime skills, and they apply directly to sticky street tires, R-comps, and even full slicks. R-comps give almost no audible feedback, and grip like crazy until they don't grip at all. Without the skills to recover, you don't hang the tail out a little on exit, you just spin, since the tires let go apparently without warning. There actually was a warning, but without the experience base from street tires, a novice driver won't know what they're hearing and feeling to get them to be ahead of the car, rather than reacting to it.