1970 Camaro SS/RS "dis-traction"

[Vince@Meanstreets]

you know you gotta kinda tune those suspensions right? Its not like a leafs where you toss em on and yell giddy up. nice job on the RC!!

[GregWeld]

Biggest part in the car worth working on ..... the driver.

[Flash68]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

Biggest part in the car worth working on ..... the driver.

Glassman... talk to Bad Ron Myers... he will help you plan out many changes to the car before your next event!

[Matt@BOS]

Originally Posted by glassman

Well, this suspensions things kicking my a$$!!!. I came in last in the GTV class on the road course this weekend at the optima.
Finished 8 of 16 oa in the GTV class, i was hopin for a little better, but the road course i "thought" was my strong point ended up being my weakest.

Lots to figure out regarding the suspension. And now the learning curve begins.
"your not a thinker Ricky Bobby, your a driver!!" comes too mind haha

Mike you did really well out there for one of your first events! LVMS is a bit of a technical track that requires a little bit of everything. You need to be able to brake hard, rotate through all the 180s and be able to pick up the throttle early on corner exit, and have horsepower and driver ability to make it all come together.

With DSE suspension front and rear, I would want to be in the ballpark of 600/400 fr to rr, if you are using DSE's standard anti roll bars. I would get a set of 400lb rear springs from Maier, and let that be your first tuning modification. After an autocross day with that setup, then change the front to 600 or 650 if you aren't happy. Sometimes on the DSE subframes more front spring rate or a stiffer front sway bar will help make the car easier feeling to drive, and a bit faster for the driver on an autocross. Those rates will probably still give you something that is relatively easy to drive, which (in my opinion) is a good place to start until you have a ton of seat time.

[Flash68]

Originally Posted by Matt.A

Mike you did really well out there for one of your first events! LVMS is a bit of a technical track that requires a little bit of everything. You need to be able to brake hard, rotate through all the 180s and be able to pick up the throttle early on corner exit, and have horsepower and driver ability to make it all come together.

With DSE suspension front and rear, I would want to be in the ballpark of 600/400 fr to rr, if you are using DSE's standard anti roll bars. I would get a set of 400lb rear springs from Maier, and let that be your first tuning modification. After an autocross day with that setup, then change the front to 600 or 650 if you aren't happy. Sometimes on the DSE subframes more front spring rate or a stiffer front sway bar will help make the car easier feeling to drive, and a bit faster for the driver on an autocross. Those rates will probably still give you something that is relatively easy to drive, which (in my opinion) is a good place to start until you have a ton of seat time.

I assume Ron concurs or you wouldn't have posted this.

[Matt@BOS]

Originally Posted by Flash68

I assume Ron concurs or you wouldn't have posted this.

Nah, rather than change springs Ron just bought a C5 Z06.
Actually, if I remember right, we put 450s in the back of his car. He did say it was easier to drive than the other setup that someone gave as a baseline.

[rustomatic]

I didn't know you had a thread here, Mike . . . what somebody said above. You just need to wheel the crap out of this thing and learn what it does and when (Skyline? My 'hood?). If all else fails, you'll always be the guy who passed me on my first track day . . .

Don't feel so bad about (potentially overreacting to) the adjustment thing. Because my Falcon seems to like corner diving, and because I'm too stupid/diverted (presently) to deal with my leaf spring situation (too light), I've decided to just rip the whole chassis out from under thing thing . . .

I've got an LS motor with a 6-speed auto sitting in front of my hot water heater now, partly because I'm just old now, but mostly just because I lack sufficient impulse control . . .

[Chad-1stGen]

Hey Mike,

It was nice meeting you this past weekend. I hope to see you at other events.

[Ron in SoCal]

Originally Posted by Matt.A

Nah, rather than change springs Ron just bought a C5 Z06.
Actually, if I remember right, we put 450s in the back of his car. He did say it was easier to drive than the other setup that someone gave as a baseline.

Yep all true. We also added more front spring, better tires and a decent baseline shock adjustment. Once that happened it became a different car. Now the mantra is seat time and tire pressures.

Hang in there Mike. You'll get there! And congrats on making it out to Vegas!

[GregWeld]

BTW --- Don't take my "fix the driver" comment as negative... it's just a fact. Unless you're car is just HORRIBLE... which it's probably not... Just go out and have fun - Screw "where you finished" or getting caught up in lap times. Go out - have fun - see if you can improve with what you got... and then as your brain catches up to the car - you'll be able to come in and say "on corner entry the right front dives" or it "porpoises" or "at corner exit it steps out" or something else..... and THEN someone with KNOWLEDGE (not the idiot next to you) can say 'try this'. Now you'll go out and pay attention to what happened with that change....

Right now -- my guess (I'm the idiot next to you) - is that you're just trying to survive the sessions -- and there's very little concentration on how the car is actually handling...

It's like Charlie used to ask me when I'd come in -- "what's your oil temp"? And I'd look at him like a deer in a headlight and say "I don't know". Once I got some seat time and things slowed down a bit == THEN I started paying attention to all these little details.... It's called SEAT TIME for a reason.