Ultimate Suspension Test for a Pro Touring Car

[GrabberGT]

Originally Posted by Track Junky

Since no two cone courses are alike I would use a slalom test with a left hand u-turn on one end and right hand u-turn on the other.

From a complete amateurs perspective, this was my first thought. Make it an increasing or decreasing radius slalom and a speed stop at the end. Tune for the best of each individually then combine the components and work thru it till you get the best time. Something like a speed-stop challenge with a crazy slalom and double 180 in the middle. The dimensions of your course could easily be shared and duplicated for multiple days testing and comparison with others.

[Vince@Meanstreets]

Originally Posted by GrabberGT

From a complete amateurs perspective, this was my first thought. Make it an increasing or decreasing radius slalom and a speed stop at the end. Tune for the best of each individually then combine the components and work thru it till you get the best time. Something like a speed-stop challenge with a crazy slalom and double 180 in the middle. The dimensions of your course could easily be shared and duplicated for multiple days testing and comparison with others.

But the thing about using a road course or autocross for "testing" you are relying on your total time. It would not be a true test of your suspension.
Let me reiterate. If you run and achieve a "time" you make a change that you would assume would make you faster, however you enter soft into a chicane...your time dropped by .2 then you brake late, a loss of .1. Now your times are slower. Was it your suspension, the change or was it your driving? Its unclear.

The nice thing about a slalom, its quick, you can quickly feel changes and you can redo on a whim.

Now if Todd asked "what is the best way to put a Pro-Touring car throught it maximum performance " or " What is a true test of a Pro-touring car " then I'd say a road course. You get autocross, drag racing and repetative high speed braking all in one deal.