Ultimate Suspension Test for a Pro Touring Car

[Track Junky]

Then when Greg was done with driving school I'd use him as a test driver. If you can make Greg fast the skies the limit

[Blake Foster]

So the Speedtech Nova was 4mph faster than a new camaro in the slalom
Nick said it was one of the fastest times they had ever had. it was .02 better in the skid pad. and 1 sec faster in the autoX that was right out of the box, it would be much faster now I am sure.
being that it is about "All" round preformance i would think that a road course would be the best "All round" test like Sieg said with some elevation off camber corners and good braking zones. it kind of covers it all. also the street drivability cuz I'm sure a road race car is faster but not to comfortable on the street.

thats my .02

[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.

[Vegas69]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

I'd just go to driving school....

Bring that Canary yellow Mustang down and let's see if you can back up that big mouth.

[Track Junky]

Originally Posted by killer69

being that it is about "All" round preformance i would think that a road course would be the best "All round" test like Sieg said with some elevation off camber corners and good braking zones. it kind of covers it all. also the street drivability cuz I'm sure a road race car is faster but not to comfortable on the street.

T-Hill has some challenging turns with elevation changes. The by-pass at 5 and I think coming out of turn 9 going up and having the blind slight right would be the other.

Making the left at turn 1 and then the right at turn 2 at Infineon is another fun turn with elevation change at Infineon. I think they may actually call it 3A but I'm talking about the turn right in front of Earnhart Terrace.

[Vegas69]

Originally Posted by Track Junky

I'm going to change my perspective on this a bit. If I were looking at this from a manufactures stand point I would want to build a suspension that I could tune for autocross and road course.

After finally building this system I would test it over and over again on the same road course and post lap times, Lateral-G's, etc, etc. with a 200 treadwear tire since that is what the target audience has been using per the rules of the ASC , Optima, etc, etc.

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.

I like that thinking. I've run enough autocrosses now to set up a wide variety of elements. Get really familiar with the course and start throwing different set ups at the car until the stop watch finds the best set up. I may just pitch a test and tune day to my SCCA. It's really hard to learn much with 8 runs in a entire day with very little time between those runs. This is a variable that separates us from the vendors along with seat time at the Pro Touring events. All manufacturers test and find the sweet spot, why shouldn't we?

[Track Junky]

Figure maybe a 7 cone slalom with 70' of seperation and then configure u-turns on each end.
Since I'm back to ground zero with the new set up if I get the opportunity I may try this at the local Costco parking lot on a Sunday when they are closed..
I'll see if I can get Flash up here and I just met another local Lat-G member that has a pretty cool '63 Falcon and lives about 10 miles from me. One guy driving, one on the stop watch, and another on the vid cam.

[mpozziCPL]

Originally Posted by Vegas69

Judging by the Super Chevy shoot outs, slalom speed doesn't always reflect race speed.(I am doubting the new Camaro autocross time published) I find it really hard to believe that it's getting beat by 8 seconds on a 44 second course.

I also doubted that time spread and I drove both cars ...

While I didn't see every single time posted, the GenV Camaro sure didn't feel ten seconds off the pace and got through my course very well.

Mary Pozzi

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by Track Junky

Then when Greg was done with driving school I'd use him as a test driver. If you can make Greg fast the skies the limit

Truer words were never spoken!

[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.