Mazda Talk Forums

Sounds like a pretty stiff spring rate up front.
My 9/6 seems just right.

I changed my rear camber to 1.6 and it made a huge difference at the last event.
I can throw the car around and it bites when I need it.
I'm running 3 clicks front and 6 in the rear. Seems to work well in a rough, tight lot.
What do you run sjd?

See23: What rear diff are you using? The stock Torsen? If so, then you need to upgrade to an OS Giken or if that's too expensive try the Tomei that Goodwin Racing has for sale. The stock Torsen just doesn't lock enough to put the power down coming out of corners. When I put the OS Giken in my car, it made a night and day difference compared to the one year old Torsen from the factory.

But the very best thing you can do is get either the BFG Rival S or the Bridgestone RE71R tires on the car. These are new for this year and they are so much faster than the older design tires it isn't worth using up the old tires; just sell them. With the new tires, the car's handling is going to change a bunch so you'll need to retune the suspension settings anyway.

Hope to see you at Packwood sometime.

Morris

SJD: Brian Clemons did not have good luck with his JIC FLT TAR coil overs. You might want to look into upgrading to either Ohlins or MCS coil overs. I know, very spendy. Reducing your front spring rate will help cure your understeer; try a set of Swift 9k front springs as a first cut. Also, look into an adjustable front bar like the Racing Beat so you can tune the handling as you get closer to what you like. But get those Bridgestones on the wheels as soon as you can so you're tuning the car to the best tires for the best feel. Keep us up to date on how things go.

Morris

See23 wrote:Sounds like a pretty stiff spring rate up front.
My 9/6 seems just right.

I changed my rear camber to 1.6 and it made a huge difference at the last event.
I can throw the car around and it bites when I need it.
I'm running 3 clicks front and 6 in the rear. Seems to work well in a rough, tight lot.
What do you run sjd?

Yeah, I chose the 12K because I was tracking the car as well and went based off the MX-5 Cup Cars. I'm not really doing any track this year so I need so swap the fronts. As for settings it varies from lot to lot but the fronts are usually full soft and the rears 5-6 clicks.

morrisg wrote:SJD: Brian Clemons did not have good luck with his JIC FLT TAR coil overs. You might want to look into upgrading to either Ohlins or MCS coil overs. I know, very spendy. Reducing your front spring rate will help cure your understeer; try a set of Swift 9k front springs as a first cut. Also, look into an adjustable front bar like the Racing Beat so you can tune the handling as you get closer to what you like. But get those Bridgestones on the wheels as soon as you can so you're tuning the car to the best tires for the best feel. Keep us up to date on how things go.

Morris

I do have my RE71R's and plan to mount them on the car and heat cycle them tonight. I don't have an event until the middle of June. I would like a set of MCS dampers but its just not in the cards. Same for an OS Giken differential although I am still skeptical as GRM tested one and their times were the same.

I do have a question, will the 9K new front springs be too close to my 7K rears? Should I be going 10K/7K which is a similar spread to the 9K/6K you guys are running? I want the car balanced but not an oversteering mess.

Thanks for the advice all!

That 2k spread is not bad, many run that combo and you can adjust your sways as needed for the balance you want.

Brian wrote:That 2k spread is not bad, many run that combo and you can adjust your sways as needed for the balance you want.

Thanks Brian! I have the Mazdaspeed/Eibach sways (bought in 2008) so there wasn't a lot of sway choice then. As such my front isn't adjustable and I was under the impression most don't run a rear on their STR cars.

Much depends on your preference in balance, I like just a 1K spread before I drop the rear sway, so with 2k spread I would still be running rear sway of some kind (might be less than you have such as stock RX8 rear, depending on how the car tests for you).

Morrisg:
Re LSD: Just figured out the GS didn't come with the LSD That explains a lot!
Mazdaspeed store shows a Cusco LSD under competition parts but I'm not sure if that's the stock LSD.
I want to keep as many parts stock in case I ever get motivated to turn the car into a MX5 cup car.

What is the stock LSD brand and how good it is?

RE tires: I've got two sets of tires burn up and am currently on the last legs of Direzza Z2s.
The Hankook Ventus R3s still have a lot of life left in them.
Thanks for the tips for the next tire buy.

Packwood takes a lot of motivation to drive 8 hrs and then race for 6 minutes.
...but that's autocross! I've done it twice.

I think Pro Solo would be cool. ?

Pro Solo = Adrennaline Rush of Autocross times ten.

My car has been set up with the 9k/7k spread on Ohlins and is very balanced, so I know that works for me. Others have run higher front rates with success, too. I think they're both close enough to allow tuning balance with the sway bars. I run a Racing Beat front set to middle and Eibach rear set to soft. Others say running no rear bar allows more droop in the suspension. But less roll in the rear due to the bar means you don't need as much droop. Lots of room for more opinions, it's the clock that counts.

See23: I meant look at the LSD types that Goodwin has for sale. I know the stock LSD from Mazda didn't do it for me, way too much inside wheel spin. With the OS Giken, all the spin went away with no change in the suspension settings. It just started working very, very well. If you can't afford that, Brian says the Tomei seems to work well with the amount of power available from the 2.0L engine with intake and headers. I didn't try the Cusco available from Mazdaspeed so I have no opinion on that one. I know the Cusco is not the stock LSD diff.

Morris