Sway Bars For Motokhana/autocross

[evil_weevil]

G'day!

Ok, with my R33 - Ive got the full Sydneykid set up plus a hicas lockbar

Currenty with my sway bars, the front is on "medium" and the rear is on "hard"

If I put the rear to medium, how much difference will it make?

Less "oversteer"?

I guess for this event I dont want to get too much oversteer (even though it is fun!!)

Should I leave the front on medium setting?

When I did DECA last, I didnt have too much understeer on the skid pan which was good, but was still getting a bit too much sideways and losing some time

any ideas,thoughts, comments are welcome!

cheers,

Chris

[salad]

Yes, softening the rear bar will have less oversteer. I've found that the settings on the rear bar make quite a bit of difference, more noticable than changes on the front bar too. Which makes sense as the lever arms are longer on the front to rear, but the holes are the same difference apart. So the percentage change in effective lever arm length is bigger on the rear.

Edited September 6, 2007 by salad

[evil_weevil]

cheers salad

Also - how different would the car behave with the front sway bar on hard/maximum with rear softer?

sorry for n00b questions!

[NickR33]

I have same setup as you evil... I always run the front on medium and just play with the setup on the rear... full hard on the rear was the most fun and made it more responsive as 33's with the heavy rb up front and the long wheelbase tend to push understeer really badly on the skidpan...

buuuuut that being said it is much more balanced/nuetral with the rear bar on medium... and if you are pretty agressive with the handbrake when required you won't see any understeer... this is now my preferred setup

this is all pointless anyway when you consider the stock diffs multiple personalities... harder the rear bar is the more single spinning you get

[evil_weevil]

Nick - thanks for the info mate, appreciate the info

Cheers!

[N1GTR]

Pffft

Trying everything to win hey chris?

[evil_weevil]

Look at the two DECA results Steve0 hahaha

[N1GTR]

Battles.

Nuff said

[nisskid]

i found even with the front on medium and the rear on hard it was still a bit understeery, i changed the front to soft and it feels great, pretty oversteery which id assume would be the best balance for autocross. thats what works best for me and thats with a r32.

[evil_weevil]

Just an update...

took the car with the sway bars both set to medium to our texikhana

did a wet skid pan (on semi's...... ) was sucked

however on the back track the car felt great!

Ive done a few road type events before at DECA and the car yesterday, just felt nicer and balanced all over - with my semi's on I hard hardley any oversteer, and if it did it was because getting on the gas too early but when it did, it didnt throw out as much as it did before! and had no understeer!

so was really happy with the set up - thanks again Nick for the tips

[evil_weevil]

bump

More questions on sway bars guys

I did a day at wakie yesterday (first time and managed a 1.14) and I had my sway bars changed to both on maximum hard. during the day, I was getting a bit understeerie, and also I started open wheeling on some tight turns (fish hook and last turn)

what are peoples thoughts if I changed both to medium for track work (not khana's?)

or medium rear, soft front?

Has anyone changed sway bars to any and many combinations? If so, what were they?

Prevoulsy in this thread I had them on mediiums for one day, worked well. Just wanna see/hear others thoughts.

Gary???

[Risking]

From me experiance with recently setting up the GTR you better off setting the bars to close to the fatcory spec firstly. Medium probably in your case. I actually went back to factory bars initially.

From there I focused on getting the tire to work properly, buy a pyrometer or at least an infa red thermometer and check tread temps after a session. Set up the allignment so the tire is working to its potential then use the sway bars.

I went out firstly with an alligment I thought would be good but found it to need much more camber and a little more toe out to get the tires working properly.

I found after getting my alligment to a position I was semi happy I was left with minimal understeer. I left the front bar in the center of its adjustment and slid the rear till the understeer was less apparent. I dont have hole type adjustment Im using slide types.

Edited March 16, 2008 by Risking

[evil_weevil]

Cheers Brad,

Yeah druncan said the same, get one of thse heat things onto the tyres after a session and record/measure the temp for my settings.

Im gonna put them back to medium for this sat and see how the nugget goes!

[BHDave]

You doing the tampered day then?

If you set the front to medium and leave the rear at hard it will improve the understeer.

I'd be inclined to go soft front/medium rear until you get a diff to try and work around the open wheeling issue.

[evil_weevil]

Cheers Dave,

Makes sence! Much appreciated mate!!

edit - tampered day?

[BHDave]

tampered motorsport are running a day at wakefield this weekend.

$140 inc timing, 50 cars max.

[Sydneykid]

I usually start of with the front bar on full soft and the rear on the middle setting.

If it oversteers too much, then I move the front bar to the middle setting

If it still oversteers too much, then I back the rear bar off to the softest setting

If it still oversteers too much, then I move the front bar to the highest setting

If it still oversteers too much, then you might need some more rear camber and/or the HICAS is still working (get rid of it) and/or the rear subframe alignment kit needs to be set to maximum traction (squat)

OR

I usually start of with the front bar on full soft and the rear on the middle setting.

If it understeers too much, then I move the rear bar to the highest setting

If it still understeers too much then you don't have enough caster/camber on the front

Cheers

Gary

[evil_weevil]

Gary,

legend!!!

Cheers mate!

Dave - nah unfort not, just a small lap dash thingy at OP

[DjeMz]

just set it to full hard n kick it out like a mad c.u.nt

dori ftw

Edited March 17, 2008 by DjeMz

[evil_weevil]

Nah I prefer to get good times at sprints