Koni Yellow Sport AutoX setup
 

For those running Koni shocks for AutoX, what is your setup? I think stuy486 posted he was set at 60% front and 80% back for Nationals last year.

How stiff do you run yours? Do you keep them the same every event or do you vary your adjustments?

I think you'll find everybody is a bit different, and there are a lot of "it depends" factors. Some of those:
Is the car otherwise "Street" class legal?
What front sway bar?
What size and model tires are you running?
What type of surface do you run on, and what style of courses?

Jeff's stated settings sure seem like a great place to start. But what's best for each person and their situation will differ, so it's worthwhile to experiment and lean the cause/effect patterns of shock setting changes.

The biggest thing I ran into was that when I went too stiff in the front, it started getting a lot more ice mode under heavy braking on asphalt lots. I never had ice mode problems on concrete though, so perhaps stiffer in the front on concrete would be alright.

Where did you get yours from...cheapest?

http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/CTGY/370z11


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Talk to Jeff Wong at ProPartsUSA.

Can't go wrong with pro parts.

http://i1378.photobucket.com/albums/...psbab96e31.jpg

Koni Yellow Sport AutoX setup
 

All my local events are only a few miles from my house and I plan to set the rears while I'm changing wheels. I'll also be doing a bunch on events that are 70-100 miles away and can't decide on setting the rears stiff before the drive or taking my jack and setting them on site.

Opinions?


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I set my shocks sometime last summer for the last time and have driven on them that way ever since. They're really not that bad on the street, I've probably put 8k miles on the car since then.

Test & Tune today. Started the day with the shocks set 60% stiff front and 80% rear. I was all over the place, like driving on ice. Tires (Rs3's) were brand new with about 20 miles on them, so I attributed the lack of traction to that. Today's T&T had a short timed course and in a different part of the lot there was a slalom and a skid pad, so I headed there to scuff the tires.

When I returned to the course it was better in the front but horrible in the rear. I started lowering the stiffness of the rear and it got better and by the end of the day and multiple adjustments, my times were just tenth's off the times of the vette and s2000's in BS. Final settings were 70% front and 30% rear. Headed to Birmingham in the morning to ALSCCA' T&T, should be 15-20 degrees warmer, so I'll see how it goes.


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Ended up going a little softer in the rear today, down to 20%. Pleased with the results. http://youtu.be/xrMixSF-NJw



Just practice, but 7th fastest raw time and 3rd pax.


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What sways are you using? Camber settings? And what spring rates, OEM?

Eibach front sway, stiff setting. Factory camber, OEM springs.


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I would guess that the limiting factor is going to be the factory spring rates. They are pretty soft by AutoX standards from what I have seen the other guys here like to use. Eibach front an OEM rear bar should be a decent setup for sways. ANY sort of spring upgrade you could do would help a lot though. Anyone at a "just past beginner" skill level is going to outgrow them quickly. Even just a set of Spec-R's is going to help. Also, if rear is coming loose, lot of people have claimed replacing rear diff bushings helps. I would also suggest try disconnecting the rear sway bar completely. Just disconnect one of the end links for a session or two and see if you like it better.

Leave the rear end soft. Even though it might not "feel" as responsive, sacrifice some "stiffness" for some grip.

At the end of the day Saturday I was a little loose in the rear, the softer adjustment corrected that sunday. I'm just a bit pushy in long sweepers but good everywhere else. I may try a 1/2 turn on the rear to try to split the difference, but I'm sure ever thing will change once the weather gets hot


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Tough to get this car to not be "pushy" on OEM springs. It's somewhat tamable through front sway bar, but too much sway eventually leads to more push as well.

Start looking at some springs ;)

Have to careful with springs, can't change ride height and stay in BS


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Last I knew you can't change springs at all and stay in BS. Pretty much everything that was suggested is against the rules for the street category.

Yeah if it is a classing issue then sorta forget what I am saying. Definitely check your rules. Try you bar full front stiff and disconnect one of your rear endlinks. Tune from there. You might need to back down on the stiffness of the Eibach, I used stillen full stiff front and it was too much on OEM springs/dampers. You can probably compensate a lot more than I could with your Konis.

What's your rear bar/setting at?

Only allowed one sway bar change in street, so OEM rear.


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Then based on all of that info I would probably run that Eibach full stiff, dial in the front dampers to somewhere around 70-80% stiffness and leave the rear at about 20% for starters. Stiffer front will help compensate the soft oem springs. Start ridiculously soft in the rear on purpose, run a session, add 1-2 clicks , run a session, It will be pretty obvious when you need to undo a click or 2. Write it all down!

unfortunately this doesn't work for the Z (at least was in my case). I tried it and it was terrible. Though some told me not to but I still did it as it's how the "RWD" setup works (stiff front and soft rear). Car wasn't turning at all, ABS was pissed off, really unnatural feeling and rear end/tire was going to a point and snapping oversteer that was harder to control.. Z is a weird car .. :ugh2:

Came home and changed to almost 7-8/10 stiff rear and lets say 5/10 stiff front, car was superb. Turning really well, very balanced and brake felt very nice. I'll post here two videos: before adjustment (driven by a friend of mine who's a very good autoxer. You'll see him struggling too ) and then later with the change in setting w/me driving

Before setting change (stiff front/soft rear)


After setting change (stiffer rear and softer front) Me driving

[QUOTE=AK370Z;3129839]unfortunately this doesn't work for the Z (at least was in my case). I tried it and it was terrible. Though some told me not to but I still did it as it's how the "RWD" setup works (stiff front and soft rear). Car wasn't turning at all, ABS was pissed off, really unnatural feeling and rear end/tire was going to a point and snapping oversteer that was harder to control.. Z is a weird car .. :ugh2:

Came home and changed to almost 7-8/10 stiff rear and lets say 5/10 stiff front, car was superb. Turning really well, very balanced and brake felt very nice. I'll post here two videos: before adjustment (driven by a friend of mine who's a very good autoxer. You'll see him struggling too ) and then later with the change in setting w/me driving[quote]

That's really strange. I started out the first T&T last weekend with 60 front and 80 rear. Couldn't make it through the course the rear was so loose, just going through a slalom the rear would get out from under the car. Stiff front, soft rear was the only way I got the car to work.

interesting. Both events my ambient temp outside were 37 and 40 degrees... I know November events in NE :rolleyes: So perhaps you're in hot climate? What tire brand/size and pressure all 4? very strange..

Temps in the mid 40's. Hankook RS3's, 285 all around, pressures 43 front, 33 back.

Interesting. You're gonna make me redo and try out test and tune autox event here and re tune the konis lol.. but I didn't like softer rear at all.. car didn't feel right.

How do you like the rs3? didn't you had re-11s?

I will totally believe that AK, our rear OEM suspension is way too soft, and can remember problems like that as well. I went from OEM to 12K rears+sway and am now settled on 11K w no sway. I think 8-10K with OEM/mild sway would probably work pretty well too. It's a real fine line with the rear, a little too soft and it turns into a mush ball like in your first video, a little too stiff and the car will try to kill you(like mine has been doing for the last 5 months).

Basically just use the dampers to artificially make the car as stiff as you can, but when the rear is too stiff, it will let you know right away! I haven't really found a "too stiff on the front situation" yet, I am at 12K front full bar, and it's about the stopping point for me due to valving and daily driving.

In terms of suggesting a setting though, start soft (even though it is already soft) on the dampers and just keep adding clicks. Better to start off in mush land than it is to crank them down and make the car unsafe. Then again, you guys don't have to worry about walls and other cars so some of the safety issues don't exist.

Sheesh AutoX setups are a lot different, we usually run 36 front/34 rear or so on the RS3. Our temps though out here get upwards of 100. I took my tire temps at Chuckwalla last October(middle of the desert) they were 140 degrees BEFORE I went on track. Yes my ABS kicked in and sent me off track that session lol.

What app did you use to make the vid and to datalog? I need a new logging app.

FWIW, with the settings I've posted in another thread, my car was incredibly loose in San Diego where they have a notoriously low-grip asphalt surface. The same settings on concrete were great. It a problem I ever solved because San Diego is the only low grip surface I ran on all year.

Thank you. Appreciate the input. I'll def remember that. My two events on the koni were in borderline freezing temp. So as temps warm up and goes to 80-90s in July, I may have to re configure konis. As of right now, car def turns. I don't know if Eibach is doing most of the work or konis ... we shall find out soon :)

I used harry's lap timer for datalog. XGPS160 for faster gps refresh rate and used GoPoint GL1 connected to OBD to iphone for RPMS. It works 80% of the time. I'm saving up for Aim SOLO DL :)

Interesting stuff Jeff. So what would you do (if you really wanted to) to get some more grip? soften rear konis?

Setting-wise I don't really know there's much to do... I tried adding toe-in on Saturday night of the Tour last year but that didn't help. Honestly, the best thing I could've done would be to have full tread tires. I was on end-of-life RS3s that I replaced after the event, and I've since learned that having full tread tires on lots that are really rough/breaking up helps a lot.

Thanks I am trying to get aim solo too. I use CMS laptimer and it works when it wants to.