GBStang13

First off let me just say that the koni yellows are worth the money! They completely change the charactersitcs of the car, along with a far superior ride quality. Once paired with the right progressive rate springs, and stronger sway bars this car becomes a corner carving animal



I used to run a squared brembo setup, and now have steggered wheels in the back.


I know the car grips much better thanks to the 305 tire, but it almost feels as I should soften my rear dampeners...

Currently I am running on stage 3 out of 5 ( sport low ) and wondering what are your current configurations and what worked for some of you? I am currently 255/35/20 front, 305/30/20 rear... I plan on doing little azsolo or track days, but the car will be show and road mostly.

Thanks for your input.

SpeedCostsMoney

I got some Koni yellows on back order. I can not wait for them to come in.

GBStang13

Anyone? I noticed that my cars rear wants to overtake my front... Yet i dont loose any traction do you think for course/track I should soften the rear more?

Horspla

There is no quick answer to your question and I suspect that’s why you’re not getting many responses. An extremely oversimplified distillate below:

Driver feel and driver style will play a large part in set up. Some like a tight car some like 'em loose. Driver style all the way. Neutral to ever-so-slightly loose is usually quickest since it allows the driver to steer both ends of the car.

Golden rule: a given car as built with “XXX” equipment will have a specific amount of traction and no more. The object is to balance traction front to back, left to right and cross depending on the track, track type and driver preference. In track specific situations track data and car data can be coupled to calculate and fairly accurately predict spring rates and static weight bias in order to achieve equal load between the four corners of the car (Ideal).

It all boils down to the static and dynamic load on the tires contact patch. Dynamically a tire only has so much traction. Overload them and you’re picking pea stone out of the chassis for weeks! For the most part the tire doesn’t care which direction or combination of directions force is being applied. Once the limit of adhesion has been exceeded it starts to slide, spin or both. Ideally you want all four corners of the car doing equal work in order to maximize total vehicle traction. Take static load off of one corner and it has to go someplace which means either one, two or all three of the remaining corners are doing more work than the forth. Same holds true of dynamic weight transfer. Those with more load will go beyond max limit (Break traction) before the one with the least load.

It’s up to you to determine which end is losing traction. Rule of thumb is always to go as soft as possible to gain maximum overall traction and car balance while maintaining the attitude of the car. Is the front end is losing traction (Pushing...understeering) or is the back end losing traction (Getting loose…oversteering)? Once you’ve got that figured out then you can determine how to proceed in your particular instance. Generally shocks are used for among other things, fine adjustments in rate of transfer after the best base spring rates, bar rates and weight biases are determined for the car. If all you have to work with is adjustable rear shocks and you determine the rear of the car is stuck to tight, you’ll want to select a slower transfer rate on that end which kind of fools the car into thinking you installed stiffer springs. To be sure it’s an a$$ backwards way of softening up the front, right…but you don’t have a choice in this situation. The rule of opposites holds true.


Play and learn…

John

GBStang13

^ the best answer so far and that is exactly what i was looking for. So i am going to get a ODB 2 reader that can read that data for me. This is where track apps come in play.

Thanks again. I have 3 way adjustable sway bars, 5 way adjustable Koni Dampeners and I am running stiffer springs ( FRPP K springs )

dmichaels

To complement above, abridged version:

Softening rear/stiffening front reduces oversteer entering and exiting a corner. No impact mid-corner

Stiffening rear / softening front will have the opposite effect, again no real impact mid corner

Stiff rear sway with soft front sway reduces rear traction, increasing oversteer at entry, mid corner, and exit

Soft rear sway with stiff front sway reduces front traction, decreasing oversteer, again at entry, mid corner, and exit

That's really general, there are other factors as well. With staggered setup, you may want stiffer rear shock setting and slightly stiffer rear sway setting than with a square setup

Lots of playing around with the adjustments is what you need though!

Enjoy

Horspla

DMichaels knows the game! Sound info coming from his camp...bought and paid for!

I could be wrong since I don’t have track aps and have never played with it, but I don’t think it’s going to break out the information you’re looking for. So far as I know it’s not that technically advanced. In other words your car is not wired with corner travel and load sensors fed into a DAQ or live fed to computer via telemetry. It does have turn angle, slip angle and accelerometer sensor inputs which would be valuable.

Dialing in a car using common sense and seat of the pants isn’t that hard if you pay attention to what the car is telling you. Your body’s own internal slip angle meter should tell you a lot. As should your ears, arms, feet and butt. Sounds funny I know but it’s too true. It’s like playing a musical instrument. You either feel the music and let it lead you or you just play the notes. Either way you get a song but do the songs equal each other in musical quality? Simple answer is no. With the car you either feel what it’s telling your senses and adjust it accordingly or you ride around with a bunch of instrumentation and let it guide you. It’s arguable the instrumentation will get you close quicker if the person setting the car up is a neophyte, but to get the car all the way…the way you need it to be, to be its quickest with you driving it, at some point the computers have to go out the window and your body must take over. It’s the human factor in knowing how you like the car set up combined with your driving habits. Computers are great, but they’re created by man and have man’s limitations built into them.

My advice would be to put your OBII money into buying track time…win/win situation.

John

FromZto5

Sounds exactly like my setup. I've been preaching the wonders of Koni Yellows for a while now, the same way the folks before me preached to me. I'm glad you have also since switched

As for my settings, I don't track. So I have it set at the softest settings. It provides a compliant ride, at the same time, I'm able to take corners much better and faster than with springs alone and stock susp.

GBStang13

That's it my friend, I really was Looking for your response

GBStang13

Give it to me straight, thank you, and you're right, just getting ready. Hopefully Laguna seca, Senoma, and Willow springs here I come. Working on fabricating custom cooling ducts for s197 11-14 cars.. So we'll see, oh did I say I love my konis?

Horspla

Sorry...didn't mean to come off sounding so blunt...just not a topic that can be made flowery or humorous (unless stupid failed attempts are discussed!). Please understand I was not insinuating you are a beginner...to be sure, I have no idea of either your experience level or background. I was speaking in general terms. I probably should just refrain from posting on public forums...now that sounds like a five star idea!

I saw the thread about Koni skocks. They're good. Issues with a few of them? Is there such a thing as a manufactured part that can claim a zero defect history?

Good on the brake ducts. The brakes will need as much help as you can give them.

John

GBStang13

Thanks buddy, and no worries - we are not kids so no offense taken. Sometimes things need to be put bluntly and I appreciate that!

Astenax

Im still playing with my Yellows to find the best setting for me lol. Some days i want a softer ride and some days i want to rip through the corners and i dont care about my kidneys! I have mine set to one full turn from full soft for daily driving but for canyon carving i go 1/4 from full stiff! Full stiff would be track ready but its dangerous for the street becouse there is almost no dampening, and if you hit and un even bump at speed you better be ready lol!

GBStang13

LOL hell yeah bro! I got to say it, its like an adventure with these Shocks and Struts, If they were only in cockpit controls... Anyhow I also like to run then step 2 ( half turn ) I had them on step 3 ( full 360* ) turn and wow... which i think was Sport Low, 4 is Med, 5 High ( Stiff ) lol have not tried 4 and 5 yet. But wow on 3 does it handle paired with sport mode on the steering rack. I do prefer the 180* @ Stage 2 for daily driving and stuff... Step 1 ( factory ) is super smooth even better than factory IMO.

Pair all that with adjustable sway bars = and these PONY cars are a serious business now!

lsxjunkie

I have found my setup.

I'm running softer springs in the front than the rear, I have my fronts at 1 full turn, I have the rears at half a turn. I may turn the rears up to 3/4.

StangMan04

I hear good things about koni yellows. I ordered some for my 2013 before it was totaled. Now I am trying to sell them. Wish I had enough posts to list them in the classifieds, but I don't. Anyone need a brand new get of koni yellows or cc plates, shoot me a PM.

GBStang13

How much do you want for them? Sorry for your loss buddy