Suspension setup discussion for the track

[ayau]

Just wanted to start a discussion to talk about suspension setup for the track. Provide your overall handling impressions given your setup. I can start.

Alignment:
Toe: 0 F, 0 R
Camber: -1.6 F, -1.5 R
Caster: Factory

Tires/wheels:
18x8.5 +55
245/40/18 Potenza S007A

Tire pressures (hot):
35F, 38R

All factory springs, dampers, stabilizer bars, etc.

The goal isn't for the fastest lap time. Just trying to achieve a more balanced car and continue to develop better car handling skills. As I build more confidence, I can move away from a less understeering setup and into a more neutral setup.

Front tire roll over is right at the small triangle. Rears aren't rolling over at all. Minimal understeer. Rear never stepped out.

I think I'll try 35f and 40r (hot) tire pressures next time to see if I can get the car to rotate even easier.

In the future, may consider the EVS slotted front ball joints to get -2.7 front camber. Generally, I don't like tweaking too many things at the same time as it's difficult to determine what worked and didn't work.

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[zspeed]

@Lust @Jotun

 

[spyder57]

Just wanted to start a discussion to talk about suspension setup for the track. Provide your overall handling impressions given your setup. I can start.

Alignment:
Toe: 0 F, 0 R
Camber: -1.6 F, -1.5 R
Caster: Factory

Tires/wheels:
18x8.5 +55
245/40/18 Potenza S007A

Tire pressures (hot):
35F, 38R

All factory springs, dampers, stabilizer bars, etc.

The goal isn't for the fastest lap time. Just trying to achieve a more balanced car and continue to develop better car handling skills. As I build more confidence, I can move away from a less understeering setup and into a more neutral setup.

Front tire roll over is right at the small triangle. Rears aren't rolling over at all. Minimal understeer. Rear never stepped out.

I think I'll try 32F and 40R (hot) tire pressures next time to see if I can get the car to rotate even easier.

In the future, may consider the EVS slotted front ball joints to get -2.7 front camber. Generally, I don't like tweaking too many things at the same time as it's difficult to determine what worked and didn't work.

Just wanted to start a discussion to talk about suspension setup for the track. Provide your overall handling impressions given your setup. I can start.

Alignment:
Toe: 0 F, 0 R
Camber: -1.6 F, -1.5 R
Caster: Factory

Tires/wheels:
18x8.5 +55
245/40/18 Potenza S007A

Tire pressures (hot):
35F, 38R

All factory springs, dampers, stabilizer bars, etc.

The goal isn't for the fastest lap time. Just trying to achieve a more balanced car and continue to develop better car handling skills. As I build more confidence, I can move away from a less understeering setup and into a more neutral setup.

Front tire roll over is right at the small triangle. Rears aren't rolling over at all. Minimal understeer. Rear never stepped out.

I think I'll try 32F and 40R (hot) tire pressures next time to see if I can get the car to rotate even easier.

In the future, may consider the EVS slotted front ball joints to get -2.7 front camber. Generally, I don't like tweaking too many things at the same time as it's difficult to determine what worked and didn't work.

What wheels did you find that were 18 with +55 offset?

 

[Jotun]

Good thread! I am in the middle of buying parts and planning my track set up.

 

[ayau]

What wheels did you find that were 18 with +55 offset?

OZ Challenge HLT

https://www.civicx.com/forum/threads/fs-oz-racing-challenge-hlt-18x8-5-1200-shipped.44165/

 

[Lust]

18x10 +40
265/35/18 RS4 / A052

-2 degrees front camber
-2.3 degrees rear camber
0 toe front
1/16” toe in rear but will be moving to 0 toe

Rigid collars, swift springs, guide pins removed, RV6 control arms, toe arms, swaybar, end links and SPC camber arm.

The car handles phenomenally well. I would say the handling is very neutral with an improvement on turn in, steering response, and maintaining the line. Before the car would tend to plow a little bit. The car now is very confidence inspiring.

the car can definitely benefit from more camber. This varies based on driver skill. I personally would want around -3 degrees up front minimum. Best way to tell would be to check tire temps as you pull into the pits. Check inner, middle, and outer part of the tire. Try to get the temps as even as possible across the tire

 

[ayau]

18x10 +40
265/35/18 RS4 / A052

-2 degrees front camber
-2.3 degrees rear camber
0 toe front
1/16” toe in rear but will be moving to 0 toe

Rigid collars, swift springs, guide pins removed, RV6 control arms, toe arms, swaybar, end links and SPC camber arm.

The car handles phenomenally well. I would say the handling is very neutral with an improvement on turn in, steering response, and maintaining the line. Before the car would tend to plow a little bit. The car now is very confidence inspiring.

the car can definitely benefit from more camber. This varies based on driver skill. I personally would want around -3 degrees up front minimum. Best way to tell would be to check tire temps as you pull into the pits. Check inner, middle, and outer part of the tire. Try to get the temps as even as possible across the tire

What tire pressures are you running? Have you tried increasing or decreasing from the rear tire's optimal sweet spot pressure to increase rotation?

 

[Lust]

What tire pressures are you running? Have you tried increasing or decreasing from the rear tire's optimal sweet spot pressure to increase rotation?

RS4s are happy around 34-36PSI hot. I haven’t really played around too much with pressure since my tire wear has been pretty good

 

[Jotun]

RS4s are happy around 34-36PSI hot. I haven’t really played around too much with pressure since my tire wear has been pretty good

RS4 can handle so much heat. Definitely more of an endurance tire. Gotta love the wear though. I agree with the higher pressure.

 

[apexaddict]

I'll play.

2020 Civic Type R

Alignment:
Toe: 1/16" out F, 1/16" out R
Camber: -1.7 F, -1.0 LR and -2.0 RR (need to do the subframe alignment procedure for next time, didn't discover that until after I aligned it)
Caster: Factory

Tires/wheels:
18x9.5 +43 Apex EC7
265/35/18 Bridgestone RE71R

Tire pressures (hot):
35F, 32R

Suspension:
stock

Impressions:
Balance is OK. The end of every story is understeer, but that's to be expected with a stock FWD car. It rotates a little bit on trailbraking/corner entry (likely thanks to the rear toe out), but once the car takes a set, there isn't much adjustability. It definitely needs a rear bar, though my options are somewhat limited as SCCA TT has weird rules with allowed sway bars in the base class.

I should also point out this is just with VSA "off-off" through long-press of the button; I haven't tried the pedal/brake dance method on this car yet. I'm familiar with it from my 2017 Si, though.

It also definitely needs more camber, but again, with class restrictions there isn't much to do here. Other than spend more money to go into a higher-prep class.

 

[ayau]

I'll play.

2020 Civic Type R

Alignment:
Toe: 1/16" out F, 1/16" out R
Camber: -1.7 F, -1.0 LR and -2.0 RR (need to do the subframe alignment procedure for next time, didn't discover that until after I aligned it)
Caster: Factory

Tires/wheels:
18x9.5 +43 Apex EC7
265/35/18 Bridgestone RE71R

Tire pressures (hot):
35F, 32R

Suspension:
stock

Impressions:
Balance is OK. The end of every story is understeer, but that's to be expected with a stock FWD car. It rotates a little bit on trailbraking/corner entry (likely thanks to the rear toe out), but once the car takes a set, there isn't much adjustability. It definitely needs a rear bar, though my options are somewhat limited as SCCA TT has weird rules with allowed sway bars in the base class.

I should also point out this is just with VSA "off-off" through long-press of the button; I haven't tried the pedal/brake dance method on this car yet. I'm familiar with it from my 2017 Si, though.

It also definitely needs more camber, but again, with class restrictions there isn't much to do here. Other than spend more money to go into a higher-prep class.

Thanks for the feedback. I also had similar results. Though I think you've found more understeer than me because you're a faster driver.

I'm looking at possibly the Eibach rear bar. Also, have you tried increasing the rear psi to 38-40 or possibly dropping it to 30? In either direction, you can reduce the rear grip that way.

 

[Oddwayne]

18x10 +40
265/35/18 RS4 / A052

-2 degrees front camber
-2.3 degrees rear camber
0 toe front
1/16” toe in rear but will be moving to 0 toe

Rigid collars, swift springs, guide pins removed, RV6 control arms, toe arms, swaybar, end links and SPC camber arm.

The car handles phenomenally well. I would say the handling is very neutral with an improvement on turn in, steering response, and maintaining the line. Before the car would tend to plow a little bit. The car now is very confidence inspiring.

the car can definitely benefit from more camber. This varies based on driver skill. I personally would want around -3 degrees up front minimum. Best way to tell would be to check tire temps as you pull into the pits. Check inner, middle, and outer part of the tire. Try to get the temps as even as possible across the tire

Hey bro If you remove the guide pins up front, can you get a bit more camber adjustment or something?

 

[ayau]

Hey bro If you remove the guide pins up front, can you get a bit more camber adjustment or something?

Yes, removal of guide pins will get you about -1.5 to -1.7. I'm guessing @Lust got -2 more because he's lowered on springs.

 

[Lust]

Yes, removal of guide pins will get you about -1.5 to -1.7. I'm guessing @Lust got -2 more because he's lowered on springs.

yep -2 with pin removal and swift springs

 

[apexaddict]

Thanks for the feedback. I also had similar results. Though I think you've found more understeer than me because you're a faster driver.

I'm looking at possibly the Eibach rear bar. Also, have you tried increasing the rear psi to 38-40 or possibly dropping it to 30? In either direction, you can reduce the rear grip that way.

I actually have an RV6 bar sitting in my garage, but with the way the rules are for SCCA TT, Sport category only allows anything sold by Tire Rack (which is the Eibach 25mm and Whiteline 22mm) and Progress. I think the RV6 is superior to any of those - they are at least open with the rates of the bar - and should be less of a maintenance/noise headache than the Karcepts, but it has to be legal first. I wrote in to see if it can be specifically allowed, but TBD on that at the moment. Failing that, I would probably go with the Eibach from the available options.

I didn't really play with rear pressures much yet, I spent most of the day last time just trying to figure out where all the tires roll over evenly, but I would probably take a few pounds out of the rear next time.

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