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Andy Smedegard’s First Impressions on the Performance of His Stance XR3 Suspension System on his 365 Racing/RS Motors Time Attack Evo 9



The group I come from has always had the mindset of “Just Drive Better.” We’d always hear drivers complaining about tire pressures or not having enough camber and this or that. We didn’t want to have excuses for poor performance. So we’ve focused a lot on the driver and the car setup always took a back seat; and it worked for the most part.

But as competition grew, I knew I needed more. Don’t get me wrong, we still focus on driver and there is ALWAYS more in the driver regardless of how good we think we are. But I felt like the car needed more of something.

I started talking to Dave a while ago and he was talking about these new shocks he’s been building/tuning. It all sounded great, but were they better than what I was currently running. It was always one of those things I would ask myself. “How optimized is my current suspension setup?” But with 6+ years of abuse on my current coilover package, I knew it was wearing out and needed to be refreshed or replaced.

This is where my relationship with Dave and Stance USA really started. I didn’t really ask for any specific specs or rates, I just let Dave setup a package that he thought was best (I still don’t even know what spring rates I’m on).
Installation
Very easy and straight forward. Only snag we had was needing to use the Evo X lower brackets as I’m running 295 tires and needed a little extra clearance. These were the 3-way adjustable, and I set all knobs to Dave’s base recommendations. Very easy install overall.
First event, GridLife Track Battle Round 1 at Gingerman Raceway.
Gingerman was a great place to try out the new legs. It’s a familiar track that I’ve been to many times. My first session out, I was a bit timid to push the car. I made a little bit of aero changes and along with the new suspension, I didn’t really know what to expect. By the end of the first session, I was very confident in the car’s balance. Very predictable, very stable, and the most impressive part, super compliant over bumps and curbing. Corners I used to have to be very careful to not to hit the curbing were no longer an issue. Bumps no longer made the car bounce; it was night and day difference. I made very minor adjustments to the shocks throughout the weekend, but as I kicked up the power the lap times continued to fall which led me to beat my personal best by over 3 seconds compared to last year. Previous best was 1:34.5, new best is 1:31.0.
Next event, GridLife Track Battle Round 2 at Autobahn Country Club.
Another very familiar track (South circuit). Previous best was a 1:28.4 last year, this year- 1:25.5!

The proof is in the pudding. There is no denying this suspension is superior or my old setup. Sometimes you don’t know what you’re missing until you try something superior.

Thank you Stance USA!

– Andy Smedegard
365Racing / RS Motors
06 Mitsubishi Evo IX, #212



Article can be found here: http://www.stance-usa.com/main/2016/...ssions-stance/