Im installing a HardDog bar, which requires the removal of all the trim behind the seats. I know what your saying though. Kinda sucks that I cant put a proper bar without being out of class. But rules are rules. I guess Im out of STR.

 

if you cut and trim the rear part of the interior to work with the hard dog bar your fine.

 

this helps! thanks.

 

Man, I've got my full post-nationals jonesing going. I've been nerding out with some guys on how I'm going to build a capable, yet cheap, STR S2000.

Expect my sponsors to be McMaster-Carr and CheapBastardRacing.

srsly, I'm pretty excited. If the socal national events are in January, I'm not sure if the car will be ready then, but I'll be talking smack by early 2010

 

Has anyone tried the HKS Hipermax III's? There's another discussion going on about "nonsteggered" setups in this forum and those were brought up. Apparently they've got spring rates of 728f/626r. I've been wondering how these might pair up with a more affordable FSB (swift, tanabe, etc.). HKS claims the coilvers are "30-way adjustable" which is a little silly to me, but I'd like to hear some feedback if anyone has used them.

EDIT - also, there site says "simultaneously adjustable" ...so I'm assuming compression and rebound can't be tuned separately?

 

J - Why wait until 2010? If you wait that long, you'll be behind the smack-talk curve already and will then just be the 'guy who thought he could pop in and talk smack in the middle of an established smack talk session'. We'll all look at you like you're serious, and then you'll get all defensive, start calling people names, and wonder 'what happened to this place'.

Nope. No better time than the present.

--kC

 

When modifying a car with oilcovers and non-stock pieces, there's no 'right setup'. I will drive a car differently than the guy next to me and the guy next to him. One can only recommend a starting point and then the rest is up to the owner to figure it out based on their driving style, surface, and other modifications. Just a wrong ride height (based on your driving capability/skill/preference) on the 'right' oilcovers could make the car handle like crap.

IMHO? My 2 cents? The higher the spring rate, the less bar you should need. Let the suspension do the work. I've never been a fan of 50/50 cars needing big bars. Stock? Sure! Big bar helps because that's all one can do. Once you start adding higher spring rates, big bars just get in the way.



--kC

 

Right. The "right setup" for one person could be wrong for the next. Still though, feedback - especially from you experienced cats - is helpful. I feel like I could pick a decent starting point w/my *limited* experience, but this game ain't cheap so I don't want to be too far off. Therefore, the more input the better.

I do agree though with your take on bars. That's why I'm interested in coilovers that can help me maintain balance with a non-staggered setup. A "best guess" with coilovers also strikes me as easier than with a sway bar because spring rates are usually able to be looked up, but bending stiffness of an FSB isn't... unless I'm not looking in the right place.

 

Us experienced cats can get a bit snotty about shocks. Autocross puts a lot of demand on quality shocks and once you've experienced the good, bad, and ugly of shocks, you tend to be scared of anything that isn't clearly in the "good" catagory.

I don't mean to sound like a pig-headed 'murican v8 guy, but honestly a lot of the kind of 'ricey' stuff out of Japan really sucks.

There are just a fistful of shock company names that I trust, and it would take a lot of convincing for me to put anything else on my autocross car:
Koni
Bilstein
Penske
Moton
AST
JRZ
Ohlins (and I'm actually a little skeptical of some of the Ohlins stuff)

Unless I see something really interesting I wouldn't go with anyone else. That said, there's some roundy-round shocks out there that I'm flirting with adapting to the car.

If you want cheap, the best cheap option are the cheap konis. They've been proven over and over again to be adequate. And I've seen over and over again "suspension kits" like from Tein or anyone else absolutely suck.

 

Loud and clear

All I'm going to say is everyone in grid is going to drop their panties in jealousy when they see me roll up with non-adjustable shocks, terrible welds (I really should get better at welding) and McMaster hardware shock hats, and a sprint car muffler.

This is what I currently call, Plan A

srsly though, I'm going to be kicking ass and possibly taking a few names.

p.s. the Atlanta crew at nationals has dubed SERNick (or whatever his screen name here is) as "Stuble" for his well kept chest/abs area.