Oh, another thing... I was in a shop today getting my alignment done. I'd noticed a weird noise coming from what I thought was a bad endlink / loose sway bar mount. I got into the pit and grabbed the sway bar trying to figure out if it was loose. It wasn't. So, I looked around some more... and low and behold, turns out I'm missing both of my nuts for the engine mount on the right side of the engine! Odd thing is I've never touched those nuts before... so they should have been torqued properly by Honda in the first place. Yet, they are both missing.

So, might be a good idea to check the torque of those nuts.

 

It really amazes me that we have so much front end stiffness ranges from everyone.

I have 515lb front and rear and the gendron at the 4th hole and stock rear bar on my06
I have seen a 300lb stagger in springs with a mx5 rear bar and a comptech on full stiff.

From a pure vehicle dynamics standpoint, a car with roll stiffness equal to the weight distribution is going to be the most neutral.
This is from http://farnorthracing.com/autocross_secrets7.html as one of the highlights.

What am I missing?

 

I argee about needing a "stiffer then stock" front bar but on my ap1 with the gendron 1.25" solid bar on full with 700lbs front springs the car felt good but felt like the front bar was taking away grip from the tires, although it transitioned very fast and well. This might be in my head but it also seemed like it took less steering input to get the car to turn. To explain that alittle better I would say, "if before it took 30 degrees of steering input to turn the car, it now felt like 20 degrees gives the same turning input." Overall I guess I would say "a more responsive steering wheel with more bar." As most all of you know I got my shocks rebuilt over the winter and changed springs. After doing calcs wih random1's excel sheet he sent me (thanks man!) I decided to go from setting 6/6 to setting 3/6, while adding 900lbs springs to the front. The front is so much grippier then it was last year. The turn in is crazy compared to what it felt like with the stiffer bar settings. If you like a stiff front bar and havent tried 900lbs front springs, you should!

As for the rear bar, I ran no rear bar last season because with a bar on it seems to take away from the max grip level of the tires. I ended up going back to the miata bar to have atleast alittle bit of bar. It has been a driving change for sure. The car feels great but it seems that when the rear gets "loose" it moves faster then before. The slip angle is "pointier" then it use to be. Its going to take a bit of time getting used to. At the last autox I put down the fastest str time of the day but picked up a cone on all my fastest runs with the rear tires.


*noob warning"*
I just wanted to share my "learnings"

the car doesn't lean much

 

Mike, can you get a picture of what your intake mod is? I just installed a K&N FIPK with a bunch of heat insulation that seems to work very well, but I am still trying to figure out what to do about the radiator and I am curious if your mod addresses this.

 

For a fellow suzuka owner... absolutely. I must warn you... it's rather ghetto fabulous.

 

I switched from a high-roll stiffness setup to a lower-roll stiffness setup.

Old setup:
4 hole Saner FSB @ full stiff
AP1v1 RSB
900 lb/in front, 800 lb/in rear springs

Newer setup:
AP1v1 OE FSB
no rear bar
900 lb/in front, 800 lb/in rear springs

We had a long 8-cone slalom at our last event, and I couldn't believe how hard my car would take a set with lower roll stiffness. I've never been able to slalom with that much grip using past setups. The response is little slower (and I mean only slightly) but the grip once it settled was awesome. The courses were point-and-shoot layouts and I managed to maintain high enough average speeds to snag 2nd PAX the first day and 1st PAX the second day. If only I could lay down a fast time within 3 runs.

The other setups I would like to try are:

All spring -
No FSB or RSB
1400 lb/in front, 800 lb/in rear springs
The goal with this setup is weight reduction via FSB/RSB removal.

Semi-stiff roll setup -
Saner on ~2 of 4
NC Miata front as RSB
900 lb/in front, 800 lb/in rear

All four of the above setups have similar roll-stiffness bias, ~59% front, 41% rear.

 

Yea id be interested to try that 1400 front spring with no bar but I feel the steering response wouldn't be there like it is with a bar.

A very very fast guy once told me "it's all about the turn in grip, the rest you just learn to deal with." after going to less bar and more front spring I must say I'm really loving it. A 3/6 on a solid bar is still more then alot of you all running but I can't tell myself to run less, I need the steering response to get through the cones at the tight local events. At the last event there was a box that if you didn't time it perfectly you couldn't get through it without taking out cones. The Course was fun but some of the bigger cars seriously couldn't get through it. We have a great course designer but our lots are small.

A national event is like a road course to me

 

Sounds similar to my set up and my findings. For some reason I just hate set ups with giant front bars. Not like I am the best driver but it seems to suit me a bit better with the ap1v1 bar up front

 

My first event I started with no rear bar, 800 lb springs in front, 700 lb springs in rear, and 1.25" 1/4" wall Gendron bar with bearing mounts, set to 3 out of 6. I felt like the car was kinda tail happy. Before the last event I upped the front bar to 5/6, and to me it feels very good now.

One thing is I don't have much rear toe - I ended up with 3/32" toe in in the rear and 0 toe in front.

 

Haha I will get you a pick of my insulation on the intake, I imagine it is just as bad. Nothing says autocross more then seeing Moton shock canisters next to duct tape and a water heater blanket.