Maybe one of the guys that had there cars at 12.50" from hub center to fender can tell you how long they have thier rear shock body from the bottom bolt hole to top of the shock body. (dust cover) also they might be able to tell us what they think adequate rear shock travel is.

Edit- if I remember correctly Nick Jackson said he was going to run a 11.5" shock body (bolt hole to top of dest cover) to run a rear ride height of 12.75" hub center to fender.

Cutting them to much could be really bad. A extreme case would be not having enough to accommodate body roll and lifting a inside wheel when loaded up at 1.3G's. That's rare but you get the point.

 

Thanks for posting Colin. Can you tell us how much camber angle is gained by this mod? How much total camber angle are you using up front?

 

I have it set to -2.8 but I've seen up to -3.2 on the alignment machine with these bushings. Might be more there as well but I never tried to go more than that.

 

Question. Just removed the drivers side rear link to basically uncouple my rear sway bar before tomorrows event. My intuition tells me that there is no way in hell the sway bar can get close enough to bump the axle, however I wanted to ask you guys who have done it before. Anyway, i took it for a little spin around the neighborhood with no issue. I can definitely tell the rear is flopping more weight on cornering. Thanks in advance.

 

If you just remove one endlink, you're fine. If you remove both, use a ziptie or some wire to hold the swaybar up out of the way.

 

Sweet. Yeah I thought about removing both but didn't. Reason being not because I thought it would make any difference to remove both, but my driveway is all crushed stone and my jack stands are a set of ASA's a fellow autoXer gave me. The least amount of work on this surface, the better hahahahhaa.

 

I've only driven on Star Specs and I love them. In 2010 I was able to get the tread to last all year Jan to Dec but the grip fell off a couple of events after 2010 Nationals. This year's set I definitely noticed loss of grip an event or two before 2011 Nationals. I recently installed Motons and would love to get another set of Star Specs but man the extra $200 I could save by getting RS3s is very very tempting. I'm a solo driver and usually don't have a co-driver so I feel that I won't do as well on the kooks b/c they need heat in order to grip well. I'm currently pondering whether to buy a new set of tires now for the fall/winter months and maybe last through next June and then buy a new set for Nationals. Or should I just keep my current set until the tread is nearly gone? I'm also tempted to get a daily driver tire setup and leave the Star Specs for autox events only; I love the grip on the street though. >.< Decisions... decisions...

I'm also needing a front swaybar to replace the stock one.

 

The performance on my Dunlop Z1*s had fallen off drastically by the time they were 2 years old and worn to about 4/32". I think it's more likely that they had worn down to a different compound than that the rubber had gotten hard with age. Putting on a new full tread set was a big improvement.

 

That's about right. When they get to 4/32" tread they're not all that great for autox anymore. I took them out to the track recently and they were fantastic for having fun (still gripping, no drifting); just not good enough for autox competition.

 

I respectfully disagree. My 2-3/32nd SS's did just fine at Nats.