Recently a few people have been griping that the Stock class autocross setup FAQ is growing a bit long in the tooth, so I wanted to start a thread to see what people think should be updated.

Some things that come to mind:

• Koni now sells Yellows custom valved for Stock-class autocross.
  
• Most people are now running Hoosiers.
  
• Most people are now running 245s all around on AP1s, and 275s all around on at least CRs.
  
• The sway bars of choice are the 1.375" hollow Gendron bar or the 1.5" Ankeny Racing Enterprises bar.
  
• The CR's come along. CRs seem to require less bar than other generations. Does anyone remember Greg Hahn's setup from Nationals last year?
  
• The alignment recommendations should be clarified to say that you should max out camber in front, and run 0.3 - 0.5 degrees more camber in back, depending on the desired balance.
  
• Although it's out of scope for this Stock class FAQ, the S2000 will be eligible for the Street Touring R provisional class next year.

Anyone else have any suggestions?

Feel free to chat about whatever random setups have worked for you in this thread, but I'm only going to quote nationally-proven setups in the FAQ -- winning Novice at your local autocross doesn't qualify your setup for inclusion.

 

Maybe expand the stock FAQ to include little blurbs from BSP, SSM, and STR. We can qualify that it's a little bit of conjecture... But at least it would be a starting place.

 

All useful suggestions.

 

[QUOTE=PedalFaster,Aug 3 2009, 08:00 PM] Recently a few people have been griping that the Stock class autocross setup FAQ is growing a bit long in the tooth, so I wanted to start a thread to see what people think should be updated.

Some things that come to mind:[LIST]
[*] Koni now sells Yellows custom valved for Stock-class autocross.
[*] Most people are now running Hoosiers.
[*] Most people are now running 245s all around on AP1s, and 275s all around on at least CRs.
[*] The sway bars of choice are the 1.375" hollow Gendron bar or the 1.5" Ankeny Racing Enterprises bar.
[*] The CR's come along.

 

Agreed on all points that Marc said above.

Jadrice has had a lot of success on the 245 square setup, so has Tommy. If I were to do it again - I'd be on those tires.


The ARE bar will show its advantages as more people buy them and use it. Right now the market is kinda saturated because most people have already picked up a Gendron bar.



Also like Marc said above - alignment stuff can be hard to compare on the internet. For instance - on my 245/275 setup - 1.44" front bar - I was actually running less camber in the rear than up front. I was maxed out at 1.8-1.9 in the front and ran 1.5 in the back.


Make sure to really emphasize that the alignment numbers are just a baseline and that driving styles and technique will greatly influence your final setup. Also, people that run a lot of ProSolo's might want to consider a different rear alignment to help them get off the line faster against the other cars. I believe Joe Tharpe was running only ~1.1 rear camber to get maximum grip at the lights.

 

Guy Ankeny has been running his ARE bar and a 275-all-around setup on an AP2 (not CR) including at the NorPac Divisional in northern California.

I am considering getting the ARE bracket and bushing set to use with my Gendron bar to get the arms away from the steering boots. I do think that the blade adjustability is nifty. I may switch to the ARE bar if I decide to continue campaigning in A Stock.

A swaybar is not unsprung mass. Only the ends of the arms translate with the suspension, and the motion ratio for that is less than 1.

 

Good idea, but someone else will have to take that on -- I have neither the knowledge nor the time to maintain those (since the hot STR setup will be evolving constantly for the next few years).

 

As Marc and Nick have both said alignment is hard to pin down on the internet. I run a square amount of camber all around which is roughly -2. I run 0 toe in front and damn near zero toe in the rear. I will be switching from the 245/275 tire setup to a 245 square setup with my next set of tires since I am still fighting some push on grippier surfaces even with my Saner bar even with my revalved Konis full stiff on the rear and almost full soft on the front.

Also the I upgraded the endlinks on my Saner bar before Toledo and it doesn't make any noise now and I can't possibly imagine needing more front bar on the car as I have never had wheelspin issues.

 

Keith - the insane amount of rebound in the Koni's does some goofy stuff. I kid you not, the stiffer I go in the rear - the more settled the car gets. Thats holding true for both Stock and STR trim.

Our first event this year in April - it was 30-40deg out and practically snowing. We started at full soft all the way around and the car was a handful - we kept adding more and more rear shock and the car kept getting better and better.

Just some food for thought

 

From my recent experience looking throught the FAQ's for information on brakes, the brake pad information is old. The links i have followed up on led me down a path of looking for Cobalt GT sport pads to later find out there were problems with a redesign that caused them to be unsafe leading to the Cobalt GT sport pads having been discontinued. I am at work and there were some other changes like off the top of my head i think the Panther pads are now AX6? There were some other newer information on brakes i will try and compile later.