...but having said that, I'd love to hear from anyone who could tell me how much the Gendron or ARE bars currently go for.

 

Only one error I see...

Every national championship won by an S2000 has not been won on a staggered setup. In 2007, Jason Collett won on a non staggered setup in Wynveen's AP1 with 245x4 on JDM wheels.

Also, I think my Gendron 1.375" cost me around $800 through the group buy organized by Jeff Janzen

 

ARE bar is around $900 for one adjsutable blade and another $125 for the second adjustable blade.

This price includes the metal bushings and beefier mounting brackets.

IIRC, the Gendron bar is around $900 now.

 

2008 (Trophied 2nd and 12th)

2002 AP1
Stock wheels
Stock shocks
DIY cut-off exhaust
Gendron 1-3/8" Hollow Bar (the "group buy bar")
245/45 F+R Hoosier A6

Alignment:
Camber: -1.8F, -2.2R
EDIT: Toe: zero F, in 0.14"R
Caster: -5.5

Notes: Car felt perfectly neutral and did exactly what I told it to. Still had slight wheel lift at HPT.


2009 (Trophied 10th)

2001 AP1
Stock wheels
Penske shocks
DIY cut-off exhaust
Gendron 1-5/16" solid bar (Wynveen's from 2007)
245/45 F+R Hoosier A6

Alignment: (Corey, correct me if I'm wrong)
Camber: -2.3F, -2.7R
Toe: out 0.125"F, in 0.125"R
Caster: -5.8

Notes: Car put power down really well but was a bit pushy on turn-in. Front tire grip diminished steadily each day because we didn't scrape enough.

 

How are you guys getting -2.3* in the front? When I get anywhere close to 5.8* caster, my front camber limit is around -1.7* or -1.8*...tops.

 

Vids:
Jeff Day 1 (West): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_mK3PjoLgQ&
Jeff Day 2 (East): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yatn5eTJJPs

Corey Day 2 (East): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__j61GjRDsA&
Corey's day 1 vid didn't work for me. He'll have to post it.


Two things I learned after watching the vids (should have watched between runs - duh!):
1 - We were quick in the fast sweepers but went too slow in the slow sections. It was our first time on concrete, and we failed at blocking out the voice that kept saying, "YOU CAN'T GO THAT FAST, STUPID!"
2 - The car was pretty unstable in sweepers, as shown by our sawing at the wheel. I didn't actually notice it much while driving, but after watching the vid I remembered having to correct rapidly every time I tried to feed in more throttle mid-corner.

Strangely, the car plowed like a bimmer on the test course. Maybe it was the old tires, but I think we might have been better off with no testing at all.

 

We experienced exactly the same thing on my AP2.

The car understeered like crazy on the test course, then when we hit the competetion course on fresh tires the car was loose as hell! I really struggled on Thursday with this, but we managed to dial some of the oversteer out for Friday.

 

The test course was super tight, so it was really easy to break the front end loose if you overdrove in the slightest. My guess is that that's what you experienced -- we had the same problem.

 

I optimized every single bolted connection in the front end to get that. LOTS of time under the car with various ratchet straps pulling things the right way and then torquing the bolts with the car at ride height. I think it's too much rear camber though, I'd prefer to drop it and increase front bar stiffness for even better power application. Only changes from what Jeff posted are: zero front toe and 0.5 degrees rear toe-in total, which is .14".

I'm pretty sure our front test tires were totally dead as the car felt fantastic during the Wednesday Evo test session in the rain on Dunlop Z1s. Only an STU Evo was faster.

 

Ah, didn't think you could get that much of a gain out of it...but sounds like it was well worth the time. Guess I have a new project for this weekend...