?

 

Funny you should ask...

For those that don't know, my project for today's West LA installathon was the Spoon X brace I bought before Christmas.

I noticed absolutely no difference in the handling of the car...until I got home! There are two turns I have to make to get to my street. They are wide and on fast streets (50 mph) so I usually take them at a pretty good speed. So I'm on the outside of the right turn lane, about 40mph and I turn into the right hander. All seems normal until I approach the apex of the corner. That's when I notice the change in handling.

I will say I'm not sure I like it yet, maybe I'm not used to it. I'm used to drifting around that corner with slight understeer to full balance but that is not how things went this time. It's hard to describe but there was no drift at all, no understeer or oversteer. Instead it was like somebody switched tracks on me and the turn was abrupt and violent. Akin to driving a something with rear steering like a forklift and turning the wheel hard. The whole car shot through the corner much quicker than I expected, as if the car was picked up and placed in a new direction in an instant. It felt almost a bit twitchy.

To make matters worse, I immediately put on a brand new set of Hoosier slicks in preparation for tomorrow's autoX and took it out to the gas station to pump up the pressures. The combination of the X brace, sway bar and sticky tires was not comfortable. Very sensitive to input, the slightest touch of the wheel sent me in other directions.

How sticky are the tires? Well a low speeds you can actually hear them stick, like walking on a tile floor with rubber soled shoes.

So the real test is tomorrow. I'll report back once I've really had a chance to wring it out. I think I may have made too many changes at once though to report on what the X brace feels like in isolation.

Cheers,

 

hrmmmm, modding up your daily driver the day before an autox? I learned that lesson before. All I can say is, dont expect much at the race. I hate to be pessimistic, but thing is, you are used to the boundaries of the car - changing these boundaries, even to the slightest degree - like adding the x-brace, will do nothing more than kill the confidene you have in the predictability of the car.

Its just my two cents here. I really dont recommend modding your car, even slightly, anywhere in the week before an autox.

 

Very interesting C3, I am not surprised by your comments. I'd like to hear further from you as to whether you start to feel more comfortable after getting used to the newhandling characteristics. Sounds to me like you have made the whole vehicle a little more nervous and prone to driver inputs than it would be without the mod.

 

Cthree have the Mugen front sway bar?

 

Schatten:

That's why I do autoX. I usually run X class so I can get more runs in. I do it for the fun and to learn the car first, time second. I am way too novice to do well so I just like to go out and learn.

2k:

I'll let you know. You are exactly right, very sensitive now on first impression.

Prolene:

Yes I have the 31.8mm bar from Mugen.

These are that last planned suspension mods. It's the way I plan to run. If it's too sensitive I may remove the X brace and see if I like that better.

 

In my experience the biggest change you