Re: Brett's Suspension questions

[trnsfrma@ix.netcom.com (Shawn C. Meze)]

At 03:43 PM 4/22/97 -0400, you wrote:
>I have an 88 16v that I've been adding modification to over the past few
>years.  This question concerns the addition of sway bars.  I have Autotech
>bars, 25mm rear, 22mm front.  I wondering if my setup could cause excessive
>understeer.  


No, this will reduce it from its stock configuration. Ya done good!


>When driving hard into a corner, the front end lets go and
>begins to slide outward, but backing off the gas regains grip (BFG ZR3's,
>195-50).  


Thats the whole key with most VW's, you simply cant drive too deep into a 
corner and expect to throw it around like you can with a RWD car. In fact, the 
throttle and brake control between a FWD car and a RWD car are exact
ly the opposite. 
How do I drive into a corner with maximum grip and speed? I'll take it upon 
myself to think that this is what your asking? (If I may) Naturally, im gonna 
use a typical autox turn for my verbal..uh... written anwser. Well 
call this a 90 degree left hander, fair enough? Good. 
Going into the turn, you wanna brake a little earlier that you know you can. 
(In your mind, your just gonna -know- that you CAN go deeper! DONT.) At the 
point where you turn in, stop the braking proccess and roll into the corner. 
(That means you dont jerk the wheel all at once, you will slowly start turning 
the wheel really smooth until you get to the point where your turning. Now, 
ever so slightly, lay your foot on the gas so your barely cracking the 
butterfly on the throttle body. Your now doing whats called, "feeding" the 
throttle. If you were to jump on the gas, or if you were to give it more gas, 
the car will drift to the outside of the turn. This is how you control the turn 
with the throttle. 

(This description was on a stock VW without a limited slip kit, like yours. 
Cars like mine which have the Velocity diff kit have more steering control in a 
turn using the throttle. Unlike this last description, in my car I am able to 
tighten a turn by feeding more throttle and turning tighter. A stock VW will 
only push more to the oustide of a turn and scrub the tires more, breaking 
traction and thusly, being slower thru a corner. This is my best description I 
can give of the Velocity diff kit. The main reason I have gotten into the 
Velocity Diff Kit is because I believe its probably your next step in gaining 
more steering control.) 

Now, when your into a turn and you feel like your going kinda slow, guess what, 
your not. As you begin to exit a turn, feed in more throttle and accelerate as 
fast as you can out of the turn and unwind the wheel as smoothly as you did 
going into the turn. 

Now, something I didnt get into was "drag braking" but if you can get the 
basics for getting into a corner, then Drag braking will come fast for you. 
What it amounts to is while your still braking, you leave some pressure on the 
brake pedal and use it to  slow the car and also to transfer some weight to the 
front of the car, ect. Most people that I know that use this technique, use 
their left foot. (AKA, Left Foot Braking) Its really hard to use the heel-toe 
method while your in a corner. Its so much easier and you have much more 
brake/throttle control with both feet. 



>I'm ok with this, but should I do something different to decrease
>understeer?  Should I add an upper rear trunk tie-bar like Eurorace's or
>the triangulated bar from Neuspeed to further 'tighen-up' the back end?  
>I would prefer not to replace the 25mm bar with a 28mm since I've already
>got money into it, but if that was the only way to go....Oh, I also have a
>Neuspeed upper front strut tie bar.  Someday, I'd like to autocross so
>what would be the best solution for the street, the autocross, or any
>combination of them.  Again, thanks for any and all recomendations.



Id say get the Eurosport rear upper stress bar. Its cheap, ($45 or so) and it 
does the job the other guys say they can do. I really like mine because it 
keeps my race tires from rolling into my roll cage! (Really annoying! BANG!) If 
your really wanting to get into the Autox scene, you cant use the Neuspeed 
triangulated bar or it will put you in a higher class. No fun. From what you 
have on it now, your a CSP car. Theres much more you can do to your car as per 
the rules od CSP but you would have much more fun in E-stock! You would need to 
remove the rear swaybar and the front upper stressbar to do that. Then again, 
you can just go run X-runs and still have a blast out on the course. Thats how 
I started my racing sickness. I wanted to have "fun". Now I wanna be 
competative AND have fun! Anyways, HTH!




Shawn
<Phew, my fingers are smoking.....>
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