Re: Prepping an 8v for AutoX

[Shawn C Meze <skerocdriver@juno.com>]

On Thu, 13 Jan 2000 09:36:51 -0700 (MST) Night Shadow
<soltwede@ucsub.colorado.edu> writes:

>Hey Shawn, why not let him try both setups first?  


I never said he couldn't. I think alot of time could be saved for him and
others by not using the "no front bar" route. 


>Just because you think
>yours is better, dosen't mean it acutally is.  


The suspension setup I recommend isn't even on my car. My opinion is
based solely upon having either tried it myself on my own car or have
driven a car equipped with whatever suspension combo I talk about. 

I don't THINK that a big front bar is better in this scenario, I KNOW it
is better. The real truth comes solely from lap times and not by driver
feel. Since ive experimented with the no front bar, also used a stock
front bar and used the big front bar. Its simple, the swaybar does a
better job of maintaining the tire contact patch which gets you thru a
corner faster than having no front bar and being able to get on the gas
sooner. 

The dilemma is, although you can apply power sooner with the no front bar
setup, you simply cant maintain as much speed thru the corners. Since
corner speed or, momentum is much more important on the autox course, the
big front bar wins. 

Also note that you can use a smaller front swaybar if you use higher
spring rates to compensate for body roll. The only problem with that is,
most people who want a street driven/autox car wont like the harshness of
500lb springs. What's the next best thing? Big swaybars. 

>I am running a large rear
>sway with no front, and LOVE the improvement in the handling (had a NS
>front sway for awhile, removed it). 


That's fine but do you autox competitively?? I don't think you make many
events, your just out there to have fun, right? Then your setup doesn't
apply for the purpose of this thread. If you love the way it handles and
feels, great, by all means, use it. Im telling you its not a competitive
setup for autoxing. period. If it were, then you would see all the top VW
guys at Nationals with no front swaybars and guess what, they all got em!
:)



>Experiment and play with your suspension, and see the results in your
>track times, That's half the fun of Auto-xing.


Absolutely. Take what I offer as my experiences and advice for what its
worth. If you don't like what I have to say, your more than welcome to do
whatever you want with your car and use whichever setup you like. Its no
skin off my nose and your not going to hurt my feelings. After all, its
always FWIW info. :)


Shawn Meze
86' Jetta GLi   82' Scirocco GTi   81' "Project Scirocco FSP"
The Fastest, Quickest, Cleanest and
best looking Scirocco in all of San Diego!
http://www.Geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/1308/index.htm

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