White1stGen

Is that your car in your sign?


Can you tell me what do I need to do the same thing.

So far I only have some cragar 14" mags and some toyo avid H4, today I repared my suspension (it wasn't my shock after all, it was only the top plate) and I can see that I will need new shocks in a few months...I've been thinking of changing my suspension for some time but now that I need new shocks I'm even more inderested in suspension parts that before.

For now, I was thinking of KYB shocks/H&R sport but I would like to know what would be a good suspension setup for my pro (sway bars, tie bars...size...).

Maz94Protege

yes that is his car, he is a(n) autocrosser.
what happend in the pic was hiscar was leaning alot, which made the one rear tire come up.

he may, or maynot tell u how to do it..i dunno

mazdaspeedwest

basically, with our cars all you need is a beefy rear sway bar, some threashold braking, a good turn in, an eye for the apex and a few skillz to pull it all together. Since the front will automatically dive, the big rear sway bar keeps the rear stiff, it lifts the rear inside wheel as the car rotates. When done right, it's faster around the corner then with all 4 wheels down, as 3 tires have less resistance than 4. Were're talking 10ths of a second, but sometimes thats all thats needed.

Some cars do this in stock form (mainly hatchbacks) My first GTi and Golf did it nicely. Although when your 15 and in high school, you go screwing around and this happens for the first time....man i thought i was gonna die....then i did it again

Davard

The first thing you need is better tires. That lift probably represents about 0.85-0.9g of cornering. It would be more if he didn't have a modded suspension.

The best lift I ever saw on my '90 LX was running in stock class, where the only suspension mods I had were GAB struts. On concrete with 225/50-14 BFG R1s in front, I got the rear about 8-10" off the ground. Figure quite a bit over 1.0g on that lift.

The secret to lifting a tire is one end much stiffer than the other. Stock E36 M3's will lift the inside front with R-tires, but the scariest thing I ever saw was someone ran a SuperBeetle in stock class on R-tires. Because you aren't allowed to change the rear bar in SCCA stock class, he had two 3/4" bars on the front. Combined with 205/50-15 R-tires, he could lift the inside front wheel about 12" off the ground on hard transitions. Musta worked, as he trophied at Nationals one year.

So, if all you want to do is 3-wheel, get better tires, stiff rear shocks, and a big rear swaybar. Leave the rest of the suspension stock, and in no time you'll be on three wheels. Off course, you'll probably leave the road tail-first alot, but sometimes that's the cost of being cool.

Now, if you're serious about going fast, H&R or Eibach springs (depending on how low you want to go and how much ride quality you're willing to sacrifice--The H&Rs drop 1.25-1.5, the Eibachs 0.75-1.0, but you only have about 2.5" of front suspension travel to start with) matched to the Tokico ZX-2 SR struts and matching upper mounts/thrust washers (details on Mazdaspeedwest's site) are a good bet. A Corksport or equivalent lower tie bar stiffens up the structure (more than the upper bars), and either SUspension Techniques bars F/R or ST front and Compass rear bar work well. Be careful about using just the Compass rear, as the car will be too tail happy.

BTW, I have been autocrossing my '90 LX (the Slotege) since May of 1990. And have trophied at Pro Solos and National Tours, despite having a sick engine.

WeaDD

i am an immature fool

White1stGen

Thanks guys

There is alot of good info in this thread so I'm going to print it.

Still, a few questions remain:

I'm wondering if I need R tires to do this, I will need new tires next season and I don't know it I'm going to go for good street tires (kuhmo 712, handkook k102, etc.) or if I can do enough miles on R tires like toyo RA-1s??? Also, I'm on 185/60R14 now and I don't know how large I should go to have better handling without taking all the power from the sohc away.

What is a fat sway bar for you guys??? 22mm???

Finally, I've never raced in an autocross (soloII in canada) and I was wondering if a normal guy who likes to bring his car to the limit (and past the limit) a few times every day can do this trick with a little practice?