Suspension Tuning Setup Advice Needed..., went from a swinger to a plow... Options

[cha914]

Ok, did the first autox with the new suspension on sunday, and I wasn't overly impressed with the results, but since I changed almost everything, I cant realy expect to have it right the first time.

So here goes, the car had very sluggish turn-in responce, and wanted to plow through every corner. I really couldn't even get it to rotate under trail braking. Here is the setup:

Koni Yellows all around
Poly bushings all around
Fully adj rear perches w/175lb springs
22mm solid torsion bars
22mm weltmeister front bar set full soft

Ride height = 4.75 up front and ~5.25 rear (measured to the donuts)
Camber = -1.5 up front -2 rear
Toe = 1/16th toe OUT up front and 1/16th toe IN rear

With the Koni's set to full hard the car seemed to improve a little, but not much. Also, the course was on a fairly slick parking lot, and I am running 2year old pirelli tires (205/50/15s with plenty of tread, just hard).

Finally, I want this car setup mostly for track driving, so I know autox performance is going to suffer some, but it seemed pretty poor overall yesterday (it was definately more fun with the ass up in the air sliding everywhere (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) now I want it to be fast)

Any suggestions on where to go from here, or what to try in the future (I know I need better tires).

Tony (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smash.gif)

[DuckRyder]

The disclaimer is that this is non-914 specific experience. I like a car tail happy for autocross, it helps a lot in the very low speed boxes that they like to set up. A car I had set up to my liking for autocross would be unsafe on the street and downright treacherous on a road course. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)

Well, there are definitely two schools of thought on suspension design.

The generally European school is heavy springs, stiff shocks, and little or no anti-sway bar. I have seen cars prepared in Europe for SCCA improved touring type of racing which had no anti-sway bars at all. The obvious downside is loss of ride quality. Advocates of this design say that the anti-sway bars defeat the independent suspensions ability to work properly.

The generally American school is slightly raised spring rates with good dampers for controlled but not overly stiff spring-shock combinations and BIG anti-sway bars. The obvious advantage is little loss of ride quality. Advocates of this design say that overly stiff springs impair the suspensions ability to react to small imperfections.

I find that I generally prefer the bigger sway bar approach, I my opinion it works better on less than perfect surfaces. I also feel it is a generally bad idea to mix the two schools of thought on the same car.

Nevertheless, perhaps I should rephrase my previous answer.

I think it needs a rear bar OR stiffer rear springs.

Again, there are some 914 specific replies so weight them accordingly.

(We need a cone smiley)