I like dialing in my car with spring rate changes at different tracks. I run mostly Laguna Seca, Sears, Thunderhill and Buttonwillow. My question relates to corner balancing the car and how often to do it when swapping out springs between tracks or even sessions.
At Laguna Seca I was considerably faster in my 914-6 with a stiffer spring set. For Thill and Buttonwillow I would go softer than Laguna to go faster. But now doubt about it, I was faster at Laguna with a 425lbs or 450lbs spring set versus the 375lbs or 400lbs set I used at the longer tracks. Swapping between spring rates would necessitate swaybar adjustments to balance the car, but that became relatively easy.
If I'm swapping springs between tracks, do I need to corner balance the car each time? With the 914, I just corner balanced and aligned initiallly and then just swapped out at will. I am not educated enough on suspension dynamics to know if a rear spring rate of 375lbs versus 450lbs needs a corner balance.
I could take two initial corner balance measurements with the lowest/highest spring rates and measure the collar settings. I could then just use my ruler to set the corner balance based on what springs I swap in.
Is that a stupid idea? Should I shell out the big $$$ for a set of scales and be done with it if I want to play with springs?
What do you guys do?
Thanks,
Bill P.