BG in STS

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Last Sunday, out of the box, our ZX2 was running with cars that were about 30th at Nationals last year. We managed this on OTS Tokico/Ford S/R front stuts with our GC coilovers...because last Wednesday we had to send one of our custom Koni fronts off to Ohio for a vacation (rebuild) at Truechoice.

The car has not been cornerweighted, had a basic alignmnet, and still has 50-100 pounds of dieting possible...as well as 5-10 more legal HP.

We're running 440/370 spring rates, a 25mm FSB and a Progress 22mm 2-way RSB. Dunlop Z1s. 215/40-17 front and 195/55-15 rear.

The car rotates like a top on throttle-off, and has some understeer with throttle on. Not undrivable by any means, but like to reduce both tendancies a little bit. Im not planning on any major changes until I can run it with the proper dampers.

That said, I'd like to get an idea of what other setups folks have run. (I know Will K ran 600/500 and a real big RSB on his EGT...) What springs, dampers, swaybars etc.???

 

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No love for the "red-headed-step-child" ZX2?

...or is no one serious about a STS BG-based car?

I really just want to see what other recipes have been tried for setups...and moreso what setups have shown some promise...

 

[Jas00x]

I would think our FSP setups (on newer protege's) would probably be a good place to start. Justin and I have been using 450# front, 600# rear. We've just been using stock Front sway bars- but we have the LSD which tends to cause a little push.
What are the alignment settings?
Main thing is to go for camber (duh). I'd try to get -2.5 or -2.0 camber all around.
All this time I thought my 1.8L 2000 Protege was the red-headed stepchild (especially when it comes to aftermarket support), you remind me that the ZX2 is THE red headed step child, so officially, it gets no love

 

[aMaff]

I always enjoy seeing the 'there's no way this car could do well in this class' cars doing very well in their class. So it takes a little more creativity to get there, and a little more research on your own. Kudos to you I say I'd love to hear more on the build up

 

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So, Will Kallman and David Arvad ran their BGs with the higher rate springs in front; you FSPers are running higher in the back. My car already rotates like a mo-fo... As for camber, we're at -3 in front and about -1 in back now--that surely needs to be closer to -2 to settle things down. We have a touch of toe out in front, and no toe in back. I'd like to see what the rear camber increase does, and if need be a bit of toe in after that to keep it settled.

Would increaseing front track a few MMs via spacers help the throttle-on understeer at all???

 

[Tom03es]

David "Avard", not Arvad. I've had the pleasure of getting my butt handed to me by him in that car a few times.

Increasing the front track should add traction to the front. I'm not sure if it would decrease on-throttle understeer though.

 

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2000 S/R:
OE Iceman
OE Borla
OE B&M Shifter
SCT
GC/custom Koni w/430/370#
Cusco front camber plates
22mm 2-way RSB
Kosei K1 17x7.5 Dunlop Z1 215/40-17 (Front)
Kosei K1 15x7 Dunlop Z1 195/55-15 (Rear)
Kirkey Pro Drag driver seat

Results/Class: http://www.waiautox.org/2008/wai 2008 event 1_fin.htm
Results/PAX: http://www.waiautox.org/2008/wai 2008 event 1_pax.htm

Still running with the same pack of cars. Jason Frank schooled us all. The car is definately set up too loose as-is, but the front feels much better with the Konis now in (no cornerweight yet--we did nothing to the rear yet, but that is next). There are several solutions...but once implemented we should be much more aggressive, instead of tip-toeing around much of the high speed sweeping stuff, and high speed switchbacks. I left a good 1/2-3/4 seconds on course in my driving the beast (I've had a total of 11 runs in the car now)...and feel like once we settle the handling down a bit, we'll be about 1-2 seconds off of the best-of-the STS cars (Jason Frank et al)...maybe better.