[Smoe]

Gonna be running a autox on a road course this weekend, be the first time on a road course. Right now im raping the miatas on the parking lots with azenis, h&r cup kit and no front endlinks. car is really neutral as is.

But with the higher speeds of the road course (friend hits 90 on it with his miata) should i put my front endlinks back in or not?

 

[OmniFocus]

Better safe than sorry... I'd rather exit the course in a plowing, controlled fashion than back asswards.

 

[rheacer]

Most AutoX courses on tracks (Talladega GrandPrix comes to mind, as does Gainesville,FL), speeds don't reach even close to roadrace speeds (slaloms, offset gates, etc,) but unless you autoX on a BIG a$$ lot, I would connect my bar. Too late after you back into tirewall.

 

[GTIspirit]

Vehicle handling can be different at slow autoX speeds than at high road course speeds. What you like at slow speeds and tight turns you might not like at high speed with open turns. Personally, when I was at Summit Point years ago for a drivers ed event I softened up the rear Konis from my autoX setting, it was too tail happy at high speeds with open turns.

 

[MichaelXi]

Just a Guess, But I'd THINK so...
90 is pretty fast.
Even cornering at 60 is a bit Faster than the Typical Auto-X, and if you're set up for the TIGHT Auto-X, it'll likely be more than a handful at Greater Speeds.
It may not get away from you, but you'll probably be slower trying to avoid overdoing it.
Just My Opinion.

 

[BUR_ZX3]

Yah I'd say so...... depending on the course.... but you're likely to take a couple of turns just a tad faster than parking lot speed.

 

[Auto-X-ZTS]

Too late after you back into tirewall.

...words of wisdom. I'd connect it too. Understeer at high speeds is "slow", oversteer can be dangerous--at least to the well being of your car's sheetmetal.

 

[Smoe]

Think what im gonna do is take them with me and if i need them after the first run install them. I have hit some corners at high speed and never had a problem... ARG i dunno

 

[Chris Shenefield]

I drive an 88 Civic; so I know it's not a Focus, but you should absolutely put the swaybar on for a fast course like that. I run no swaybar for tighter and slicker courses and the car works so well (won the SCCA Toledo National like that). Then there are the faster courses like the Peru National (won that too) where I ran a front swaybar, and although it wasn't as big as the stock 89 Civic Si front swaybar (it was a smaller one from a CRX HF), it made the car easier to drive at the higher speeds. And frankly you don't want a car with too much oversteer on a really fast course because it'll be slower. You want more neutral balance so you can really push the car at those higher speeds in order to be fast.

Either way, i bet you'll have fun and do well. You sound like you know what's going on. But I bet you can push the car harder with a little bar on the front, and that'll make you better on the fast courses like that.

Chris Shenefield
99 STS 1988 Civic Hybrid

 

[MichaelXi]

Chris Shenefield,
Welcome to our little Community!
Thanks for coming in and Being Intelligent instead of "Us vs. Them".
At that pace, your presence is VERY Welcome.
You'll find that the Focus is Quite a different Animal than the Civic, but a good handful of things DO Translate. You'll learn soon enough which ones Do/Don't.
Either way, your above post is accurate advice based on my feel for things, as well as my discussions w/ others.
Thanks for Participating.
I think you'll fing this particular Forum Most Interesting on the site.

 

[djsilver]

I ran my first road course autox at Memphis Motorsports Park lask fall. My wife laughed at me when I exited the second turn of the carousel in third gear, backwards.

Revenge is sweet so I didn't cut her a break when she did the same thing!

Setups for tight courses don't work on the road course. I haven't disconnected the sway bar but we normally run the back Koni's full stiff and the fronts full soft. For that road course we found the best setup to be 1/2 turn from soft on front and 1 turn from hard on back. Enjoy!

 

[schnack]

Chris: Just got back from Peru, I met the Mosgrove/Tipple team....former STS Honda is now taking on CSP...pretty impressive, I think Tipple was in third, Kelly in Second (CSPL)

Are you driving a Focus? Honda guys don't come around here too often.

....I don't know any Foci that are faster than honda's yet.... well maybe HS....

FSP vs. CSP is a big difference. Many times I wish I had a csp Honda!

 

[ZXmurph]

Gonna be running a autox on a road course this weekend, be the first time on a road course. Right now im raping the miatas on the parking lots with azenis, h&r cup kit and no front endlinks. car is really neutral as is.

But with the higher speeds of the road course (friend hits 90 on it with his miata) should i put my front endlinks back in or not?

hmmmmm......."raping" miatas? yikes....that's a little strong but I'm glad your going well in your region. I'd definitely reconnect the front bar, but with a bit of a different reason than most here. As someone that ran the piss out of a CupKit on small and large Solo II courses, and on different road courses on street and R compound tires, I can say that the CupKit does NOT have nearly enough front spring rate for the no-front-bar approach to be beneficial in anything but small auto-x courses. Sure, on street tires, it gave it a little of that "toss and catch" thing with throttle lift due to the F/R wheel rate shift you've done, but as soon as speeds went up along with tire grip that goes out the window.
With R grip, and maybe even Azenis grip, the front loads (and rolls) to the point of severe camber loss, as mr. Pyrometer noted huge increases in outside tire temp running no front bar...and consequently MORE understeer, especially in moderately fast sweepers. The bummer is throttle lift on high speed courses with R grip without the front bar SLAMS weight to the outside front in a relatively sloppy fashion because of the CupKits rate and very moderate compression damping. This results in a relatively tail-happy car, that was cooking it's outside front the other 90% of the time. Unfortunately, kinda the worst of both worlds

.

The fact remains, that on your rubber, on smaller courses, the no front bar is working for you. I would invite you, however, to just try the font links re-connected, even on small courses, and just give a different approach a whirl.

 

[Smoe]

thx for everyones advice but got to the autox didnt even get on the track and my tranny went out. stupid maza crap.

I knew i was getting lucky not having 1 real problem on my 60k mile 00 focus now this happens...now to come up with 600 bux for a tranny