A soul-searching what car thread.

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) 

The struggle I have is that driven at 95%+ the car is amazing. Those last few percent feel vague & inconsistent to me though.

Maybe you're hitting the bumpstumps when you add the last bit of speed...

Tom1200 said:

However, in the Miata I can't do that. The car feels like it's trying to pivot around a point behind my right shoulder, and I have to steer it around the cones. It's very frustrating.  
 

This is exactly what a Miata does; they are a short wheelbase car. 

So it's not so much the oversteer but how rapidly it transitions.........got it.

So back to the Koni dampers; are they single or double adjustable and where are they set? I suspect you need to soften them up a little bit.

Next I would put a minor bit of toe in the rear. 1mm to 1.5mm total toe in.

Several years back I helped a local driver with his 94 Miata having a similar issue to you. At the end of the day we made some minor changes (mostly damper settings) I was faster with the car bordering on turn in oversteer but the owner needed a car that transitioned less rapidly. Once we slowed how it transitioned he was much faster.

I think this is a set up issue and not a car issue; the car isn't set up optimally for you and since you're the one driving it other people's hot set ups are meaningless. 

 

Funny, I don't feel like the the car pivots around my back shoulder.   I feel like it rotates around me in the seat. 

My only other point of auto-x reference is my old focus, which with springs, a rear bar and Ford's factory sport dampers was a lot of fun and felt pretty neutral. 

As to Konis, my experience is that you need to really dial them in for the spring rate.  They have a wide sweep, and I'd adjust them in the same 1/2 turn increments front and rear until I found a good range, then 1/4 turn increments stiffer or softer until the car did what I wanted.

In reply to captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :

One thing I've discovered, which really isn't surprising, is I can't brake too late or too hard, or the fronts just lock up & I plow through cones. I don't honestly remember what pads are on the rear - they were whatever "performance" pad rockauto offered for the car 3-years ago. Maybe Powerstop? 

That's one change to the car that would help, but I'm not sure I'd make up *that* much time?

Edit: BTW - thank you for the compliments! 

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Antihero (Forum Supporter) :

A BG Escort GT is a car I have fond memories of, but I also remember how bad I hate open-diff FWD cars for autocross. The only FWD car with an LSD I've driven was on a test drive of a Sentra SE-R Spec V. The diff was definitely trying to yank the wheel from your hands. 
 

One car I've had two separate GRMers suggest is the MR Spyder. I've not actually driven any generation of MR2/Spyder, but harder researching 2zz-swapped ones it definitely puts it in the 5-second 0-60 range which I think would be fast enough to be fun. 

I have a 2zz swapped spyder with the 6-Speed.  If you are ever in the north / central Florida area you are welcome to drive it.  Shoot if you are around the same weekend as an autocross you are welcome to co-drive.

In reply to Jah29 :

I have ISC upper mounts, and while I do have bump stops, I think I'd probably hit coil bind before the bump stops. With the rates I'm running it would probably take a major bump/pothole mid-corner on the outside wheel to get anywhere close to that. 

In reply to OldGray320i :

Thanks for the tip on adjusting the Konis! I've always been hesitant to make any changes to the car, as I've felt like until I can establish some baseline consistency in the car I have no clue whether the changes truly made a difference.  

In reply to pimpm3 (Forum Supporter) :

That's awesome! Thank you for the offer!!! Hell, I may make a trip sometime just to take you up on the offer. It'll either cure me of the desire to own one, or prompt me to sell both my cars much more quickly. :-)

You should be able to brake pretty deep in Miata. I wonder if the spring rates may be a bit to high. 

Finding that extra time is going to be incremental. 

So I finally had my first autox this year & got to try out the RT660's. Everyone had been telling me how these tires just stick & stick, and seem to have no limit right up to the point they overheat & get greasy. So I brought my sprayer & made sure it was full. 
 

First run I almost spun in the middle of the slalom, but caught it just in time to spin a full 180* after breaking into an offset gate at the end of it. So much for them sticking... Apparently they need a bit more than the ~70* ambient temps lol. 
 

I arrived early enough to sign up for double-entry, so I got 12-runs total, although only my first 6 counted. My times as well as my lines were all over the place, but my best timed run put me in 12th raw & 8th pax, which is far better than last year. If I'd hit my fastest run earlier during my timed runs, that would have bumped me to 9th raw & somewhere around 6th pax.
 

By the end of the day I was also starting to predict when/where the rear would step out & be ready for it. So maybe there is hope for me with this car. 

Got video? Could also be driver inputs. 

In reply to amg_rx7 (Forum Supporter) :

I still haven't got setup for video, and honestly probably won't. I like having it to learn from, but have zero desire to learn/deal with editing & uploading it. Plus I don't have a computer to use for it.