Uhhhhh, no brakes?

So the first event of the season is behind me, and it was an eye-opening experience! The FiST got new tires, shocks and a sway bar, so there was A LOT to adjust to.

Tires: BFG Rival-S 1.5 - I started at the tire pressures recommended by GRM from their testing and was able to dial them in pretty quickly. Much lower than I am used to running.

Shocks: Had the Konis full soft in the front, see below.

Sway Bar: Hate the front bar/no rear bar. Could not get power down anywhere.

But the most unexpected thing was the brakes. I stood on them like I always do, and they locked up and I plowed right through a cone wall. Three times. The stiffer front end seemed to kill braking, especially if the car was a little unsettled going in.

So next week, the front bar goes back to OEM, the rear bar goes on, and we try again. Any advice/input on why my brakes suddenly sucked, do share.

So is this a weight transfer issue?

Front bar, no rear, on a FWD seems completely backwards to me.

FWD should be super stiff in the rear and soft in the front.

For being able to put power down, the general rule of thumb is big bar at the non-drive end and not too much at the drive end. Doing the opposite un-weights in the inside drive tire badly in turns and leads to not much power going to the ground unless you're going straight.

I know the basics of where the bar should go, but there was a LOT of info on the FiST that indicated that keeping the fronts even to avoid excessive roll which threw off the front geometry and the back was lifting anyway and blah blah blah. Might work on a track or large course with big sweepers, but it was exactly what you expected on a small, tight course.

Weight transfer might be a culprit, too stiff up front prevented enough transfer to give a good bite.

I am sure that testing will sort it out, I just with I had a tuning session rather than testing at points events!

If you've got issues with camber loss due to roll up front, a stiff front end can help. However, you'll likely need it to be stiff all around to make the car still rotate and avoid un-weighting the inside front tire too much.

In reply to pinchvalve:

FYI if you're using a larger front bar you need the rear Konis cranked full-stiff and possibly revalved with greater rebound damping.

If you brake in a straight line, the bar would have no effect . While turning ?

I dunno, I just don't see the stiff bar causing the braking problem. Rusty driver ?

It will be interesting to see what happens with the OEM bar.

Not to make light of your problems, but I'm glad my region want the only one with brake issues yesterday. Seems like it was a bad day all around for stopping.

Maybe we all got soft because all the freaking snow we had to drive on this year...

The bar setup should have no effect on straight line braking although I would expect it to push on turn in (and really everywhere else) with a front bar and no rear. Lacking any other details I'd guess that the new tires don't have as much grip was what you were running before or that you were over-driving your entry in a subconscious attempt at compensating for a frustrating exit.

Alignment? Did the new shocks lower the car, adding camber and reducing braking grip?

Dampers don't change how much weight transfers, they change how long it takes for the weight to transfer. Soft dampers = slow transfer, so it is likely that you just need to squeeze the brake instead of stomping it. All of chassis tuning is compromise. This is one of them.

Much grippier tires, stock ride height, alignment was checked and was about as spot-on as you can get, rear completely stiff on the Konis.

No doubt that the moron behind the wheel was to blame, I mis-judged the same cone in the same spot at the same speed three times. I should have my Solo 2 card pulled! Speaking with some folks at the event, slamming on the brakes seems to be the culprit. I will get ou the rubber mallet and adjust my driving style.

In reply to pinchvalve:

It took me 5 runs at the Test and Tune a couple of weeks ago, to stop overdriving the car. Late braking, too much entry speed, not looking ahead, the usual. The 5th run was after telling myself repeatedly to forget the speed and just drive the course. It felt slow as hell but shaved 2.5 seconds off my time. It could come down to just calming down and slowing down.

Locking up = "too many brakes", not "no brakes".

We certian its not just release agent baked into the tires They are brand new after all

wearymicrobe wrote: We certian its not just release agent baked into the tires They are brand new after all

Is "release agent" a euphemism for hooker?

In reply to pinchvalve:

It is now.

pinchvalve wrote:

wearymicrobe wrote: We certian its not just release agent baked into the tires They are brand new after all

Is "release agent" a euphemism for hooker?

Only when they are in the trunk.

wearymicrobe wrote:

pinchvalve wrote:

wearymicrobe wrote: We certian its not just release agent baked into the tires They are brand new after all

Is "release agent" a euphemism for hooker?

Only when they are in the trunk.

Explains the Hellcat Demon Trunk Kit I've heard about, something about snapping on and sticky.