cavemancan

You da man!!!

I got my suspension in the mail on Saturday...HOLY CRAP!

Anyways, I have some questions for you. I know we have guys here that have posted there settings for track work etc but I thought I would consult the knowledgable DPE for suggestions on settings specifically for the Koni/S-tech combo (If it matters, which I think it might). Also note that I need an alignment so I may have them change camber, caster, toe, etc.

I was looking over the shocks and I am not too familiar with adjusting shocks but this is what I want...

- Not affraid of a stiff suspension
- Good on track and good off
- Tire wear? I've heard the more aggressive the setup the more the tires will wear. I would prefer a normal tire wear for now untill I get my dedicated track rim/tires.
- I want the suspension setup mostly for auto-x but also to be safe/fun for high speed tracks (road course) if I ever decide to go to one.

I appreciate any help you can give me and again thanks for everything!

Note: I am sorry if this was discussed but I do not remember the specific settings being addressed in any other DPE posts. Maybe this can be a sticky thread for DPE. You can provide your customers with recommended settings for different situations...Etc. Feel free to remove my post and replace it with your recommendations!

CosmosMpower

I did the Konis and MS springs, my settings are

1.5 turns from full soft front and rear
Aligned at -1.5 front -2.0 rear camber, 6+ caster and 0 toe front with 1/12th" total toe in rear.

Car feels very neutral, too hot of a corner entry still provokes understeer and jabbing the throttle provokes oversteer but smooth driving offers a very solid/balanced setup. Of course the MS springs are stiffer and less of a drop than Tein so your results may vary.

Winning 8

same here,
koni w/ ms spring w/ rb sway
1-5/8 turn front, 1-1/4 rear
-0.5 front camber
0.00 front toe
caster 7.1

2.0 rear camber
1/16 rear toe in

cavemancan

I know I dont care about the stiff suspension but I may have the occasional passenger...How would you all describe the feel of your setups compaired to stock. (Keep in mind I think the stock setup is to soft for my taste)

CosmosMpower

Wow, didn't know there was another Koni/MS car on here. How do you like your alignment specs? I found that sometimes I feel like I have a little too much oversteer and I noticed you run quite a bit less front camber than me but the same rear camber. Would you say your car is more oversteer or understeer prone at corner entry/exit? Also I noticed you have the RB bar, is that a good combo with the koni/ms setup?

The Mighty Red

I would figure that "little" front camber with the RB front sway would make the front solid -- but loose (as in understeer). I know of an autocrosser going away from the RB sway because it was too stiff.

Winning, are you experiencing a lot of push through the turns?

DPE

iTrader: (1)

Just now getting here; sorry for the delay!

You're getting some good responses here already, but I'll chime in since you asked me.

With S-techs we generally recommend 1 to 1.25 turns up from full-soft in the rear on the Konis. This should provide a nice balance between ride and handling, being very controlled but not outright harsh. Passengers will not be concerned.

In front start at the same 1 to 1.25 turns, and then tune from there to your liking. Most seem to like them right around there, and relatively even front to rear unless you are autocrossing a lot. In which case those guys often jack the rears up to max stiff to help rotate the car, but I wouldn't do that for a daily driven vehicle. Not that it couldn't be done, I just don't think it would be optimal. You'd be 'hopping' over bumps rather than absorbing them. Any autocrossers feel free to chime in here if I'm wrong.

Remember that any setup is a compromise unless you plan on pulling the rears off to adjust them regularly. What's best for the track is rarely what's best for the street, but the RX-8 chassis is so good that those 'compromise' settings generally don't feel much like you're compromising. Even so, it won't be perfect for either condition, and that's just a fact of life for those of us using street cars on track.

On alignment, what's best for autox usually isn't best for tire wear or road course stability, but once again you can come to a decent compromise. I'm at -1.5/-2.0 (F/R) on camber, 0mm/1-2mm (F/R) IN on toe, and I'm ashamed to admit I don't know where I am on caster. One can accurately align toe and camber with simple tools and such in a level garage. Caster can be done too, but it's more time consuming and I haven't gotten around to it yet. Oddly, the guy selling performance parts often finds far too little time to work on his own car . Point being, your tire wear shouldn't be bad at all with the specs above, or any of the specs that guys have posted in this thus far. You may have to tweak it for balance for your particular setup, but you should get pretty close running what I listed with Konis and S-techs.

On a side note, when you add swaybars that does change the alignment picture notably, and we're still working on what's optimal there. Hopefully heading to Hallett this weekend (road course in Oklahoma) to test out my current setup more thoroughly, and will report back. My car is running Whiteline adjustable bars front and rear, along with Tokico D-specs and Tein H-tech springs. Seems to push a bit much, but I'll do some tweaking with the bars before we go and see what happens. . . .

cavemancan

Not a problem...your a busy guy I am sure! Oh and btw thanks a bunch for the quick shipment!

- Based off what your saying here Full Stiff in the rear would also not be good for a road course either. Especially if I hit a bump like when I am in the apex of a turn (I forget what the striped bumps are called). I would not want the rear to hop or I could wipe out.

- Also, can you explain how to adjust the shock. The instructions that came with it are a little confusing and I am normally good at understanding instructions. They only sent a sheet of paper the size of a large postcard

- I completely agree! Right now I am getting into the sport but I eventually plan on going all the time...Hopfully I can compete too. As soon as I get a daily driver (truck so I can toe Rx8 to races) I will go more aggressive with the suspension.

- Well, it looks like I will need to get an alignment any way and the shop I go to already does race alignments so once I install them (Any one local, South Florida, have a garage I can use...LOL!) I will have them set me up.

- As far as Caster...How will that affect me if I leave it on the factory setting? If changing these settings are easy anyone got a DIY?

- Well, good luck to you...Have fun and keep up the great posting!!

DPE

iTrader: (1)

I'll try and go in order.....

- No problem on the quick shipment! If we've got it in stock, you'll always have it fast.

- Correct; full-stiff at the rear would probably not be optimal for a road course, unless it was a very smooth road course. Hit a bump at maximum lateral gs, and it's going to want to get sideways in a hurry.

- To adjust the shock, you push the piston rod all the way in (the vague instructions show the piston rod clamped in a vise; that's one way to do it), and start twisting the body of the shock and you'll feel it click into place. I don't immediately recall if the shocks come at max soft of max stiff, but turn the shock left (counter clockwise) until it stops and you're on max soft. From there, turn it right (clockwise) to stiffen it while keeping the piston rod pushed all the way in and thus the adjuster engaged. I'm about 95% sure those directions are correct, but someone jump in if I'm not. Don't have a set here at the moment to verify. At any rate, turn the desired number of turns up (it's roughly 2 total turns, so one turn would be 50% stiffness), and then let it push the piston rod back out.

- On caster, if you have the option I'd use 6-7 degrees, like the guys that posted in this thread. If you are aligning your car like we do, I wouldn't worry about it assuming it's in spec. It's not to say it isn't important, but of the three alignment angles it's the least important IMO.

- I'll certainly try to have fun and of course I will keep posting! .

cavemancan

Phill,

Thanks for all the great info. I will try to adjust the shocks tonight with your instructions and will post the results. I hope to have them installed on the car within 2 weeks or so.

$lickmurf

I put the koni shocks in this weekend and I didnt adjust them and it handles like a dream but does anyone know what the stock settings on the front and rear are?

DPE

iTrader: (1)

If you mean what are the settings they come shipped as, I think it's usually at or near full-soft. Yet some companies do full stiff. Hmm. Don't remember who does what off the top of my head. Should have some more Konis in within a week or so and will check them then.