Imp

That's advice that some people jsut don't get. Drive the car and learn the nuances instead of chainging everything every event and not know if that adjustment was better, or worse. (Other than a RB front bar... that one was easy).

Besides, FMs gone domestic with the Sol.

--kC

GeorgeH

iTrader: (2)

OK, thanks for the advice. And yeah, see you at Packwood.

Also, Imp, thanks for the insight on surfaces. I wonder if this means that more high-speed compression damping would be beneficial.

Oops, there's my head again, trying to find that secret weapon...

ULLLOSE

iTrader: (1)

The more guys that fxxk with there cars all year the less we have to beat.

Imp

True. George.... go look for some nice double adjustables while you're at it.

GeorgeH

iTrader: (2)

Very funny. It's true, you can distract yourself pretty easily with hardware, and loose sight of the goal (try setting up an SP or SM car some time!). However, the guys who can master both the driving and the setup - those are the guys to watch out for. I'd like to say I'm one of those guys, but so far I cannot make that claim. It's one of the reasons I'm putting the Miata aside for now and focusing on BS - I want to asses my driving & setup skills. You just can't do that in CSP or SM2 unless you spend a ton of money & time, and bastardize the car.

To be honest, another basic reason I'm considering Tokico over Koni is that I'd like to dial the shocks back to full soft for street driving. Wimp? Perhaps, but I've been down the chatter-your-teeth approach in the Miata, and I'm not ready to do that with the '8. One of the best things about the RX-8 is the amazing ride/handling combination. The thought of driving around all summer on full stiff (or even 3/4 stiff) Konis isn't appealing to me. Not to mention having to disassemble the suspension every fall and spring. Yes, I could set the rears softer, but you're going to have a hard time convincing me the Konis at say half stiffness would be faster than the Tokicos with the stiffness at the discretion of the driver for any given set of conditions.

And I still stand by my assertation that if my goal is to trophy at nats, the Tokicos will (probably) not hurt me.

Imp

What is this 1/2 stiff - 3/4 stiff you speak of? Those words are foreign to me.

GeorgeH

iTrader: (2)

My point exactly.

PedalFaster

Wasn't Randy on Penskes?

I seem to recall the two of you swapping cars with inconclusive results, though.

GeorgeH

iTrader: (2)

OK, in the spirit of advancing the sate of the collective knowledge, and keeping my daily driver nice and cushy, I pulled the trigger on a set of Tokicos.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

clyde

For the purposes of this thread, do Koni 28s count as Konis or Penskes?

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

actually, I just don't care to spell it all out by spending 15 minutes typing, if you catch me somewhere sometime I'll be glad to offer an explanation assuming I even remember some thread from some forum, that's why I only posted "LOL" in the first place

otherwise, whatever dude

GeorgeH

iTrader: (2)

Cool. I guess I mis-interpreted. Apologies.

ULLLOSE

iTrader: (1)

You could do that with stock shocks.

ULLLOSE

iTrader: (1)

The car Randy drove had the $4800.00 koni 2812s on it... I drove it right before natls after the revalve work. Went head to head with my car and I was .2 quicker in my car. We both had the same tires and swaybar. Not to say that with more than 3 runs in that car I would not have gone faster, but they were very close. I will say the other car felt better, mine felt almost out of control, but feel and time are two different things.

GeorgeH

iTrader: (2)

Earlier you said all trohy cars were on Konis, therefore I should buy Konis. Now it doesn't matter?

In then end, you said something else that is even more true. It's about doing what you want. And, as I said in my first post, I know that using Tokicos will not get the approval of the mainstream autocross community. Right now I don't care.

After Packwood? Who knows. See you there. If we meet at a non-NT event at Packwood sometime I'd be happy to swap cars for a run.

George

ULLLOSE

iTrader: (1)

That is correct they all were on konis.... Does that mean that a good driver in a car with stock shocks would not have made it, no. If the stock shocks were .5 slower per day than you would be within 1 sec and within the trophy spots.


Great, you got what you wanted all along. Enjoy

GeorgeH

iTrader: (2)

.5 seconds - is that your estimate on the performance difference of a koni equipped car to a stock car?

ULLLOSE

iTrader: (1)

I would say that is best case... Might be less. I won the Fontana pro last year, first time I drove the car and was on stock shocks.... I put the konis on in Apr and the only other time I beat Ron in the 968 was natls.

We just put a set of konis on MP5s, Jason M, RX8 last weekend. We will see Sun if it helps him and how quick he can relearn the car.

The thing with shocks is you can screw your car up more than you can help it.

GeorgeH

iTrader: (2)

Cool, thanks for the data. I look forward to hearing how Jason's car responds.

Yeah, bad damping can slow a car down. I suppose that's the risk of trying an unproven part like the D-Spec.

FWIW, I'm hoping I can get the cables next to a set of Konis to see if they can be adapted. Even if it doesn't work, I suspect Koni will eventually offer such a cable - I know JIC is offering a cable for their RX-8 coilover kits. Seems like a natural thing to do for all of the shock manufacturers.

mp5

Well, my driving has been pretty inconsistent lately and we also changed swaybars (from RB back to stock), but hopefully I can give you some kind of impression.

We had to fully compress the rear konis and spin the shaft in order to adjust them... doesn't seem like they would work with an external adjuster even if you could get at the top of the shock.

GeorgeH

iTrader: (2)

Ah yes, that is true. I recall reading in this forum that they can be converted to top adjustable, but it will cost a bit more.

So, if I'm going to follow my tuning philosophy, I should do at least one event on the 710s and stock shocks to see if the D-specs help or hurt. We'll see if I can make that happen.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

Another point, my comment had absolutely nothing to do with Andy. If you had presented the same situation to me I'd still have the same answer, I'd have just given the to you in person . I'll go out on a limb and take a wild guess that Andy didn't do that though ...

visitor

haha, why the doubt? you don't think anything could help jason?

ULLLOSE

iTrader: (1)

Yeah its a big IF... After all he did say he was a friend of yours. So we know he rode the short bus.

ChopsMcgraw

"road the short bus."


tricky homophones...