I am unfamiliar with working on suspension, and have a couple of questions. My goal is to improve autocross handling but MAINTAIN B Stock classification, which means no lowering, no rear sway bar and no camber plates. I'm not even sure I can change to adjustable struts, but I need to review the rules....

So what can I do? Is there any camber adjustment in the 8, without using plates?

What about caster angle?

Next, assuming I can adjust these, how can I expect tire wear and mileage to be affected during daily driving (I assume the choices are none, or negatively)

Finally, do these adjustments necessitate a realignment?

 

Okay, I looked at the rules again, I can change out shocks/struts, most of the rules regarding these involve keeping the geometry the same (height, extended length) but changing the struts/shocks is allowed, provided:
No more than two separate external shock damping
adjustment controls. Gas pressure adjustment is not
considered a damping adjustment.

The suspension section basically states adjustments have to be within stock parameters. Stock ride height etc.

 

I am curious about this as well. Searching now...

 

You'll probably have better luck in the racing/competition forum.

 

a thorough search will yield answers to a lot of these questions in great detail, but i'll do a quick overview:

1) get double-adjustable (DA) koni's. compression and rebound are externally adjustable. research and study how each affects handling. you need to know that inside and out or your shocks will drive you insane.
2) get an alignment
a) get as much front negative camber as you can (which will apparently vary wildly by car, cosmic conditions, and whether or not you're having a bad hairy day...). don't get me started. search and sticky topics will help here. try for ~-1.5 camber in the rear.
b) zero toe in front or very mild toe out (1/32 to 1/16 total). slight toe in rear (1/32 to 1/16 total).
c) re: caster, sacrifice camber for caster in front.

toe affects tire wear more than camber so i wouldn't be very worried about tire wear.

i prolly forgot something, but there you go. search, search, search. a lot of this has been covered. you may have to play with your alignment 1x after you set it initially, but tuning your DA shocks will be the ticket. and the nut behind the wheel...

 

You are sort of right.... There are no double adjustable Konis off the shelf, they are all custom built to order. Just buy a set of Koni sport singles, they will get the job done.
The only other thing you have wrong is the caster part. Take all the caster out in order to gain more -camber.

 

i got the impression paul wanted to know what was legal and DA shocks are legal for BS, no? i'm hearing more and more from rx-8 autox'ers that compression adjustment has a larger affect on handling than rebound adjustment alone on the 8. i'll find out late this year or next spring.

re: caster and camber, yep, i got it backwards. although my garage said they couldn't get any more camber despite minimizing caster hence my cosmic conditions comment. serves me right though for slapping a post up right before beddy-bye time.

 

Not sure why some shops say that... Been that way on Mazda's for years, Miata's have always had the same setup.

Yes doubles are legal. I only know of a few, 2-3 people using Koni doubles. Sure it can be nice to have that adjustment, compression, which the singles do not have but it is also the quickest way you can screw up your car if you do not know what you are doing with it. Best way to go is buy a Koni single and run it for a year. When you feel like you are at 100% driver/setup level send it back to Koni to be converted to a double, it will still cost you the same amount to have it converted.