Keef

I drive a '99 Si with completely stock suspension, and during last summer I had been driving on 205/50-15 Falken RT-615 tires. I went to an autocross just for fun and I really got to feel the understeering limits of the stock car that I've never been brave/dumb enough to try out on the street. I did improve my times significantly throughout the day, but the understeer was just driving me crazy.

So, this year I'd like to try and minimize it with some parts. I don't plan on being a serious competitor--mostly just for fun, but I'd still like to be quick. I'm wondering what the racers here think would be the best way to minimize the understeer without causing any ill effects--lowering the car with a Koni/Ground Control setup I've been eyeing, or with a larger rear sway bar.

I was planning on getting the ASR 24mm rear and all the approptiate braces, but then I went through the autocross and track pics thread and saw a lot of Civics nose-diving hardcore in turns, but three wheeling with one of the rears way off the ground. Not diggin' it. I know the 24mm would help a lot, but would it be too stiff on a stock suspension?

The other thing would be lowering the car to stiffen it up and also gain some much needed negative front camber. Would the extra camber increase the front tires' limits and reduce understeer by a degree similar to the sway bar? Would it not do much at all?

Ideally I'd have all the parts, but which one or the other do you guys think would work better, and what would some negatives of each be?

batallic

negative camber is good for turns, get the gc/koni with stiffer springrates, lower yur car like 2 to 2.5 inches is perfect height, so larger front and rear sway bars are good

Stinkycheezmonky

WAT?

OP, the shocks will be your best bet to accomplish the goals you have. Choose your spring rates appropriately and you can reduce that understeer quite a bit.

FYI, the increased front camber won't be comparable to a rear sway, that has a completely different effect on vehicle behavior. Also, since you'll be using Azenis still, they don't need a ton of camber anyway.

Keef

Yeah after some debating I'm thinking the springs and dampers would be the best all-round fix, since they'll make the car feel a lot more lively even when I'm not driving hard. The sway bar might work, but it'd be boring. I might fine tune after that with bigger sway bars.

jdm civic 2000

Just some FYI, the SI front sway bar is "BIG" as it is for a 26mm bar, too big in my opinion. work on your springs and dampers, you might find out that you either need to go bigger on the rear, or smaller on the front.

solo-x

Don't change a thing on the car until you learn how to drive around the under steer. The driver will create 90% of the under steer in the car.

Keef

I'll admit that it took a couple runs for me to realize I wasn't using the tires to their limit. I chopped about 4 seconds during one run just by focusing on the two slaloms in the course. Our first events aren't until April so I've got plenty of time to consider options, an I'll probably end up trying it a few times before changing any parts. Thanks for in input so far.

vietnameeh

+1