i'm tryin to set up a 97 ej6 for the track. I usually prefer a car that has a bit of oversteer. i was wondering what the experts that have set these cars up before go for. Any prefs on understeer or oversteer on these cars?

I prefer oversteer, but really have not tried to track a Front Drive Car.

 

weld the diff.
You'll get all the oversteer you need.
Only makes sense at about 9/10's speed though.

but cheap for those on a budget, and can be very fast.

 

You don’t want under steer or over steer, you want a vehicle with most balanced handling possible, the largest sweet spot, a balanced car is easy to drive fast and we all want to drive fast with the least amount of energy utilized as possible!

 

Well, as mentioned above, ideally it is best to have a neutral handling car. However, your cars setup greatly depends on what kind of racing you intend on doing. As you may already know, FF cars are usually set up to understeer for safety reasons. So, you have to look at FF cars that have been setup to handle more neutrally or even oversteer a bit (like the ITR) and look at the spring rates/sway bars that they run.That being said, an autocross car and a full road course car would be setup differently and to a certain extent,set up to your own liking. What kind of racing do you itend to do?

Initially you should get a bigger rear sway bar with an appropriate rear subframe reinforcement kit. Also, running stiffer rear springs will help the car rotate better.

I used to run 10k front and 8k rear springs on my gsr with a 23mm itr rear sway bar and ASR brace. I could make the car oversteer very easily with that setup and the car handled very very well. However, I know someone who has a dedicated EG autocross car with a jdm itr rear sway bar and he said it wasnt rotating well enough for him to be very competitive.

 

I intend to AutoX it mostly. I will keep all those things in mind. Thanks for the help.

 

care to explain??

 

Ditto. Welding an FF cars diff sounds like a handling nightmare.

 

It is unlike anything else you have experienced with a FWD.

It completely transforms the car. And, for autocross it would be murder. It only makes sense above about 50 mph and at near 10/10ths and above driving.

Here is how it is done.

Brake for corner, turn in, and IMMEDIATELY go to full power (no feathering it in like on most FWD's), feel the rear end come out and take a set, countersteer if necessary (depends on how fast your corner entry was), and power through with BOTH front wheels turning at the same exact speed. The more throttle you apply, the more the car pulls to the INSIDE of the corner (unless you are completely overdriving the car). Very cool stuff

The rear tires become nothing more than objects to keep the rear suspension from dragging on the concrete. It is much like driving a RWD car.

Very cheap, when compared to a quaife.

But, can be harder on the front tires and c.v. joints.

I run SCCA ITB with a welded and it is very competitive.

 

i dont see how countersteering in a fwd could be fast. also with both wheels turning at the same speed would be good in the corners due to both wheels having different turning arcs.

 

That might work in ITB where you don't have the power to spin the tires, but in anything more powerful I would think that would be understeer city (both front tires spinning?).

 

Interesting. Do you run different tires in the rear (size/compound)?

 

It is more common than you may think in road racing.

Andy Deatherage ran one in his suzuki swift in GP at the Runoffs for a couple of years, and was right up in the top three with lap times.

He has since switched back to an LSD, and says he doesnt see faster lap times.

It is also fast in my car. Lap times dont lie. My car is fast, and I am usually countersteering like a flat tracker all the way through the corner.

 

actually, in a lower powered car it can be less desirable due to the extra drag created. With lower hp, it becomes more important to limit drag as much as possible.

 

no, I do rotate them often though, as the front tires are doing pretty much all of the work.

I also run toyo RA-1's, which are not as fast as hoosiers obviously, but are very resitant to abuse, which is what the front tires see with a welded diff

 

I can understand that, but what do you think about the higher powered car situation?

 

I know Andy is making about 160 or so, about 60 more than me, and he is fast in G production.

To clarify though, if I had to do it over again, I prolly would have ponied up the extra 500 or so and got a good LSD instead.

This would be easier on tires and c.v. joints.