Any theories on whether or not you can set the suspension on a road racing car by auto-xing it? I'm putting new race valved konis on my H1 car, and was thinking about taking it out for an auto-x before I put it on the track to get a feel for the new suspension, and try to find a shock setting that I'm comfortable with. The question is this: Are there enough similarities in cornering/suspension load between the two sports that the settings for one would at least carry over as a baseline for the other? Obviously the underlying physics and suspension geometry are the same, but the driving style is different (at least for me, since I'm not a good auto-xer).

Thoughts?


Matt

 

Derek Butts talked about this over on IS300.net some time ago. I can't seem to find the post... The net net of his findings were the setups of an autocross car and a road course car were different. I don't think the the difference was great between Shock and Spring setting, but rather the use of swaybars. He mentioned was the use of a large front sway bar was great for RR, but bad for AX followed by a description why...

 

A well set up autox car will be a complete handful on a road course. Too much transition and rotation ideal for lower speed courses. A well set up road course car will be a complete pig on an autocross course.

 

I think you can use a day at AutoX to get a baseline setup for your car then fine tune it once you get to track. AutoX is a good bit different then track and you will not be able to get a feel for what the car will do at high speed. Best thing you can do at an AutoX is dial out as much understeer as you can.

Plus the, run 25sec, wait 15min, repeat of most AutoXes doesn't really make testing easy.