Starting point for BC coilovers damper adjustments?

[gprix1]

Almost done with my build and have never driven the car with these new BC BR coilovers. just wanted to see where some of you ended up getting your dampeners set to on your BC's so I can be in the ballpark rolling out after 6 months on jack stands.

 

[jtmcinder]

I haven't posted this here for a while....

You don't need other people's settings; you need to tune your own car. It's not hard to do and you'll learn a lot while doing it.

My favorite way to set damping (quickly) is this. Start with both ends at full soft. Slowly increase the fronts until you are happy with turn-in. Then slowly increase the rears until (a) you are happy with mid-corner through exit or (b) the ride starts to be terrible.

Note that if you ended Phase 2 via (a), you are done; if you ended Phase 2 via (b), you need a larger rear sway-bar.

Note, also, that there are better ways to do this, but they all take much much longer. The above method will get your setting 90% of the way to where they need to be in half-an-hour.

- Jt

 

[gprix1]

Thanks JT,
That sounds like a good way to approach it. I do have an RM rear swaybar installed already and have a question about this part of your post:

Note that if you ended Phase 2 via (a), you are done; if you ended Phase 2 via (b), you need a larger rear sway-bar.

Since adjusting the rear is the second part of the process as you described it, it sounds like you're saying that doing any adjustment at all other than just leaving them at full soft on the rears means you need a bigger rear swaybar and somehow I doubt that would be what you meant.

 

[jtmcinder]

The reason that I suggest that you set the front shocks first is actually for safety. Keeping the rear soft until you're happy with turn-in makes it less likely that the car will turn-in well and then suddenly lose the tail mid-corner. When setting the fronts, you're supposed to be concentrating on turn-in so that you set them high enough to turn-in nicely, but no farther than that. To have the car suddenly lose the tail when you aren't focusing on this can ... well ... ruin your day.

During part 2, when you're setting the rears for mid-corner to exit, you're less likely to lose the tail, because this is exactly what you're focusing on.

Does that make more sense now? Or did I completely not answer your question?

 

[gprix1]

The reason that I suggest that you set the front shocks first is actually for safety. Keeping the rear soft until you're happy with turn-in makes it less likely that the car will turn-in well and then suddenly lose the tail mid-corner. When setting the fronts, you're supposed to be concentrating on turn-in so that you set them high enough to turn-in nicely, but no farther than that. To have the car suddenly lose the tail when you aren't focusing on this can ... well ... ruin your day.

During part 2, when you're setting the rears for mid-corner to exit, you're less likely to lose the tail, because this is exactly what you're focusing on.

Does that make more sense now? Or did I completely not answer your question?

I did understand the reasoning behind this already although breaking it down to a simple process was a good sanity check and thank you for that. I was totally fine with your explanation until you mentioned how you determine when a larger rear sway bar is needed. That is the only part of your post I am not completetly understanding.

 

[jtmcinder]

Ah. OK. What people often find during part 2 of the tuning - i.e., when slowly increasing rear damping until they are happy with mid-corner to exit - is that they either never become happy (because the car just keeps pushing, no matter what) or that the ride becomes awful before they become happy. In that case, more rear bar is called for.

 

[gprix1]

OK, that makes sense. Thanks for the clarification.