I have a couple weekends of Autocross under my belt. On courses with higher speeds and bigger turns I find my car to be very tail happy/loose. Its an 07' Enthusiast Coupe 22k miles with Fortune Auto 500 Coilovers w/Swift Springs, the original set of RE050A tires with less than 3/32s all around. Is this simply to blame on the worn out tires? I am adjusting tire pressure accordingly but the car just will not hold speed on higher demanding turns and corners resulting in lost time.

So my question is should I look into sway bars? New tires? Or firming up the suspension? What is most to blame for the car defaulting into drift?

 

8 year old tires are probably crap and could cause handling issues. However, I would try the easy stuff first. Are the shocks on your coilovers adjustable?

If so, soften the rear and stiffen the front.

 

tires may have a bit to do with it. factory sways?

 

Old, worn tires are the main culprit. Swaybars will help, but replace the tires yesterday.

 

Yes, the rear is already pretty soft but I will deffinately try playing with the fronts as they are adjustable on the fly. The rears have to be un mounted to be adjusted.

 

Yes.

 

is it an allen key on the top how you adjust them? if so, take off the plastic covers, there is a hole there that is directly above the shock, you may need to make it bigger but that is how alot of people adjust theirs, on my d-specs i had the extenders that went up through that hole

 

Unfortunately it is a twist **** from my understanding.

 

get the extenders

 

I bet it's mainly your tires, but adjusting your shocks, sway bars/end links, tire pressure, tire width all play a roll. Alignment and camber kits too will make you corner differently.

 

Had no idea these were available. Thanks!

 

The car is already very low so i dont want to soften it up too much, especially after lowering tire pressure. What sway bars would be a good option?

 

I run hotchkis sways front and rear. I like the adjustment they provide. Or you can be like Mike and just get rid of the rear sway.
Cusco is also another good brand with adjustment.

 

How would removing the rear be beneficial?

 

Basically people remove the rear sway bar to gain traction when running stiff rear spring rates for autox. If you're car is just a dd you probably won't notice a difference.
I'm sure Z1NONLY or 03threefiftyz can explain it better than I can....

 

Softening the rear sway bar should help the rear hook up better. There is no softer sway bar setting than removing (or disconnecting) a sway bar.

If no other changes are made, (shock stiffness/spring rates) there should come a point where the rear sticks too well relative to the front and the car starts plowing. (understeer)

Again, the primary issue is probably ancient tires, but suspension adjustments may be able to help make the car behave better until you get new tires.

 

Lowering the rear relative to the front can help too. I too experienced massive oversteer my first day out solo. I'd come with the accepted notion that our cars are massive understeerers- rear sway set full stiff, rear shocks set near full stiff, rear end maybe .5" higher than front. My first couple laps I probably would've scored well if it were a drift comp. Softening sway bar and shocks helped, but didn't get close to neutral until I lowered rear. Think I'll just disconnect rear sway next time out, stiffen shocks if need be, see how that goes...