BA Cutler

To those of you, who are fortunate enough to have actually received your Koni Sports... (mine are in "process" status):

* Care to share what settings you are dialing in Front/Rear?

* What are your thoughts about their effectiveness?

* Installation, how difficult was it to install them?

Thanks,

Brian

Lateapex

iTrader: (9)

Brian,


Settings TBD - I'm still trying out various swaybar/shock/camber combinations.

I think the range of adjustment is less obvious in the front, where the ride-quality doesn't change as significantly. But, I can moderate push by changing front settings, so they are definitely having an effect.

Install was easy in the rear (rear of Z is cake to work on); break out the spring compressor for the fronts (you can borrow mine).

BA Cutler

L8Apex,

Thanks for the offer on the spring compressor. The shocks arrived on Tuesday while I was in Florida. I'm going to try to install them on Sunday.

dkmura

iTrader: (64)

Without giving away any content from the upcoming Sport Z summer issue, I can say that the Koni 8241 sport shock application for the Z will be one of the feature articles. Among the points to be discussed include: rebound settings, street/track performance and even some shadetree mechanical advice.

Should be out towards the end of this month...

BA Cutler

I've been running around with the Konis for a while, I'm still wondering about settings for A/X competition. My first event with them, I torqued 'em down full firm front and rear... it also happened to be on smooth, flat pavement and a rare very warm day up here... result: a first place.

Second event went with the same caveman approach... not so smooth, washboard sections and interesting elevation deviations... result: first two runs were awful... skittering across the washboard sections... couldn't lay down power anywhere, rears just broke loose immediately...

Thank goodness they decided we would get four runs vs. three... my makeshift pit crew assisted me in changing the settings (don't you hate adjusting the rears?)... a local expert recommends two clicks off of full SOFT in the rears and can't remember what we dialed into the fronts... but it was just off of full soft... results: apparently, I finished second... after such a disasterous performance behind the wheel, I had no idea I placed that well... I stunk, and ran away in shame.

So what do I know? I know running two clicks off of full soft in the rears allows you to make mucho grande use of the mighty Z's torque... feels absolutely wonderful.

What don't I know? What the heck do I do with the front settings? I ran my 350Evo front bar on the middle setting and the highest setting. I'm fairly sure the highest setting is too much, the middle setting with the fronts torqued down to full hard produced a class win... even though I couldn't lay down any power due to the rear shocks being at full hard.

So what do I thing I should do first this weekend's 2-day event? Front bar on middle setting... rear shocks, 2 clicks of full soft... front tire pressures at 63 (AS304 275/35-18, verified via pyrometer readings... 4 degree deviation across the tread surface)... rear tire pressure at 57 (6 lb rule front to rear theory)... I haven't touched the alignments, my Z is my daily driver and I do think I should run a .25 toe-out up front on a daily basis...

BUT WHAT THE HECK do I do with the front shock settings! If I revert to what worked "once upon a sunny day" (the day I placed first), I'd go toward full firm... but logic says that doesn't make any sense. The problem is: the fronts set near full soft vs. being set @ full firm, didn't provide the same "no-brainer" improvement the rears made when comparing full soft vs. full hard settings. I'm at a loss to figure it out and I want to get it sorted out prior to the Seattle SCCA National Tour event later this month (I hope some out of town Zs make the trek)... and this weekend, I have a 2-day local event to get things sorted...

Help me!

BC

dwnshift

iTrader: (1)

I would say it really depends on what other suspension, wheel and tire components your are using as well as road/ track conditions you are driving on.

Lateapex

iTrader: (9)

Brian,

I agree that the front-end tuning is much more subtle than that of the rear -- I've noticed the same thing with mine -- but, I think that's the case for most cars. My fundamental strategy for autocrossing set-up on high-powered cars like the Z is a) minimize/optimize understeer in the front and b) maximize power-to-the-ground in the rear. But, as we're [re]-learning, the compromises begin from the moment we pick up a wrench.

It's interesting that you haven't mentioned specific problems, except for the rear-end behavior under power. To be most helpful in providing suggestions, others of us need to get your assessment of other particulars: steady-state understeer, turn-in response, oversteer, trailing-throttle oversteer, transients...

On my car -- to reduce understeer to manageable levels -- I had to run the front Stillen bar on full soft, until I added the Kinetix a-arms that provide the negative camber the car desperately needs. (This shortcoming, thoughtfully provided by Nissan, is the single feature that keeps the car from being instantly competitive in Solo). Even with the additional front camber, I find setting the Konis fairly soft in the front works best, and I am using them to 'tune' understeer. Now, my aftermarket springs may be fuzzing the picture, but I would think soft-ish in front would be most efficacious for stock cars, as well.

BTW, though it's tempting, I would avoid measuring tuning success by event results. There are so many variables across the other cars and drivers in your class, that, were you to be able to quantify them, you might be less satisfied with your 1st, or stinking-proud of that 'shameful' 2d. As we've talked about before, it's devilishly hard to seriously compete AND develop a car simultaneously. (It often takes me several days to sufficiently isolate myself psychologically from the driving/competition experience of an event, before I can begin to confidently analyze my car's behavior.)

Hopefully, we can brainstorm on Saturday.

Mark

BA Cutler

Mark,

Thanks for centering me... I know I'm looking at results and I'm too anxious to get results. I think my everything I can adjust, delivers obvious gains or losses when tested through its range of adjustability... with the exception of the front shocks.

I'll have to give it some more experimentation over the weekend's events.

dwnshift,

The two local sites are different in terms of track conditions, one is most smooth concrete (a runway) and the other is not so smooth elevation deviated asphalt parking lot.

My car is set to BS rules, alignment is as delivered, Konis, 350Evo front bar, 18 X 8 wheels (aftermarket weighing 18.5 lbs), tires are 275/35-18 AS304 Hoosiers.

BC

dwnshift

iTrader: (1)

There are two ways that you can look at the whole rebound thing.

1 if the car pushes from just before apex to track out while applying throttle.add more rebound up front to keep the weight applied to the front wheels longer.
The other side of this is that by adding more rebound up front....in rough brakes zones adding to much can cause the wheel to be sucked up into the wheel wells which will hurt brake zones and turn in. To much will cause the fornt to skip over bumps.
Another way to look at adding reboud which was big on the front wheel cars i drove .......by cranking in a ton of rear rebound ....when you turn in....the rear tires will want to be up more in the wheel wells then falling towards droop.so with the sudden change of weight thrown to the front the rear tire patch will has less load making for better turn in.
All in all too much rebound can be a really bad thing.
I ran jason H's 350Z T2 car at the national there a couple of weeks ago.....Koni sprt yellows and the OEM sway bars ;( on Hoosier S04's. 245 fronts and 245 rears.... The car was great for one alp then went inot full plow mode. I had 3 complete turns from full stiff in the front.......but then added a ton of rear rebound for the race.
I took the lead at the start and when I got to turn 11 I really regretted putting in the rear rebound.
Another issue here is alignment..........