QA1 shock tuning

[parsonsj]

I'm running QA1's single adjust shocks on all 4 corners. Anybody out there got any advice about setup for track use?

I ran them at 3 (1 is full soft, 12 full hard) on the back and 6 on the front this past weekend at the AutoX. The car felt pushy, and I forgot all about tuning the shocks. I'm thinking upping the rears might have reduced rear roll compliance and helped the push.

Or should I put them both at 12 for track use?



jp

[David Pozzi]

We run ours at 4, or 5 that's all we've tried so far, but it feels almost ideal. I haven't tried many settings yet but we plan on trying a lot, - you probably won't like settings above 6. - 12 would be like a skate board!!!

Sometimes you can run the rear a click softer to help traction out of corners. But first, balance the oversteer/understeer with antiroll bars, then play with shock settings to quicken response time and reduce lean on corner entry. When you turn-in and the car feels like it's falling over, you need more shock, when it feels like the tires are just breaking loose with almost no lean, you are too stiff. I'm no expert at shock tuning but my butt knows what doesn't "feel" right.

I'd keep them the same for now, and go up or down evenly for the first go around, then try other settings later. Too stiff and the car won't "flow" through the corners and will break the tires loose when you turn quickly. Too much shock is as bad as not enough shock.
David

[Steve1968LS2]

You think that's complicated.. I have double adjustable and there are like eleventymillion combinations.

What's the normal spread for compression and rebound? I think I recall "three" as being the common difference in settings.

[parsonsj]

The sensation I felt was the car hanging over the front outside tire ... kinda like the whole car rolled over and the back lifted up.

I had the impression of the rear suspension not contributing much. I hear you about the sway bars, but that's not going to happen by Sunday. Since I had the rears at 3 and fronts at 6, maybe I go to 5 on the rears? That should help some, right?

jp

[parsonsj]

Steve,

I'm not very sympathetic to your plight. I've been lusting after those shocks for a long time. I even made Andrew Borodin go with me at PRI just to stare at them.

jp

[parsonsj]

I'd keep them the same for now, and go up or down evenly for the first go around, then try other settings later.

Oh. I get it now. By same, you mean run the same number on the front and back. I can be taught. Cool. I'll start with 5s all around then.

thanks!
jp

[Jeremy]

I have been playing with the double adjustables and have found a split of 3 to be a good rule of thumb. I have tried bigger splits to do different things to the ride and while that worked it REALLY changed the balance in turns. With the big split, the car seemed to roll funny and was not balanced. With the big splits one side would want to roll and the other wouldn't and it was not confidence inspiring.

[David Pozzi]

Oh. I get it now. By same, you mean run the same number on the front and back. I can be taught. Cool. I'll start with 5s all around then.

thanks!
jp

JP,
Yes by same, use the same number front and rear to start with, I'd use either 4 or 5, then depending on your overall roll stiffness either soften or stiffen from there.

With our old shocks our Camaro was falling over in front on corner entry, I could feel it flop over on the springs and bars very quickly causing extra roll on corner entry. You can't use shocks to really prevent roll except that they spread out cornering load over time but at the expense of sending the force directly to the tire instead of through the springs. So if you are too soft you will have extra turn-in roll that can be reduced by going stiffer.

With the double adjustable shocks, get a comfortable setting then try turning up the rebound knob. This can quicken the response in a slalom.

David

[RSX302]

Shocks are one of those nasty necessary evils. During the days we were playing with Penske spring/shock combos with the Formula 2000, Sports 2000 & Formula Atlantic...If theirs one thing I've learned is you will have a milk crate full of springs and allot of testing at each track. Ultimately every spring # rating will have an exact shock tune to control the spring. This is where time comes into play. A quicker way is a shock dyno. But before you do that, You will need to know what spring rate works best with your set-up on that specific track. Koni Racing for one sells there high end spring/shock combo tuned so the race teams only need to change the whole assembly. Lots of sets and very expensive. I’m sure this post didn’t help your situation, but all I can say is you will need to spend some time and possibly a few spring changes to get what you are ultimately looking for. There will be no simple answer unfortunately. Just lots of testing.

Ron