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So who is this masked man? I never saw anyrhing on here about it. Besides I think he is a badass... I would like to know his setup.
Anyone know the setup on his car?
Dale is that you?
I am heading there this year for sure. Will try to make the rotary meet for the hell of it as I would love to meet a lot of people on here, but I prefer a day to myself up there.
I saw that article awhile ago and wanted to learn more of his suspension setup. Probably about the same as the rest of us I guess. Cool to see the FD hanging in there.
I've had the pleasure of meeting and hanging out with "Davis" AKA "The King." He's about as unassuming and nice of a guy as you will meet. Helped me one time work on my exhaust.
I'd say this - without giving away his specific information - it's all about the suspension setup, tire configuration, and brakes for success on the Tail. And none of what Davis uses is fancy, expensive stuff. It's tried and true components combined with very good driving skills that make the difference. You truly don't need more than 350 WHP at the Tail as that doesn't make the difference there, it's the previous mentioned parts that separate the good from best.
It's sort of akin to going out on the track with Fritz Flynn. He's around the 400WHP with his FD but he will run circles around me with my 720 WHP. His car, like Davis', is the perfect setup for the conditions on which he drives (in Fritz's case, VIR).
Hey David. Yeah not interested in the power as my 350-360 is borderline too much imo for that kind of driving.. I was wondering about his coilovers and swaybar(s). Spring rates? I will be driving mostly roads I use to when I was younger with my FC s. They are roads similar to the tail so I am trying to set the car up accordingly. I will not put wider rubber than what I have though 245 and 275. Next tires will probably be r888 or the r888r or a stickier compound than my Potenza pole positions.
As for the experience there are some roads I can guarantee few could hang with me if it is their 1st time on there as I know the roads, but reverse the situation and I am sure I will be smoked bad as I do not consider myself a good driver at all.
I've done the skyway, and DGRR by motorcycle several times, but never with the FD. Even on the Concours, 150+Hp sport tourer is way too big/way too powerful for that road. I went reaaaaly slow. Groms seem to be the right size There are motor homes/Trailer/too many idiots to contend with. I once hit it on a monday morning at 6am in march and only saw two other bikes that was probably the perfect time if it hadn't been so cold. @Testrun I think you'd have better luck PM'ing Fritz Flynn and asking him about suspension setup than trying to track The King down. And if you ever want to hit up some track days in the South East - let me know I'm in for those (Ozarks international raceway looks sick, can't wait for that to open). We don't live that far apart.
The king is a dying breed. Now a days it's less about discretion and more about how many social media sites you can post your times on. I enjoyed the part of the article where the author questioned his own intentions, and what negative attention he'd draw on the dragon. Getting too litigious and too crowded anymore to crown yourself the king of any open road. Gotta keep it on the track.
yeah you gotta remember you are taking your life in your hands on the Dragon. It's a public road and you can fall off a mountain and die. I know two people who literally fell off the mountain. One was on a bike and died at age 19. The other was in a Mini Cooper, ended up in the water and survived.
The key the the Dragon is to have fun driving it - don't try and set a speed record, don't try and drift it, just stay the speed limit and enjoy hustling through the corners.
129 Dragon is way to crowded on the weekends. Unless you go early morning or late evening.
The good thing is there are so many other great roads up there to enjoy and not as crowded.
These are public roads its not a race track.
Be safe, stay in your lane, stay within your driving skill too!
I don't want to get too out of wack on this thread lol.
I am not condoning street racing or doing anything stupid. I have my own roads I USE to blast on with my FC RX7s and my FZR600 (highly modded) and R1 I use to have. Up in KY around Rabbit hash, Daniel Boone National forest, or were ever. I am sure they are overly crowded now. There are not too many secrets anymore. The origional cowboys are all fading away. I am hitting the dragon soley for the name. I am sure it is a beautiful area. I would like to meet a bunch of people on here so I will try and make the Rotary meet.
As for the "king" I like his old school mentality. Not "you have to go Ohlins or go home"... I am sure Coleman's set up is more than adequate for what I am looking for (which is pretty much what I am mimicking). I just thought it would be neat to know his setup.
F1, I may take you up on that some day. I would love to get out on a track and really push the limits of myself and my car..
Hey David. Yeah not interested in the power as my 350-360 is borderline too much imo for that kind of driving.. I was wondering about his coilovers and swaybar(s). Spring rates? I will be driving mostly roads I use to when I was younger with my FC s. They are roads similar to the tail so I am trying to set the car up accordingly. I will not put wider rubber than what I have though 245 and 275. Next tires will probably be r888 or the r888r or a stickier compound than my Potenza pole positions.
As for the experience there are some roads I can guarantee few could hang with me if it is their 1st time on there as I know the roads, but reverse the situation and I am sure I will be smoked bad as I do not consider myself a good driver at all.
I think he would consider his setup the "secret sauce" that is part of his success. I don't exactly know the specs anyway, so I think you are on your own here.
I would reiterate what others have said, the Tail is a public road so you need to drive safely. Go have a good time but no need to treat it like a race course. The rule of thumb on the road is to NEVER (caps for emphasis) cross the double white lines. Drive as fast as you want, but never drive so fast as to cross the lines. That is what gets you and others into trouble on the Tail.
The second rule of thumb is to drive defensively. Because there are others out there not respecting the rules, you have to be pretty good at anticipating "stupid" stuff from other drivers. The motorcycle guys are probably the worst. There are quite a large number of blind turns on the Tail and I've had more than a few times been met by someone in my lane. Not a good scenario.
This is why I don't sweat it much anymore on the Tail, unless the crowd is down and I can feel pretty confident there won't be obstacles in my way. That is usually early in the morning or later in the evening.
For me, go have fun and enjoy the RX7 crowd. Also, drive the Cherohala Skyway on Friday morning if they are going to do that. It's more fun in my opinion than the Tail.
the reason why there are few fancy parts to a secret setup for the Dragon is that the secret sauce for having a record setting run on the dragon is no traffic, and a far greater willingness to risk your life than the general population.
It's like when you find out the secret sauce at your local restaurant is like something made by Kraft with extra garlic powder in it or something. or the cookies at the bakery are made with Dunkin Hines mix, but it's a "secret."
Re-read the article.
the whole point of the FD dominating is its nimble, responsive and most importantly its balanced chassis.
245 front and 275 rear is not balanced its understeer city.
Not to mention the spongy response of the taller rear sidewall with the quick resonse of the short front sidewall.
Run 245s front and rear and learn to use the throttle to balance the chassis and learn the timing and inputs. A race seat and harness will really help.
If you want some chassis set-up tips on whats fast someplace like the dragon you can look at how FDs are set-up for "Gunsai" Hot Version Touge challenge.
FD and S2000 still dominate.
Even looking at Tsukuba set-ups will help as its a small handling biased course where 200hp rx8s on street tires are as fast or faster than porsche gt3s (same professional drivers setting the records) and the fastest naturally aspirated car is.... an FD.
Even on Tsukuba though aero and power to overcome its drag really play in on the smooth smooth race surface below a certain lap time though.
For me, its too spooky to count on aero on the street. Example, you know you can make the corner at 80mph from past experience, but if you go in too slow for ANY reason you dont have as much downforce and cant make the corner...
Thanks BlueII. So far there is no indication of understeer at all. If anything I was having over steer. I will see how it is with the new coilovers and different spring rates I just installed, but I need to get an alignment before I play around too much.
So far the ride quality has improved so that's definitely a good thing and looks promising!!! I also have to make sure I am not too low with the new rates. They are a bit softer than before. The rear is at around 25.5, but not sure how much lower I want to go until I see how the softer springs work.
Neat write-up, thanks for sharing. The 'Revolution 86 slw' is very much a contentder on the touge as well. There's some awesome videos out there, punches way above its' weight. Pun intended.
03-20-21, 12:32 PM
