Tame my FD
08-07-06, 01:57 PM
#1
Tame my FD
So I took my FD out for its first autox yesterday. As it felt on the street, the rear end is extremely twitchy. Luckily I never tested that out on the street 
I have currently: stock 93 touring suspension and 245/xx/18 front and 275/xx/18 rear. (I dont remember the sidewall sizes off hand) I also have 360whp.
The car pushes pretty badly on left/right slaloms, and if I am not on the throttle pretty good it wants to snap over steer when I turn. Ideally, I would like for it to feel like my miata, which is similiar, but less exagerated than the FD is. The miata has very light understeer on fast transitions, and very light over steer when I let off the throttle. My FD wants to come around FAST and unexpectedly when I let off the throttle. I drove a friends mid engined car and I would say the snap tendancy was just as bad as his car was. (although I was able to keep from spinning either) It also understeers like a pig during fast tranisitions.
Is there a cheap fix for this? Alignment? Unhook rear sway bar?
I do not feel like spending $1k+ to fix this issue
.(coil overs?) I have been autoxing on/off for the last 6yrs. Please do not tell me its a driver issue. Hopefully there is an easy, documented fix for getting it to be tamer than this.
Thanks
I have currently: stock 93 touring suspension and 245/xx/18 front and 275/xx/18 rear. (I dont remember the sidewall sizes off hand) I also have 360whp.
The car pushes pretty badly on left/right slaloms, and if I am not on the throttle pretty good it wants to snap over steer when I turn. Ideally, I would like for it to feel like my miata, which is similiar, but less exagerated than the FD is. The miata has very light understeer on fast transitions, and very light over steer when I let off the throttle. My FD wants to come around FAST and unexpectedly when I let off the throttle. I drove a friends mid engined car and I would say the snap tendancy was just as bad as his car was. (although I was able to keep from spinning either) It also understeers like a pig during fast tranisitions.
Is there a cheap fix for this? Alignment? Unhook rear sway bar?
I do not feel like spending $1k+ to fix this issue
.(coil overs?) I have been autoxing on/off for the last 6yrs. Please do not tell me its a driver issue. Hopefully there is an easy, documented fix for getting it to be tamer than this. Thanks
08-07-06, 02:23 PM
#2
Lives on the Forum
First thing I'd do is play with tire pressure. Some toe in on the rear will help tremendously as well; I run 1/8".
I wouldn't touch the car yet though as it was your first autox in it. I'd run at least a few events before I started messing anything beside tire pressure because right now you need to spend all your time messing with the nut behind the wheel
You say you've been autocrossing on and off for 6 years and yet it's your first time in the FD and you aren't sure where to start with the handling issues. Your FD will never handle like your Miata, especially with that much power on tap.
I wouldn't touch the car yet though as it was your first autox in it. I'd run at least a few events before I started messing anything beside tire pressure because right now you need to spend all your time messing with the nut behind the wheel
You say you've been autocrossing on and off for 6 years and yet it's your first time in the FD and you aren't sure where to start with the handling issues. Your FD will never handle like your Miata, especially with that much power on tap.
Last edited by DamonB; 08-07-06 at 02:27 PM.
08-07-06, 02:38 PM
#3
Originally Posted by DamonB
First thing I'd do is play with tire pressure. Some toe in on the rear will help tremendously as well; I run 1/8".
I wouldn't touch the car yet though as it was your first autox in it. I'd run at least a few events before I started messing anything beside tire pressure because right now you need to spend all your time messing with the nut behind the wheel
You say you've been autocrossing on and off for 6 years and yet it's your first time in the FD and you aren't sure where to start with the handling issues. Your FD will never handle like your Miata, especially with that much power on tap.
I wouldn't touch the car yet though as it was your first autox in it. I'd run at least a few events before I started messing anything beside tire pressure because right now you need to spend all your time messing with the nut behind the wheel
You say you've been autocrossing on and off for 6 years and yet it's your first time in the FD and you aren't sure where to start with the handling issues. Your FD will never handle like your Miata, especially with that much power on tap.
My first *free* inclination is to unhook the rear bar and go see what difference it makes. This wont really fix the transition understeer problem though. My next inclination is to get springs/shocks for the car. Something with a higher spring rate up front than the split that stock has. This along with the rear bar unhooked would likely fix all of my problems. Though this is approaching that "I dont want to spend $1k" area.
So... I guess the real question is: Will a front sway, or a set of springs fix this tendancy? (I know the proper answer here, but I am not willing to spend $1500 on nice coilovers for a car that I wont even buy race tires for to be competitive in)
Thanks for the toe idea
Last edited by BryanDowns; 08-07-06 at 02:41 PM.
08-07-06, 02:57 PM
#4
Lives on the Forum
Originally Posted by BryanDowns
So... I guess the real question is: Will a front sway, or a set of springs fix this tendancy?
Your FD has tremendously more power than the Miata. If the majority of your problems seem to happen when you're doing things with the gas pedal I'd look at how you're using the gas pedal. With all that power it's easy to make much more abrupt changes in weight transfer during throttle inputs compared to the Miata. I'd do another event while really concentrating on how you modulate power and see what happens. Often in a new car it takes a couple turns behind the wheel to unlearn your old car, then stuff in the new car doesn't seem so strange.
08-07-06, 03:01 PM
#5
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You are understeering so badly partly due to the staggered tire widths. My guess is that your oversteer could partly be due to your understeer....especially if it only occurs in drop-throttle.
08-07-06, 04:01 PM
#6
Originally Posted by DamonB
They'll certainly change it, but IMO tire pressure and alignment is the first place to start.
Your FD has tremendously more power than the Miata. If the majority of your problems seem to happen when you're doing things with the gas pedal I'd look at how you're using the gas pedal. With all that power it's easy to make much more abrupt changes in weight transfer during throttle inputs compared to the Miata. I'd do another event while really concentrating on how you modulate power and see what happens. Often in a new car it takes a couple turns behind the wheel to unlearn your old car, then stuff in the new car doesn't seem so strange.
Your FD has tremendously more power than the Miata. If the majority of your problems seem to happen when you're doing things with the gas pedal I'd look at how you're using the gas pedal. With all that power it's easy to make much more abrupt changes in weight transfer during throttle inputs compared to the Miata. I'd do another event while really concentrating on how you modulate power and see what happens. Often in a new car it takes a couple turns behind the wheel to unlearn your old car, then stuff in the new car doesn't seem so strange.
Originally Posted by rynberg
You are understeering so badly partly due to the staggered tire widths. My guess is that your oversteer could partly be due to your understeer....especially if it only occurs in drop-throttle.
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