Rallycross build guidance wanted

Because of the big should-you-shouldn't-you that doesn't seem to have any good resolution, I haven't tried taking off the front sway on my car yet. I did, however, add a rear sway and it made it drive like a whole new car. What Instead of trying to soften up the front end, I've tried to tighten up my rear end (heh heh). I'm already super light over the rear wheels, so I tend to run a little more pressure in the rear tires and I've got the rear bar. Mix that with a fair amount of handbrake/left-foot brake, and I can get my FWD car to turn and slide pretty well.

The mantra that I've always heard is that soft suspension is better for rough surfaces, but the most amazing suspension that I've ever driven in anger on a RallyX course was in a Honda and it was pretty stiff. Not as stiff as a road race setup, I would assume, but front and rear had to have been stiffer than stock. My next suspension goals are to go to a setup that allows for a pretty tall spring with lots of travel, but at a pretty high spring rate in the front and an even higher spring rate in the rear.

Another option that you might consider would be to just put blown struts on the rear. Then you can get the rear end to bounce up into the air and then pivot through the sky around the front wheels. Kind of like those BMX tricks. I managed to make that work okay for a while. :)

Softer is better up to a point. If you're regularly running out of travel, it's too soft and you'll do better with a stiffer suspension as long as it's well damped. Too stiff hurts grip on rough surfaces though.

gearheadmb wrote: One problem I had was understeer. I really would like to get the car to rotate better and be a little tail happy.

Drive faster. You can't rotate under power in a front or all wheel drive car and you don't want to rotate under power in a rear drive car. You rotate when entering the corner. If you have mid corner understeer, that just means you entered the corner too slowly.

There's a good bit of "have to drive fast enough to be able to go fast" at work.

In reply to Knurled:

Point taken.

Works on ice too.

In reply to gearheadmb:

Ride along with Miles at the next rallycross if you can. He is extremely good at carrying speed into and through a corner. I won't be able to make it to this weekend's rallycross for all kinds of reasons or I'd show you what I mean. Miles is better at it, anyway.