hey guys,

so i've got several questions about this.
i am about to auto cross in the next month and am really excited!
first time for me.

i just got ksports and i'm somewhat low.
i could go lower, but i'm happy where i'm at now.

what is your experience with being lowered and autocrossing on coilovers?

i'm wondering if i should raise my setup, or if you have any tips etc.

thanks!

 

when you go low, you run out of spring travel. the car bottoms on the suspension, and you have a flat slide, which in a fwd car on an autox = very slow.

back to back,unfortunately, YYZ on stock shocks would be faster in autox than your set up.,

if you have to run your setup, lift the car waaay up. you need travel. and preload the springs. good luck. autox is a blast.

 

My stock springs and powell rear bar handeled better then coils and the bar. Shouldnt make much of a difference if its your first time though since you wont be going for super low times. It will still be fun though none the less.

 

You mean shock travel John? Height is adjusted by the perches, not the springs

 

Yeah I tried an stx class build with kw V2s and I can say I love the stock setup more. Infant I beat the stx class on my stock setup this weekend.

If I were to build and stx car again I would go with Powells parts.

 

i mean raise the car. with the cheap coil overs you adjust the lower shock bracket down to acheive that, Then u need to preload the heck out of the spring with the adjustable spring perch to try and get as much shock damping as you can.

 

I would put the stock suspension back on the car and sell the coilovers to a ricer in the classifieds. Car is brilliant in stock form. I thought it was great even with the stock rear bar with -2.8 camber up front on A6s. Resist the urge to fit in with the stance crowd, these softly sprung cars need travel to work, and if you want to actually use your car, don't lower it much if at all.

 

but it loookkkk sooooo good.

 

The Megan/Stance/BC/Pedder coilover setups are all horrible. Too little spring rate for too little travel. At this point, you probably haven't been able to identify what's causing understeer and what causes oversteer. Go back to stock, including tune/intake/downpipe, so you can compete in DS. In the long run you will learn much more.

If you insist on using a modded car, then at least run something more respectable like John's new springs and a set of Konis. His rear bar is nice too, but you can start with just the springs and shocks. Advice number one would be to stop adding power, and start concentrating on driving.

 

Yeah, there's benefit to raise your co close to stock height. I think I might be the only one that has done that to their co not for autocross but for clearance.


BTW guys, if you haven't got the PRP rear bar hardcore/XXX, please do so. And if you want to go beyond that, John's rear twisting beam is damn awesome and I don't even do any autocross just the rare occasion on/off rams to the freeway.

 

KW Variant 3's, are you really doing this for autocross or Hella Flush??

 

yea i have the hardcore bar. its awesome.

 

haha i'm not hella flush as you can see from the pic :


im hearing that kw's are the way to go for autocross.
not just on cobalts, but a lot of other forums are saying the same thing..

 

Well look, this is what my 2 cents are? Is there anyone on here that has provided data leading to the fact that this or that setup is better? Raw data??? Where??? I mean, the stock setup suspension geometry is rock solid. Adding the right combination of bars, tires and pads will yield you a noticeable difference.

We have a guy in the Kappa community that tried 4 different setup using KW's, B&G, Koni's and currently his 4th setup(ZOK package) has been the best. GM designed the ZOk at Willow springs. So just look into all your data before going off and getting some expensive CO

 

i def won't care about being in DS. and i'm not in it for competition.
i'm just in it for fun. drag racing doesn't do it for me anymore. it's insanely boring.
just looking for some pointers and I can definitely identify te understeer/oversteer part. i've known about that for quite some time.
i know that a both have do with weight distribution, and rear tire adhesion/suspension, cornering, throttle, breaking.
the thing i'm not sure mostly about is suspension in this case.

i took a turn pretty sharp late the other night and i oversteered in the rear and had to correct. a lot of that has to do with my worn down rear 225s which i'll be replacing this or next week. i also was a little too aggressive on the gas pedal going into the turn.

i was just wondering what peoples opinions were on the autocross portion so i appreciate your input. i will definitely raise it and see what I can do. for now i do not intend to go back to stock anything. i personally love the look of being lower and i feel the car handles better than pedders, but that may not be saying much.

 

for sure. i got the ksports for free so i'm not worried about the cost. what did he say about kw's?

 

They were good, came in second but that the ZOK beautifully planted the car. No one understands the chasis of a car better than the manufacturer that built it. I'm going this route myself.

 

i'm assuming its only avail for kappas?

 

Was actually only available for the sol but was able to transfer to Sky. Not sure GM offered anything suspension wise. They didn't race the Cobalt.

 

john can hook it up with ohlins from the TAC
^_^ if you really want coils

 

do explain moar?

 

\HUH? u kidding me?

 

you cant afford it ^_^

or more like it might be outta your budget

 

Words of wisdom, there are lots of people that will give you advice. There are only a few you should listen to. Just sayin!!!

 

Random, but still want that Forgestar wheel/tire setup you were running. Still don't know how you fit that wide of a setup