Best Suspension Mods for Road Atlanta?

[aaebob]

I just finished my 1st weekend on a road coarse. I did HPDE1 sponsered through NASA at Road Atlanta. I see now I really need to upgrade my suspension, brakes and tires.
Anyone had any experience there and have any suggestions? 00 Boxster
Thanks, Bob

[san rensho]

I would start with the easy/cheap stuff. Get it aligned so it has as much neg camber in the front as possible, only about 1 deg with stock suspension, and the same or slightly less camber in the rears, but again you won't be able to get a lot of camber out with the stock suspension because the camber affects toe in.

Next, try some track brake pads, although I haven't had the need yet. I've only done 2 DE and on my last one I got some new Mintex pads (cheapest OEM pad available) and with the GT3 brake ducts (the $30 part) I had absolutely no problem with the brakes. No fade, no chatter and surprisingly little wear on the pads.

[Topless]

Suspension changes are really all about maximizing the contact patch of your tires. Start with the tire size and compound you plan to run, along with running weight and driver experience and you will get more meaningful answers. If your answer is- first year driver on street tires, stock suspension with a good alignment is probably the way to go. As you add lateral grip to the car with comp tires, you need to add more beef to the struts and sways.

[jaykay]

Originally Posted by san rensho

I would start with the easy/cheap stuff. Get it aligned so it has as much neg camber in the front as possible, only about 1 deg with stock suspension, and the same or slightly less camber in the rears, but again you won't be able to get a lot of camber out with the stock suspension because the camber affects toe in.

Next, try some track brake pads, although I haven't had the need yet. I've only done 2 DE and on my last one I got some new Mintex pads (cheapest OEM pad available) and with the GT3 brake ducts (the $30 part) I had absolutely no problem with the brakes. No fade, no chatter and surprisingly little wear on the pads.

+1 on the GT3 ducts....cheap brake cooling

[thstone]

Don't be in a huge hurry to upgrade anything unless you are capable of out-driving the car or at the top of your car class.

Tires: If your existing street tires are not up to track service, getting too hot, or chunking; move to a higher performance street tire like the Hankook RS-3 or Kumho Ecsta XS or similar.

Brakes: Unless you are experiencing significant brake fade, stay with stock and add the cheap GT-3 brake ducts. When you start to experience brake fade, then move up to a street/track combo pad. Later, when you're frying pads and brake wear sensors, then move up to a track pad and zip tie up your pad wear sensors.

Suspension: Get a track alignment to get as much front negative camber as possible. Then drive it that way until you can out-drive the car and/or are shredding the outside edge of your tires on a regular basis. THEN think about a suspension upgrade.

[aaebob]

Thanks guys. Great advice. It just seemed like the tires were wanting to roll under the car but there is no tire wear. I'll go with the coolers and alignment next track day.

[thstone]

Check the tire sidewalls for excessive tire roll. Many tires have little small triangles molded into the tire around the outside edge of the tire. The tire wear boundary shouldn't go past the tip of the little triangles. If this is happening, then go up a few pounds in air pressure to try and stiffen up the sidewall and see if that helps.

I'll try and post a picture later today for an example.

[Jittsl]

Spend your money on seat time and instruction. It'll make you much faster and cost a whole lot less.