# suspension tuning for autocross



## guam_boy00 (Mar 2, 2005)

Ok guys... I just finish going to an autocross at my school... It was Called. "Duel at De Anza autocross. And man all the 240sx did shitty time. literally they did... The only thing that looked cool was the car was drifting all over the place and the annoucer said I wish I could give him points for style. Don't get me wrong the crowd loved the drift, but back to the question... Is it because the guys who ran there 240 at the autocross wasn't tuned for autocrossing or 240sx are just straight up drift cars? what cars did good were Datsun 510,BWM M3, VW rabbit, and porsche gt2. Ohwell....


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## MShorten (Jul 19, 2004)

guam_boy00 said:


> Is it because the guys who ran there 240 at the autocross wasn't tuned for autocrossing or 240sx are just straight up drift cars? what cars did good were Datsun 510,BWM M3, VW rabbit, and porsche gt2. Ohwell....


Most likely the cars that did well are the guys who have put the time and money into tuning their suspension - very rarely are cars set up from the street/factory to do well at any type of driving other than from Point A to Point B.

There's a forum section called "Suspension and Braking" with permanent topics on suspension tuning. There's a ton of info available for people to dig through to help their cars on AutoX.

Good luck!
Regards,
Michael


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## Matt93SE (Sep 17, 2003)

This is also an assumption, but I'm going to guess most of the people there with 240s were not experienced autocrossers either. they bought the car to drift because they think it's cool, and they either don't know how to drive it, or didn't set the car up properly for autocross.

even stock, the 240 handles pretty darn well. I wish my Maxima had handling like that when stock- hell I've got coilovers on it now and it barely handles better than my 240 on small courses... road course is another story tho.


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## ReVerm (Jan 13, 2003)

guam_boy00 said:


> Is it because the guys who ran there 240 at the autocross wasn't tuned for autocrossing or 240sx are just straight up drift cars?


The problem with judging the performance of vehicles in at an autocross is that unlike with many forms of fixed-layout motorsports (road or oval racing, for example), the driver's skill level is the primary factor in whether a car is fast or slow. If a driver does not understand the limits of his/her car or cannot quickly adapt to the layout du jour, he/she will not be able to produce fast times.

That is not to say that your observations are completely off the mark. While 240's are, as Matt said, generally good handlers, they do have a lot of interesting design quirks. I don't own a 240 and I do not autocross on a regular basis, so I'm not sure whether the 240 is a "good autocross car", but I can see where a stock 240 (both S13 and S14 chassis) would have problems maneuvering through a tight cone course.


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