# Spec V on the Slalom Course.



## sukebegigi (Mar 5, 2005)

Is it me, or is it hard to unsettle to the V going into corners?


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## BlackoutSpecV (May 8, 2002)

sukebegigi said:


> Is it me, or is it hard to unsettle to the V going into corners?


What? can you elaborate what you are talking about? Understeer?


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## sukebegigi (Mar 5, 2005)

What I'm talking about is when approaching a tight corner you unsettle the body to help you get better position in that corner for the next corner. Usually hard braking while turning before the actual turn does the trick but I'm having trouble making the front end dive at 60kph. Do I need to brake even harder or is my suspension too stiff to unsettle the body at these lower speeds?


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## Jarek (Mar 29, 2005)

sukebegigi said:


> What I'm talking about is when approaching a tight corner you unsettle the body to help you get better position in that corner for the next corner. Usually hard braking while turning before the actual turn does the trick but I'm having trouble making the front end dive at 60kph. Do I need to brake even harder or is my suspension too stiff to unsettle the body at these lower speeds?


Since the rear end is not independent.. as in doesnt not have 'independent suspension... it has a 'solid link axe'? some shit like that? so i would imagine the back end would skip and come off the ground a bit? 3 tires on ground?


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## sunnydet90 (Sep 10, 2004)

Jarek said:


> Since the rear end is not independent.. as in doesnt not have 'independent suspension... it has a 'solid link axe'? some shit like that? so i would imagine the back end would skip and come off the ground a bit? 3 tires on ground?


 yup spec v's are notorious for 3-wheelin on auto cross


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## ReVerm (Jan 13, 2003)

sukebegigi said:


> What I'm talking about is when approaching a tight corner you unsettle the body to help you get better position in that corner for the next corner. Usually hard braking while turning before the actual turn does the trick but I'm having trouble making the front end dive at 60kph. Do I need to brake even harder or is my suspension too stiff to unsettle the body at these lower speeds?


What tyre pressures are you running? I'm not sure if setting the car up to be twitchy is the best way to go about running a slalom quickly.


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## sukebegigi (Mar 5, 2005)

ReVerm said:


> What tyre pressures are you running? I'm not sure if setting the car up to be twitchy is the best way to go about running a slalom quickly.


It's not a tyre pressure issue. And I'm not looking for twitchy, just the ability to unsettle the car a little going into a corner. Kind of like unsettling the chassis prior to kicking the tail out (forcing oversteer) but instead, more of a quick nose dive. My impression is that this is difficult to do at lower (60kph) speeds due to the stiffness of the suspension or possibly because of my smaller discs. I was shown this technique in a Carrera 4 but I can't get it going on in my Spec V.


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## Pbates (Jul 28, 2004)

sukebegigi said:


> It's not a tyre pressure issue. And I'm not looking for twitchy, just the ability to unsettle the car a little going into a corner. Kind of like unsettling the chassis prior to kicking the tail out (forcing oversteer) but instead, more of a quick nose dive. My impression is that this is difficult to do at lower (60kph) speeds due to the stiffness of the suspension or possibly because of my smaller discs. I was shown this technique in a Carrera 4 but I can't get it going on in my Spec V.



Actually I think it is a tire pressure issue. If you want the front to stick better when you enter a turn apply the brakes hard then when you begin your turn-in if the rear tires break loose a little you will get a controlled oversteer and provide better position for exiting the turn. This is a tricky event in a front wheel car but it can work. Personally I like my car to stick and I use left foot braking to set me up for the turn so I can control the weight transfer and minimize the lifting of the inside rear wheel. This car will never handle like a Carrera or any other car with rear wheel drive. Actually in the slalom steady works best for me.

Pete


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## ReVerm (Jan 13, 2003)

sukebegigi said:


> It's not a tyre pressure issue. And I'm not looking for twitchy, just the ability to unsettle the car a little going into a corner. Kind of like unsettling the chassis prior to kicking the tail out (forcing oversteer) but instead, more of a quick nose dive. My impression is that this is difficult to do at lower (60kph) speeds due to the stiffness of the suspension or possibly because of my smaller discs. I was shown this technique in a Carrera 4 but I can't get it going on in my Spec V.


If you're looking to be able to rotate your car with load transfer like that you're going to have to make your car a bit twitchy (and if you're going to do that, the best place to start is tyre pressures). The factory rear suspension on the B14/B15 does not slip very easily or very smoothly, even with very little load in the rear.


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## sukebegigi (Mar 5, 2005)

ReVerm said:


> If you're looking to be able to rotate your car with load transfer like that you're going to have to make your car a bit twitchy (and if you're going to do that, the best place to start is tyre pressures). The factory rear suspension on the B14/B15 does not slip very easily or very smoothly, even with very little load in the rear.


I'm glad someone understands. I've messed with tyre pressure last outing but I think your point that the B14/B15 doesn't slip very easily (load transfer) pretty much answers my question. It seems I'm trying for something too difficult for my novice ass!


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## Matt93SE (Sep 17, 2003)

with all due respect, you admit to being a novice, but you also tell us you know it's not a tire pressure problem. 
How are you SURE about that if you're a novice? what pressures did you check and run, and what results did you see with it?


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## sukebegigi (Mar 5, 2005)

Matt93SE said:


> with all due respect, you admit to being a novice, but you also tell us you know it's not a tire pressure problem.


Instinct I guess. Put it to practice today too. Weight transfer via braking techniques was the answer and my times were dramatically better as result. While I do understand the benefits of proper tyre pressure, I also knew that I was looking for something else, something different. And I found it.


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## Matt93SE (Sep 17, 2003)

cool.. glad you found it...
my springs are too damn stiff to get much weight to move around.. that and I have too much front brake bias. it's set up for road course stuff, so I suck at auto X... car feels like crap at low speeds, but rides smooth as silk and loves being tossed into a corner at 105.


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## sukebegigi (Mar 5, 2005)

Matt93SE said:


> cool.. glad you found it...
> my springs are too damn stiff to get much weight to move around.. that and I have too much front brake bias. it's set up for road course stuff, so I suck at auto X... car feels like crap at low speeds, but rides smooth as silk and loves being tossed into a corner at 105.


I guess I should have included that the course I was driving on was 2.8km. It's not like some of those ricer slalom courses where your flying through 2000 pilons at 60km/h burning the shit out of your tyres. So maybe my calling it slalom was incorrect? It's actually a course set up by the local Porsche club so there are a few straights and way less pilons. Here's a link to a page where you can see the track layout.
http://www.pca.org/pol/autocross.asp#238
They're good people too. I'll go to every event I can. There's available instructors and some bbbq action to boot.


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