Suggestions for setting up my Tarmac coilovers?

I've recently swapped out to some Tarmac coilovers from Myles at Racecomp Engineering. Can anyone running these on track suggest some rebound adj. settings from which I can start a baseline feel? Thanks.

What spring rates are you running? Myles should have given you an instructional packet with some baseline numbers. Do you want baseline numbers for the track or street?

10k Swifts in the rear 9K Racecomps in the front. Myles didn't include any set up info so I contacted him yesterday. He suggested 1.5 backed off from full stiff in the front and 1 turn backed off from full stiff in the rear. Always thought you wanted rebound set softer in the rear than the front? Is it because of the stiffer rears spring set up compared to front I suppose? Looking for track set up it's no longer a daily driver as pretty much the only street time it sees is to/from the track

You're running a 550lb on the rear and 500 up front? How do you like it so far? I've got 500 front and rear and wish I had a little heavier spring in the rear. I was afraid of running something heavier than 500 on those coils though.

 

You want more rebound damping (stiffer) with a heavier spring for sure, but I also like running a little more rebound in the rear as well. With my 500lb rates I run 9 clicks out in the front and 8 clicks out in the rear. Not sure if yours have "clicks" or if they just turn like the Koni's, but the T1's I have have an 18 click range, 6 clicks per revolution, 3 full turns of adjustment range.

 

I've tried every setting imaginable over the past couple years and 9/8 on the street and 7/6 on the track is what I find works best. So my front street setting is exactly what Myles told you, 9 clicks out would be 1 1/2 turns for the 500lb spring. Running 1 turn out (6 clicks) on the 550 in the rear sounds about right to me. You're going to want a little more rebound in the rear than I run.

Just got them on so no opinions to report yet. Myles suggested the spring rates. I wasn't sure if they would compromise the KW's but he wasn't overly concerned. I'll be at PIR on Thursday to test them out. I can say that I'm shocked that these are actually not bad at all on the street. Only one quick drive on them so far but I was surprised. Thanks for the input I'll start from those settings.

I would have a proper alignment and corner balancing done on them.

 

-mike

Yup. That's Monday morning

That's interesting he told you to go with that setup. I actually wanted to go with a 500/550 setup but he talked me into staying with the square 500/500 setup and said that the square setup yielded quicker lap times on the lgt, maybe he's since changed his mind?

 

I think once I send them in for a rebuild I may bump up the rates, unless I go all out on a set of inverted DA's.

What alignment specs are you going to run? Are you using camber plates?

After talking with the guys at Infamous Tuning in CA, they echoed the same thing for their track legacy, 10K rear, 9K front so I figured two votes from reputable sources was the way to go. Honestly, this is going to be such a huge improvement from my JDM Rev. A Bilsteins / Whiteline spring set up that either scenario I would be stoked with. Running GT Worx, (vorshlag) camber plates. We will see where the alignment settles out. My tuner wants to see 14" front 13.5" rear from center of wheel to top of fender well so that's where I'm currently at. Since I'm not currently set up to adjust camber in the rear we will see where the rear is first and work from there as I want more camber in the front. Sounds like most of the cars set up similar to mine end up at 2.5 degrees in the front and about 2 degrees rear

 

Scooby, what kind of a rebuild interval are you looking at? Wonder how long I'm going to run these before I have to do the same

Depends on mileage and use and weather. In SoCal mine don't get any road grime or anything like that, and depending on how hard you use them anywhere from 10K miles to 40K miles. I'm pretty sure KW still does free rebuilds for the original owner, which I think Myles still extends to the T1's.

 

I don't think you'll get a full -2 out of the rear without adjustment, but that's fine, you don't really want that much in the rear anyway. But yea, -2 to -2.5 is perfect for the front depending on your swaybar setup and how much rotation you're trying to get.

 

I love my GTworx plates, the additional caster they provide is always a good thing. I've got those coupled with the WL adjustable caster LCA bushings giving me 7.0 degrees of caster on the dot, right and left.

 

Also, I think 14" in the front 13.5" rear is the perfect starting point for ride height, but I strongly suggest you get a proper corner balance as Mike mentioned above, as it becomes really important once the spring rates get higher. After that your height won't necessarily still be at 14"/13.5" exactly.

Gotcha it will be interesting to see where it comes in on mon. Corner balance is in the near future as well. Hoping I get decent mileage out of these. I drive it once a week in the winter on a dry day just to keep the car running and then pretty much just drive it on track with a few toss around sessions on the street in the summer when I get tired of 211HP in my A4 Avant. With the interior all ripped out and all the mods, it's not the most comfy car to drive a ton, but it sure is a lot more fun than the Audi...

If you're planning on getting a corner balance that needs to be done before the alignment because it will throw all the alignment settings off again.

Yup they can't get me in for both before my track day but I have free alignments with them so I will have to get another

So I've gotten my alignment specs back from the local shop. There is a Firestone that I've used for a few years that has no problem setting up alignment specs for track cars. Apparently some locations have shut this down. I bought their lifetime free alignment package 5 yrs. ago so its no charge.

 

Anyway, took it to my guy today to have the alignment set on my Racecomp Tarmacs w/GT Worx camber plates. I wanted them to see where the rear was at first, (since its not adjustable other than ride height affecting camber), and then work from there to the front adding more than the rear hopefully up to about -2.5 I had hoped. The rear came in at -0.9, not as much as I had hoped but not too bad.

 

Got a call a few hours later from the shop. -1.6L and -1.8R in the front was all they could get. I asked what was going on and he told me he has maxed out the travel on the plate as far inboard as he could go. I checked it out when I picked it up and sure enough the drivers side is maxed out as far as it will go. Strangely the pass side still has a fair amount of travel left to go as compared to the drivers side? He could have run more neg camber on the pass side but obviously wanted to keep both within a few tenths of the same. What gives? This is my first set of coils and plates so I have no idea what to expect on pretty much every level. Shouldn't they look the same side to side as far as the bearing location in the plate?

 

I took the car for a toss in the west hills above downtown on the way home. It drives great, feels more precise and controllable for sure. Just not sure why I can't get more negative camber out of this system? Any thoughts?

 

SIDE NOTE - The GT Worx plates are actually 04-07 WRX / STi plates. Myles at Racecomp let me know that they work on Legacy as well. Could it be these don't perform as optimally as the platform they were originally intended? I'll check to see what he says as well.

I am no suspension expert but I ran into the same issue. Could it be the original camber bolt is not set for the max camber? I had the same thing happen and it was the original bolts where at different setting compare to the camber plates.

 

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Wondered about that. I assumed that the original camber bolts were no longer really providing any additional camber to the system since its all being adjusted up top. Thats not the case then yes? Don't think I set the originals camber bolts to any particular setting when I installed the KW's...

The lower bolts will definitely effect the camber, even if you have camber plates...

 

-Mike Paisan

 

http://www.pbase.com/paisan/image/153798190.jpg

Maintaining, Modifying and Educating TriState Enthusiasts since 2001.

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"Race Tested, Enthusiast Approved!"

First of all, you should be using the 08+ wrx/sti camber plates for the lgt, are you sure they aren't those?

 

And as Mike mentioned the lower bolts will do just as much now as they did before you had camber plates, +/-1 degree.

 

You may want to check where the spherical bearing assembly actually bolts to the top-plate. There are four hex-head bolts that attach the two and allow for camber adjustment. You'll notice that there are a series of holes for the four hex-head bolts, and you should see the threaded holes on the zink piece (mine are zink). This sets the range and one side may be on a set of holes that's shifted inwards.

 

With the GTworx plates and stock camber bolts I don't have much issue getting around -3.5 if I wanted it.

Just fyi, the zink piece is installed backwards in this pic, the rounded end should point towards the center of the car.

The other question I have to ask, is why would you have Firestone setting up your coilovers and tuning them for you. I know I know, free lifetime alignments...

 

You get what you pay for in this business. Why spend $1000s of dollars on equipment, and then ½ ass it by not having them properly setup by a shop that specializes in these things?

 

 

-Mike Paisan

 

http://www.pbase.com/paisan/image/153798190.jpg

Maintaining, Modifying and Educating TriState Enthusiasts since 2001.

Like us on Facebook! | E-mail: sales@azpinstalls.com | 725 Fairfield Ave | Kenilworth, NJ 07033 | 908.248.AZP1 (2971) |AIM: AZP Installs

"Race Tested, Enthusiast Approved!"

Sorry, mis-spoke, yup thats the same one as mine. My quick search while I was compiling my post brought me to the wrong product page.

 

So, in the last half hour I spoke with the tech who apologized that this was one of the first camber plate set ups that he had worked on. He never touched the stock concentric bolt to adjust, just he plates themselves. Hence the reason also that the spacing on my plates doesn't look the same. I have no idea how the stock concentric bolts are sitting in the shocks as I just placed them back in at random angles when I did the install since it would be going in for an alignment.

 

Back over there tomorrow to re-do. Can't say I fault the guy, I didn't know either and they are being great about getting me in first thing to remedy the problem. All and all, still not bad for a $170 lifetime alignment package that I've used probably 15 times in the last 8 years...

 

AZP mike, I hear you. Probably not the most optimal place to take your car to have it done . I had the same guy for years do it, he was a fellow enthusiast track guy so he was pretty on point. Guess thats not the case this time

The best way to do it IMO is to make the camber adjustment on the plates identical right/left to get the camber in the ballpark of what you want, then use the stock camber bolts as a fine tuning adjustment to get your cross camber at 0.0. This way you don't have struts at different angles with respect to the shock towers.

 

AZP mike, I hear you. Probably not the most optimal place to take your car to have it done . I had the same guy for years do it, he was a fellow enthusiast track guy so he was pretty on point. Guess thats not the case this time

 

Yeah if it's a personal friend using firestone or works there you can get away with that. As you progress more at the track you will want someone to really help you dial it in though.

 

-Mike Paisan

 

http://www.pbase.com/paisan/image/153798190.jpg

Maintaining, Modifying and Educating TriState Enthusiasts since 2001.

Like us on Facebook! | E-mail: sales@azpinstalls.com | 725 Fairfield Ave | Kenilworth, NJ 07033 | 908.248.AZP1 (2971) |AIM: AZP Installs

"Race Tested, Enthusiast Approved!"

Agreed, it may be time to take it down to a local performance alignment shop, Speeds Automotive. I'm scheduled for first thing tomorrow to give them another crack at it, we'll see how that goes. Thanks for all the info guys, appreciate it.