Damper settings for Track

[Flippit]

Hey Guys,

Was curious as to know whats the most common damper settings ran for track?
When I hit up Wakefield sometime this year I'd have no idea what to set my Buddyclub N+'s to regarding damper. At the moment the front and rear are on +4 for comfort on the street.

So whats most comment setup, hows it work? more stiff at rear and less at front? visa versa? me so confuseeee!

[eskimo_firefighter]

Im not sure whats the most common to be honest, but for me I just put the dampers to maximum sitffness front and rear which has worked for me at the track.

I suspect many would like to have the rear end stiffer to decrease understeer etc..

[Flippit]

I just want to know what i should roughly be looking at cause to adjust my dampers the front ones you have to get under the car to adjust and the rear ones you gotta fricken pull apart the interior to get to it. Dumbest design! But yeah my only help so far is gran turismo 5 ahaha!

[rookie]

I was also pondering this question recently.

I was always under the influence that stiffening the rear along with having the front just a bit softer. Not 100% on that one though. Ask ChargeR, he seems to know everything about sussy setups.

[Pizzo321]

Rear always stiffer then fronts

[TOU93]

On the track I've always run the rear atleast 2 clicks harder than the front. The car feels more stable and has more grip in the corners.

I have Zeal Functions that have 6 clicks, I usually run 4@front 6@back.

[plAythiNG]

I like having the rear stiffer then the front. Having said that, not botered to change when i do go to the track as i love having fun driving with no police on my back

[Flippit]

now if the rear is TOO stiff would that cause the backend to come out and over steering?

The reason for stiffer rear is to reduce understeer correct?

[k20eg]

waiting to here from chargeR, byp and any other track sluts.

[k20eg]

now if the rear is TOO stiff would that cause the backend to come out and over steering?

The reason for stiffer rear is to reduce understeer correct?

yes but usually this is done by spring rates/ rsb combinations

would rather have an oversteery settup then an understeery one. need dat dere rotation.

[stevan]

First dampers don't change the stiffness necessarily as this is set by the spring, the damper simply controls the force the orifice applies to the oil. This controls how quickly or slowly the suspension will travel through bump and rebound without getting technical.

The damper settings are heavily dependent on the track you are driving, bumpy tracks require less damping to allow the tyre to contact the road more frequently. Maybe try and set the damping equally all around Phil and adjust them to understand the effect they have on the weight transfer of your car.

[ChargeR]

Your shocks adjust rebound and bound together, which means that there is likely to be only a handful of settings that are going to be good for bump compliance without being underdamped and feeling wallowy, or overdamped and being crashy over bumps.

My advice would be to find a smooth flat road with a single step/bump in it and repeatedly drive over it while adjusting the dampers until the car doesn't feel like it oscillates unnecessarily after it nor does it feel overdamped and crashy. Then leave them on that setting for the track. My opinion is that adjusting single adjustable bump/rebound together damper to try to adjust handling characteristics on track is a huge bandaid solution. If your springs, shocks, sways, alignment, pressures and a fair few other things are in the ballpark then the shocks should only be used as the final fine tuning adjustment, and only if you know what the knob does ie. turning a knob that only adjusts high speed compression to try to fix turn in understeer is a bad idea, and will result in atrocious high speed bump compliance.

[Flippit]

mmmm ok makes sense!

So would damper setings at all effect body roll? Also would it have any effect in steering responsivness or is just more so just the rebound and bump?

[stevan]

mmmm ok makes sense!

So would damper setings at all effect body roll? Also would it have any effect in steering responsivness or is just more so just the rebound and bump?

No it won't affect total body roll nor will it alter steering response, like Tom says it just changes the rate at which your car will go up and down over a bump.

[ChargeR]

mmmm ok makes sense!

So would damper setings at all effect body roll? Also would it have any effect in steering responsivness or is just more so just the rebound and bump?

A damper can only affect transient response. So it can affect the rate of body roll as you turn into a corner, but it can not affect the total roll in a steady state corner. Similarly you can get a perceived effect on steering response with a damper change because the car rolls more slowly and loads the tyre more quickly, which I guess could be described as different steering response, but I think it is more accurately just a property of the turn in behaviour of the car.