Miata Mailing List: April 1992, Message #12
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   From: (none)
Subject: Shocks and Stuff
   Date: (none)

Alan Dahl says:

At the BSCC autocross yesterday I got to make one run in a friends Miata.
His car is identical to mine (Millen exhaust, K&N filter, my old tires)
except he went with GAB shocks, while I use Konis.  The GABs adjust for
both rebound and compression (one knob) while the Konis adjust only for
compression.

To which I reply:

Sounds like your friend's car is very similar to mine.  I've got the HKS
exhaust system (the same one Millen sells), a K&N filter, *my* old tires
(185/60-14 Yokohama A-008RTUs until my new RS-2s show up) on Panasport 
Pro Rally alloys, and GAB shocks.  I also have Racing Beat's front sway 
bar with adjustable links on mine.

Alan continues:

He spent quite a lot of time fiddling with the settings until he finally
found a setting he liked.  His times were not all that great, however.
I went and took a fun run in his car and it felt *very* different than
mine.  It was stiffer (and the GABs were not on full hard) and very,
well, darty.  The car seemed to immediately react to steering inputs.
I had a hard time keeping from over-inputting the car.  On the other
hand it was much harder to toss the rear end of the car the way I'm used
to.  This made it difficult to do slaloms as fast, but 180s seemed
more controled.

To which I reply:

I have also spent a lot of time goofing with my shock settings (and tire
pressures and alignment settings).  My times are typically "not all that
great" either (whatever that means; I'm usually in the hunt for a trophy
but rarely at the top).  My car is also *very* quick to react to inputs,
but I like it that way (having grown up driving a bugeye Sprite).  I've
had no trouble getting the rear out on mine, but I don't think that has
a whole lot to do with the shocks.  I found it seems to depend much more
on tire pressures and (particularly) alignment.  What settings was your
friend using?

Getting to the heart of the matter, Alan continues:

Anyway, I have some questions for you GAB driver's out there:

	1) What settings do you use?  Do you have a front swaybar?

		I have found that 5 in the front and 8 in the rear
		works well on my car.  As noted above, I do run a
		front bar, so I have to dial the fronts back a bit
		to compensate for the understeer it induces.
	
	2) Why did you pick GAB over Koni?  Driving style?  Millen's
	   recommendation?  Adjustable rebound?

		Four reasons, two of which (Millen's recommendation
		and adjustable rebound) you mention above.  The GABs
		are also much easier than the Konis to install since
		they don't require the perches to be welded, and are
		incredibly convenient to adjust.

	3) Which do you think is better now that you've bought GABs,
	   GAB or Koni?

		I've never driven a Miata equipped with Konis, so I
		have no good answer for this one.  If I had it to do
		over again, I still go with the GABs for the reasons
		I've mentioned above.

Alan's summary:

I expect that when all in said and done and we've done some side-by-side
comparison's it will all be a wash.  It could get very expensive for
one of us if one of the shocks turns out to be clearly superior.

And mine:

Unless you're running the same tires at the same pressures and identical
alignment settings, I'd be very wary of drawing any conclusions about the
superiority of one shock over the other.  Better still would be to swap
shocks on the same car and compare the times.

Just as a side note, I've changed my alignment settings a tad from last
season, and that seemed to make quite a bit of difference by itself.  As
soon as I've had a chance to compare my times on our "standard" course at
Bennett Raceway (a local kart track), I'll post results.  For those who
might be curious, here are the old and new settings:

		Setting			1991		1992
		Front Camber		-1.0		-0.8
		Caster*			-3.0		-4.5
		Front Toe		.125" out	same
		Rear Camber**		-1.8		-1.5
		Rear Toe		neutral		same

*  This was the critical change.  I needed more "feel" from the steering.
** This was more to benefit street driving.  Less squirrely on wet roads.

A final note for those of you whose street tires need replacement:  I've
just put a set of Yokohama AVS Intermediates (185/60-14s) on my car, and
they are terrific on both wet and dry surfaces.  If I didn't know better,
I'd swear the car is as fast on them as it is on the RTUs.

Steve Bruun
att!ihlpe!sebruun