adjustable dampers

[nealtovsen@yahoo.com (Neal Tovsen)]

First, let's get this out of the way: I have NEVER heard a single good
thing from a V-Dubber running Tokikos. Period. I've heard good things
about Tokikos by people driving Japanese or American cars, but the 4-5
people I've talked to who owned Tokikos for their VW all said they SUCK.
If you want adjustment, Koni all the way.

Second, Larry's right: damper=suspension, dampener=what babies are to
diapers. :)

Now, the adjustability: (sorry this is so long-winded)

YYMV, of course, but I disagree with Larry's opinion, wholeheartedly. 

On the street, you want comfort. I soften my Konis as much as possible
without allowing the car to continue oscillating after bumps. With my
single-adj's on my '88 16v, that's 1/4 turn in front and full soft in
the rear. I also run the tires at a nice moderate pressure
all-round...usually 35psi.

At an autocross, I use the adjustability along with tire pressures to
dial-in the settings. With my old single-adjustable Konis, I've found
that the best setting is usually somewhere in the vacinity of full-stiff
rear and 1/2 turn front, so I start there. Between tire pressures and
the rebound knobs, I dial the car for the particular track. Asphalt vs.
concrete is different. Fast, sweeping courses are VERY different than
courses with super-quick transitions. 

Everything is a compromise, and your tires make a huge impact on that.
For example, with my Yokohamas I used to stiffen the front to
near-full-stiff on fast sweeping courses on concrete because the car was
too twitchy. Smoothness is paramount on these courses, and spinning at
70mph is SCARRY. But on tight courses on lower-traction asphalt I
welcomed the twitchy-ness because it helped me get into the next corner.
Go into the corner hot, trail-brake, rotate, and then stand on the gas
to keep it from spinning. It also allowed the car to rotate predictably
in a constant-speed slalom.

With the new Falkens, it's the opposite. Strangely, the Falkens seem to
HATE sweeping corners, but they're excellent in transitions and slaloms.
Now I'm finding myself understeering BIG TIME on sweepers. I'm running
full-stiff with huge tire pressures in the rear and soft in the front,
but I still haven't figured it out yet. :(

Now I've also made the move to custom Koni double-adjustable shocks on
the front with coilovers all-round. That has added yet another variable
into the equation...I have a lot to learn about this setup! I'm back to
square one, but now I have a steeper learning curve that includes all
the tools I need to make the car handle like shit. :) The car felt like
total crap to me last weekend, but then again I was right in the hunt
for the lead, so go figgure. I ended up 5th. 5th doesn't sound great,
but 1st-7th were all within about 1.5sec, so I'm happy.  We have some
bad-ass STS/STX drivers in my division, so just hanging with them is a
good thing.

Enough rambling...

Neal

-----Original Message-----
From: scirocco-l-admin@scirocco.org
[mailto:scirocco-l-admin@scirocco.org] On Behalf Of Larry
Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2002 10:26 PM
To: eseo@thecanyons.com; Scirocco List
Subject: Re: adjustable dampers


Erik (and others)-
  I may be off-base here, but I have always thought there is ONE damper
(not dampener) setting that is correct for any one spring rate/car
weight combo.  It is not a question of "stiffening the shocks up" when
you 'crossing and then softening them for the street. Once adjustable
dampers are set correctly for a particular spring rate, that's it....you
don't change them (from the ideal) to match the car's intended use for
that day. 
 The adjustability aspect is to A) let you match spring rates when you
change springs (on a race car, usually) to match different tracks/
conditions, and/or B) allow you to compensate for normal wear of the
shock....letting you keep the damping correct for more months/years than
a non-adustable unit would last.
Am I wrong, all you racers??  Neal?  Shawn?  Scott? others?

Larry  sandiego16v
Also, Tokiko Illumina or Koni Sports? I'd like to have the adjustability
there so I can turn the dampening down when I'm not autocrossing the
thing.
Eh?