Yesterday was my first autocross since I installed the new suspension and sways. I have tracked the car before, and it performs amazing!! This was the first time on a tight track (think fast ovals at your turning radius) and the car SUCKED! I had the wheel full locked to the left and the car would not turn in, it was just pushing the front tires. I have ToyoR888's on so I know its not grip, Im thinking its the front sway bar is too tight, right?

 

HAHAHA now that's a FUNNY POST

 

Sounds like that is the source of the problem.

 

Great thanks! Will try to go a little softer and see how it goes!

 

Could be the front sway (or the whole sway setup) or the alignment is completely wrong

 

Save yourself some time:

Contact a reputable local Porsche performance shop or one of the many fine sponsors on this web site for a starting point...

Who is the sway bar manufacturer?

 

I will get in trouble for saying this, but after you get the suspension checked out and an allignement done, check to make sure the issue is not your driving. On my car, if you are overdriving the car, the front end will push really bad. I had a set of yokahama's, and they would always push. I did two things; I switched to the Bridgestone RE-11's and slowed down through the course. My times went down substantially. If this was your first time on a really tight course, you really might have been over driving the car and pushing into the corners way too fast.

This year, I took a driving class that was hosted by our sportscar club that was geared towards autocrossing and it really helped me out a tremendous amount. They also worked on not overdriving the car and overextending the grip that your tires can perform at. If you were going into turns trying to brake and turn at the same time, you were overextending their abilities and your car will plow.

 

I have driven this car really hard before, and have autoX'd it in the past w/o these problems. I installed coil overs, and put my sway bars on full stiff then this was my first time back at the track since then. I placed first in my division on the day, but I KNOW I could have been faster! My car use to be *** heavy and would slide out on every turn (with stock tires), not I can't get the *** to slide, it just pushes the front...

 

Ok I understand. You might want to make sure the suspension is not too stiff. In autocrossing it is good to have a little bit of leaning.

 

Ok, here's e kicker... Can I have a great track setup and still have a great road course setup without switching anything?

 

I run an OEM ROW performance alignment on my car, and it is great on the track, and as a DD. I am sure it would be good for AutoX too.

 

for auto-x you do not want stiff car at all. 10/10 corniring at slow 20-40mph speeds is totally different deal compared to 8/10 track cornering at 50-70mph.

so, I beleive you got jic cross COs. assuming you have setup similar to mine - stock gt3 sway bars - put front sway bar to second hole from softest, rear bar to medium position as starting point, set all shocks to softest position, then do 2 clicks fronts, 3 clicks rear - that is your initial setup.
take a run. if car still pushes - try to stiffen up rear bar, if it STILL pushes - soften up front bar. do not adjust COs yet. after that bar setup you can start to play with shocks again to see if stiffening up rear will make car more balanced.

I run on bars at medium holes, JRZs are set to 3 clicks front, 4 clicks rear compression, 5 rebound all around. for track I set rebound to 6 front, 7 rear, compression 5 front, 6 rear and it is way way stiffer. running such setup at auto-x results in constant sliding.

also, all that for me works only with my proper rubber - 265/335. with narrow rubber on 8"/10" rims no matter how I play with setup car pushes all the time. it is a rule of thumb for auto-x - run on widest tires you can fit.

it is very tricky to get that 'right' combination of tires, camber and sway bars to get car to behave as you want it to be. overall for auto-x you want a little bit of oversteer, so you front is like on rails but you should be able to get car to drift a bit on throttle when needed.

 

The set up in the front is too tight. You need to make the rear tighter or make the front softer

 

or try it my way ( me goofing off on a "fun run" in one of my old cars)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbPRwuWbWeQ

 

Haha lve it!