KW Suspension testing at Irwindale Speedway
October 14, 2009 Uncategorized
Ten days prior to the Formula Drift season finale KW suspension invited its sponsored teams within the series to a private test session at Irwindale speedway.Both myself and Robbie made the early trip out to get some vital practice runs in a week before the event and to learn how to extract even more performance from the suspension on our cars.
On hand for the day would be Klaus Wohlfarth, managing director and chief engineer for KW.The day began with a short briefing from Klaus explaining his vast experience in motor sport and some of the techniques and theories used when developing suspension for any given car.
It is a rare opportunity to have such an experienced and specialist engineer track side in the world of drifting so the Dynamic Autosport crew wasted no time in walking Klaus around both cars, taking notes on the current settings of our Variant 3 coilovers.
More after the jump….
The next step for me was to get some track time and try to learn yet another all new lay out before I could push the car and begin making some changes to our settings.After figuring out the infield first I spent some time adapting to the famous Irwindale bank before pushing the car high up on the corner, flat out in 4th gear.
One set of Hankook RS3’s down and it was time for some changes.The Subaru has always been able to generate a massive amount of traction but front end grip has been an issue this season.Klaus made this his first objective and began by adjusting the front compression with out telling me what exactly he was changing.
Back on track and an improvement was immediately noticeable, the car transitioned off the bank with much more stability and carried far more speed through the slower 3rd gear infield corners.On returning to the pit area Klaus decided on another adjustment to the front shock settings and sent me back out.Again the car improved, this time the steering response on the bank was greatly improved and the transition off the bank could be taken with minimal adjustments to the throttle.
Some more runs with the car at this setting and I was satisfied that we had achieved considerably more front end grip. Another set of RS3’s gone and while they were being changed I had a chance to talk with Klaus about what exactly he had adjusted on the car.
Watching from track side he felt that the rear settings could now be adjusted to help the car initiate into the bank with less effort.One quick lap to scrub the new tires before Klaus could work his magic, a quick adjustment and I was back out.Attacking the bank in 4th gear the car certainly initiated faster and felt more predictable as I placed it closer to the wall over the following few runs.
Watching closely as before from the pit area Klaus was happy with the car’s behaiviour and asked how I felt about the changes so far.Since it was my first time on the Irwindale bank in the Subaru I decided to leave the settings as they were now and spend the remainder of the session fine tuning my lines with my spotter Jeff and gaining confidence on the bank ahead of the final event on the 17th.
It was a great experience to work with Klaus and all the people from KW USA, thanks so much to KW for the opportunity and all their efforts through out the season.The Rockstar Energy Drink / Hankook Tire Impreza is now in better shape than ever and I’ll be pushing it hard for a podium place this weekend at the Formula D finals, Flat Out as always.
Excellent coverage of this session can also be found on Urban Racer HERE
