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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chris Stephens" data-source="post: 1479285" data-attributes="member: 24095">(ORIGINALLY WRITTEN IN LATE OCTOBER)The last points event of the season was last weekend. I had tossed around whether or not to go ahead and put the parts I did have on the car and whether it would make it better or worse. I figured if I put the rear coilovers that I had on without putting the front coilovers on, it might loosen the car waaay up, which might be more desirable than the understeering pig we had driven at the last AutoX. So I put the rear coilovers on and took it for a drive and it was much looser. Jumped kind of hot on the interstate and it felt like the back end was going to come around on it.Then we decided to put the new coilover struts (MM Race RA-2s) on the front without the new springs, since the front springs and coilover kits still hadn’t made it in yet. I’m glad we swapped the struts though...one of the old Tokico Illuminas had ZERO rebound. Pushed it down and it had very little resistance and never came back up on its own. The passenger side wasn’t quite as bad.It definitely felt a whole lot better on the test drive, but was still locking up the right front wheel under braking. Will probably need to play with brake bias and improve the rear brakes a little once everything else is done. Taking away the one good aspect of the car (nosediving that gave us super good braking) will probably hurt still, but I figured with actual working front struts and the stiffened rear that loosened the car a bit, it would be better than last event. At least we might be able to get the car to turn in using some throttle.So the final event rolled around and for the first time in…ever, it felt like we were driving a racecar! Car was much more composed this time around. Marginally faster, but waaaay more composed. Lateral transitions were quicker. Makes me wonder how much better we would’ve done all this season if I’d checked the struts earlier…I really should have. But, live and learn, I guess. The car did have some weird things going on because of the major mismatch in the front and rear. It alternated between tight and loose, depending on the spot on course. There were 4 spots, two lefts and two rights, where the car wanted to push, but you could get it to turn with the throttle when you needed. I did have one run at the end of the morning where I pretty much skated the whole way through. Not a fast time, but I did get a pretty good feel for the looseness of the car on that run. The key to going fast ended up being more throttle everywhere on course. That kept the rear loose and turned better times than trying to stay super composed the entire time.One thing that is still just as bad as before is braking….it was really bad. A quick brake jab (not a particularly hard one either) locked them up. The same pattern every time, too, right front would lock and pull the car to the right, then the left would grab and it would jerk back to the left.Final points event <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCKWf4I2QKtjwIoP2TSaBTzZNT6JMfrO5" target="_blank">videos here</a>.My cousin’s opinion was that we should leave the 425 coilover springs out and just run the 650lb stock-location springs up front. His thought was that stiffer springs might make the braking worse than it is now. I posted that question in a Facebook group I’m in that’s geared toward AutoX/Road Racing. Obviously it’s my car, but he does have a lot of experience, so I wanted to get advice on how to fix that issue once we got there and whether it would get better or worse once we put the coilovers on. The general consensus was that the stiffer fronts would help the issue, not make it worse. I may still have to play with the brake bias once I have the rest of the car set up the way I plan to long term, but that the locking up issue shouldn't be as bad as it is now.It's been a fun first year of AutoCrossing and a fairly successful year in general for getting my car setup dialed in. I definitely have improved my driving a lot. And the car should be much better on the track and autocross course than it was before. I got a trailer and a lot of work done on my truck for trailering my car to events.<img src="https://trackmustangsonline.com/attachments/122948484_872462076828885_5493298614254124590_n-jpg.59130/" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /><img src="https://trackmustangsonline.com/attachments/122893948_266838331404280_7774765418650958271_n-jpg.59131/" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />(END OF OCTOBER COMMENTARY)</blockquote>