For just driving around on the street the settings you describe are probably OK.
I don't think anyone can really give you an autocross ballpark setup for your particular vehicle and your driving style. To do testing/setup right you need a place to do it safely.
Sign up for the very first practice event anywhere close to home. Go to that event with an open mind, a good tire pressure guage, and a tire pyrometer if you have one.
Here are the steps:
1. Set all 4 shocks at full soft and your tire pressures at your known baseline best.
2. Do 1 run.
3. Focus on how the car handles steady state corners.
4. DO NOT PULL BACK INTO GRID! You need to think a minute.
5. How did the car feel? Think about these items:
a. Corner turn response - responsive or sluggish?
b. Corner entry attitude - understeer or oversteer?
c. Mid corner attitude - understeer or oversteer?
d. Corner exit attitude - understeer or oversteer.
6. Make a single shock adjustment (one click) according to the feel. Stiffen the rear to get rid of understeer, stiffen the front to get rid of oversteer and/or help corner entry.
7. Pull back into grid and make another run.
8. Repeat until you have steady state cornering as good as possible.
9. Keeping your shocks settings where they are (best steady state settings), start evaluating vehicle performance in slaloms and chicanes (quick transitions). Focus on making the car react quickly without making the car too unstadble in steady state cornering. In a sense, you are taking out some steady state cornering stability because autocross is really about transitions. You will also start working on alignment to add better transitory response (think toe-out in front and rear).
10. After you think you have the shock settings correct, start the process again working on air pressures. Focus on subtle adjustments of vehicle balance using tire air pressures.
11. After you are done with ALL of that, do a run and immediately check tire temps across the face of the tread to be sure your not overheating anything.
Good luck!
-----------------
John Coffey
johnc@betamotorsports.com
[This message has been edited by johnc (edited January 10, 2001).]
