Damper Setup

[marcush.]

ok .
If you got someone of Bourdais or Vettels talent in the car ,forget about the second you are trying to find ,you might be lucky if you find some tenths.
To answer your question,if your dampers are close in terms of general setup ,and the available adjusters really do what they are supposed to ,you just have to think of the dampers as a timing device in transients.So basically Stiffening a shock slows damper movement and softening accellerates the movement.So a softer setup will always allow the tyre to follow the road and bumps .stiffening up the dampers will give response but very likely sacrifice ultimate grip.
So starting up on the soft side with damper settings is surely a good start and work from there.
Of course ,low speed settings are most important ,as the dampers will always spend most of their time at low piston speed(we have oscillating movement,so th dampers will spend all their time accelerating from zero damper speed)So it is a good idea to leave high speed damping soft as a start and try to get the low speed side working.On non downforce cars ,rebound damping is the strongest tool ,very often damping of bump and rebound is not fully indipendend ,so be aware of this (you need to have proper damping curves of the available clicks and how these influence each other !).
Most drivers will end up with way too stiff damper settings,so be aware of this and make back to back tests.
I would strongly recommend to try and log damperspeed data (linear potentiometers,etc) and do some analysis (damper histogramms).This will help to get you there ,same time spent in low speed b/r same time spent in high speed b/r,
not too much time spent in high speed.
But first of all ,spend a lot of money for the dampers ,a set of ohlins is well worth the horrendous expense ,especially for amateur drivers.
Unfortunatelly ,these are the only ones I honestly can recommend (given my personalexperience)
Having spent some time with dampers in the past ,I was always amazed what some damper manufacturers dare to sell to the world...but sure you can make everything fast,a mediocre set of dampers will not stop a talented driver from winning,but a well set up piece of kit will work wonders to confidence,rest assured.

[Krispy]

Of course ,low speed settings are most important ,as the dampers will always spend most of their time at low piston speed(we have oscillating movement,so th dampers will spend all their time accelerating from zero damper speed)So it is a good idea to leave high speed damping soft as a start and try to get the low speed side working.

Bingo...marcush wins the prize for my earlier question about high speed vs low speed. Also, there was a great damper article in Racecar Engineering back in 06' if memory serves me. I will look through the library and post the exact issue and page number if yall have access to the magizine.

Jersey Tom...Did you have access to a 7 post rig when you worked with FSAE?