krazik

if you haven't had an alignment how do you know that your rear isn't toed out or pointing in some odd direction?

Gotta start there. What you describe isn't normal. Alignment is critcal on the s2k

RED MX5

[QUOTE=Ek9,Jul 13 2006, 10:41 PM]I'm not arguing with you but to me, oversteer implies I'm going fast enough to be near the grip limit on the tire. I'm not even close.

I've driven Miata's too and been in many an instructor RX-7 and they were nothing like this. I knew the AP1's were considered squirly.

Spec_Ops2087

Are you blipping the throttle when shifting during the corner -- which btw shifting / braking in a corner is a big no no. If your not blipping the throttle you could be locking your wheels up sending the back end out. At fall colors I did that once (shifted in a corner without tapping the throttle) and my rear end went out.

Might be your driving style rather then the car

RED MX5

That's a scary thought, but you're right.

(The rear tire choice would only make it worse.)

Ek9

It's simply pushing the clutch in that makes it react. Cornering, not particularly fast but, enough to feel some g force, push the clutch in to shift and the rear end moves outwards as soon as the weight transfers forwards off the back wheels. It's almost like the rear is steering, which is why I was focusing somewhat on the BSK which dials out "rear steering".

What I'm not getting through I guess, is how low a threshold is needed for this to happen. Normal driving on the street and I can feel it. The more weight transfer, the more it happens. On my other car, it takes a hard lift at a good speed to get any rotation.

Alignment first, then I'll get back to this post. Probably be Monday at the earliest I guess.

Elistan

What happens when you are just going in a straight line? If you accelerate and let off the gas, does the car behave strangely?

If it does, there's a 99.99% probability there's one of two issues. Either one rear tire has a different pressure than the other, or one tire is more worn than the other. (In either case, one rear wheel's rolling diameter is different than the other, which coupled with the LSD leads to the car pushing to one side or the other.)

Ek9

No, it's great in a straight line. Did a quick blast to 95 MPH over the Brunswick bridge this afternoon and it felt great. Brakes feel really good too. All in all, I love the car. Just need to take care of this one issue.

Spec_Ops2087

I'd definatly check the alignment. And before you do that, as Elistan said, check the tire pressure. I have undersized tires for my rear during the winter (smaller tire is better) 225 all seasons and I don't have any problems. Something isn't right but its not the 225 size tires

RED MX5

If you can, get copies of both the before and after alignment specs.
(I'm guessing that the rear toe is probably off.)

Fongu

The car is definitely sensitive to alignment changes. This is a must to check.

Your tire stagger is different from stock = oversteer, but that's not what you're feeling.

I found the rear would skip or swim on mid-corner bumps because of the bumpsteer. BSK helped that a lot and allowed me to reduce the amount of toe in the rear.

The car is sensitive to any weight transfer, including clutch in's. Assuming that since you have track experience you can feel squirlyness more than a typical driver. You are required and greatly rewarded for smoothness and being able to control weight transfer. So no funny business like shifting mid-corner (unless you're a machine at not upsetting the car) or yanking the steering and flooring it like an AWD or FWD.