As many of you who have put adjustable shocks in their mini have discovered it is not possible to access the adjuster at the top of the shock with the suspension installed on the car. The quick way to change an adjustment at the top of the shock (generally rebound) is to undo the top mounts on both sides of the car and press down on the rear suspension to give you enough space to get your hand in there to make an adjustment. It's a pain and it's not exactly "quick". It still probably takes 20 minutes. This obviously puts the mini at a disadvantage when one of the shock adjustments is essentially not accessible. This is something that has irritated me for a while and it looks like it might have finally gotten fixed. Unless I'm reading this wrong...

:disclaimer: for those of you who don't race competitively with SCCA yes we realize this is a stupid rule and no we don't care how much you dislike the SCCA Solo rulebook.

It all started with the April Fastrack which had a change proposal to clarify the shock adjustment allowance.
This is great and all except this is what the rulebook currently says (bold is my emphasis)...
The bold text above is what really screwed the mini owners since in order to reach the top of the shocks from the interior of the car you had to cut through what is essentially the wheel well which is what made it illegal. The April Fastrack change proposal doesn't help us because it doesn't change the definition of interior panels.

Well everyone says if you want something changed you have to write a letter right? Well I wrote a letter to the SEB explaining why their shock adjustment rules suck and provided a suggested rewording. And wouldn't you know it those Street Advisory Committee members apparently thought I wasn't a complete nutter. They used my exact suggested wording (well they changed bodywork to body panels but same difference). Unless I'm crazy we now have an allowance to cut a hole in the top of the wheel well to access the rear shock adjustment.

This is what the Tech Bulletin says now
Tech bulletins are effective immediately right? So it's time to grab your hole saws and add some much needed access to the rear shocks.

 

nice!

this was one of my big turn offs from getting an adjustable setup in the rear, good to see it getting done. in theory though, once you get optimal damping, you shouldn't have to touch it right? :P

 

So, if your reading is correct and it is legal.... Please, please write it up and take pictures so I don't screw it up.

 

Like Kyoo, I subscribe to the theory there's an optimal damper for your car, so I don't want or need adjustables. There's something to be said for something you can't screwe up yourself.

 

That's a great theory but IMO it doesn't really translate to the real-world. You can get optimal damping for specific conditions with specific tires at specific sites. But what happens when you go from asphalt to concrete? What about when it rains? Even if lets say you're a set it and forget it person... what about when you're doing your testing to figure out where to set it? The wife and I did a TnT a little while ago and we had to drop the rear suspension 3 times to change rebound over the course of the day. What a pain. Now all I have to do is pop the hatch and twist a little ****.

There is already a writeup floating around here somewhere for drilling the holes. It's not particularly difficult. I'm not yet sure how I'm going to attach the extended adjuster to the top of the shock. Wilcox is also on the hunt for something that will work with his HVTs so hopefully a solution will be found.

 

good point. i would say you're not "supposed" to depend on changing car behavior with shock adjustments, but our options are definitely limited, and it seems getting this car set up "wrong" in the rear often leads to faster times

 

Thanks for writing the letter.

All the best,

Charlie