Playing a bit of catch up on the threads, and noticed this.

Are you sure you don't know trailbraking USDM drivers?

I know:

* NASA instructors who teach FF trailbraking techniques to upper level Group 2 drivers, and Group 3 drivers who ask them along.

*Some very successful Honda Challenge drivers (including the H1 and H2 champions in '02), who trail brake as a matter of course.

Having observed the Spoon Sports #96 car up close, and having talked to Ichisima about the differences between USDM and JDM racing setups, the biggest difference physically seems to be that the JDM drivers run more extreme camber settings (negative) on the front, and have bigger swaybars on the back of the car.

When everything's said and done, the JDM and USDM cars appear to have the same handling dynamics, but they achieve it differently.

The USDM way is cheaper, which is a consideration for students.

A couple of years ago, I bought Spoon springs (heavy front) for my ITR, without really telling anybody I was doing it or consulting anybody.

They were a little upset w/me because simply buying the springs, and knowing the purpose I had in mind, they felt this was detrimental and they'd be getting bad publicity for it. It really didn't do what I wanted, and in getting suggestions for sorting it out correctly, AJ Racing (Spoon distributor for North America) advised me that -2.5 negative camber on the front would be a part of the solution.

I'm now on revalved Koni Yellows, 400# springs front, 500# springs rear, and the car's a delight to drive on street or track. Swaybars OEM. It fits perfectly into NASA Group 3 but it can still be driven to and from the track in complete comfort.

I have heard the comment about JDM-exclusive trailbraking before, and I'm not really sure where that comes from. Perhaps it has to do w/all the videos we get from them, which videos have a little screen focused on the pedal activity.

I think that most of the people who watch those tapes are not at a developmental stage where they'd be considering trailbraking in an FF car, and they're not at a stage of development that their instructors are comfortable talking to them about it. So they continue to believe that it's a JDM characteristic.

I watched the RealTime DC2 cars in the only World Challenge race I've seen at VIR Full, and those guys were definitely trailbraking.... Definitely. LOL...

Personally, with my setup, I trailbrake a little, but it's not extreme, since I'm out there to have fun and fully intend to drive the car home and not spin out in front of the Cobra I just passed on the straight.

Example I can think of is Summit Turn 5.

If your lap times are faster, you can get by some very fast cars between Turn 4 and Turn 5, but you'll be faced with having to slow down from 110 to 45 very quickly. An ITR will be borderline ABS even on good R compounds w/that manoeuvre, and you'll have to trailbrake into the turn to control it.

If you time it right, you're on the gas again right when you get to the apex and the Cobra or Porsche driver is mentally scratching his head wondering how you did that.

As the years go by, it seems that more and more USDM racing outfits are using the JDM heavy nose setup but with heavier bars in the rear and radical camber up front to make up for it. Although I'm not at the stage of development where I'd want to start over w/a different suspension, I know there's got to be something to it. I believe that Jason Franza, the ECHC H2 champion in '03 has a heavy nose setup.

That refers to the DC2 people. I've noticed that all the DC5 and EP3 people seem to agree on heavy spring rears. Even the Mugen Street setup (on my daily driver EP3) is heavy springs on the rear.