First off, not that I don't believe you, but how/who/where was the testing done that you arrived at your 0.97g figure? I ask this because I'd love to test my own car if possible, not because I distrust your figure.
Secondly, your car may not get 1.0g on a skid pad now, but let's say you find a way to get your car to go around that same skidpad of x diameter quick enough to achieve 1g on it; that doesn't automatically mean better overall handling. Conversely, you may have adjusted the car's suspension to the point where, while the car has been optimized to travel in a predefined circle of a specific radius (or should I say, orbit?
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) faster than before, your car may actually have crossed the fine line that makes the car so well-balanced as it is in other driving activities; handling isn't just in the numbers. An alternate, and to me, more important test, is the slalom, as that is a better test of overall balance and control, not just grip around a turn of a certain diameter (and in only one direction, if you haven't tested both directions--I don't know since I have no knowledge of your exact testing methodology). A car can grippier but at the same time twitchier at the limit and/or less refined. A car that can now circle an 80ft skidpad faster than before may suddenly be slower in the slalom due to an off-balance at other steering angles or transients in cornering direction and force. An example of this would be that in many tuning situations, a slight reduction in front suspension firmness might allow sufficient negative camber under cornering load to allow your to reach your 1.0g goal around an 80ft skidpad, but now under transient from one direction to the other, like in a slalom test, your car's responses and feedback will have dulled, making it difficult to achieve a spotless run through the cones, and possibly leading to lower overall speed through the slalom.
I'm not trying to knock on your for asking your question and I know I am not really answering it at all, but I'm just trying to point out that another .03g on a skidpad test average in two directions doesn't necessarily equate to better overall handling, that's all. Even a reduced laptime on a timed course just means you're faster on that track and how it's set up. I'm not trying to diminsh the importance of your tuning attempts either, because in the end, if it's really better, better is better!
Anyhow, my recommendation, other than the sage advice you will likely get in here from a few of our well-seasoned and experienced members, is to check out the short, "Making It Stick," series of articles that were released in Sport Compact Car magazine recently; the information provided there is a veritable fountain of suspension tuning knowledge worth its weight in gold, presented in a well-written format that's short and to the point along with excellent graphics illustrating the stated points in a form that will engage visual learners as well as the literal types.
Btw I'm not trying to be a spokesperson for SCC in any way, but I really love the Making It Stick series of tech articles!
Good luck tuning that ride! It's already pretty damn good though if you're getting close to 1g from a front wheel driver with hardly modified suspension! It just goes to show how well-tuned our cars are from the factory when given proper rubber to prove itself!
-Ed
EDIT: PS, don't forget, that how the car feels is often as important as actual, objective test results. For example, a car that can pull an average slalom at 72mph but is extremely difficult to drive consistently and quickly at the limit is not nearly as good as the same car that's very easy to drive and direct but, "only," gets 70mph in the same slalom, because an easier to drive car means easier repeatability/consistency in the performance of the most important part of any racing equation--the driver (i.e. what's better, you in your own car pulling 72mph through the slalom on the 4th try, but getting no better than 67mph on the first three tries, or you getting 69 or 70mph in every single run out of ten tries?).
EDIT 2: Don't forget other points of practicality as well. I'm assuming yours is a street driven car; I can easily imagine that a car tuned to achieve 1.0g or higher on an 80ft skidpad with suspension still supple enough to drive in comfort daily on real streets may have so much negative camber dialed (particularly in the front of a tC, although factory stock tuning to me looks like understeer city since the rear double-wishbone's stock camber is more negative than the front's macstruts are set for--is the front camber adjustable from the factory on tC?) that tire wear will be uneven since it spends most of its time driven as most street cars are, not constantly in a circle at a preset speed. Everything really needs to have overall balance as the primary consideration before tuning.
