My car currently has 234K miles and is most likely running on the factory

suspension. I want to upgrade it but my future plans are to auto-x it. I want a

pretty aggressive setup since it wont be a daily driver but I still want it to be

street legal to drive to and from the track. Any suggestions on where to start and

where to purchase the parts?

Thanks,

Javier

 

Well, take a look at my signature for the cheap way to do it (although my struts/shocks were more high end). Not a bad setup for autocross. The next step up from this would be coil overs, but that is a big jump up in price.

 

What would you suggest for bushings and motor/tranny mounts?

Also, what about sway bars?

 

The cheapest route would be to just go RacingBeat package $400something (springs and sway bars) and then Tokico shock set for $160 on ebay.

Then invest in bushings bushings bushings.

At least, that's going to be my route pretty damn soon.

 

Check here for bushings and most other parts. Billy Waits is a great guy, and very active in this forum. Respeed actually listens to what the customers want, so they get my vote. Prices are great too. http://www.mrcmfg.com/respeed/catalog/index.php

 

What bushings would you suggest?

EDIT:sorry didn't see the above post.

 

Start with the basics, tie rods, idler arm, ball joints and wheel bearings. The get the steering sector in spec.

As far as a track setup, what's your budget? On the cheap side, you can do the RB spring and sway bar package with Tokico blues. At the other end, you can go coilovers, camber plates and a tri-link/panhard set up. Add to either package poly bushings or spherical ends.

Check out some of the setups in the race car tech section, and visit the ReSpeed site. ISC Racing also has parts for 1st gen race suspension.

 

Thanks trochoid I'll check out the race section. Im trying to keep suspension under $1k but at the same time want something that will hold its own on the track. I did the tie
rods not too long ago and did the wheel bearings recently with the brakes. I definitely
need to do the idler arm and most likely the ball joints. The steering is kind of sloppy. Im hoping tightening the nut on the gear box along with the idler arm fixes that.

On a side note my damn steering wheel pops out about an inch. Does anyone know a fix for this. I tried searching but never found one.

 

The collapsable steering rack might have broken. There is a small plastic tab on there where in the event of a crash the rack will collapse and not impale you. This could be a major safety hazzard.

 

That is the route I am following as well, except I'll be making sure I get brand new shocks by ordering the illuminas from racingbeat or somewhere else that they will definitely new considering that a friend of mine bought his off of ebay and was told they were going to be new, but blew them shortly afterwards because they had been used.

 

This is the company I was going to buy them off of. Cheapest I have found, although I was thinking of just one stop shopping at REspeed.


The only thing I would like to know is if Tokico would carry out a warrenty if bought through these people. I wonder if they're an Authorized dealer. I didn't notice that on their page.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/TOKIC...spagenameZWDVW

 

try this set up, hard to beat the price, www.racersareme.com

Definately make sure the stock parts are in good shape, then remember any flexible bushing makes the suspension mounting point move and makes tuning more dificult, therefore the less movement the better the end result, which is why the progression is rubber/poly./delrin/rod ends. This progression has a down side though, comfort as an everyday driver suffers more and more as the bushings/locators get stiffer.

I highly recommend anything made by Eibach for springs also Koni and Belstein for dampers.

Personally, for my road car, I kept my stock front anti-sway bar with poly bushings, I removed my rear anti-sway bar entirely, before you do this I always recommend that you go to an autocross and remove one end of the rear bar( make sure the end link is easy to undo by doing this at home before the track day), run the car back to back with the bar connected and disconnected then you can see for yourself if you prefer understeer or oversteer.

Some noteable companies such as BMW and Lotus use spring rates instead of anti-sway bars to keep the car level in cornering. Others use anti-sway bars over springs.

My style is to have the tail loose and steer the car through apexes/apei? with the go pedal.

Steve

 

I like That idea

Can not speak for the but with us you would be purchasing new and manufacturer warranty shocks.

-billy

 

Have you seen our special on shocks and springs in the group buy section?

-billy

 

If you're going to go with Illumina struts, check at Respeed first. They offer another model designed for a different car, which will supposedly perform better than the one offered for ours. I wish I had known before I made my purchase...

 

^^^

I'd like to know more about this. That'd be worth it.

 

According to the FSM, you need a spring tension gauge to check and adjust your steering gear preload. I'd say to stick with thier instructions too, recirculating ball steering gearboxes can suffer a lot of wear from improper preload adjustment.

 

Here's my setup, which is pretty rewarding with a good set of DOT racing tires:

Tokico Blues/HP's on all four corners. Illuminas would be better, but the HPs are more than adequate for Solo II.

Racing Beat Springs. These won't drop your car much, if at all, but are a nice improvement from stock.

Racing Beat front anti-roll bar. This is the single biggest change/improvement to my cars handling that I've done. The improved flatness of the car during cornering makes a world of difference.

Front strut brace. Tieing the front strut towers together and triangulating to the firewall removes some of the sloppiness from the front end on corner entry. It's a worthwile upgrade, particularly when coupled with the RB front anti-roll bar.

Remove your rear anti-roll bar. I've tried with it on and with it off and the best solution for maximum cornering stability is to have it off. Right now my car will turn in crisply and hold a very neutral feel through most corners with a mild touch of understeer. This allows me to attack at a much higher speed than would be possible if the rear bar was installed and I was constantly having to finesse the back end from stepping out.

Camber/Caster plates. This allows you to set your alignment for racing at 1.5-2 deg negative camber and all the positive caster you'd like and then switch it back for street use. They are expensive, however, and can be problematic when using stock sized springs. A good alignment with a decent amount of negative camber is essential to improving turn-in and makes for a much more enjoyable vehicle.

Wide wheels and DOT racing tires. When you're first starting out, racing on street rubber isn't bad. You'll soon find the limit of what you can accomplish without proper rubber and wider wheels. I've got 13x7s all-around with a set of the new A048s from Yokohama. The improved traction from the wider contact patch and the proper rubber dramtically increases the cornering ability of the car and makes for a much more confident handler. Once you get used to the extra grip you'll see your times start to drop dramatically. This season I've been able to use the extra grip to move up from the bottom of the pack to the middle and there 's still room for improvement.

Last, but not least: Limited Slip Differential. If you have a GSL then you've already got one, but if you don't, you'll want it. Adding a LSD allows you to put far more power down on corner exit than would otherwise be possible. It also has somewhat of a calming effect on cornering as the rear wheels are trying to turn at the same rate, causing understeer.

I don't have poly bushings in my car except for my front anti-roll bar, but that's next on my list.

Good luck and keep us appraised on your progress.