I understand that yall help people out with this simple question alot. How to make my car handle better? I currently have a 89 TII and i autocross. I dont care about how rough my car rides this is a sacrifice i am willing to make. I am on a budget of about 600$. I know that tires will make a significant improvement but that will come with wheels. I was just wondering about this set up and what others thought about the performance gain.

Suspention Tech front and rear sway bars F 1.0625" R 3/4"
eurothane bushing kit

 

What tires are you on now? For a budget setup I'd use the stock S5 TII wheels, they're light and wide enough for 225s. Get some BFG Gforce sports, they're cheap and sticky.

With your budget the sway bars and bushing sound good assuming you can't find a good deal on aftermarket shocks and camber/caster plates in the FS section. The stock TII springs and adjustable shocks is a good budget setup. The biggest difference will be with stiffer springs, shocks and camber/caster plates. With the stock alignment settings (+1R/0 F) the car gains positive camber under cornering causing understeer.

 

I have thrown around the idea of using the stock wheels, but because of me doing autox I am wanting to spend alittle bit more on good tires and only using them on the track. Some thing like the nto1 or another r compound havend choose yet.

 

a cheap improvement i found to work really well is wheel spacers. i put 1/4 inch ones in for a better look for the rear tires and you'd be surprised how much they actually help....and for 7 bucks a piece

another "must have" in my book is a rear strut bar. It takes a little modifying of the metal around the struts, but its 100% worth it.

 

What would the widest spacer i could go with on stock wheels with 225 in the front and 235 in the rear?

 

i currently have the gay *** 4 lug. i'm not 100% sure on how long the studs are if yours if a 5 lug. but if u do have a four lug, 1/4" is the biggest ur gonna want to go for the studs... and depending on your offset, who knows how wide the tires are gonna be. i'm running 205/55/16s...so its up to u. ill post pics of my car tonight

 

Mine is a 5 lug with the stock wheels so a +40mm offset.

 

For tires, I would recommend the Falken Azenis. They out perform and cost less than practally every tire in its league.
Also, for a budget friendly strut, the KYB AGX can be had for under 400 shipped to your door. I got mine from an Ebay vendor and could be happier. The adjustments make a huge difference in ride quality and handling.

 

First of all, what class are you in/do you want to be in? Your best bet for now is to stay in stock class if you can, the PAX is your friend.

For stock class maybe a front bar, the ST's good because it's adjustable (the S4 one anyway), but then you might have too much understeer. If you can't do two sets of wheels and tires then I'd suggest getting some 225/50/16 Azenis, they're cheap, sticky, decent street tires. If you can afford it, then a second set of stock wheels and some R's will do you the most good (Kumho V710 are generally regarded as being the best). Yes lighter is better, but lighter is more expensive and the weight has more effect on feel than speed really anyway. That said if you can find some decent aftermarket 16x7's with an offset of more than 34mm that are lighter than stock then get them (that's as far out as you can legally go, more offset and you can space them out).

Spacers have the effect of softening your suspension, but give a little more clearance to run some really wide tires and give a wider stance. It's no magic pill. You really should be using longer studs though, ARP's for late model Corvettes fit. The longer ones in front and shorter ones in rear gives you studs about 1" longer all around. If you can't get at least 8 full turns of the lug nut, then you NEED longer studs.

 

agreed. thus, 1/4" on the 4 lug system is as big as you'd want to go.

do the 5 lug hubs have longer studs?

 

Falken Azenis. There is no better way to go faster for $600.

 

I know al about the falken azenis i have felt first hand how good they are. I run in the sm2 class because of my turbo back exhaust instead of cat back(its the kicker that threw me over) My current problem is understeer. That is why I am wanting to go with the size sways I found because of larger rear sway than the others to hopfully make me get into the oversteer range and work with it from there. I have been looking at some of the coilovers on ebay. Found a set of kyb i am working on.

 

I had 245/50's out back on my old car with no rubbing once i removed the muffler heat shields. On the stock rim 245 is as big as you can go.

 

Yeah i was told that on the rear a 245/45 was the biggest. I don,t know if i am going to go that big on the stock wheels. Seems like it might look alittle goofy.

 

I had it on my 87 sport and TII wheels ..... looked fine. No one noticed unless they read the sidewalls.

 

If your on a really tight budget, running the same size tire all around might be a better idea as you can swap the tires as one corner wears faster than another. Also, depending on your class, you might be limited on tire width also.

 

I think your best bet is to change your exhaust to get out of SM2. The PAX in SM2 will kill you if you're not running 300 hp, Ohlins and 285 race tires. If you're wanting to minimize expenditure, running on street tires in STS2 would be way better for you.

 

Wider tires in the rear will just cause more understeer. I recommend 225/50s all around on the stock S5 TII's. Anything wider will be too much for a 7" wide wheel and flex under cornering. I say get the sway bars and camber adjusting bolts. More camber in the front = oversteer.

 

$600 budget? Won't get you far but here you go:

New performance shocks. Don't go too stiff since you can't afford springs. Super stiff shocks + soft springs = bad handling, blown shocks. If your old shocks are worn out, this will give the greatest improvement by far and it'll last over 50,000 miles, unlike performance tires. And as a bonus you can still compete in the stock class at the autocross.

That is all you can get on $600. I've heard you should get sway bars after springs, I dunno. Eurathane bushings will make your ride bumpier and help you feel the road but they won't really improve handling. Unless your old bushings are worn out. Then I'd replace with eurethane or OEM, but replacing worn out shocks is more important. Do that first. Next step IMO would be springs, then sways, then tires. Tires might make a big difference but they don't last. Also search the forum for "DTSS" to see if you need DTSS eliminators. Those are only $50 and a broken DTSS can really screw up your handling.

 

Well as far as changing the exhaust to get into another class i think i will be able to compete because the current winner in the class is a 2003 z06 and he is running slower than my friend with a 230hp 240sx. Arkansas is not that bad ***.

 

TII's can't do STS2. You could move to B(?)SP easily enough.

Shocks definetely, AGX's are a good budget buy, but Konis are better.

 

my old setup was as follows:
tokico illumina
tanabe sustec gf210 springs
corksport front strut bar
poly-urathane bushings
mazdatrix swaybar endlinks- dialed in
350mm steering wheel
crow 5 point harness
and i replaced all the shifter bushings and anything that was worn out.

peace

 

How was it? If you could have done anything different would you of? Did you do autox and how did you fair and what class? Thanks for the setup though.

 

Tires are the best mod/investment imo

 

good tires too, forgot to add that. i would have upgraded my wheels, to a nice staggered offset size.
easily 225 at the minimum. it was TIGHT, i used to take 90 degree turns at ~40 and it not recoil going straight. loved it and got into lots of trouble with it.!

peace