suspension modification
 

I am thinking about doing some serious modification to my suspension to set the car up for some road racing/autocross. ive done some searches and not a whole lot has turned up. What has been done before? Im sure there are some tube chassis cars out there with fully redesigned suspension setups. Are there any books/articles that you would suggest to me? And before i get yelled at by 1000000 people. 1. why? i get bored and i think i can design something better. 2. its going to be expensive! yes i am aware of this, luckily its not an issue. 3. its dangerous. there will be plenty testing done before any of this is actually gets built.

again, i am just starting my research into this so im looking to see what has been done before and to start doing some reading on the subject.

thanks

Buy coilovers.

Other than that, I dont see you out-engineering Mazda.

oo forgot about that fc3spro tech section. thanks. ive been thinking about doing an unequal length a arm setup. i definitely have alot more research to go. thanks for the help.

FC3S. yes i could buy coilovers but you still have a 20 year old mass produced suspension design. that and i like to do things the hard way

There's a reason why that suspension was mass produced. It's because it works! I don't know how much improvement you can make on the suspension/chassis other than what aftermarket items are out there.

But please, keep us update.

if you can build something better than the track proven aftermarket products then awesome. I'm not gonna hold my breath, not because I have no faith, but because it's a long drawn out process that yields little profit unless you mass produce the product at a price that will give you a nice return.

What setups have you tested already?

Just thinking but why not take what you have, replace the worn out stuff, buy some decent tires and invest in some track time with an instructor. Until you can out drive (I wish) what you have there's no need to go further. Besides, doing that stuff to the car throws you completely out of any class you might have a chance in into one where you'll get abused.

Good thread
http://www.ziptied.com/forums/index.php?topic=15970.0

http://www.ziptied.com/forums/index.php?topic=7676.0

theres lot of improvement to be done...

I'm less pessimistic then most. If you know what you want, and wanna go the whole 9 yards: I say go for it! Have a racecar designer/engineer with plenty of experience to suspension help you design a double wishbone suspension for the front and rear of the car, and if done well it WILL improve handling of the car. Is it neccecary: probably not, but who cares? No upgrade realy is... I believe the FD has front and rear double wishbones, so does the S2K, and I know from personal expierence they (S2Ks) handle like a dream!

Riz.

thanks for all the posts.
i have yet to test any significant changes. i think my first step is going to be modeling the suspension movement of the stock design so i have a baseline. from there i will see what needs improving etc and go from there.

Check out
http://www.yawpower.com/racesuspension.html

BTW a few of the members on Ziptied are members of BMWUSA HQ that work in suspension, handling, and aerodynamic development. Not to mention Dave who did the AWR suspension install awesome FC people who go against the grain....

Urethane Expanding Foam:
This has been a recent modification that has been written by Mike Kojima in Sport Compact Car magazine. By injecting expanding urethane foam into exposed sub-frame areas, the entire chassis can be stiffened significantly. At the very least, these expanding foams will decrease road noise traveling into the interior.

that is neat!

the expanding foam also makes it impossible if you do this treatment in a humid environment prevent rusting. If the chassis isn't straight to began with, you will not be able to fix treated areas. Expanding form should be done to pretty much a track alone expendable car. If this is your street car, you should rethink things. Also if the car is not properly braced, over time the foam will degrade and crumble in the areas it has filled in. Those are by-products of the foam treatment. Mike is an awesome guy just look at his Sentra. FF equivalent of the HKS evo......