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After having to sell my FD nearly a decade ago now and then being priced out of the market, I finally landed on an ND2. Really disliked the stock suspension, so after living with it for a year, I threw some MCS 2Ws and Karcepts sways on there, along with a lightweight wheel and tire setup. I have to say, in this configuration, it's an amazing car to daily. It's very light, tossable, and has enough bottom end torque that you can decide to turn it on whenever and wherever. I also think it's a very attractive car now. It's really the only car that has made me happy since selling the FD.
That being said, if anyone wants to trade a clean, nicely sorted FD for an ND2 with some high end, tasteful mods, feel free to DM me, hahaha.
.....without smashing bodily necessities in a prang.
With the mention of a the 190, modern equivalent might be the IS200......without the lazy engine the export markets got. Pity it's still pretty porky though.
I have a FD, E30 M3, 99 boxster and a 993S and the car that I would keep if I can only have one is the M3. Second would be there FD. The M3 is surely underpowered but the way it feels on curvy roads is unmatched. Very forgiving and easy to push to it's limits. Haven't found another like it.
^ Forgiving and easy to approach limits was how I felt about the new BRZ that I recently rented, more so than any other car I have driven.
I have owned an E30 as well, a 318is though, not an M3. It was actually one of the snappier handling cars I have owned. I've heard the M3 version is a lot more predictable than the narrow-body E30s though...
I still think FD chassis stiffness is lacking compared to modern cars, that's just how it is. Doesn't mean the car sucks--quite the contrary. For those curious, here is a list of torsional rigidity of different cars. FD is listed at 15,000 nm/deg, which is pretty damn good for the 90s. Modern cars tend to have at least double that though. Torsional rigidity is what makes some cars feel like a solid piece rather than a tin can. It helps not only handling, but also road noise, ride comfort, and perceived harshness.
I still think FD chassis stiffness is lacking compared to modern cars, that's just how it is. Doesn't mean the car sucks--quite the contrary. For those curious, here is a list of torsional rigidity of different cars. FD is listed at 15,000 nm/deg, which is pretty damn good for the 90s. Modern cars tend to have at least double that though. Torsional rigidity is what makes some cars feel like a solid piece rather than a tin can. It helps not only handling, but also road noise, ride comfort, and perceived harshness.
Yeah you're definitely right there, I got the GR86 and it's very stiff, I love it. I think the point he's making is with some simple mods, you can easily have it rival new cars in terms of stiffness. Definitely something I'll be doing to my FD when I get it back.
I'm really missing my FD right now, and can't wait until I can drive it again. GR86 is amazing and really fun though, at 900~ miles, and almost fully broken in engine. The rear diff and transmission don't break in for a while.
Yeah, I loved how solid my RX8 felt compared to my FD.
I get what you mean by the feeling, but chasing that feeling is not my nor many other peoples 1st priority with the FD and doesnt seem to hamper its actual performance.
Front lower suspension x brace, front triangulated shock tower to firewall brace, front under fender side braces, front upper control arm braces, solid front swaybar mount with a tube between the mounts and a speeday swayar inside the tube, roll bar behind driver with dual diagonals or a hatch x-brace, rear lower trailing arm to diff x-brace, rear triangulated strut bar down to trunk floor will all help if you dont want a cage.
The extra 100-200lbs would keep my FD's weight under RX8 or GT86 weight, bit still slow it down. So, probably not chasing that stiff feeling.
I wouldn't put great faith in some of those Japanese braces held with a couple of body captive nuts - other than placebo. The under guard and upper wishbone ones, if they're the ones I remember, strike me as effective as those subframe inserts from the fad a few years ago.
If there's a desire to stiffen that area, a bit of stitch welding as a first stage, would likely yield much more measurable results.
Here's my shortlist of lightweight somewhat affordable driver's cars, though it is not very short anymore.
AE86
I got to drive one of these years and years ago. my buddy bought a nice clean stock one, and i ended driving it from where he bought it, to his house.
after having gone up in the mountains and run with modded AE86's and such the stock car was a bit of a surprise, its quite bland. its also very slow. modest maybe is the word
however it did feel good, you could see where the whole Hatchi thing comes from.
view the AE86 as a kind of blank canvas. its got potential.
I wouldn't put great faith in some of those Japanese braces held with a couple of body captive nuts - other than placebo
Yes, when modifying a car one must be able to appraise if the aftermarket parts will be an improvement over the original car.
If a brace is held to the car poorly as you say and not shearing the or even loosening the connecting hardware the body isnt fleximg and you dont need the brace, or the connecting point of the brace transfers load through a load path that doesnt include the fasteners.
However, the braces I am thinking of are substantial and tie subframe and suspension mounting points to the chassis.
On mounting pads like the frame rails on the front lower brace-
You can clean the surfaces with alcohol and put GE 100% silicone between brace and body while you tighten. Once dry the thin layer of silicone sealant does not allow the brace to move and put the fasteners in shear, but can still be removed later.
if you dont think that works (it does) on the front lower brace you could weld metal to the brace to capture the sides of the frame rails (inside trans of tunnel).
Other braces put the mounts in a position to transfer load regardless of atrachment.
Some braces attach to factory brace loacations on unibody and suspension and subframe pick- up points.
Other braces shore up suspension pick up points.
The front upper a-arm brace might looks spindly (original by JUN looked even spindlier), but the tube does most the work keeping the unibody suspension mounting tabs located by going between front and rear ones and the sheetmetal in plane with loads just keeps the tube from moving front to rear (and can be bonded with silicone as I advise above).
Speaking of shoring up the suspension pick-up points- there is no point in doing that if you retain the stock sliding bushings.
The front lower arm is designed to move front and back to adjust toe to keep you from wrecking in an age before electronic nannies.
The rear upper arm is also designed to move back and forth to adjust toe to keep you from wrecking in an age before electronic nannies.
When you eliminate the stock sliding bushings with poly, delrin, nylon or spherical ***** the FD drives SO much more pure and less squirmy. You really really notice it on the 18x11 w/ 295 or 305 race tires I run.
Not much point shoring up chassis and letting suspension flop around.
RX-8 was able to avoid the sloppy suspension by integrating electronic nannies. Thankfully Mazda had a "bug" in the system where if you hold the dynamic stability button down it malfunctions and turns off while keepimg ABS in tact. Only way to "fix" it is turn car off and back on.
As a result RX-8 was designed without the squirmy suspension of FD and with much less understeer.
07-12-22, 11:49 PM
