What To Spend My Suspension $$$ On

[mjadeb1984]

sounds good mate thanks for that, ill be in touch when I get my pennys in order

[Smoke them tyres]

Pat's beat me to this one.......

These cars respond relatively easily to the right suspension upgrades, and Pat is on the money.

People may disagree....but I'll say it again anyway.

IMHO, for more turn in (and less understeer and better grip), pull the rear sway bar off it and put it under the bench. Just because one is fitted at the factory doesn't mean it always has to be there. This means less diagonal transfer of cornering weight to the front and helps stop it being overloaded, thus improving turn in. The rear will then take some more load and make the loading of the rear closer to the front. A better balanced car will occur.

IMO, a stiffer rear bar will lessen rear grip to match the front. To me, that would be a slower setup (particularly in the wet), but everybody is different. Sway bars are all about weight transfer.......lateral and diagonal.

Also, remove the shims in the upper control arms to gain some more front camber (about -1.5 degrees). That will maximise camber and caster as some camber is lost when trying to increase caster with minimal or no shims fitted. About 1mm of toe in per side should do it with this camber.

Edited 10/06/10 10:41 AM by Smoke them tyres

[muss]

90/10s...

[Erko]

Agree 100% with regards to front lower control arm bushes, and pulling front shims for more neg. Having said that, I really think you need to look at more spring rate to tame the beast....that's my experience, and I'd lean towards Bilstein over Koni. I really like the high spring rate Teins.......you also need good tyres if you are to take advantage of this set up, and forget 20s . One thing is that you will have less grip in the wet with big spring rates, but its far better in the dry and if you are running sticky tyres.

Smoke them tyres opinions on removing the rear bar on a falcon is interesting. I havent removed the rear bar on a falcon, but have gone from a bigger bar back to stock which is better. Agree that a big rear bar just lessens rear grip, it doesnt improve front end turn in. I know that removing the rear bar will assist power down under cornering loads. I am also not a fan of big sway bars at all, unless you have mega grip with wide slick tyres and big spring rates all they do is make your car corner flatter, but at the expense of grip. remember street tyres are meant to run some slip angle.

[mjadeb1984]

cheers for your replies erko and smoke. im running 19's with cheapish tyres cant remember the brand?

with removing those shims for more camber will that effect tyre wear much as I do do a fair bit of straight road country driving?

[RIP_HSV]

90/10s...

[Smoke them tyres]

Toe in keeps the wear even across the width of the tyre when running neg camber....a corrective compensation if you will.

People should try removing the rear bar and see the difference it makes.......I'm all for maximising grip with good balance. With 620's std XR height, good dampers and a 27mm bar in the front, std rear springs and no rear bar, I have good grip up to the limit, then a touch of understeer at the limit, and then a nice controllable 4 wheel drift. Seems to me that Ford have set the chassis up and then de-tuned it to introduce some understeer by a rear bar and near zero camber and toe. These to me cause "push" in the chassis.

My experience with removing the rear bar is more sustained cornering grip from the front than an instantaneous turn in transient.

Tyre life is also much improved. The rears carry more of the load and the fronts don't suffer so much from being hammered.

I can see only 3 ways to get the front tyre wear off its outer edge:

-soften the rear in roll (even the utes don't use a rear bar)

-stiffen the front to near lockout (hmmmmm)

-introduce more initial (static) and/or dynamic camber gain (re caster/UCA pivot points)

Edited 11/06/10 06:53 AM by Smoke them tyres

[Dillz]

You do realize these cars will never be evos... And if you treat em like one then well nice to know ya.

You might as well spend money on looks or power instead of wasting it.

Edited 11/06/10 07:36 AM by Dillz

[bradles024]

Can at least understand why there trying, these cars handle sh*thouse from factory. Who wouldnt want to improve on that?

[Dillz]

Not as bad as some. Fair enough it's worth doing but imo after go fast and looks.