Just How Good Can A Skyline Handle?

[Munkyb0y]

my 33 handles great. and theres no expensive coilovers. most would say it's set up wrong. the car is too low, and the springs are very hard. besides the bumpy ride, it handles great. i'm running 235 fronts and 265 rears.

my point is, imagine if i had an expensive/renowned suspension set up.

i'd have to say skylines handle well.

Soz to kinda hijack this thread.....MANWHORE you mention tyre pressures. I run 36psi front and 34psi rear on 235/40/18s. does that sound right. the car handles pretty well even with stuffed shocks (waiting for funds to buy HKS hyper max 111s)

ANdrew

i'd be running 38 - 40psi on 18's

reason being, low profile = smaller sidewall. higher pressures keep the sidewalls firm.

[tacker]

My old R32 GTR runs most track days with the name super cars, ferrari 360, 430, 599, porsche 993, 996, 997 turbo, 996 & 997 GT3, 997 GT3 RS, 964 3.6 turbo, lambo's of all kinds ( not even going to attempt to spell them ), BMW CSL M3, aerial atoms, caterm, Audi RS6, whole gaggle of evo's and subies.

And to date the only cars that out perform the old girl are the Z06 corvettes, porsche GT2, Carrea GT2 and SR3 & SR8 radicals.

Has to be said though that the slicks made a huge difference to the car,there is not a lot of straightline difference ( except those bloody Z06 ) its through the twisties that my car makes ground on them.

[zebra]

i'd be running 38 - 40psi on 18's

reason being, low profile = smaller sidewall. higher pressures keep the sidewalls firm.

seems a little on the hard side but i will give it a go an see how it goes

[Gts-t]

Try 32 for the street, its what i run in my 18s and is a good starting point.

[Munkyb0y]

32psi in 18's?

thats way too low.

you need higher pressure in 18's.

38-40 is spot on. try it.

[Gts-t]

Its not too low, u probably find it feels bad because as you said u have fairly average suspension mods and use the extra pressure to mask this and make the car feel more nimble.

cheers tho

[aDrew_C]

Its not too low, u probably find it feels bad because as you said u have fairly average suspension mods and use the extra pressure to mask this and make the car feel more nimble.

cheers tho

Exactly, I use 38psi because I've still got standard suspension on the front and too soft stuff on the back. Why would smaller sidewalls need more pressure to be stiffer? Wouldn't that be the case for larger sidewalls, which inherently have a lot of give in them. Munkyb0y, if you have some sort of proof to back this up then please let us all know, but it doesn't sound that logical to me. 36psi is fine - try anything in the range of 32-40 and see what you prefer with your setup.

Edited June 23, 2007 by aDrew_C

[Munkyb0y]

this is pretty basic stuff. smaller sidewalls need higher pressure. ie, 19's would run 40-42. 17's would run 32-36

check out the tyre placard on a car that comes with 18's from factory. it will have a recommended pressure of around 38.

my mates FPV had 19's, recommended pressure was 40-42psi.

dont let me tell you what pressure to run. do your own research. i have, and i run 38-40psi all round.

[BAMR33]

No mildly worked skyline gts is ever going to handle great. They're just too big and heavy, an equivalently modified GTiR, Glanza, wrx etc. is always going to leave the gts for dead. I'm very much a fan of skyline's but I know my car is no world beater.

Before I got my full SK setup I'd admit the handling was not impressive at all. I'd even say my parents BA falcon handled better, that's kind of bias though as my car has 11 years of wear and tear on their's. After I installed the new suspension there was a big difference, I'd say the handling is now good and representative of what a skyline should handle like.

[MANWHORE]

Soz to kinda hijack this thread.....MANWHORE you mention tyre pressures. I run 36psi front and 34psi rear on 235/40/18s. does that sound right. the car handles pretty well even with stuffed shocks (waiting for funds to buy HKS hyper max 111s)

ANdrew

The shocks are either stuffed, or they're not stuffed, or they're semi stuffed. IF they're stuffed, doing your tyre pressures isn't going to make it handle well. It'll make it handle as good as it can, with those shocks.

On the street, I run 32/33 psi on both the front and the rear.

[MANWHORE]

i wouldn't discount the handling of the bentley too much - they are worth big money for good reason, they're engineered to the eyeballs and the big weight and unassuming chassis can probably do better than you think. a well tuned suspension/tractioned skyline is surely pretty formiddable, but out of the box, the stock bentley would kill a stock skyline. those things, like most super-luxury cars nowadays hammer!!

that being said, if i was going to spend that sort of money on a car, you can bet your ass it wouldn't be on a bentley

Sure, you would hope that the bentley would have more engineering than the skyline. I'm not saying that bentleys are good or no good, I wouldn't have a clue. But what I can say is that with expensive name cars, the ratio of engineering to cost does not go up linearly. I'm sure you would agree that a lot of the money goes into the name.

Like lets just take an example. A bmw 318i. IMO, it's a piece of junk. No power. No luxuries (everything comes as an option). nothing special in terms of driveability. That car is probably the same amount of 'car' as a mitsubishi lancer 4 door, yet costs 3 times the price.

[Duncan]

hey tacker I've been meaning to ask, what sort of power do you have at the wheels? all you need is say 400 and you will kill those corvettes in a straight line and in corners, guys over here like giant are making great power and turning out amazing times in full weight cars.

For road tyres I use between 38 and 42 as well, so try out at that level and see what you think.

[zebra]

Woot. I started a flaming race. Whos Next?? I think I'll stick to my 36 front 34 rear as the tyres seem to have even temperature across the surface and more importantly even wear.

Appreciated though

[aDrew_C]

this is pretty basic stuff. smaller sidewalls need higher pressure. ie, 19's would run 40-42. 17's would run 32-36

check out the tyre placard on a car that comes with 18's from factory. it will have a recommended pressure of around 38.

my mates FPV had 19's, recommended pressure was 40-42psi.

dont let me tell you what pressure to run. do your own research. i have, and i run 38-40psi all round.

Good stuff, I run 38-40 all round also, but I thought I might just be preferring this because of my sloppy suspension.

Cheers

[tacker]

Sorry for the hijack will make up for it with crackin clip.

Duncan i have about 450 hp at wheels or so the sub zero dyno told me. And absolutly no chance of getting near those bloody Z06 corvettes. 7 litre ( 505hp ) and grillions of torque. they are 60% carbonfibre and weight less than 1200kgs. They are not the C5 C6 normal corvette, i can deal with those :-)

Anyone want to travel over they have have a crack at them have plenty of room.

[DECIM8]

grip and handling are different. handling is the behaviour of the car at the limit. All wider tyres do is raise the limit.

The RSPCA is going to ask me to stop doing things to that dead horse soon..

Yes .. but handling includes oversteer and understeer as well as body roll etc.. with a wider tyre you will most likely drastically reduce slide enhancing handling.. But this goes hand in hand with tyres

[DECIM8]

In regards to tyre presures.. A good general rule is use is 10% minus you max presure..

I.e 44psi max = 39.6PSI (offhand if i remember correctly) so rounding up to 40PSI for good wear and good handling ..

Just tested this theory with good results in my car with nan krap (kang i mean) went spinning around tight corners with 40psi vrs 36psi and the difference was huge..

personally I think nankrap tyres are really bad, blown up to 40psi I could come out of corners with no wheel spin and fast and it also reached higher rpm before wheel spin in first 5,600 vrs 4,700 they are also about 20% tread..

But I assume this will not work for everyone however I nicked the idea from the tyres guide someone posted a link to one day.. just felt like testing it

I have no results for tyre wear.