skyline handling.

[dstylez]

what kind i do to improve the handling of my r33 WITHOUT having to lower the car? i'd lower the car if my front bar wasn't already low... i don't want to make my car undrivable either due to ground clearance. thanks!

[SIKCAR]

sway bars front and back

struct brace

better tyres

these are the easiest to change

[sidewaymambo]

So the sway bar will stop the car rolling too much isn't it? So what coil over for?

[T0nyGTSt]

I'm not actually too shure what sway bars do but I don't have them and might look into them.

T.

[sidewaymambo]

Tony, I though we do have but thiner?...mm I will go underneath tomorrow..

Tony, does your car fix yet?

[SIKCAR]

yeah there's stock sway bars, but you can upgrade to thicker ones

whiteline has a lot of suspension upgrade if you wanna do a search for it

[T0nyGTSt]

I think the whiteline bars are $400 - $500 front and rear.

The thing is that I don't want to make the car grossly uncomfortable so I don't want urethane/nolathane bushes.

I got the shocks and strut bars. There's still some money to be spent on brakes as well.

Car is fine and I have a boring 1,000km run in to look forward to.

T.

[sidewaymambo]

Well, you don't need the sway bar in the 1000km run in...talk soon..hehe..

[blind_elk]

Sway bars (actually "anti-roll" bars) stiffen the suspension to prevent weight transfer to the outside wheels during cornering. The beauty of them is that they don't affect the straightline ride comfort, which you would get by fitting heavier shocks / springs to achieve the same result.

You should invest in the nolathane bushes - it will reduce the compliance of the suspension, ie the suspension is less likely to change dynamically from its static settings. But they won't contribute noticably to ride (dis)comfort.

It's generally pretty complex subject. I would suggest you invest a few dollars in some books (1 by Fred Puhl is pretty good at explaining the physics, but gets technical when showing how to calculate all the variables).

[Mick Trainer]

First thing you need to do is get someone who knows what they are doing to have a look at the car and see what it is doing now. It may be that nothing is suited and the balance etc is all over the place and even that it is too low now and thus does not allow enough suspension travel.

Mick.

[JimX]

Tony, nolathene bushes won't make the ride uncomfortable - the hard Jap springs are already perfect for doing that

As blind_elk says, swaybars are perfect for improving handling without affecting ride comfort. What they basically do is link your left and right suspension arms together. As the outside suspension arm travels upwards in a corner, it pushes the swaybar upwards as well. The swaybar then transfers some of this upwards movement to the inside suspension arm, and the net result is that the outside arm compresses less, and you get less body roll through the corner.

Skylines (and most other cars) already have swaybars, but they're not very thick. Whiteline have stiffer/thicker bars, which do the job better. You usually need a bit of bodyroll though, otherwise your inside wheels will start to lift off mid-corner. Happens to the Bathurst V8's fairly often.

[T0nyGTSt]

Handling on my car is slightly worse than it used to be.

On my car at least, it's a bit of a double edged sword.

There's 12 or 16 levels of adjustment.

The ride used to be harsh but zero body roll.

Now it's soft and pliable but rolls a fair bit.

So maybe the bars might fix that to some degree.

T.

[Paul SM]

Way to go is a full Whiteline kit. You might find it a little firm on day one but it is so controlled that the ride soon feels fine, even over bumpy surfaces. I opted for the full version with the nylon bushes and adjustable bars because I use the car for supersprints. It cost around $2200 installed and has been a great investment.

[Duncan]

tyres, tyres, tyres are by far the best investment for improving track handling. Too expensive to waste good tyres on the street though.

[Boost King]

I have full coil over suspension by a company called DORF. Its fully adjustable up and down and soft and hard. Its on the softest setting and its damm bumpy. I mean really bumpy in that if your accelarating and go over a bump your wheels come off the ground. Also while going up my driveway, I have 1 wheel (left rear) in the AIR. The car is so stiff it doesn't have any play. Its great for handling, like a car on rails, and with no body roll.

THe disadvantage apart is that if you try to launch the car it wheelspins majorly.

The major advantage, watch those girlees t i ti es bounce around like mad!

:uh-huh:

[SIKCAR]

what's a good suspension set up for straight line launching?

[Mick Trainer]

soft.

[T0nyGTSt]

Dragging is the easiest.

Stock susp. might even do.

Soft at the back, maybe pineapples... front doesn't matter.

T.

[Paul SM]

I've never really thought about this and can see why soft suspension might seem the best for getting off the line but consider this:

If the car sits right down at the back under heavy accelleration, weight transfer may also cause considerable negative camber and therefore less contact area between the tyre and the road. Camber kits, after all, are designed to minimise negative camber on lowered cars and avoid reducing tyre contact area.

Also, I've never seen a serious drag car with soft suspension...