Do you guys change other suspension components out, besides the shocks/springs? Do you change your bushings or swaybars. What else should a R owner do besides shocks/springs. My other question is in regard to corner weighing a car. When this is done, is there much difference in the hight of the car from side to side.

 

Lots of people install a larger rear sway bar (Mugen bar is popular) to help rotate the car.

 

i have mugen bushings and a 26mm rear bar. a couple weeks ago i cornerweighted my car with me in it. there is no noticeable difference in height when i am out of the car.

 

Perhaps a dumb question, but how exactly is corner balancing done?

Just put in a set of coilovers and want to know the procedure, so I don't look like a dink when I take it to the shop to have it done.

Regards,

 

sorry, i forgot to mention i am fat bastard too....getting it in the the ballpark depends on spring rate and overweight of the car. i set mine up 1/2 inch higher in the front than the rear with the droop limiters. luckily, i only had to adjust the front left coilover.

 

Weighing the corners means cross weighting. Most cars (with a few notable exceptions) come from the factory unbalanced. The weight distribution is not equal at all four tires which can throw off balance and ultimately handling. Even car with 50/50 weight distribution front and rear may not have a 50/50 left/right weight distribution especially when you take into consideration the weight of the driver. The height adjsuatability of the springs allows you to compensate for that a bit. When you raise a spring on its perch, you reduce the amoount of weight that corner carries and shif it to the opposite corner. Using this principle you can get a car that is well balanced on all four corners.

Obviously, you're not gooing to be able to shift alot of weight from the front to the back as is needed on front wheel drive cars but you can play with what are called cross weights. The cross weight is the weight a car carries on two opposite corners. Here's a diagram:

Front
1---2

3---4
Back

Imagine that you are looking down at a car from above and the numbers are the tires. 1 and 2 are the left and right front tires and 3 and 4 are the left and right rear tires. You place scales at all corners and measure the weights at each corner. You then add the weights at tire 1 and 4 which is called a cross weight. Then add the weights at 2 and 3. If you add all four corners up, you get the total weight of the car. The sum of 1 and 4 is expressed as a percentage of the total weight as is the sum of 2 and 3. The optimal setups would be to have both sums equal 50% of the weight. This would mean that your car would handle the same way turning right or left as it would be perfectly balanced in both directions. It might be impossible to have both of the cross weights to equal 50% but they should be as close as possible in most cases. One measure of examining left and right hand balance is by performing a skidpad test in both directions. In a balanced car, you'll be able to pull similar g's in both directions. Sometimes, the track you're running on has more left hand turns than right hand turns or vice versa (take an oval track for example). In that case, you would want to bias your car so that it holds better in the direction of the majority of the turns. You would do this by playing with the roll bar settings, tire pressure and size, springs rates, rebound and compression rates on the shocks and also crossweights.

Most show cars use adjustable springs to slam their cars evenly. It might look nice but you can really throw off the balance of the car. Just because the drop is even all around doesn't mean that the car will handle well. In fact, most well balanced dual purpose street/race cars won't have even lowering all around.

If you do decide to get coil-overs, make sure you got to a good race shop and have them corner weight your car. Make sure they place a weight in the drivers seat to simulate the weight of the driver. Once you have your heights set, get a good alignment, play with the settings on your shocks a little, and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Read here http://www.ground-control.com/gctalk4.htm


[Modified by DB1-R81, 9:13 AM 10/9/2001]

 

I hate to say it but I have a pair of coil-over conversion springs and not real coil-over shocks. There similar to the skunkworks. I have tokico shocks in front only. Am I wasting time with this setup and should I just get a real coil-over?

 

well, get a real coilover when you get the funds. make sure you get one with an adjustable lower portion. otherwise, IMHO you are wasting your money.

 

ok, racerjon's explanation is perfect. i can't type that fast or as well. i used the longacre scales with my cornerweight also.

 

Which kit is that? It looks beautiful. Does it com with those camber adjusters or are they extra. I have a Ingalls kit installed right now.

 

those are Racing Gear coilover with J's racing rear camber adjusters. check www.racingcraft.com for pricing.

 

Sorry if my Zeal 2Bs are not "real" coilovers but they are plenty better then stock and definitly worth the money, but with many things in life the more you spend the more you get. I simply don't have the budget (or need) to go all out with a $5000 kit. Now if I was being paid to race or had the cash to burn then hell yeah I'd be thowing everything at it.


Thanks for the info guys! definetly turned into a great thread!

Regards,

 

Hey BABY NSX I don't think he was refering to you when he mentioned the "REAL" coilover comment.

 

thanks edwin. babynsx, i wasn't referring to you. i meant get a "real' coilover, as in full threaded shock body, not coilover sleeve type. i should have addressed it to typer906. sorry if you took offense.