How to make my car comfortable AND handle?
10-07-2004, 07:43 PM
#1
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Clear Lake, TX
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How to make my car comfortable AND handle? Mostly a daily driver, occasional impromptu rice stompin'. 
Here's my plan
1. Lots of sound deadening
2. SFCs
3. STB
4. tunnel brace
What's next? I want this girl to be comfortable and easy to drive hard under any condition. What's next, shocks? control arms?
Thanks!
Jason
Here's my plan
1. Lots of sound deadening
2. SFCs
3. STB
4. tunnel brace
What's next? I want this girl to be comfortable and easy to drive hard under any condition. What's next, shocks? control arms?
Thanks!
Jason
10-07-2004, 08:13 PM
#2
My 2 cents...
If you want to maintain comfort, keep the stock springs, or at most get 1LE springs. Get some really good shocks, and some really stiff swaybars. Swaybars won't have a huge affect on ride quality, but it'll significantly reduce body roll under cornering.
Good shocks will keep the bounce in check, slow down what body roll there is (making it feel even less significant), and help make the whole car feel more controllable overall.
35mm front bar. ST solid bar, Adco or Strano hollow bar. Or I believe Hotchkis makes a hollow 36mm front bar, just a bit harder to get I think.
21-22mm rear bar. I had the 35mm ST bar with the stock rear bar for a few months, but with the stock springs, the rear roll was just way too much. I put the 22mm Spohn rear bar on, and it feels much more balanced. I'm still on stock springs myself, but the handling and overall feel of the car is tremendously better than stock.
Wheels and tires. Get some meat under that ride. Our cars are fairly heavy, relatively speaking. Front heavy in particular. Stick with 17" wheels for a more comfortable ride. 18+ will further increase ride harshness. Plus 17s have about the best selection of tire sizes. Wide as you're comfortable with. 17x9.5 with 275/40 tires are an easy swap (this is what the SS/WS6 models ran) and really provide a nice jump in contact patch size. 17x11 is an option on all four corners, but requires some massaging that some people aren't comfortable making with their cars (and by massaging, I mean modification to the inner and outer fenders for clearancing).
After that, control arms, panhard, etc can be done. But shocks, swaybars, and tires are going to provide the most significant improvement in handling. From there, it's fine tuning the setup. Only piece of advice here, don't go double poly on your lower control arms. If you don't want quality rod ends, stick to stock bushing or some high durometer rubber bushing.
If you want to maintain comfort, keep the stock springs, or at most get 1LE springs. Get some really good shocks, and some really stiff swaybars. Swaybars won't have a huge affect on ride quality, but it'll significantly reduce body roll under cornering.
Good shocks will keep the bounce in check, slow down what body roll there is (making it feel even less significant), and help make the whole car feel more controllable overall.
35mm front bar. ST solid bar, Adco or Strano hollow bar. Or I believe Hotchkis makes a hollow 36mm front bar, just a bit harder to get I think.
21-22mm rear bar. I had the 35mm ST bar with the stock rear bar for a few months, but with the stock springs, the rear roll was just way too much. I put the 22mm Spohn rear bar on, and it feels much more balanced. I'm still on stock springs myself, but the handling and overall feel of the car is tremendously better than stock.
Wheels and tires. Get some meat under that ride. Our cars are fairly heavy, relatively speaking. Front heavy in particular. Stick with 17" wheels for a more comfortable ride. 18+ will further increase ride harshness. Plus 17s have about the best selection of tire sizes. Wide as you're comfortable with. 17x9.5 with 275/40 tires are an easy swap (this is what the SS/WS6 models ran) and really provide a nice jump in contact patch size. 17x11 is an option on all four corners, but requires some massaging that some people aren't comfortable making with their cars (and by massaging, I mean modification to the inner and outer fenders for clearancing).
After that, control arms, panhard, etc can be done. But shocks, swaybars, and tires are going to provide the most significant improvement in handling. From there, it's fine tuning the setup. Only piece of advice here, don't go double poly on your lower control arms. If you don't want quality rod ends, stick to stock bushing or some high durometer rubber bushing.
