Spurkey

I'm looking to upgrade/refresh my 2002 Firehawk. It's already got some of the usual upgrades. The car has been parked for the last several years due to life circumstances, I'm through those and want to spend the winter refreshing and upgrading to get it ready for events next year. I hope to get out to 5 auto-x events and maybe 1 or 2 small-road-course events (small: 1.4 mile 9 turn course). No drag events. It's my weekend/fun car, no daily driving, so I won't have to explain to my spouse why the car is noisy.

2002 Firehawk with 1LE option. 73,000 miles on the clock.

- Strano Koni double-adjustable + Strano springs (bought in 2008, put 37,000 miles on these)
- 35 mm SLP hollow front swaybar
- [EDIT] 22 mm rear swaybar
- Bolt-in 3 point SFCs
- Hotchkiss STB
- Adjustable rod-ended PHB
- Alignment: Camber: -1.2°, Caster: 5°, Toe: 0.13°
- Tires: 275/40R17 Eagle F1 GS-D3. They are 10+ years old and must be replaced.

Since the car has been parked for a while my recollections of what I fought with are hazy and imprecise, unfortunately the age of the tires has me leery of pushing the car at present to remind myself. I do recall fighting a bit with front end push even with the Strano package. The road course I went to is tight and relatively low speed, it was difficult to get tire temps up which originally kept me from going with a stickier tire. For the alignment I apparently couldn't get any more than -1.2° according to 2 shops. I'd (think I'd) like to start with getting more front grip, either by getting parts to increase camber, or going to a 295 tire, or going to an 18" wheel with a shorter sidewall. Or should I start with maintenance first: rebuild the Konis? Refresh all bushings? Refresh the steering rack? I would still need tires though... I would hate to get new R17 rubber when maybe I shoulda gone to R18. I've driven myself nuts with the choices of what to do.

Any advice would be appreciated.

mikedamageinc

iTrader: (49)

Sounds like it's pretty well setup right now, and that's a great alignment for a street/autox/track car. Main thing is tires, seat time, and make dial in shock settings, rake/ride height, etc. Don't waste time on 17s, get a set of 18s and have fun.

Only thing is maybe upgrade rear sway, that will help balance out

Sam Strano

iTrader: (41)

Yup, matching rear bar (in stock) would be the next thing. You could rebuild the shocks but if there is nothing wrong with them that would be akin to rebuilding the engine that is ok, does not make a lot of sense.

Spurkey

I was curious about the rear bar so I went out to the car last night and measured it - turns out I have a 22 mm rear bar. The stock bar that came with the Firehawks was 21 mm so it's definitely been upgraded.

Sam Strano

iTrader: (41)

Ok, well you could go bigger but I would not recommend that. Things to get better camber in front are in play too. But I would be remiss, especially with another thread talking about it in not mentioning the rear bumpstops as they add wheel rate to the system too. So are they there? In good shape? Which are they? Spacers? etc.

Spurkey

Bumpstops are the original ones that came with the car. I've never touched them, no spacers. [EDIT] Having spent some time reading this evening it looks like I do have the SLP spacer, what I thought was the bracket. [end EDIT] They appear to be in pretty good shape for 20 years old, they're a bit cracked where they meet the bracket spacer but they're firmly attached still.

Sam Strano

iTrader: (41)

Those are in better shape than most at this age. But not great. Again those are, effectively, things that add wheel rate (most folks would call it spring rate but they clearly aren't springs). You can go to the OEM style that don't use the spacer but are overall the same stacked height, they come in a little sooner but more progressively, and when you are into them 1.2" or so you gain a LOT of rate. And you can see in your picture you are in them, all these cars are.

Alternatively, I can supply you spring rubbers you can put in the rear springs bumping the rate by about 15% if you want. Basically balance wise if you can't get more grip from the front with more negative camber and such, we can tweak the rear to get you better balance.

SteveC

Those bump stops are toast and need to be replaced.