I am going to start the process of redoing the suspensin and making my chassis stronger for a weekend driver, autox, and solo 1 car. These are the parts I plan to use.

Shocks/struts-Bilstien (probably...does anybody know where I can get the best price on the set?)
Springs-Eibach...(again a maybe, I am still open to suggestions...)
LCA's-Spohn (possibly adjustable)
Panhard-Spohn (adjustable)
Sway bars-I have WS6 so I am going to keep them stock, just paint them with por 15
Bushings/motor mounts- I want to upgrade, but I need some suggestions.
Front End rebuild-Probably Napa Parts, the higher end line (any other ideas?)

Chassis
TDS wonderbar
Spohn sub frames (probably, I am not really sure on these at all...)
Some Sort of Strut Tower Brace...and possibly an 8 point cage...
Also...I was thinking of a tubular k member....will it really make a big defference?

This I what I have so far...I am definitely open to suggestions. wha do you all think?

 

Looks pretty good to me. New shocks, SFC, and bushings really go a long way on a worn out suspension. You should be very happy with those and everything else will make you smile even bigger.

 

everything sounds good to me but the k-memeber, i am not a fan of them for hard RR or Auto-x. if you are caging the car, and can somehow tie the kember and into the cage, you would have a great strong setup. if not, IMHO it is not worth the loss in strength to shave those few pounds.

everything else sounds pretty good, depending on the actualy use of the car, you may want more spring than that, you might think about ground-control weight jacks and ERS springs.

 

Dewey, I read about the weight jacks on the dround control website, and I was thinking about getting them, but I really want to know what advantage of them is...I know the basic idea of the kit, but What is the real deal? Thanks

 

Ever notice how every car you drive will corner better to one side than the other. Chassis' are not perfect and load rates are not equal on the tires. They will favor one side or the other sometimes slightly, sometimes more prevelant.

What weight jackers do is allow you to dial up or down the load on a particular single tire individually to balance out cross weights to equal the other side when entering corners from each direction. Weight tranfers from rear tire to opposing front tire- and this balance can be altered by simply changing drivers or adding a passenger, thus again unbalancing left turn performance equally exacting right turn performance.

A track that has only left handers/ or even mainly lefthanders and few right hand corners (Which is always the case, but to what degree depends on the track) can be set to favor the car to turn better left than right because there is more of a need- thus out performing the competiton in lefts but not rights. This is great on any track for example- locally here in So.Cal (picture below) this has 21 turns-12 of them are lefters, 9 are rights. However being almost equal in count, there is much more time spent driving through the lefts then the amount and distance/speed it takes to drive through the rights. Set the chassis to favor lefts slightly (just how much is were testing comes in) and you will be faster. Lefts and straights will gain faster times in these areas than you will lose from handling poorer in the rights you have to take )fewer time, speed, and distance require in the right hand turn areas). Focus on the majority and be faster in the important areas.

This is the best page I have seen to simplistically show how to sset corner weights (remember, the drivers weight counts, as well as if you have a passenger also) http://www.ground-control.com/?D=e04...ffa901ba6b5aaa

 

I'll throw another wrench into the mix- It has been proven over history that a righthand drive car will out perform the same exact lefthand drive car on the same perdominate lefthand direction track. Obviously the difference is the righthand drive car has more of its chassis weight on the right side of the vehicle because of driver position, thus weighting the outside wheels in a lefthand turn more. This priciple is alot like a motorcycle, skis, or roller/iceskates- you weight the outside peg to turn inside.


Hence why I jumped at the chance when presented a righthand drive '67 mini cooper S to purchase. It has an advantage on local tracks.

 

Yeah weight jacks are great (:hail: Dean), but to the guy that started this thread, keep in mind to really take advantage of them (as far as cross weighting and static distribution in a racing scenario) you need a weight scale. Not something I thought about when I got my first set. Other than that, I like them because you can set your desired ride height and because they will need a custom length spring (stock length springs are too tall to use with weight jacks) you get to choose your linear spring rate. If you do end up going with the Eibachs, go with the Pro-Kit because the spring rates are stiffer than the Sportlines (even though they dont drop the car as much).

Grassroot Motorsports has a pretty nice writeup on corner weighting: http://www.grmotorsports.com/cornerweight.html but keep in mind this is intended for hardcore racing scenario's whenere you want the perfect tune. If you just want to mod the car for street driving, occasional track event, and not worry about this stuff, then go with the Eibachs.

When looking for Tie Rod Adjusters for Roadracing, go with the Coleman set, its only like $20. Moog is the prefered front steering linkage parts supplier on these forums.

Definately get Subframe Connectors. This should be mod #1 no question about it.