Hey guys, I love barrelling around turns, its pretty damn remarkable how well these cars handle with the WS6 suspension package, but I'm having some "woes" with the absolute lack of feedback going to the driver. I can't feel what the front tires are about to do, until I hear them screech, same with the back. I dont know how hard I'm pushing the rear until it slips on me, which is pretty hair-raising at the best of times.

My car is bone stock, the bushings and everything else is factory, and probably dated, but is the whole concept of driver-feedback impossible with these cars? or what sort of mods should be done so the car has more predictable handling characteristics?
Thanks.

 

Best place to start is with a set of subframe connectors - they'll tie the front & rear of the car together & give you a much better sense of what the car is doing. Actually...

Having typed that, let me say that that'd be the best 2nd step you could take - the best first step would be for you to crawl under the car & look at all of the rubber suspension bushings. These cars weren't known for a "numb" or "disconnected" feeling, quite the opposite, in fact. When you mention "absolute lack of feedback going to the driver", that should be a tip-off that something isn't right.

Also - what kind of tires are on the car? What size, brand, etc? That will make the absolute biggest difference in how the car feels, & what kinds of feedback get transmitted to the driver. A set of "commuter car" all-weather 225/75/R16s are going to be designed to isolate a lot of the road feel from the soccer mom in her minivan. If you were to swap those to a set of speed-rated tires with a more reasonable aspect ratio (basically, the tires that were designed to go with the WS-6 suspension), my guess is that you'd never wonder what the car was doing ever again.

On my GTA, I have a set of Firestone Firehawk SZ-50 EPs, & I'll put them up against any handling tire made within the last 3 or 4 years - I have that much confidence in them. (It helps that when I bought them, TireRack.com showed a comparison of all of the best-handling tires, & these were in the top three - in fact, all 3 were within a whisker of each other!) As it is now, I can drive pretty quickly up in the mountains, & the car will grip to a point that's WELL beyond where I get scared that I'm going to go over the edge... (I did one hairpin at somewhere around 60 mph... )
Unfortunately, I'm told that these tires aren't made in 16" sizes any more so it looks like I'm gonna have to buy some 17" rims to go on the car...

Well, I guess that was a lot of typing to say this:

Look at your tires, then your suspension bushings, & get subframe connectors as quick as you're able to.

Good luck!

(BTW - I love your avatar pic!!)

 

If you want feed back add as much caster as possible. YOu will get feel.

set front tires to 38 psi and the rear to 28 and see if that give you some feed back.

Do this before any other mods.

 

start replacing all the rubber bushings with rod ends

 

Like has been said, bushings (or rod ends), tires, and SFCs will help out alot. I can't see a wonder bar hurting things either. I've put alot into the suspenion on my car and I have a good amount of seat time (had the car 4 years in Feburary). That said, I can pretty much feel the car getting ready to do whatever it's going to do well before it does it.