Hey friends!

Just got an '88 Camaro RS, man I love this car! A bit nostalgic for me, I've always love the lines of the 3rd gen Camaro's since I was kid!

-My question is in regards to a great value suspension setup that's high performing, economical, and looks slightly aggressive.. Rolling and parked ;D

-It's stock right now.. I was thinking of going Tenzo R lowering springs (1.7front/1.2rear), on Bilstein shocks.

-Wheels. I got the stock, clack Camaro 15's right now. What are your thoughts on 16's, maybe?? Realistically, I may be doing 15x8 front&rear, with 'Firehawk 500' series tire sizes: 215front/245rear. Thoughts and suggestions??

Thanks for helping me out guys! Cheers!

 

street-fighter sytle suspension? havent heard that one before

anyway, what are you looking to do with hte car? a street performance/corner carver? i assume? or a drag car?

For springs, you need to be careful with really low drops, the car will bottom out on everything. The most popular performance spring is the ebiach prokit, its only a 1" drop, but that puts the car in a good spot.

Shocks, bilsteins are good shocks, for ride quality, but for performance driving, koni yellows are the best you can buy for under a grand, and are adjustable.

I would suggest using larger rims, 15's are good for a drag vehicle, but for a corner carver, they have too much sidewall. Use a 16 at the smallest, maybe a 17. Both look good, 18's look and work well too, but will look a bit silly if you dont do a brake upgrade as well.

Rebuilding or replacing the suspension components are a good idea too. You can just swap out the bushings on the stock pieces, or go with completely aftermarket parts. The stockers are rubber and probably totally shot by now, so you will not get the most out of you other suspension mods if you still have all the slop of old rubber bushings.

 

Here's a thread that'll get you started. Although, I reccomend reading this part first:

Chassis Preparation:
The first thing that needs to be done is to take into consideration the age and design of the car- it's old and the cars weren't very rigid even from the factory.

That's why the bare minimum recommended for these cars is a good set of SFCs (in my opinion, weld in are the best, but some think bolt-ins are ok. I’d rather not run the risk of the bolt holes stretching out and things getting loose)

If you plan to install larger than stock (tires?) (or just jerk the car around any) a 'Wonder Bar,' more accurately called a tubular steering brace, is good insurance. These tie the two sides of the front sub-frame together to reinforce the area around the steering box. During initial testing by GM, the engineers found this area to be prone to cracks due to the stress that the stock IROC-Z could dish out. Keep in mind that is when the IROC-Z was stock... your modifying your car. For this reason, most IROCs, more specifically the ones with 16" wheels, came equipped with this from the factory.

Next is to check the bushings for wear and tear and replace as needed. This includes inner and outer tie rod ends, ball joints, sway bar bushings, control arm bushings, etc. Replacing these bushings isn't an absolute necessity, but starting to modify, or even drive a car with worn out or broken components is just... This is especially true if you are going to build the car to turn. Also, if you have the funds and desire, you can replace the stock component with aftermarket peices for added strength and reduced weight.
If your bushings look anything like this, you need to replace them:



In addition, when you lower a car, it affects your suspension geometry. The basic fix for the LCAs is relocation brackets. They will allow you set the angle of the LCAs back to stock after lowering. Ideally, you want them to be level with the ground when the suspension is loaded. Here's a link to lower control arm angle and relocation brackets (an explanation with pictures) for an explanation.

An adjustable PHB (panhard bar) is a good idea, because lowering a car without one will cause the rear axle to move off center. It's not very noticeable nor necessary, but it is a good idea. When lowering, your PHB may also change its angle in relation to the ground. Just like the LCAs, you want this to be kept level with the ground. This way the rear axle will swing in the same arc downward as it would if it were moved upward the same distance. It simply provides more predictable handling.

SFCs:
Spohn
UMI Performace
Top Down Solutions

Wonder Bar:
Spohn
UMI
Top Down Solutions

LCARBs:
Spohn
BMR Fabrication
UMI Performace
J&M (Hotpart)

PHB:
J&M (Hotpart)
Spohn
UMI Performance
BMR Fabrication
Strano Parts

Steering Preparation:

Most likely, the steering components on your car are in pretty sad shape. Before you start making the car handle better, you’ll probably want to address that as well. I use NAPA or Moog parts for the steering linkage bushings (tie rods, ball joints, etc). This is pretty much common sense if you’re staying stock in this area- replace what needs to be replaced with the best you can afford. You really do get what you pay for. Many of the stock steering boxes are worn out and have a lot of slop/play in the steering. There are a few options to remedy this. The cheapest and simplest is to adjust the box on the car. The next is to remove the box and bench adjust it. Both of these are covered in the this article. Another option is purchasing a remanufactured box from your normal parts suppliers. From what I've seen, results are hit and miss with these because some worker in a factory in Mexico isn't really concerned with how the box ‘feels’ after they're done. Another option is buying a new box. Since this is the way I plan to go, I'll recommend Lee Manufacturing. Pricey, yes. Worth it, most likely. Just make sure you contact them with your needs/wants for the car. In addition, you'll most likely need new strut mounts. Now, the stock pieces are fine for DD (daily driver) duty, but if you are more performance oriented on your build, you'll want something a little more resilient.

Steering Boxes
Lee Manufacturing boxes
Flaming River boxes

Strut Mounts
Spohn
J&M (Hotpart) Mounts

 

If you're looking for a street fighter style suspension, we offer a coil-over conversion kit for the front that works with factory style shocks (except bilstein) and QA-1 double or single adjustable shocks for the rear with our drop springs for the rear as well (1.25" drop).

We also offer the front A Arms along with poly/rod rear lower control arms.

This should be the right direction in suspension parts if your are going for a Street Fighter Camaro.

 

First replace wear items such as bushings and steering linkages and then.

shocks - koni yellows or bilstiens

tires - if youre staying 16" or smaller go with 16x8" iroc or gta's wrapped with the kumho XS's (probably the only thing wide enough and worth a damn to run)

springs- stock iroc/gta springs trimmed to ride height. If you really want to step it up weight jacks and custom rate springs are the hot setup.

Get a performance alignment and some subframe connectors. Flog it and find its weaknesses. Build from there. All the other suggestions are nice and all but you really need to start with the basics and the biggest factors.