UCA, LCA, and shocks/strut questions.
10-30-2008, 07:57 AM
#13
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Join Date: Feb 2007
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(2) To have the ability to tinker with pinion angle without the possibility of screwing up the "squareness" of the axle in the chassis. Also to (hopefully) solve a wheelhop problem that LCAs with upgraded bushings or rod ends could not.
Norm
Last edited by Norm Peterson; 10-30-2008 at 08:04 AM.
10-30-2008, 09:23 AM
#14
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Join Date: Dec 2007
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If the only thing you want suspension mods for is to decrease nose dive and squat, the tokicos will do it for you. I just installed D-specs on my otherwise stock suspension and now i can lock up the brakes and the nose barely dips at all and under acceleration, the car doesnt squat at all. I think you want squat for drag racing though, so that all your weight goes to your rear wheels.
10-30-2008, 10:47 AM
#15
6th Gear Member
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Squat? Nope. Squat does not cause "weight transfer" to happen. Squat only provides visible proof that it (load transfer, aka "weight transfer") is already happening. Actually, not having squat means that load is being transferred onto the rear wheels more quickly (and that a little more load is being transferred as well).
Norm
Norm
10-31-2008, 03:52 PM
#18
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Join Date: Mar 2005
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Mods: JLT cai, x-cal2 w/ 93 bama tunes, 62mm TB, cmcv deletes, u/d pulleys, long tubes, o/r x-pipe, flows, 4.10s, 26x11.50/17 et streets (track), short throw shifter, 75 shot (not wired up..soon)
I figure if I got the adjustable shocks and struts I could adjust them so that the nose wouldnt come down as easily or as much. So the d-specs should be fine for what I want or should I go with some other brand like QA1?
Yes lowering springs are in the near future and a drive before I break that.
I figure if I got the adjustable shocks and struts I could adjust them so that the nose wouldnt come down as easily or as much. So the d-specs should be fine for what I want or should I go with some other brand like QA1?
Yes lowering springs are in the near future and a drive before I break that.
So are you at all into canyon carving or running your car in a road course driving school type event? If your car is really all about daily driver duty and occassional fun runs at the drag strip and you're not into canyon carving or the road course don't lower your car! Lowering the car hurts your drag strip launch grip and limits the size of the drag tires you can fit under the rear fenders. Cornering and drag strip use are diametrically opposed as far as suspension setup goes. You can find a sort of medium setup but it seriously compromises the handling and perfromance for the other use. With your modest bolt-on mods I'd suggest a couple of different set-ups depending on what your budget is, how serious you are and just how much compromise you are willing to make in a daily driven car. Please believe me when I tell you that race cars make really lousy daily driven street cars.
For a real world all-season daily driver with good noise vibration and harshness (NVH) and ride traits that can put down the power well and still handles the curves O.K. consider installing Tokico D-Specs, FRPP GT500 LCA's, Steeda fixed tubular UCA with their 3-piece poly bushings. Consider installing an adjustable Panhard bar and the matching PB brace to help improve rear axle location and to increasing long term reliability of your chassis. You may also want to consider installing a set of Steeda LCA relocation brackets to get more launch bite on the drag strip. But there are a few things to consider here, the LCA brackets don't allow the use of the stock or GT500 LCA's which means you need to go to fixed or adjustable LCA's. The downside to going to the poly bushed LCA's is the increased NVH and a slight loss in ride quality. The difference is not a lot but each suspension mod gives up some level of NVH which all adds up and before you know it your car is harder riding and a lot noiseier than you realized it was going to turn out. Other issues that LCA brackets have are when lowering the LCA's in the LCA brackets the car's handling will be adversely affected increasing roll oversteer which is not desirable in an emergency avoidance situation, you will need to use adjustable LCA's and to get the best street handling will need to reposition and adjust them for the drive home from the strip, your car will no longer fit on a commercial wash racks, increased ride harshness over square edged bumps due to the change in rear geometry.
If you feel you must lower the car do not lower it more than one inch or you will start to need to add a lot more stuff to correct the unexpected changes you are making in the front and rear geometry. Also you will really need to install those LCA relocation brackets, adjustable Panhard bar, camber correction of some sort and a bumpsteer kit just to get some of the lost geometry back which messes with your steering, steering feel, launch grip, front grip and handling balance. For a stock height car these are non-issues but if you lower the car more than an inch they become bigger and bigger issues.
HTH!
10-31-2008, 03:54 PM
#19
4th Gear Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: California
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Squat? Nope. Squat does not cause "weight transfer" to happen. Squat only provides visible proof that it (load transfer, aka "weight transfer") is already happening. Actually, not having squat means that load is being transferred onto the rear wheels more quickly (and that a little more load is being transferred as well).
Norm
Norm
Hi Norm!
What happened here? I go away for a few months and the whole section goes missing!
Cheers!
10-31-2008, 06:03 PM
#20
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 1,692
