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I looking to see which manufacturer is the best for upgrading suspension. For a complete package with a future plan to a a gear vendor overdrive, increase in power. My ultimate goal is to use the car as a summer driver as well as some time at the drag strip and at the auto cross as well as road racing.
Its my understanding is starting with suspension is the best place to start, deciding which manufacturer will have the best overall package.
Thank you all for your input and suggestions
I'm a big fan of umi, I liked all their rod end stuff, but it was definitely rougher on the street with vibration and road noise.
Springs and shocks on a budget would be slp bilsteins and strano springs. Baller would be koni adjustable shocks and strano springs. Strano sway bars are really good too.
Alot of people are gonna say subframe connector subframe connector! Sam Strano is gonna tell you you don't need em, and he's an scca autocross champion. There's two points to this. One, alot of guys don't need em, and their cars will never twist. For whatever reason some cars do. If you want an actual subframe connector, midwest chassis and competition engineering are true subframe connectors. The rest are more or less rear control arm mount to front frame reinforcers. For the record, I never ran subframes. And alot of guys dont.
why a gear vendors? 6 speeds have great ratios for all that and can be built as such.
The reason for the gear vendor is the car is an original auto car . The gear vendor will allow me to run down the HWY at lower rpm, I only have limited use of my Left leg and it's very difficult to operate a manual transmission for city driving or autocross, road race courses
TubbyFormy for your thoughts it's appreciated.
You can build an auto for autocross, make the shifter enabled into first if it already isnt, and set the tune for manual shifting control
My original plan was to do a street/drag/auto-x hybrid. That plan didn't last long. The thing is that with drag you want weight transfer, and on the street or running auto x you don't, so there are very few parts that will be ideal for both. My suggestion is to set it up for street/auto-x, and just have fun when you go drag racing. There are a few parts that can cross over though. The things that will give you hands down the biggest difference in handling are springs and shocks. Strano, Koni, and UMI have done VERY well for me so far. Here's a rough outline of what I'd suggest from my experience so far, Maybe helpful since it sounds like in a lot of ways you're going for the same thing I am and I've made a few mistakes along the way. Also, I know it's not suspension, but good tires and brake pads make an enormous difference. for auto x the Hawk HP+ brake pads work really well because they don't need a ton of heat.
1. SHOCKS. You'll be amazed the difference these make. If you're on a budget, I'd go with KYB AGX, if you can squeeze out more I'd spring for Koni's single adjustable shocks. They really are worth the extra $$$ if you can do it.
2. Springs: Hands down go with Strano. Great stance, lowers 1.3", which is low enough to feel a huge difference in handling, and about as far as you can go without adverse affects. Great spring rates as well. Even though lowering goes against what you want for drag by nature, the Stranos actually have fairly soft rears (some others are a bit oversprung) and will do better than others at the strip.
3. Adjustable panhard bar: It's a good move to do the springs, shocks, and panhard together. When you drop the car down the rear will shift slightly to the right. A double adjustable is really nice to have because you can adjust it on the car.
3. Sway bars: There's a number of choices here, but I plan to go with strano's solid set. You can go with hollow if you'd like, but for anything but the most serious applications, it's usually not worth the money for hollow. I still have stockers, and I really should have changed that a long time ago.
4. Adjustable torque arm: Lowering will also slightly change your pinion angle, so an adjustable torque arm is a good idea to help keep your pinion angle where it belongs. When I put mine in the car seemed like it transferred power a bit better and had less slop in the drive train. The stock piece doesn't take much to break. I would say this falls under the set of things that aren't necessary, but it's a REALLY good choice. Assuming your main goal isn't drag, go with a full length arm. The short ones are good for drag, but they can encourage brake hop.
5.Lower Control Arms. These will help keep you from wheel hopping so much. Different people have different taste, but DON'T GET DUAL POLLY. Those are ok for drag, but they hold the rear absolutely rigid, and that's not something you want any time but launching. I've had them on my car and that was my biggest mistake so far. Thank goodness it was a pretty cheap one. I'm a big fan of rotojoints because they allow the articulation of rod ends, but they're quiet like poly. These don't need to be adjustable unless you plan to run huge slicks and may have clearance issues. You can also pair the LCAs with relocation brackets that will have two different mounting holes. I use the top for auto-x, and the bottom for drag. I find using the lower setting (angles the LCAs downward toward the axle) is good for drag, but gives me some brake hop issues during auto-x runs because just like it digs the axle in when launching, it causes the axle to be slightly more unweighted under heaving braking.
6. Subrame connectors: Why are these so low on the list? Mainly because the 4th gen f-body is a VERY rigid, well designed chassis out of the factory and they don't do nearly as much on a 4th gen as a 3rd gen or some other cars.
If you want to drag a little more seriously, you could try swapping the stock rear springs in, and removing your front sway bar when you go drag racing. Those two can be done VERY quickly and will help your weight transfer. I'm in the process of refreshing my motor and setting it up with a Lloyd Elliot H/C package, and that's what I plan on trying when I go to do my shakedown runs, so we'll see how it goes, haha.
Very well said Wilburbeast. Good advice to follow up on OP. The biggest thing I did was my Koni 4/4's and then the antisway bars. Im running an old solid BMR set. They work fine, there just heavy!