ok, pretty simple and straight forward: i want to reduce as much understeer as possible on my car. its a 98 GT, has a stock sway bar up front, none in the rear (never came with it), with bushings that need to be replaced. i have stock control arms which also need new bushings, tokico D-Spec on all fours, 17x9 cobra r wheels (95 cobra r) running 245/45r17 bridgestones all the way around. have a BBK front strut tower brace. 1" lowering springs, have no idea what the spring rate is. other than that the rest of the suspension not mentioned is stock. any suggestions?
thanks in advance,
xavier
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RIP Gloria A. Torres
4/26/61 - 10/30/07
The best Mom-lady I could have ever asked for
A sway bar that is as stiff or almost as stiff as the front as well as some stiffer rear springs would bring the car to neutral or maybe even to oversteer some.
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2008 Toyota Tacoma Prerunner SR5 Reg Cab
2.7 4 banger
No mods (yet...)
The rear sway bar and/or stiffer rear springs would be a big help. But you didn't mention if you have a performance alignment, and what specs for camber/caster. Also what settings are your D-Specs set at. I run the rears a lot stiffer than the front, but have all stock components except a front bar and the D-Specs.
ok, so sway bars are what i need to get. i never understood which sizes would be better so i never bought anything for it. so from what monkeyboy says, i should try to get the front and rear bars to be almost of equal thickness? and RAT, as far as the performance alignment, no, i just took it to firestone to have them do the alignment, and i believe they kept it stock, or as close as they could. ill try to find the sheet and give you the caster/camber settings. i know camber is neg, but not certain on the numbers. and as far as the settings go, i run the fronts at about 2 towards soft, and the rears at 3 towards soft. so try stiffening the rears a little?
__________________
RIP Gloria A. Torres
4/26/61 - 10/30/07
The best Mom-lady I could have ever asked for
Xavier, There are a couple of different ways to do this based on performance mods allowed/class racing ect.
1 Soft springs/big bars.. I can't replace springs so I went with a larger front bar and adjustable (D-Spec) shocks/struts. For daily driv'n I set the D-Specs at 6 1/2 frt and 5 1/2 rear. These settings are done by tightning the adjustment knob to full firm or clockwise full tight then 6.5 turns out (soften) for the front and 5.5 on the rear. For the autox settings I set the frt at 4 and the rear at 1.5. This helps the front bite more and the rear to bite less. The car is a little loose with these setting cause I hate understeer. Stiffening the shocks/struts is like changing the spring rates.
2 Stiffer spring/softer bars.. You have stiffer spring so you may not need bigger than stock sized sway bars. You can however use the rear sway bar to tune for under/oversteer. I would get the MM adjustable rear sway bar if you do autox. Finding the 'right' rear bar can become a hasle and cost more in the end. Check the rule book to see if the MM adjustable bar will be legal. The larger the rear bar the more the car moves towards oversteer.
I have a Steeda 35MM frt bar and a stock 21MM bar on the rear, front springs are 600 lbs, rears are 250 lbs. Other things to consider will be the alignment specs, tire PSI and fuel load. I also keep a log of setup changes and how the car reacted to them.
RAT, so far i havent tried any competition autox, i just plan on taken my car to the autox track just for practice and then slowly get into actual competition autox. i do however go up to the mountains for a "spirited" drive somewhat often, and thats pretty much what i want my car to be better at. to start i plan on buying these things for my car:
cobra rear sway bar (27mm)
cobra front sway bar (29mm)
cobra control arms
steeda subframes
shock tower brace
and FMS "C" springs (rates are 650/front and 250-300 rear)
and then slowly as i start to get the feel for the suspension, see where i can improve upon/fine tune. from what you mentioned, this isnt too different from the setup you have, how does your car handle the autox?
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RIP Gloria A. Torres
4/26/61 - 10/30/07
The best Mom-lady I could have ever asked for
I double checked and my rear bar is 23 MM, not 21. If you plan on autocrossing, I'd read the SCCA rulebook to see what mods will put you in higher classes. Ex. Subframe connectors, While these are a very good mod for a Mustang on the street/strip, ect, in autox they will bump you into Street Mod class. Very fast competitive class. More Mustang friendly classes are Stock, Street Tire, E Street Prepared. Here's a link so you can read up on these classes.
Below are the last 3 autox's I went to. Work has prevented me from competing this year plus I have worn-out race tires. I corded them at the last event. I'm waiting til 07 to buy the new tires. The last event is from my club's TLAC event. Trans Louisiana Autocross Challenge. All 4 SCCA clubs in Louisiana get together 5 times each year for an Autox/bragging rights/party. I could do no better than 10th overall.
In the first link, scroll down to see the final results at the bottom of the page.
thanks, ill checkout those links and try messing around with the dampners, setting them on different settings and see how they work. thanks for the help
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RIP Gloria A. Torres
4/26/61 - 10/30/07
The best Mom-lady I could have ever asked for
understeer question 
