Which is the best setup for grip??

[Sgonzalez]

Jan Pedersen Wrote:He didn't ask about the driver - thats another issue... He just wanted to know how to make the car better so we have to assume that his driving skills are ok imo... I'm not saying that your wrong, though

If your shocks aren't blown I would start off with some new bushes OEM, TRD, prothane or whatever. Slap on some good tires and see what you need to upgrade next

YES, I WHAT A GOOD SETUP JUST FOR FUN AND SECURITY

1. For sure I will use a good set o tires, full slicks( if it’s not raining) I have a set used on another car, for just 6 laps, yakohamas.

2. Need new wheels since I have on the ae86 has a 5 bolt pattern (spacers) IS THIS SAFE??? and the mitsu is 4x100mm

3. A set of good bushings.

4. Interested in any good ideas on the back suspension, the last guy who had the car used cut off springs but the offset of the wheel was messing around with the sheet metal of the fender.

Regards
Sergio Gonzalez

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[Ivan141]

I would get rid of the 4-to-5 lug conversion spacers.. they are a potential hazard when going racing. Furthermore..there's the performance gain of lowered unsprung weight (wont be much).

As far as point 4 is concerned, the easiest setup is the one closest to stock: use separate springs and shocks. Nice rear lowering springs can be bought from PASS racing (swift B-tune springs), or TRD. When you find some money for decent shocks, get some shortstrokes to go along with them. Do keep in mind that huge springrates and sloppy shocks are not going to combine too well.

[Apolan]

I think you should tune your car acordingly to your skill and purpuse. If you're saying that you're a very good race car driver and you want the car only to do well on track, than you will need a completely different aproach than say if you want a street car that will be fast on street/mountain roads, maybe occasional track use, but still maintain good streetability. And if you are a beginner like me, i would suggest that you do not overtune your car, just do the basic mods to make the car more comfortable to push hard (renew the poor old hachiroku, get a good seat&steering wheel, better brake pads, make the engine good and healthy and good wheel alignment). I believe that would enable a beginner to progress much faster than if he was to go all out with superstiff springs/coilovers/othermods.. not even knowing what each mod does. i believe in modding your car when you know exactly why you need it.. So i would get the basics and go racing and than go from there. But if you're a pro than this is on a whole another level - but i think the same story of succesfull racing.

[Michel H]

I think you should update parts one at the time, so you can feel if it gets better or worse. If you change everything all together, it might be impossible to tell what parts actually did help, or made it worse.

[EE80Liftback]

I've got no clue about racing a car but I believe in getting new tires before doing anything else ever since I got new front tires on my car, partly on the advice of NoHachi. It handled much beter and thats something noticed during every day use on a slow fwd car.

I was swapping old dried out but good profile Michelin's to new Michelin's and it made such a difference. I can only imagine the difference you could notice after swapping from older cheap tires to new proper (high performance?) tires

[Apolan]

But there is a difference between wanting to improove your lap times and wanting to improove your driving.

[Michel H]

Yes but there is also a difference between mounting a good suspension under your car and understanding a good suspension (which I don't lol) so you can make it work better, or at least adapt your driving.

[gt99]

Apolan Wrote:But there is a difference between wanting to improove your lap times

Tires = 40%
Driver = 30%
suspension = 20%
everything else = 10%

Apolan Wrote:and wanting to improove your driving.

Car's good (or perfect) technical condition 50%
Tires = 20%
suspension = 20%
everything else = 10%
Driver - nonsignificant

[EE80Liftback]

gt99 Wrote:Driver - nonsignificant

lol

I guess that makes me a racing car driver too You're not serious, right?

[Apolan]

Well the precentage can vary from person to person but the idea is clear. If you want to improove your driving skill than you need a reliable and properly set up car that you can practice wiith - but doesnt necesarilly have to be rediculously fast. So you can even start on poor tires and softer suspension and than progress to stiffer suspension and stickier tyres.. But if you want to improove your lap times than you can compensate for the lack of your skill by putting better tires etc.. in my opinion, only important if you are racing in a cup or something like that..

One more thing i dont agree totally with is "Driver - non important". We all know a saying "practice makes perfect"... but i think only "perfect practice makes perfect". So it is important what you are doing behind the wheel - that you learn race properly.. it is like that in everything. Any tennis player will tell you how difficult it is to unlearn those bad shots/movements once you "mastered" them.