How to screw up your cars handling and ride - step by step!

[oldlostcory]

Looking for some help. I recently threw on RCE yellows and 17x9 rpf1s with 245s. Got an alignment today with only whiteline camber bolts up front. The alignment came out to -1.1 LF, -1.4 RF, -1.5 LR and -2.3 RR with 0 toe. I know ideally you want to have more camber up front but how bad is it for the car to have that big gap from right and left? I can buy LCA's if i have too but it would be a month or two.

[ShadowReaper]

About Tire Size, since I am getting 18" x 8" why do people presume that bigger wheels slower. Is it the weight? The TS9s weight about the same as stock.

[Apex-Apex]

Originally Posted by ShadowReaper

About Tire Size, since I am getting 18" x 8" why do people presume that bigger wheels slower. Is it the weight? The TS9s weight about the same as stock.

Bigger tires are heavier

[ShadowReaper]

Originally Posted by Apex-Apex

Bigger tires are heavier

The Continental DWs, with the size that I'm buying actually weigh the same on each tire...

So if weight is the what is causing the preassumption of "slower" then that's not the case for me atleast..

[Racecomp Engineering]

Originally Posted by ShadowReaper

About Tire Size, since I am getting 18" x 8" why do people presume that bigger wheels slower. Is it the weight? The TS9s weight about the same as stock.

Yes it's the weight. How much less does the 17x8 version of your wheel weigh?

Honestly though, 18x8's are usually okay and if you found a set with a reasonable weight you're fine. The issue is the people that through on cheap heavy 18x9.5's on these cars.

- Andrew

[Karl07]

I went large and staggered with 18x8.5/18x9.5 rpf1.
They are still lightweight but definitely over tyred my stock car.
Did this on purpose for a few reasons.

1- at the start I wanted more grip because i dont care about drifting and while under warranty i did minimal track.
2- I can't afford things easily so I buy once knowing plans down the road. On this I now have my bigger brake kit on and a supercharger is on the cards.

While I could have gotten away with 17s and better pads/fluid as is the normal recommendation here, I can say for sure than I prefer the grip and stopping power I get over my friends 86 with those mods as well as no brake fade.
Yes under acceleration he is a little faster and he gets better fuel economy...but I have never really cared about economy (except where I ran my experiment)..and I can usually hold faster entry speeds anyway.

[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by Norville Rogers

Don't you need a car?

If you're a good enough driver people just give you cars to drive.

[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by Norville Rogers

Wow, look forward to supporting you on the world circuit

Not really, from local autocross to Lemons races to HPDE's, there's lots of people out there driving cars that they don't own. I've handed my car over to five other people at this point to put in a timed lap.

I mean, CSG and Racecomp have employees/contract drivers that take hot laps in company or customer cars while getting paid, I'm sure a few other participating here have gotten offered a car to drive, whether free, for a price, for the price of getting the car onto the course, or with a paycheck attached.

[Racecomp Engineering]

bump.

[Shark_Bait88]

Originally Posted by Racecomp Engineering

bump.

This really should just be stickied/required reading.

[x808drifter]

Originally Posted by Shark_Bait88

This really should just be stickied/required reading.

QFT

[Frisco]

Wow, this is a great thread!

I'm new to performance autos, but have tons of experience with motorcycles. Most bikes are transformed by suspension upgrades, so I was willing to consider modding my car for track days and sporty street riding.

Then I discovered Subaru's performance package option on the new BRZ.....

This car handles and stops so well, I'm just going to drive it. We will see how it goes, but a couple little comfort/cosmetic mods an I think I'll be good. I'll take the money I save up to Sonoma Raceway!


CJ

[Calvin27]

Haven't trawled through 10+ pages, but I find the tyre thing interesting.

So I run a stock setup (headers and tune only) and running re003. I'm keen to move up to ad08r, rs3 or z221 (semi slick) but now this thread has made me do a double take. Is this too much tyre, in particular the z221?

[Racecomp Engineering]

Originally Posted by Calvin27

Haven't trawled through 10+ pages, but I find the tyre thing interesting.

So I run a stock setup (headers and tune only) and running re003. I'm keen to move up to ad08r, rs3 or z221 (semi slick) but now this thread has made me do a double take. Is this too much tyre, in particular the z221?

You'll be faster for sure with the stickier tires but you're leaving a lot on the table. Ideally a tire like that would be paired with firmer coilovers to get the most out of them. You'll feel the chassis rolling/pitching/diving a whole lot more and that's not a great feeling for some (and of course the altered chassis dynamics that go with excessive roll/pitch/dive).

But honestly for tires...the usual problem I see is cars with very stiff coilovers matched with crap all-season tires. There are a lot of cars running 18x9.5s with 255 wide tires, but the compound isn't very good so it's just a big heavy wheel with poor grip tires.

- Andrew