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A review of my first suspension/chassis setup. All the pros and cons.
Greetings
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You lost me at the rear strut bar actually making a difference. Many well respected people on here have verified that there is no advantage to have a rear strut bar.
You also don't mention what kind of driving you do, what your experience levels is, etc. Sounds like you made about a thousand changes between your chassis, suspension and driveline within very short periods of time, so I very much doubt you know how it feels from part change to part change. |
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Those are great for hard parkers.
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1. Grimspeed did testing with their solid(not pivoting like the cusco)front strut bar, deflection was something like 3-4mm total with out it. With all the bushings and soft tires etc, would steering rack bushings done the same thing? The master cylinder brace does help with pedal feel.
2. Look at post above mine. I'd tell you to ask someone to have you take a blind test drive with it installed and not installed. And finally a 3rd time, and you try to guess which is which among the 3 tests. You'll be looking for noise isolation more than actual feel imo. Loss of trunk space sucks too. 3. Hotchkis is known to overbar cars and it creates cross talk associated with it. One side hits a bump, you'll feel it on the other side. They are more autocross oriented than anything. Not sure if they went for a more modest setup for this chassis. 4. $475, I'd would have gone spl or velox for a little more. Or the cheaper route with spc. But it's your money, plus the cool color!! Looking at the pic, they couldn't even get the correct nuts and bolts so they used washers(fits loose) instead. That zip tie in the end... to hold the metal insert in the bushing... those tolerances scream out "made in random chinese factory" 5. Is the added weight worth it? I personally would have gone with firmer bushings or metal inserts to replace rubber parts that are known deflect quite a bit over some bars that supposedly stop metal chassis parts from deflecting(the rubber bushings are still there!). But hey, I'm not an engineer, just a keyboard warrior. Cusco does make like 20 types of bars for this car. What tires are you using? what alignment? what brakes? what tracking or competitive driving do you do? Stiffer is not always better. The chassis is plenty stiff for street tires and lower(most) skill levels. |
struts bar is really good when you hard park at the local car meet with your hood open to show off the engine bay, not sure if it actually made a noticeable difference in handling.
i could be wrong. |
Why people will immediately throw a completely new suspension on a car before even getting a decent alignment and some good wheels and tires is beyond me. But, I bet it looks nice.
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Another victim of advertising and the 'butt dyno'.
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Actually my first observation in this car was just stiff and "well bolted together" it felt.
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I don't want it to sound like I'm against modding the car - there's a rich aftermarket for it, there are lots of good products, and it's your car to do what you want. I'm sure all the parts look cool. But given your choices, I question whether you've got the experience/skill to actually determine that the car has actually improved. I'm sure it feels different, but if you drove an otherwise stock car with a really good alignment, and compared it to yours, I wonder if you'd be able to tell which is which...?
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This thread just jumped my shark. |
This would have been an amazing troll post if the op wasn't serious.
In order to review anything, you have to actually know what you're talking about. You don't know what you were trying to fix. You don't know what change there would be if any. And to make it worse, you did it all together. Realistically, you just paid to make the car "pretty". And I say that with quotes because I personally think Cusco (for this platform) is garbage. I'm not trying to be an asshole. It is the sad truth though |
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"Passed" means it was somewhere within the wildly variable range of allowable specs. Nowhere close to an optimum setup for handling. And if you changed springs and didn't get another alignment, then that's a fail as well.
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It'll go down the road fine enough, but you're losing a lot of feel and performance. |
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So the fact that you're asking these questions sort of proves out the assumption made by others (and myself, tbh) that your experience/ability to tell what's good or bad is lacking. Not a slam - just stating what seems to be obvious. And yes, the factory alignment specs are decidedly less than optimum for handling. The tradeoff is better tire wear, less tendency to tramline, more braking stability, etc. But if you want a car that responds well to steering input, those other qualities will suffer. |
This thread is good, keep it going guys :popcorn:
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You have some homework to do. If you don't know what an alignment is, that's the first place to start. Look up camber, toe, caster, and how each one has an effect on the way a car handles. Do that, tell us what you learned, then we can move on to the next step. Don't even say a single word about your "next build".
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I made fun of the rear strut bar BUT the front strut bar is a different matter. Myself and many others have commented on a marked difference in feel after having a front strut bar fitted. This post sums it up well: Quote:
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Suggestion to get some decent(not entry level) brake pads and brake fluid, and add some camber(2++) up front with some camber bolts and you should have a good base for the track. |
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