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

[gramicci101]

So... do we have to proceed step by step, or can we skip steps?

[OrbitalEllipses]

Originally Posted by gramicci101

So... do we have to proceed step by step, or can we skip steps?

Most prefer bulking.

[Racecomp Engineering]

Originally Posted by bee-jay

All good points. I've seen this so many times in motorcycling. Well intentioned modifications making things way worse.
Sometimes you can't outsmart the engineers who built it.
They (manufacturers) spend years and large sums of money to get it right. (or pretty darn close)
And the average Joe thinks he can improve on it, most often with negative results.

I agree and to be honest after driving the car the first time we (as a suspension parts maker) had to sit and think about what we could do to actually improve things. Before with the STI and WRX the shortcomings of the car were pretty obvious and there was a lot of low hanging fruit.

This car works as a package from the factory so well that it's easy to screw it up. Some things are easy and cheap (like a little more camber than factory) but bigger changes are a bit more complicated if you want to keep or improve handling. You just got do it carefully and think it through.

- Andy

[CSG David]

Originally Posted by 7thgear

the number one mistake people make is bothering to upgrade the car at all


upgrading for the sake of upgrading shows outright ignorance and stupidity


if you're going to change something on a car you better damn make sure it will actually change some characteristic for the better and not for the worse.


I think the vast majority of the tuning industry is fueled by the willingness to express oneself.. which isn't a bad thing... if only it wasn't so heavily masked in the assumption that all of these upgrades are for a net performance benefit... que in the initial post ^^

I can't tell you how many people we've told to keep their car stock. Lots of shops push them to buy stuff that are downright unnecessary and you can see them get very unhappy with how much money spent with absolutely no gain. On top of that, their cars look like the standard FF 90s tuning style afterwards.

[Racecomp Engineering]

^ I highly recommend at least 1 track day or auto-x event in your stock 86 before jumping into modding the car.

- Andy

[gramicci101]

Originally Posted by OrbitalEllipses

Most prefer bulking.

I'm in the cutting phase right now, but I'll get there.

[CSG David]

Originally Posted by Racecomp Engineering

^ I highly recommend at least 1 track day or auto-x event in your stock 86 before jumping into modding the car.

- Andy

You know what's funny? Our stock car lap times are still faster than some heavily modified cars (about 98% of them).

[BRZZZZZZZZZZ]

Looks like I am on a good track with mine...

[OrbitalEllipses]

Originally Posted by CSG David

You know what's funny? Our stock car lap times are still faster than some heavily modified cars.

The three most important part of timed automotive event are: driver, driver, and driver.

[CSG David]

Originally Posted by OrbitalEllipses

The three most important part of timed automotive event are: driver, driver, and driver.

True, but most setups are undrivable on our tracks. Talk about bottoming out on some bumps and dips. It's kind of scary when you're doing 95mph around a high speed corner and the suspension bottoms out in a lower grip area...

[FT-86 SpeedFactory]

Very nice! Wish we could get more people to listen to advice like this. You can follow this guide and still have a car that looks great while performing as well.

[ATL BRZ]

These 7 deadly sins should all be etched in stone and carried to the top of Mount Olympus.

[fooddude]

Originally Posted by Racecomp Engineering

That would also be a bad idea.

- Andy

How so exactly ..please explain?

I notice it isn't uncommon to see low offset wheels on people that track their car in Japan (like Tsukuba Circuit in Option/Japanese videos)

Isn't there positives/pros too? ... since it's a little wider?

[CSG David]

Originally Posted by fooddude

How so exactly ..please explain?

I notice it isn't uncommon to see low offset wheels on people that track their car in Japan (like Tsukuba Circuit in Option/Japanese videos)

Isn't there positives/pros too? ... since it's a little wider?

Hurts aero.