ivai

I ought to qualify that question a little bit.

Just went to little talladega last week, and got a ride in my buddies 2001 M3. Wow, wow wow wow.. the thing has soo much grip. There was also a guy with an e36 m3 with R-compounds and suspension.. Both cars seemed much more sure footed through the turns than mine.

I have 250# springs in front, 29mm torsion bars in the rear, koni yellows all around.. I also have a 19mm sway in the rear, and a 27mm sway up front.

Is it even a reasonable goal to try and make a 20 year old car handle as well as a new Porsche or BMW? If so, how?

lart951

with plenty of $$$$$ is possible.

special tool

29mm t-bar in the rear and 250 up front?????????????????????????????????

Dude - your car must be undriveable in the rain. It wants to spin around all the time, right?
Who told you to do this? A Rennlister?

lart951

I told him , lol

get some coilovers 550 front 450 rear, camber plates, 968 M030 sway bars, 255's front 295's rear, lsd tranny and the problem is solved.

ivai

I bought the suspension second hand. Its actually not that oversteer prone, but I think I might need new front shocks.

special tool

Jesus - that's terrible.
One of these children on here probably told him to do that, now his car is f-ed up.

I have 29mm t-bars on my 924S ITS race car with FIREHAWK suspension (Konis are not enough for 29mm t-bars to start with)
And it took me 600 pound springs in the front to get ANY sort of nuetrality......

IPSC

89 with a LSD tranny, Bilstein Escort cup all around, 350lb front, 500lb rear, no torsion bars, Weltmiester solid sways, 968 castor blocks, (have I forgotten anything...???) Oh camber plates and you will out handle just about anything you come up against.

Promise

IPSC

LFA951

A stock '89 turbo S will out handle more than 80% of cars out there

User 41221

ivai, you have WAY too much rear torsion bar for what you are running up front. You need a 400-450 lb front spring for it to be properly matched for the rear. I like Bilsteins a lot more than I do Koni's, but thats just a matter of preference, either will be fine if properly valved for the spring rates. Also, you need to go with the Weltmeister adjustable sway bars if you are going to run spring rates like you have on your car, and I find it to be too harsh for the street. You also need to make sure all the rubber bushings front and rear are in good shape, and I'd add the 968 M030 caster blocks. Then, take your car to someone tha tknows how to corner balance and align, you will blow away 99% of anything out there. The Ferraris, Lotus Elise/Exige and a handful of others won't embarrass you either (properly driven, of course).

Personally, I'd soften the suspension to factory M030 specs and make sure its well maintained. You'll be surprised how good the factory set up really is, when you aren't running 20 year old parts.

Regards,

reno808

you gotta get rid of that stuff man.

ivai

Hmm, well this thread is a bit encouraging.. I guess I'll be changing around the suspension for my next project. Just wanted to make sure that trying to get my car to handle much better isn't a lost cause

RPHARRIS

I think Jeff's easiest solution is to purchase the firehawk setup with something around a 450 up front. As was mentioned, his front shocks might be worn out anyway and bilsteins are better at handling stiffer springs. I think there is a lot of room for improvement without the expense of going to coilovers in the rear. Camberplates are nice too because these cars need a healthy dose of negative that you might want to dial in at the track. Swaybars are nice as well, but in my opinion, those are something you should do to fine tune your setup after you have taken care of the basics. ST, keep in mind that a 924 can't fit nearly the same tire under its rear fenders so they need more spring rate up front to stay neutral. Also if it feel neutral right now, something is up with the alignment. Alightment is CRUCIAL on these cars, espcially when you start changing things like springrates and rideheight.

Loquat15

You are limited to your platform. you can only go so far and then the cost effectiveness of what you'll be doing, you may as well buy that newer sports car ;-)

theedge

Proper suspension combined with better and wider tires and youll be much better off....

Loquat15

Oh, but what would I do? put some good wide tires all around and have decent sway bars. You have to tune these things to the style and where you drive your car.

Adjustable Dampners would be nice because im sure most people dont want a pure track car as their daily driver.

Suspension can be dealt with fairly easily, i mean... not like there's a whole lot of options, right?

Stock LSD would be nice, maybe a little more oomph to the engine... If your car understeers, you've got issues, if you oversteer... more issues. You want your car to grip, you'll need suspension and wheels.

I keep obsessing over wheels because a friend of mine upgraded his sway bars and put 255 wide tires all around on his '87 Chevy Monte Carlo... yes, its a POS and god only knows why a person would want to race a 150hp v8 smog ridden cruiser... but anyways... it handled quite well and made me want to puke each time he went around turns. I feel you dont sit in the proper area in the car so being in the front still makes you sick and queasy.

Our cars do out handle many newers cars though ;-) so just keep that in your mind