rkuemmer

This is all great information and when it comes to the suspension of a car i am not the best. I do work on cars and I went to school for it but I am the type of guy that pulls the engine out to make it hope up to 500+ horsepower. I done that plenty of times with my dad on his old cars. His 68' Chevy Pickup that runs mid 9's now. Also to his 69' Chevy Chevelle. Did have another Chevelle(71') and a 53' Chevy Pickup but both of them are show and now sold Anyway back to the main point of me posting. I am on a fix income as you can say lol i am looking for good coilovers to give me a good "stance" look and some camber but also want to car to stay as my daily driver. I am getting the car ready for show this coming summer and want it to be perfect. I will being modding the suspension to make it sutible for DD with the coilovers but would be great if you guys could point me to the things i want to buy. Thanks so much

Spicy_McHaggiz

iTrader: (1)

How low are you wanting to go?
Do you plan on tracking the car at all?
What is your actual budget?

Answer these first.

rkuemmer

I want to go lower then my tein stech tracking the car negative don't want to hurt my baby and its around 2k

rkuemmer

Oh please keep in mind that price range is for coilovers, suspension parts, maybe new rims

engifineer

For those saying they arent going to track the car, so they are not concerned about that, think of it this way. You are running 70 mph down the road and some fool pulls out in front of you, causing you to need to make a sudden, fast transition to the left, which puts you right in line with the center divider, which you have to avoid by turning back to the right, and between the car that you just avoided and the car next to it.

Sound like a pretty common emergency avoidance? Yep. It also would be called a chicane, offset slalom, etc if you were on a track or autox course. Only you are not nearly as prepared for this since you were not expecting it. So, the car responding properly and quickly is pretty key.

Now, when you start to make that sudden right, and the overly soft, overly lowered front end compresses completely and further than it was designed for, you go in to positive camber, decreasing traction by a large amount. To make it worse, that uber lowered front end with those squishy springs is now bottomed out on the bump stops, which is akin to suddently increasing spring rate on that side immensely, all at once, so it starts to bounce a bit (I have seen plenty of over lowered cars do this under less cornering load ... actually, some that have autoxd stechs on a tC got rid of them just because of this), which further removes front traction ... and the rear is so soft it is not contributing to any rotation.

You are now, instead of cutting back to the right, pushing like a sled on ice straight into the center divider, other lane if there is no divider, another car, etc. with no hope of recovery. So the next obstacle becomes your brakes.

That was a lot of detail, but it is exactly what happens to an improperly lowered car in an emergency situation. And I dont care who on here tries to convince you, stock suspension would have been better in this case than something slammed.

The point is that it is not whether you are tracking the car that concerns you, it is the effects under even more dangerous, less expected, emergency situations.

And you also have to think of the same with a good autox setup. Autox is all about precise car control, very fast transitions, etc. And as you get better, you tend to set up the car to rotate very easily ( that is once you are comfortable enough with predicting this and controlling it well). This means it will have the tendency to snap around on you when you are not expecting it as well. So many times you dial your setup back when not on course or on track so it is more manageable under street conditions. I dont leave my car set up with tons of front camber, crazy toe settings, etc when I drive around on the street either.

Spicy_McHaggiz

iTrader: (1)

Reason for wanting to go lower? Honestly if you're not going to track the car, you don't need coils. (unless you find a decent set for cheap) If you're worried about wheel gap, buy your wheels and tires first. If you want your car to handle like ___, get coils and drop it and don't corner balance them at all.


Or alternatively if you want cheap coilovers with very limited adjustability and the ability to blow out/rust/ride like complete crap very quickly, you can look at racelands.

engifineer

I didnt realize we were arguing

speedintc

iTrader: (1)

hmm pretty good thread. i think autox should be required to get your drivers license. i know there have been a couple situations where i didnt freak out where some other un experienced drivers would of completely lost it.

engifineer

It is definitely applicable to everyday driving. Tons of car control to be learned on the autox course.

I am an in car instructor at the teen driving school our autosports club puts on each year. They alternate for about half hour at a time classroom, half hour at a time on course that is set up like parts of an autox course all day. They experience chicanes, slaloms, measured emergency stops, traction circles , etc on both a dry course and a wet skidpad. Lunch is included and it all costs them $20. We basically raise money amongst ourselves and use what they pay to pitch in to help cover site rental. It is amazing what they learn in that 8 hours and how much more comfortable they are at the end. Some end up coming out for regular autox events with us later.

What blows mind is that it is not required of all drivers to take this type of training. Otherwise the first time a driver experiences a slide or spin is on a road full of other cars.

torqueTc

iTrader: (11)

So I am not understanding here why you might want coils.. If its for looks/driving like you indicated, why would you not just go with springs/shocks/struts? Youll save in the long run, and if your NOT adjusting (raising/lowering for events) coils are a waste of money. The main thing you want coils for, is complete adjusting. But, if your not going to be tweaking your setup constantly, and are going to stick with one GOOD setup, go with shocks/struts.
IMHO, the full TRD setup is good, and streetable. TRD shocks, struts, springs. Then add your anti-sway bars if you like.

Either way, good luck! and remember - with out an alignment afterwords or full on corner balance, your wasting your money, and will most likely, rip through tires.

Spicy_McHaggiz

iTrader: (1)

Because torque, in the newbie automotive world coils=instant god like handling.