Trying to get some ideas and opinions for this for my XT6...After running the Dragon I found his weak points happen to be these areas..I am running some new but cheap champoro tires and who knows what the coilover conversion came from..Looking for something to stick to the sharp higher speed turns( without a ton of squealing ) and maybe something not so still on the suspension.

 

Thanks

First off, how are Rocky's rubbers underneath? (I am talking about suspension bushings, sheesh!) New stock suspension bushings make a difference; new polyurethane bushings tighten things up quite a bit but wind up transferring more vibration and stiffness to the ride (read: more sports car, less old lady car)

 

Generally speaking, anything to "improve suspension and handling" is going to cause the smoothness and comfort of the ride to go away some.. not in any prohibitive manner, but as I said above.. the "old lady car" feel goes away.

 

Suspension bushings, sway bar size, spring rate, ride height, suspension travel.. lots of things add up (and multiply and subtract and divide out, as well as getting into square numbers) in the suspension equation. Wider tires will give you a more positive feel for the road, and I would wager that a suspension bushing kit would be a great investment. They are usually between 100-200 bucks, but I have no idea about XT6 stuffs, probably could find out over at the '6.net

When I had my '00 legacy, I upgraded the rear sway bar to a beefier one and that made a world of difference for that car. Reduced the understeer greatly without making the rearend too loose in the winter. I also went from the re-92's tires to some Dunlop S2's(not sure, working from memory here) and there wasn't much of a difference in handling. Left everything else alone and was pretty happy with the way it could cruise around the mountains of North Carolina.

 

-Doug

Did somebody say something about upgarding sway bars?

http://www.whiteline.com.au/default.asp?page=/swaybars.htm

didnt you say rocky needed some frame work. I think i would do that before messin with other stuff. You might start replacing suspension parts and get yourself in a world of hirt

 

just my op though

 

Ben:banana:

He's not bad past the point of repair. I've beat the crap out of cars in much worse shape.

 

Connie, you could look for some 15 or 16" wheels from a legacy or impreza. That will open up tire choices greatly. Its hard to find any good performance tires in 14". I had good luck with Kumho tires on my integra. I had the 711's on it, they were a good all around tire. And would take anything I would throw at them.

about the only decent performance tire size available in 14s is the 215-60; if you are currently stuck with 14" rims that is the tire size I would go with, but thats just my rule-of-thumb for 14" rims on a sportscar.

He's not bad past the point of repair. I've beat the crap out of cars in much worse shape.

 

Connie, you could look for some 15 or 16" wheels from a legacy or impreza. That will open up tire choices greatly. Its hard to find any good performance tires in 14". I had good luck with Kumho tires on my integra. I had the 711's on it, they were a good all around tire. And would take anything I would throw at them.

 

i concer

 

i had a 92 eagle talon with 16x7 inch wheels with 235-55-16. Not good in winter but handled great in the corners.

i recommend getting 15" rims and nitto nt450 tires. main reason i suggest the nt450's is that they are inexpinsive and they handle very well in various weather conditions including rain and snow. not bad for a ultra high performance tire. id also recommend at least a 205 width tire. i am currently running the nt450's on my impreza and i have em on my pugs that were on my rx and are now on the brat. cant wait to see how well that thing does once i get it running.

I can tell you now, it will handle great. But won't get out of its own way. Made about half a mountain run sunday in the hatch before I got thuroughly disgusted(and the temp guage got above half).