Suspension

[Wulfkind]

So, randomly asked question thats specific to me, I know there have been a few threads on it, but opinion is desired.

Recently my wife destroyed a couple of tyres on the Aurion while I was up the pub (we only have one car, so she needed to be driving it to pick up my intoxicated backside before anyone asks why I let her) So rather than replacing them with the rubbish I had on, I decided to pick up a set of Bridgestone Adrenline Potenza RE001's... After hearing about the price and reading about the wear rating, my wife flipped her wig so instead I picked up a set of Pirelli PZero Dragons (235/40R18)

I'm finding the tyres really responsive and that I'm now able to put a lot more power down to the road without the TC kicking in or spinning wheels, the car totally transformed with them.

Now my biggest issue is that the new tyres really made the body roll of the car apparent, so I'm considering a few options.

Coilovers, really keen on doing this, but I understand that the ride can be really rough with them and I want to avoid a repeat of my commodore in so far as saying I want to have a car that feels like it actually has suspension...

Or would I really just be better off going for front braces and rear sways and seeing how I like that first? I feel the car would absolutely benefit from a stiffen up in the suspension but I'm not sure where I want to go with it exactly.

Any advice, opinions, encouragement, discouragement or otherwise just yelling at me for the sake of it will not go astray, thanks guys.

[Ingres]

the Front Strut Bar and Rear Sway Bar will give you an improvement in the handling while still keeping your comfort ride level.. i will go for that direction..

[1stKill]

Hey buddy...i went with the front strut brace & rear sway bar from Ultra Racing and no bullsh!t along with my tyres the best mods i've done to my car.It stiffened and tightened it up heaps,it's almost point and shoot now as opposed to point and roll before i did the the mods. :)

p.s just my 2 cents.

[AUR30N]

agree with ingres - keep away from coil overs thats me everyone diffrent at first there fun and diffrent then they become irratable and annoying.

but thats upto what you decide I'm just talking from previous experience in them

ARUR30N

[ZZR88]

Before i purchased my BC coilovers with 8kg front and 5kg rear custom spring rates (standard spring rates that come with the coilovers are 6kg in the front and 3kg in the rear) i was worried that changing to coilovers would make the ride rough.

Surprisingly when i installed them and adjusted the dampening to 16 clicks on the front ( 30 Clicks being the hardest) and 12 clicks on the rear the ride feels exactly the same as the standard sportivo supsension. So if you are looking at improving the handling of the car while maintaining a comfortable ride i recommend getting a set of BC coilovers if you choose to change to coilovers. I have had them for around a month and a bit and having no issues at all and handling is great!.

The reason i got custom spring rates were because the aurion is a heavy car and i felt the 6kg front and 3kg rear would be to soft. But im guessing having 6kg front and 3kg rear spring rates would make the ride similar to the non sportvio suspension.

I think that you should get the front strut bar and rear sway bar first and see it how it goes, if you feel its not enough then get the coilovers ;)

hope that helps =)

Edited August 14, 2009 by ZZR88

[-DAvo]

sorry for the hijack here, but would ppl on here recommend lowering/replacing the stock springs before considering strut bars and swaybars? are there any disadvantages of lowering the car while still running the stock steel (atx stnd) wheels? (will upgrade wheels in the future)

thanks and sorry for the hijack :P carry on...

[David the Viking]

If you want to control body roll upgrade the rear sway bar and get the front strut brace.

If you want to lower the car or get a firmer performance orientated handling go for coilovers or lowered springs and uprated shocks like KYBs.

Go to the Whiteline site they have a lot of articles on suspension, well worth a read. And remember the springs of a car are there to hold it up and cushion the ride in a vertical plane eg: going over a speed up. Swaybars are also springs but are designed to work in the horizontal plane eg: control body roll.

If you use stiff springs to try and control the body roll it will have a negative affect on the ride quality, if thicker sway bars are used the the standard ride quality can be maintained with better body roll control.