924Board.org

[Rick MacLaren]

Yeah I saw in Automotion that you could change the front springs to be lowered without changing the torsion bar:

http://www.performanceproducts.com

If you buy the 200 lb lowering springs, you don't need to change your torsion bar.

In your case, Vaughan, you had to change your torsion bar because the spring rate (probably 250 lb) was now way stiffer than your torsion bars, thus changing the back-front relationship. These ones from Automotion don't change it quite so significantly, but they'd be a nice performance improvement all round for relatively little money.

So I'd say that if someone's getting spacers already they're also gonna get the added bonus of reduced lateral transfer - but they'd better watch that roll in high speed cornering.


[ This Message was edited by: Rick MacLaren on 2002-03-21 05:40 ]

[Vince Ponz]

Front springs 250lbs Car is lower in the front
23mm sways F
22mm sways R
I have the original torsion bars in the rear. I lowered the rear and the handling is great.
Bilstein HD shocks all around.

[Rick MacLaren]

That's surprising. Did you have to do any special adjustments at alignment time? Aren't the front and rear supposed to be pretty much the same level?

[ This Message was edited by: Rick MacLaren on 2002-03-21 09:20 ]

[924RACR]

I believe Vince is indicating that he lowered the rear to match and be level with the front.

Vince, I'm curious, what is the orientation of your a-arms? Level?

I'm not surprised that the balance of Vince's car works - that's a much stiffer rear bar. By comparison, the stock rear swaybar (if installed at all) was 14mm, and the bar I have is the 19mm Cup Car/M030 bar.

To clarify, no I'm not running the 250lb front springs. I'm running 400lb front springs and 30mm rear torsion bars. Again, the rear swaybar is 19mm (set at full stiff) and the front bar is the same 23mm Vince has

_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype

[Vince Ponz]

Believe it or not my 77.5 924NA handles better than my 79 931, 85.5 944 and the 911 Targa. I said handle, not what is faster. I trust the car and push it hard and it is predictable.
The 44 has I think 23 front with 18 rear stock shocks and it handles fine but not good.
The 79 931 with 23mm f and 18mm rear is a bit twitchy in the rear, like it wants to come around. HD Bilsteins all around. Pretty near the same parts as the 77924NA.
The Targa if pushed can get you in serious trouble if you don't know how to drive it. I don't.
As for the A arms they are slightly slanted toward the outside. I never had a problem with the wheel bearings or the ball joints in 20 years. I did replace them about 3 years ago as regular maintenance.
Lowering the car was the best thing I did to it. The next item I changed was to a smaller steering wheel Momo.

[Rick MacLaren]

My God. 400 lb springs!

A friend of mine diagrammed out for me how the lowering affects or is 'said to' affect ball joints. I guess you're not having any trouble with these, Vince, but when you replaced these were they cheap to replace?

[ This Message was edited by: Rick MacLaren on 2002-03-22 01:54 ]

[924RACR]

Yep, 400. Remember, this is a pure race car, does not see the street anymore (except from the top of the trailer!). I may drop to 350 if needed, as I continue to upgrade the rear suspension (to maintain the handling balance).

So, Vince - you mean the a-arms slope downward from the body? That is what I'd expect...

As for handling - yes, my car is twitchy. Those who've driven it on NFS have seen. It takes some practice, but I'm used to driving it sideways, and you can't beat the steering response.

I'm due to replace my balljoints this spring - they're still original.

I do also have a 350mm Momo wheel.

_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype