^ As you can tell I could use better suspension


As of now I have an abundance of parts piling up in my room. I have Tokico HP's for the front and the rear, Energy Suspension kit, Ground Control coilover sleeves from a lancer with 360 and 250lb springs. Also have FC hub assemblys for the RE-Speed big brake kit.

I have also done random mods to help the car on stock suspension like removing the rear sway bar, solid front swaybar endlinks.

So what I am trying to figure out is, what is the best way to achieve less bodyroll but still have enough to weight transfer into drifts and still have good steering response.

Also going from a GS rearend to a GSL-SE rearend is there anything I need to do with the hydraulic system due to something like a difference in brake bias between the discs and the disc/drum combo? Also keep in mind I will have FC rotors/calipers and all that up front.

Any and all help/suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance.

 

Looks to me like you need to post this in the drifting section of the forum.
I expect you'll get answer better targetted to your goals.

 

neat pic, right there you can see why we need like -3 degrees of camber in the front!

less body roll comes from stiffer springs. bigger sway bar would help too, although you can add it later.

lowering the car a little helps too, but the roll centers go up, so at some point the roll centers going up relative to the CG is going to cancel out

 

I figured the first gen guys would be of more help than they drift guys since most of them work on second gen's.

 

glad to see you post here too man. you pretty much got it all boiled down as to what you need. Kentetsu seems to have a pretty good set up, and it's always giving good advice based on his experience. give it a bit of time and he'll chime in here.

what year is your car?

still curious as to how much fabbing is needed for the lancer coil-over.

 

1985 and the sleeves dropped right in to place.

 

Here is a really good thread on suspension setup. The only thing I would suggest differently for drift would be a slightly higher spring rate on the rear of the car. You'll also probably be happier if you put that rear swaybar back on.

https://www.rx7club.com//showthread.php?t=933521





.

 

Ive read that removing the rear sway bar helps while on stock suspension. Soon enough it wont be stock anymore So I will put it back on whenever I get a decent front sway. I am cutting springs on the rear until I can afford cup car springs or re-speed adjustable coilovers for the rear.

Going to re read that thread. I have before but its been a bit.

Any idea on the brake system question guys?




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the drop in coil over setups, like the GC, are nice because they use a bunch of simple off the shelf parts.

the coil over sleeve and collar are basically the same for every car.

then you can buy a 2.5" diameter spring in any rate and length you need.

its the top hat/camber plate that makes it car specific

 

Once I start putting all this **** on ill take pictures so you can see how they sit.

 

Taking the rear sway bar off is something most road racers do to make the car less prone to oversteer/snap-oversteer. In your case though you want a car that is easy to get the tail out with so keeping the rear bar on may be the best way to go. Do not forget tires. For drifting you'll want something with decent grip but also cheap enough to replace on a fairly constant basis. Sumitomo HTR 200's are dirt cheap at $50ish per tire, and offer good grip for the price. Just ask Kentetsu, he stomps race slicked supercharged Miata's all the time.

 

drifting is weird, you actually want a pretty stable setup.

its going to vary with the driver, but put an LSD in to any 1st gen, and add a little power and it's pretty good as a drift car.

way way back in the day i let alex pfeiffer drive my old GSL-SE, and he (we all had fun actually) drifting it, and it was a really basic setup. eibach drop ins, illuminas, no rear bar. RB SP exhaust...

biggest problem was that 3rd gear was too tall, so he'd choose tach buried + a couple thousand rpms in second.. and it took that abuse all day long for a year

 

Welded diff gets the job done in the GS.

Last course I did I had to leave the car in 3rd the whole time and with 45psi in the rears it struggled to get above 5,000rpms. But at the same time I could link the course. So its not all bad.

The main reason behind removing the rear sway is so the car is more predictable and I dont have random spurts of snap oversteer. Even more so from turn turn.

 

Grinded the perch a little to let me drop the car a little more.

 

took me a minute (didn't have the interwebs for a while) but i finally found this thread again. thanks for the pics, hope you have got your car sorted out.

 

Subscribed. Any chance you could post up your alignment sheet? I could help dial you in from there.

Basically what you're looking for is the following:

Camber: -2.5 Degrees Front
Toe: -.1 Each Side (1/16" each side) OUT
Caster: ~4-5 Degrees. Some people run less caster due to our heavy steering box issue. Try both and see what you like. Less would be closer to 2-3 Degrees (Positive of course)

Ride Height is ideally 10mm lower in the rear than the front, so 1/2"-5/8" MAX (25.4mm to inch).

Sway bar settings: Stiffest you can run in the front w/ a medium/soft rear. OR Stock front, no rear. My driver preference for drifting would be out of the ordinary. Stock front with Stiffer rear. Very twitchy, but it works for my driving style.

Spring rates are F/R proportional to stock, only 20% stiffer.


Just a few ideas... Give it a shot and tell me what you think. I'm also the tuner of the fastest mountain cars in San Jose, CA. Mountain is always a mix of grip and drift.