Track day suspension, springs or sways?

Which wold you do first for track days? This is my daily driver(obviously)and i don't know if i want to take care of the body roll or the dive of the car first? What makes it feel better on the track and around town? I am currently looking at the cobb springs or the rallitek springs, about $250 plus $250 for install vs sways at $300 to $400(w upgraded mounts) and i could do the install.

well, springs would lower you a bit causing the car to have an overall lower center of gravity and I am assuming that you would go with a stiffer spring making for a more responsive ride and control.

 

sways help with lessening body roll which is also a very important suspension component.

 

personally, I would go with springs first.

I did sway bars first and waited until I could buy struts and springs together. It worked out pretty well with just sway bars at first but upgrading the struts and springs after made the biggest difference. Keep in mind you want your struts and springs to be a balanced system that works well together. Stock struts with stiffer springs will cause an underdamped situation which is not ideal for track days. my $.02

Coilovers make the biggest difference.

So one vote for coilovers, one for sways and one for springs...

 

I am not doing coilovers, i am not that hardcore yet.

I forgot the biggest difference...TIRES!!!!!!

 

Get some slightly used nice aggressive summer tires off of nasioc or STi take off's. That will make the biggest impact.

I forgot the biggest difference...TIRES!!!!!!

 

Get some slightly used nice aggressive summer tires off of nasioc or STi take off's. That will make the biggest impact.

 

 

Thats taken care of already.

I would just go to the track first and drive. Afterwards you'll know or at least have an idea of what YOU want to sacrifice for the other.

I would just go to the track first and drive. Afterwards you'll know or at least have an idea of what YOU want to sacrifice for the other.

 

My main problem is my last track day was in an 06 315WHP STi, i don't care about the power but cornering just isn't even close to what i want, I have never had sways or springs on my subies because i felt the STi did a good enough job so I trying to figure out which is a better investment for the track.

 

So far i am leaning towards springs since i hate the dive more than the roll.

Big swaybars and a set of aftermarket camber bolts so you can dial in boatload of front negative camber.

 

It's very important to minimize body roll and camber loss. Otherwise you'll be scrubbing off the outsides of the front tires and understeering everywhere.

 

After that, offset LCA bushings, better shocks, stiffer springs.

Sway bars attach the moving suspension pieces on one side of your car to the moving suspension pieces on the other side of your car. You get less lean in corners, but also reduce the ability of the suspension to keep the tire patch flat on the ground.

Strong springs, on the other hand, will do a pretty good job cutting down lean in corners but your suspension will still be free to do it's job –independently, side-to-side- to keep the tires as flat as possible on the ground in various situations so that you end up with a bigger contact patch most of the time.

So I’d go with springs first.

except, to get enough roll stiffness without bigger swaybars you need a ridiculous amount of spring. That leaves you with severely reduced travel and a loss of traction over rougher pavement and bumps in a corner. Plus there's the ride quality. All the street tire cars we set up have a pretty good amount of swaybar to keep the springs softer.

tires--->sways--->dampers (shocks/struts)/coilovers---------> springs

There isn't reallyt that much wrong with the LGT springs. And lowering springs are dumb because of the macstrut front end. The car needs better tires, better damping (which, FYI is basically all the spec-B does), and fatter sways.

Actually, if it weren't for cost i'd probably do dampers before sways.

Oh and I'd put brakes right after tires.

Well as of now i am doing the rear sway bar, and probably holding off on springs due to having more money for more track days, and then putting new pads and fluid on the brakes. I think that keep me set for a little while til i can VB mod and get some good power to the ground.

I did springs first then sways. Also don't forget that you will want to do bushings as well.

 

-mike

Coilovers make the biggest difference.

Yes, they do, I have tein flex coils and swear by them, but they are not cheap. Seems like the OP is on a budget.

tires are big. I cut my time by 3 sec this year with stock suspension and nice dunlop star spec tires.

Yes, they do, I have tein flex coils and swear by them, but they are not cheap. Seems like the OP is on a budget.

 

Yup of about $500, I want to have money for track days, no point in putting on $1500 coilovers and then having no money to track the car, I would rather spend $500 fix some of the issues and have tons of fun and do a few track days this year.

Yup of about $500, I want to have money for track days, no point in putting on $1500 coilovers and then having no money to track the car, I would rather spend $500 fix some of the issues and have tons of fun and do a few track days this year.

there are decent coilovers out there starting at about 1000. I am just very critical about how my car handles not only on track days but daily driving, so that was my justification on the cost. I also have progress front and rear sway and gtspec front and rear strut tower bars, and she takes turns like a champ; That is just me though.

 

I have been told that when I am out there autoxing its very stable and even around turns.

I'm of the school of thought to fix the nut behind the wheel before putting a lot of $ into the car, like the OP. Coilovers are good track items, however, before doing that I'd go the route of fixing the bushings. My car which runs STi Pink Springs w/Koni Struts, along with the bushings and sways, will probably be equal to someone running full coilovers with the stock bushings. I just like how the bushings really tied together the car w/o going to coilovers.

 

-mike

Rear strut tower bars are useless on our cars.

 

-mike

 

+1

 

There are decent struts out there and with the right spring combination, you can outperform coilovers. With coilover shocks, you have to maintain them every 3 years, I think. Not entirely sure. If you do daily driving with them and drive on rough roads, you could be looking at maintaining them even sooner.

 

There are Koni, Bilstein, and even KYB AGX struts that are quite affordable in comparison to coilover shocks and give crazy performance with the right springs.

Are you going to race it on a high speed track or autocross?

 

I autocrossed my car stock and got to the point where my runs all had the same time +/- half a second. The tires and understeer were holding me back. I bought light wheels, super sticky summer tires, and 22 mm front and rear sways. With the light wheels, I could accelerate faster. I raced on the same track as before and could hold 11 mph faster on the back sweaper. I still have the stock springs.

 

If you are going to a high speed track, you will need high temp race brake pads and higher temp brake fluid.

Yup of about $500, I want to have money for track days, no point in putting on $1500 coilovers and then having no money to track the car, I would rather spend $500 fix some of the issues and have tons of fun and do a few track days this year.

$500?

Buy dampers.

I had the same budget before my first track day. I went with Rallitek springs, AVO LCA Bushings, and Hawk HP+ pads. I was very happy with the peroformance on the track. The springs got ride of 80% of the roll/pitch/squat, and are still comfortable for DD.

 

The only thing i wasn't happy with were my tires, which got greasy after 15mins. They will be the next thing I replace.

 

If you can install the coilovers yourself, you can do the springs also. You can rent spring compressors for free from autozone. The rest is just taking off/on bolts. Don't pay $250 for the install, it's really not bad. The Ralliteks are only $200 shipped with the group buy going on rite now.

 

I vote for getting better tires before getting coilovers.

Are you going to race it on a high speed track or autocross?

 

I autocrossed my car stock and got to the point where my runs all had the same time +/- half a second. The tires and understeer were holding me back. I bought light wheels, super sticky summer tires, and 22 mm front and rear sways. With the light wheels, I could accelerate faster. I raced on the same track as before and could hold 11 mph faster on the back sweaper. I still have the stock springs.

 

If you are going to a high speed track, you will need high temp race brake pads and higher temp brake fluid.

 

High speed track, I will be doing track days at PIR (I have done them at PIR in my STi) and at oregon raceway park which I have not yet driven at.