29 replies to this topic

[LumpyVR4]

So last night I fitted front and rear solid strut braces to the old girl, and after driving her I need more I'm not sure if the bars have simply highlighted or made worse the under steer and chassis flex at the fire wall.

 

Either way now on the shopping list are a Whiteline rear sway bar, and triangle braces to tie the A pillars to the front strut towers.

[croket]

Ive put the understeer down to the front wheel track being wider than the rear , im putting spacers in the rear to see if it helps. I also found whitline do a front lower control arm bush that alters castor that might help im looking into that too

[BYBY5L]

But doesnt going to a wider track up front give more turn in/ oversteer? I thought thats why gsr owners go to evo lower control arms?

Besides that whats ya castor, camber, an toe set to? Alot will depend on where ya getting understeer though

[LumpyVR4]

My research says the same thing. More rear track = more under steer.

 

As for my setup -1.5 front camber, caster and toe are stock spec. It doesn't under steer horribly. With a neutral / slightly open throttle on sweeping corners you can feel it. I'd just like it a little more neutral. On the other hand if you give her enough throttle to lock the diff up you have to be ready for over steer.

[DOUGMO]

more castor

[LumpyVR4]

Any recommendations on setting. Factory is 1.56 so 2, 2.5?

[DOUGMO]

as much as you can get

[croket]

Ive noticed with the vr4 you can spin the strut top 180 in the tower not sure if that would give more castor or less though

[unhuman]

I have 3.5 castor in my CD5W, I think it is because I am using Evo 4+ LCA's.

[micky_vr4]

Ive noticed with the vr4 you can spin the strut top 180 in the tower not sure if that would give more castor or less though

Yeah, I've noticed that too but never actually looked into it...

 

Does anyone know the effect on castor if we do this?

 

From memory, it out your struts in a more vertical position...so less castor???

[BMGTZ]

correct me if Im wrong...but why would spinning the strut do anything to castor?  dont you need to change the positioning of the arm so that the hub it self moves forward.....that in term will draging the strut along with it?

[croket]

I know the rear front control arm bush can be bought from whiteline to give +1 castor by just droping the back of the front control arm down.

 

Not sure if spinning strut top would do anything but curious to how car will react to doing it.

 

I know what your saying Brian but i think by sort of pulling the strut back at the top you could gain a tiny amount of castor but the wear on bushes would be more than normal

[Hyper_Mike]

Wider Rear = understeer. My rear has a wide track and it deff makes a big difference to the understeer

[DOUGMO]

dropping the top of the strut back does add castor, best was is to do some on the arm and some on the top so the wheel stays in the middle of the guard

[croket]

Ahh well my vr4 has strut top in rear position so i think the whiteline castor control arm bushes would be the go , unless there is front castor arms for the vr4

[LumpyVR4]

I probably shouldn't have, because I've had to buy a fuel pump, but I found a new 26mm rear bar on sale for $170 and couldn't resist seeing as Whiteline's RRP is $299. So my under steer issues should be a thing of the past in a few weeks.

[omad]

Get the whiteline front castor bushes, biggest and cheapest single change to reduce the understeer. K-Mac also still do adjustable strut tops, their quality control lacks a bit, but the adjustment you get is pretty massive. I think Noltec used to do some strut tops as well that are pretty good if you can find a set. Note that the tops are going to be limited if you are not running coilovers, as the big stock spring can only move so far in the shock tower.

 

I've got the 26mm rear sway bar, the nolethane bushes for the rear subframe from galantvr4.org (american site), front castor bushes, front fully adjustable strut tops and bilstein coilovers. The rear is REALLY planted. The sway bar and those bushes were about equal in the difference they made. Front in comparison now feels a little 'floaty' and I've been wanting to look into how to make it feel a bit more steady. I've avoided stiffening up the front as most people say it tends to increase understeer rather than reduce it.

 

The other thing that makes a massive difference is a rear LSD. Pushes so much harder out of a corner and so much more predictable. Open diff tends to suddenly snap into oversteer and snap back when you push it too hard, whereas LSD will be really gradual and you'll feel it long before the rear tries to start overtaking you.

[LumpyVR4]

Well I've got the 26mm rear bar in, and the initial report is the car is really tail happy now. It doesn't slide wildly, but you can feel it wants to. It's OK at suburban speed but when the pace picks up you have to be careful how quick you are with the steering input or it'd swap ends on you.

 

I had added in several degrees of caster, and now have taken that out which has made it a little less twitchy. I've also picked up Nolathane ties and bushes for the front bar to see if replacing the 22 year old stock stuff will stiffen up the front enough to make the car neutral. Past that I'll have to track down a 22mm bar.

[jack be nimble]

Do you think the throttle off oversteer in the wet will be ok?
It would put the spooks up me the first time it swaps ends in the wet..
Just dont back off eh?

[evo-gsr]

Yep...drive it like you stole it !