Track Day Suspension..

Im in the process of building a MK2 golf track day car, I want to lower the car about 40mm and stiffen the ride, can anyone recommend a suitable setup ? Im looking to buy a kit and have it fitted by a mechanic friend and want to keep cost to a minimum max 250-300.

Cheers in advance.

Simon.

 

Bilstein or Boge Turbo Gas shocks with Eibach springs is the best set up for that kind of money.

 

i hope you are going to be uprating the anti-roll bars...



a car with decent std shocks and springs and uprated anti roll bars will drive much nicer than one with uprated shocks and springs and std arbs.

 

dexteruk, uprating the anti roll bars isnt difficult on my Mk2 Ryder...
..It hasnt got any, Ive managed to get a front Anti-Roll bar off of a gti will this be sufficient with lowered/uprated suspension ?

Cheers

Simon.

 

It's a start. Read this, v interesting and informative http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/1108/shine.html

 

H&R springs are top quality also.

Eibach spring & damper kit, is a good cost effective kit at 300 ish.

Then for good track handling you really need a pair of aftermarket ARBs the Eibach jobbies replace the front GTI bar & work with the rear bar so not sure what you do if your car doesnt have one, maybe Eibach do a different kit for non GTi? I think its the same tho.

 

Koni t/a`s with Eibach springs a great combo.

 

I've got Koni adjustables, neuspeed sport springs, and a auto-tech front sway on my 98 gti vr6. all that said, it has some pretty bad understeer. What can I do to fix it? I'm in college, so I don't have a huge budget. Oh, I also have a front upper strut brace on it.

 

A bigger rear ARB will reduce understeer.
Edited by: smithy

 

So your saying that my front susp. is stiff enough and my rear is too loose? I thought that stiffening the rear would only make more understeer (less oversteer). By ARB you mean a stiffer rear sway, right?

 

for budget coilies i would go for Supersport Goldlines.

They are very stiff. Ive got these on my mk2 and its a harsh ride so it must be good for track days

 

If only it was that easy

 

You can go the Shine way of no front (sway) bar, but I'm more inclined to go with the method in the link I posted above - provides good balance.
Edited by: edc1

 

Removing front ARB still gives you front end body roll and makes the car snap oversteer.

Stiffening the rear wil promote oversteer.

 

By adding an up-rated (stiffer) front ARB/sway bar you've increased your understeer.

Try taking it off if you can and replace it with the standard, you'll feel the difference. Then try an uprated rear with your front and the car should feel more stable and easier to induce-oversteer.

As Tub says stiffening the rear with either ARB or suspension will increase oversteer.

Sean

 

Thanks for the advice guys. I still have the stock front sway, maybe i'll throw it on and do some testing. I also need to figure out the best setup for my Koni shocks. They are adjustable front and rear but I haven't played with them enough to really find a good hold. I'm going to be running SCCA autocross' a lot next year. That should give me plenty of time. Does anybody out there have a VR6 with konis that wants to toss me a few setup tips? Also, has anybody used an adjustable rear sway? Are they worth the extra money?

 

Will, ARB's are only normally used to adjust the balance between the front and rear of a car to produce understeer, over steer or neutral handling. In the case of McPherson strut suspension as fitted to the Golf they can actually improve the level of grip at the front a lot.

By fitting an uprated front sway bar you reduce the body roll, which reduces dynamic camber change at the front and improves the size of the front tyre contact patch.

The problem with this is it effects the weight distribution across the axles (front and rear) which means the inside front becomes unloaded before the inside rear, causing understeer. To combat this you fit a proportionally stiff rear sway bar, this brings back the handling balance but keeps the improved tyre contact due to reduced dynamic camber.

The same effect can be gained by fitting very stiff springs and no sway bars but you would then get into problems with axle skipping, excessivly strong dampers suffering from jack-down, the list goes on and on.

 

cooljoe289

If you have adjustable shocks all round - first and simplest thng to try is softening the front dampers a bit and stiffening the rear. That's why they are adjustable.

JK

 

Dampers only affect transient handling balance and most aftermarket dampers only offer rebound adjustment which when very stiff can cause damper jack-down.