Advice please - suspension and handling

[turbominicooper]

I am at the phase of the suspension, handling and braking of my car.

at current I have:

15x7 rims

full set of ohlins suspension (rebuilt)

with having a strong mini background I like my cars to handle like its on tracks, also I live on a small island where windy and narrow roads are the majority (we have 1 A road which is 4 miles long).

I kind of know what im doing form a braking point of view - drilled and grooved discs with green stuff pads but I really need advice on the handling as whats best to do for a solid, heavy cornering suspension setup?

I want it to handle like this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiONW1ULqzc

[Socks]

Best Mods you can do to a starlet to gain improved handling:

LSD fitted into Gearbox

Rear Anti-Roll Bar

Front Lower Arm Bar Brace

Coilover Suspension Kit

[turbominicooper]

[sigh] another grand ;)

cheers Socks, ive got coil overs so will aim for the brace and arb, work upto the diff I think.

what about poly mounts etc?

[Socks]

Cant say poly engine mounts will do much for handling. But they will stop engine slop coming on and off load and sharpen the gear changes up...

[daniel_g]

Advise changing ball joints and trackrod ends if they are a bit old and worn, its like night and day afterwards

Also what tyres you running ?

[turbominicooper]

nothing special on the tyres just set of nexen blues. will upgrade tyres when I change rims out

[morgey]

Few of my mates have changed to poly wishbone mounts and have found the car is much more susceptible to follow tyre tracks and whitelines so if the roads are a bit pish best not bother. But if theyre old a new set might be advisable.

That said, i would add to socks list a anti lift kit. They replace the rear mount on the front wishbones (poly) they make the steering more positive i found.

But best buy is deffo the Lsd but obviously the most work and most expensive.

[AdamB]

Tyres, LSD , Ant roll bars in that order imo. Providing all your rubber mounts are good. Poly engine mounts are a good upgrade as they help to reduce wheel hop.

Having designed a few suspension and chassis systems for race cars I would find out what specs your ohlins are, the spring rate, the rate of bump and droop. This is one area where everyone gets it wrong.

[Amjad]

Tyres, RARB, ALK, polybushes, braces, LSD (I put it last because it's pretty expensive compared to the rest of what I've mentioned)

[Chops]

i rock an rsr adjustable panhard, rsr lowering springs, oem rear brace and a whiteline anti lift kit and find its super responsive without the crashy speedhump skuffing nature of cars with coilovers on bullshit british roads. id consider a more road friendly set up and add parts till your happy bud.

Edited September 24, 2014 by Chops

[Turk]

Even just your geometry setup properly makes a huge difference. Stuff like camber, caster and toe. I found a bit of negative toe gives huge amounts of grip on the front. So maybe some camber bolts could help make the setup easier. They are cheap on ebay about £20