Suspension and steering upgrades

abidchowdhury · Mar 12, 2009

I am interested in improving the suspension and steering on my 1985 3.2 carrera.
Its my second 3.2 and feels much less tight than my previous 1989 car. I use the car quite often at the moment. In the long run I intend to use it less overall but use it more for fast road and occasional track use.

Therefore what upgrades would be most effective? I don't want a very hard ride but I want the steering to be much more precise and responsive and the car to feel tighter. I was thinking along the lines of 911 turbo diameter torsion bars and tie rods to start with. The car is currently completely standard.

Any thoughts for someone on a bit of a budget?

Cheers,
Abid

alex.powell · Mar 12, 2009

I recently re vamped front end with:

Rennline monoballs
Spax adjustable dampers
New bearings
Ball joints
Turbo tie rods
Rebuilt calipers and added EBC red stuff

And it is razor sharp now!!

abidchowdhury · Mar 21, 2009

Thanks for the reply Alex. Out of interest how are the shocks adjusted and are they done so easily?

Did you think about any other upgrades such as torsion bars?

Cheers

nathan 1981 930 G50 · Mar 22, 2009

Have you thoroughly had all your joints/bushings checked for play and had your geometry checked if you are on a budget?

Sorry if I have stated the obvious.

Only upgrades I've done is turbo tie rods.

I had Mike Wilds drive my car around Snetterton and asked him if he thought anything needed replacing.
I asked him a few times too [

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http://www.mikewilds.com/racing.html

How many miles has the car done? Is it a sport? Does it have Bilsteins all round?

alex.powell · Mar 23, 2009

The dampers have a dial on top, hard left soft right. Your supposed to do 4 clicks at time. I must say I only have it on 4 clicks up from soft and it is still much harder than before.. I think there are about 20 or so clicks. Didn't bother upgrading arb(although I have got a new one), I live down a road with a load of speed bumps and only wanted a touch stiffer than I had..

alex.powell · Mar 23, 2009

Just read your response again.. It's still a bit early .. Yes torsion bars will be replaced with hollow versions, but only because it's a whilst I'm there as the bushes on the a arms are a bit knackered and my speed bumps aren't helping..

abidchowdhury · Mar 24, 2009

Alex - thanks for the information. I like the idea of adjustable dampers so may look into the spax option.

Nathan - the car is a sport, with 74k miles. No sign of bilsteins though. The bushings do need updating so I will make sure that gets done first.

I've done a bit of research and found out the pre 86 cars had thinner anti-roll bars: 20mm front, 18mm rear as opposed to 22mm and 21mm on the 86-89 cars. The later cars also have slightly thicker rear torsion bars. This seems to explain why my previous car (1989 model) was stiffer and handled a little better.

I'm therefore initially thinking on the lines of:
Updating all the bushings
Updating / upgrading the anti-roll bars: 22mm/21mm
New ball-joints
Turbo tie rods

Better start saving up (exhaust and bodywork are the next projects) [

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alex.powell · Mar 25, 2009

When you do your ball joints/tie rods please please please use oem parts- I bought "german tech"(light blue box) or something first time and the quality and dimentions of the finished product were appaling- I went through about 5 cotter pins also... You get what you pay for and this is an area of the car that needs trust!!

nathan 1981 930 G50 · Mar 29, 2009

Later cars are heavier, so they needed thicker t-bars.

What colour are your strut housings? your rear shocks?

I don't feel my car would benefit from a stronger rear sway bar, it might do at the front but I think an LSD would be a good upgrade to move forward but I have my 930 to burn my money on...