"overly creative or tortured interpretation"

Whoa... that exhaust setup is pure win.

93celicaGT2 wrote: Anybody want to make some Ball joint extenders for me? Aren't these also called RCAs?

What car? The only ones I've seen for VWs are made to order by some dude in Europe and are about 250 bucks. Or was that Euros? Anyway, it's pretty serious stuff. They have to be made of strong E36 M3, radiused everywhere there's a corner, and heat treated. And some people still think they're dangerous. The other option I've seen is to weld an extension to the bottom of the spindle and then machine that to fit the ball joint and make a hole for the securing bolt. Not cheap, but it lets you get low.

John Brown wrote: As far as the rear suspension goes seriously look at an Audi TT AWD rear suspension without the guts, the crossmember bolts in place and the rear suspension looks like this:

Seriously couldn't use that without adding all kinds of new pickup points. And if I had that kind of free reign, semi-trailing arm is not where my mind would go first.

Hi guys, I have 5 National championships in A2 GTI/Jetta types and the biggest gains in AutoX Stock were...

Aligment = 2.5deg neg with 1/4" total toe out.

Shocks = Koni Sport rebound set fully hard f/r unless it was wet.

Front bar = 1" Neuspeed front swaybar with Heim joint end links and the mount to the lower control arm should be loose enough to turn the washer by hand at static.

The Wolfsberg 2dr Jetta would always out handle the GTI due to the additional X-brace behind the rear seat and the 50lbs of additional rear weight.

My view of A1 or A2 setups is to increase front grip untill the rear will not follow then add camber in the rear.

Driving tip of the day...If you are having a problem with front drive lifting the inside rear while plowing the outside front...Brake earlier and GENTLY add throttle to the apex only adding acceleration as you start opening the wheel to exit the corner.

angusmf wrote:

93celicaGT2 wrote: Anybody want to make some Ball joint extenders for me? Aren't these also called RCAs?

What car? The only ones I've seen for VWs are made to order by some dude in Europe and are about 250 bucks. Or was that Euros? Anyway, it's pretty serious stuff. They have to be made of strong E36 M3, radiused everywhere there's a corner, and heat treated. And some people still think they're dangerous. The other option I've seen is to weld an extension to the bottom of the spindle and then machine that to fit the ball joint and make a hole for the securing bolt. Not cheap, but it lets you get low.

It's a 92 Celica. Seems that roll center adjusters are already made for AW11 MR2s at $80 an axle set. Wouldn't those do about the same thing?

My control arms are parallel to the ground now, and i'd like to get another inch out of it. Partially for asthetics because of my latent ricer side, and partially because this thing still feels like the center of gravity is high to me.

In reply to 93celicaGT2:

Um...sorry. I don't know what a roll center adjuster is. Could be the same thing.

Lower is usually better, but do you have enough suspension travel to lower your car further? I'm getting a set of camber plates that raise the strut bearing 1.5 inches.

In reply to angusmf:

I haven't bottomed it out yet on this suspension. It's got some really high spring rates. At full droop currently i've got maybe 3" of wheel gap.

But here's a picture of what i'm talking about: (i have no idea if these are a good thing or not)

In reply to 93celicaGT2:

Keep an eye on it if you lower it any more. Not only is bottoming out bad for the dampeners, but you instantly go to an infinite spring rate. That's one way to do a massive backwards slide across an autocross course in a lowered VW Fox.

I can't figure out where the parts in your picture would mount. But it's clearly a spacer of some kind. Does it maybe raise the inboard CA mount?

angusmf wrote: In reply to 93celicaGT2: Keep an eye on it if you lower it any more. Not only is bottoming out bad for the dampeners, but you instantly go to an infinite spring rate. That's one way to do a massive backwards slide across an autocross course in a lowered VW Fox. I can't figure out where the parts in your picture would mount. But it's clearly a spacer of some kind. Does it maybe raise the inboard CA mount?

I almost want to say it's a ball joint extender of some kind? I'll have to ask the guy that pointed it out to me.

But here's the product blurb about them.

http://www.technotoytuning.com/productdetail.php?p=833

I also think part of my problem in terms of feeling a bit weird is that i can't really find an ideal tire size for the car. It was 205/55-15 stock, and i'm running 245/45-16s now, and i would like to go wider. Hard tire size to shop for though, especially if you want to stick with street tires.

angusmf wrote: What car? The only ones I've seen for VWs are made to order by some dude in Europe and are about 250 bucks.

$265 outta Colorado, yO! I'd use a $12 EMPI aircooled bump steer kit to save a few bucks (you need to flip the tie rods upside down to prevent bumpsteer)

http://www.pmwltd.com/

As far as the rear wheels go, i'm with everyone else - they are mostly along for the ride.

I think those are probably what i want. I think.

Worth noting that i currently don't have a bumpsteer problem, which is a bit surprising to me, since i'm lowered every bit of 3-3.5".

The rules say you can't shim the rear hubs? I always thought you could do that.

fifty wrote: $265 outta Colorado, yO!

Excellent!

93celicaGT2, the product description says they fix bump steer. That's different from adjusting roll center, but they both can be affected by lowering. It's probably one of those language mix-ups that just gets into common usage. All the Toyota people probably know what it means. So anyway, my next guess is that they move the steering rack, since it doesn't look like they would be for the tie rod ends. Mysterios.

In reply to angusmf:

Ah ok... so since i don't suffer from bump steer, i've now gotten nowhere.

I think this may be one of those things that i just leave alone until i find that it's actually handling badly, and i don't believe it is yet.

Bummer. I was hoping i could have a new nifty toy.

It's worth reading up on those things for your car to make sure it couldn't stand some improvement. Your car may not handle badly, but you may actually be able to make it handle better. On my car, for example, fixing the roll center with those extenders will actually make the car roll less, on top of the improvement from just lowering the car. Less roll means less camber change, which means more grip.

The car doesn't really SEEM to roll. At all. For the weight and the velocity it's capable of (or anti-velocity, it's ridiculously slow), body roll is not an issue with the current springs and dampers.

Now, i know that that's not quite the same thing that we're talking about here, but the car definitely doesn't feel unstable or anything.

Honestly, until it actually makes some power, i doubt i would see too much improvement out of it. It's horribly unbalanced now when you look at power/suspension/braking. I can't lose grip in the car unless i try some just blatantly stupid, and even then it'll be a toss up in dry conditions.