Suspension

I firmly believe that power makes a car fast, but suspension makes it fun to drive. So I have invested a lot of time and money into making my small bus handle as best it can because I like to drive - A LOT!

I also bought a Wildfire Strut Brace from a friend. It is the beefiest bar that has been made for the PTGT crowd but has since been discontinued. I can't say that I noticed a whole lot from this addition, but it was the final piece in my suspension puzzle.

While I already had the Mopar Sway Bars, 27mm front and 19mm rear, the car still had a bit of hesitation on turn in, and I had the rear shocks set to nearly full stiff. I decided that a larger rear bar would help the car rotate and initiate turns better. I got a good deal on a Suspension Techniques rear sway bar which is 22mm - a large difference (even though it's bright green...). The car is a lot more settled and this is how it should be!!

Front Mopar Sway Bar                                                 
Rear Suspension Techniques Sway Bar

Well, in light of the fact that I am living in an "all season" environment, read New Jersey, I had to give up the BFG KDW2s... it was a sad day. I replaced them with Bridgestone Potenza RE960as Pole Positions in the same size of 225/45. But while they were quite grippy they didn't have near the steering response of the KDW's (something I covet)... so here are the new shoes: Yokohama Advan S.4!!!

In one long, hard, painful weekend, a few friends a I were able to install the Mopar/KW Stage 3 Coilovers with Mopar adjustable camber plates, and Energy's Hyperflex polyurethane bushings.

We had issues finding a spring compressor that would compress the springs enough to get the camber plates on, but we finally found a shop that hand a "claw" style compressor. The installation of the front coilovers, after that adventure, was very straight forward. The rear shocks and springs were simple to put on as well. They lowered the car about 2.25" in the rear, and 1.75" in the front, so it also took some of the rake out of its stance.

I have it dialed into 0 degrees of everything in the rear (no adjustments available), and -.9 degrees of camber and +.08 of toe in the front. I could go much more but I don't want to wear the tires too quickly, and these numbers give great handling characteristics!

The Energy polyurethane bushings are like adding Booger shift bushings to a short shifter - they add the little bit of icing. We installed both lower control arm bushings, front sway bar endlinks, rear sway bar endlinks, rear sway bar retainers, rear trailing arm bushings, watts link bushings, and rear spring isolators. The LCA bushings, especially, helped to reduce wheel-hop and that "shimmy" that happens when you hit a bump while turning (if you know what I'm talking about, you need to do this!).

I like the look of the drop - not too much but enough. I don't like setups that slam a car to the ground - they loose all its suspension travel and true "daily driver driveability!" If there's one thing I need to keep, it's being able to drive it on a daily basis.

                                                                  Before:
After:

The first set of wheels I got were the Velox VX-6R - only 14.5 lbs in a 17x7", 42et size (seen just above). This allowed me to safely move up to the 225 width that i was looking for in a tire. They didn't clear the front calipers, so I added 5mm spacers up front, and 3mm in the back (to help with corner grip in a fwd car).

The NEW rims, as of May 08, are better. :) I was looking for a more aggressive fitment to gain more stability, and a wider wheel to aid steering response on the 225 width tires. I settled on the Gunmetal Rota Boost 17x8" 35et. This got rid of some more chrome, a more concave, aggressive look - all good things! Better pics coming - but they can be seen on other pages.

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