*** To start out with. I am by no means a race car driver, not a weekend track day enthusiast, nor an auto-x junkie. I am simply a handy Asian with too much time on his hands and wants to make his car work with him. There is a lot of literature on my350z.com and 350z-tech.com. Serious questions should be directed to those forums as they have a tremendous amount of information and resources. Modifying your vehicle may severely change its behavior and possible put you in harms way. Do not treat this as a how to but rather a story, a story of an Asian with too much time on his hands. ***
The Z’s stock setup (for me at least) was too tail happy. I’d whip around turns like nobody else’s business. Part of it may have been that the Z was my first RWD car. I simply had no idea how to drive it properly. It was also my first car with more than 130hp and over 3000lbs so I had a lot and still have a lot to learn about the car.
The ricer in me wanted to get some fresh kicks so I chose to run 9.5″F and 10.5″R rims wrapped with 245/35 and 275/35 respectively. 9.5″ up front may have been too wide because the turning radius suffered along with turning response for my taste.
The first thing I noticed about the car on the stock setup was that it would roll too much on corners. Front and rear Hotchkis adjustable sway bars immediately corrected that issue.
Now to fix the dreaded high speed hops on the highway. A better valved damper should fix that. While there may have been dozens of other dampers to choose from, I chose the D specs because it was relatively cheaper than the Koni’s and it was still adjustable. While I am quite happy with the Tokico’s, the springs I chose left me slightly disappointed. I clearly did not do enough homework when I choose the Pro-Kit progressive springs. My gripe isn’t with Eibach but rather with the nature of progressive springs. I should have picked a linear spring such as Whiteline or RSR (slightly progressive rear). The car is very hard to predict on corner entry. As a result, I have a very hard time balancing the car on mid turn and feel like the car is bouncing around too much.
Since the install of the rims, tires, springs, sways, and dampers, I haven’t had the opportunity to fine tune my suspension. Rather than spending 1.8k on a proper set of coils, over the course of the next few weeks, i will start changing the damper settings to gauge the need for coilovers or need for linear springs. This blog will act as my changelog.
Initial setup
- Eibach Pro-Kit (296-384)F (316-421)R
- Tokico D-Spec DSP9 (-3 stiff, -3 stiff) F/R
- Hotchkis (4/3)F/R way adjustable sway set to (-2 stiff, -1 stiff )F/R
Thoughts: Car bounces around on corner entry and mid way through. Hint of oversteer with hard turn. Maybe stiffening the front damper will help alleviate turn in bounce?
Change 1)
- Tokico D-Spec DSP9 full stiff up front
- Thoughts: What was I thinking? Understeers like crazy on long sweeping turns. Did not even attempt to do a hard turn. Ride comfort suffers (may need to adjust the front sway to a softer setting).
Change 2) (Updated 8/5/09)
- Tokico D-Spec DSP9(-2 stiff, -3 stiff) F/R
- Thoughts: Corner entry seems a bit stiffer on mid sweeping turns. Not sure if this is the proper setting or if the car is on the edge of breaking loose into understeer. Need to push the car harder
Change 3) (updated 8/11/09)
- Tokico D-Spect DSP(-2.5 stiff, -3 stiff) F/R
- Thoughts: Corner entry seems less stiff but very neutral on mid sweeping turns. Again, not sure if its the proper setting but its on the way of being neutral. Still unbalance on hard tight turns. Ride comfort increased dramatically. May tighten up the front a quarter turn based on next few days of feedback.
Change 4) (updated 9/14/09)
- Loosen Front Sway Bar to (-3 stiff)
- Tokico D-Spec DSP (-2 stiff, -3 stiff) F/R
- Thoughts: No more push to the outside on mid to long sweeps. Endlinks starting to show some wear. Heard a loud pop up front at slow speeds. Might need to order some heavy duty ones soon.
Getting back into it 