Corner carver

[hicksport]

Im looking for input from everyone here!

These are my plans so far Tubular upper and lower front a arms from spohn, tall spindle conversion and brakes from kore3. Not sure on the spring shock package yet. Looking at air ride.....Sway bar as large as I can find..Anyone know who sells herb adams stuff any more??

Rear Adustable upper and lowers sway bar and air bags for sure.

Want this thing to handle as good as my 2000 ss camaro did.

Thanks
Collier

 

[6spdmalibu]

Im looking for input from everyone here!

These are my plans so far Tubular upper and lower front a arms from spohn, tall spindle conversion and brakes from kore3. Not sure on the spring shock package yet. Looking at air ride.....Sway bar as large as I can find..Anyone know who sells herb adams stuff any more??

Rear Adustable upper and lowers sway bar and air bags for sure.

Want this thing to handle as good as my 2000 ss camaro did.

Thanks
Collier

Talk with Spohn techs about your ideas. Unless you have the engineering aptitude, listen to what they have to say. Or any other after market company which has done the R&D on their suspension parts. Once you start mixing parts you could get yourself less than desirable results. Ending up with some good looking paper weights. Also you could try GW, Hotchkis & SC&C for handling ideas for the G body (lots of goodies available).
Don't use poly bushings in the control arms, they will bind.

Try and match your springs and shocks. Or get adjustable shocks, Koni, QA1's etc...

One thing to remember about sway bars is that they are a tuning aid.
There are 2 thoughts on this matter.
1 soft springs and large diameter bars.
2 heavier springs with thinner sway bars.
As the sway bars in conjunction with the springs can overwhelm the shocks. Causing a poor ride and handling.

The limits of the G body platform lay in the rear triangulated 4 link in my opinion. Very good design for drag racing with minimal upgrades. But fall short for handling purposes. Yes can be made to handle on smooth pavement but we don't live in a pothole free world.

So far personally pulled .90 G's in my Bu. That was a steady state corner btw. Still trying to figure out how to make the car better in slaloms.

Last thing to remember, if the frame/body flexes the suspension will not work as desired.
And your car will only be as good as the rubber touching the pavement.

Jerry

 

[hicksport]

Thanks for the input, hoping for alot more. The last bu I built we used the hotckis stuff all the way around and the herb adams sway bars it was a great DD and hooked well at the track 11.70s all night on street tires! The sway bars were huge though 1.5 rear and 1 3/8 front if I remember correctly. What is you set up .90 is pretty good to me, for a g body car. I didnt mention this earlier but im using wheels and tires from an 08 z06!! big enough to put the power down I hope.

 

[6spdmalibu]

GW negative roll, B body spindle, Eibach springs, Edelbrock IAS shocks, 1 1/8" fr sway bar, 96 camaro rear sway bar, 12.7 :1 steering box. 245/50R16 Dunlops. Frame reinforcements and some weight removal = .90 G's

 

[6spdmalibu]

The sway bars were huge though 1.5 rear and 1 3/8 front if I remember correctly.

Was it a little twitchy near its limits? Was the rear mounted to the lower control links or axle and frame?

 

[UMI Sales]

Hello
I noticed that you are looking into upgrading your suspension on your vehicle! And I just wanted to suggest to you the UMI Performance has a lot to offer for your specific needs (other than the upper front A arms but will be finish shortly) Below is a link to show you what all UMI Performance has to offer. Everything is made right here at our own facility there is no outsourcing what so ever and we have a top notch tech team that will be more than glad to help!

http://www.umiperformance.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=8&zenid=hjut0hd18al48r0bj8p0ekmb47

If you have any other questions feel free to ask and I will be more than glad to help!
Thanks
Brad

 

[hicksport]

The rear bar was mounted to the lower cotrol arms. It drove very good on 15 inch tires, it seemed to like the taller sidewall. Tried 17s and it did feel a little nervous. Thats is one thing that worries me about my tire and wheel choice but I want that look and or stance of the 18 front 19 rear.

 

[6spdmalibu]

After you put the 18+19" wheels and tires, try no rear sway bar first. Then add it to induce oversteer, depending on bar diameter and fine tuning.

 

[hicksport]

Ordered the brakes and the upper arms from SCandC with ball joints!
OMG you guys have got to talk to these people before you buy any suspension stuff.
We talked for about an hour and I am impressed!!!!!!!!!!!
transmission should be here tomorrow. Tires for the rear (325/30/19) should be here thursday next week! Cant wait to put it all together!!!!!!

 

[Norm Peterson]

The limits of the G body platform lay in the rear triangulated 4 link in my opinion. Very good design for drag racing with minimal upgrades. But fall short for handling purposes. Yes can be made to handle on smooth pavement but we don't live in a pothole free world.

So far personally pulled .90 G's in my Bu. That was a steady state corner btw. Still trying to figure out how to make the car better in slaloms.

Bingo.

With enough tire, a stiff enough suspension, and an aggressive enough alignment it's not all that hard to hit a lateral-g number almost no matter what sort of suspension lives under each end. It's the slaloms that separate the well-developed from the less so.

In this chassis, the problems are (1) a too-high rear roll center, and (2) a too-steep rear suspension roll axis that causes too much axle roll steer that shows up as vehicle understeer. Item (1) forces too much roll stiffness to be built in to the front suspension to keep the car out of oversteer up toward the limit, while (2) points the rear wheels into the turn (making the car feel like it does not want to rotate). Feels as clumsy as it sounds.

Drag racing LCA relocating brackets may actually help fix item (2) by raising the convergance point of the lowers (which reduces the slope of the rear suspension's own roll axis), but there's not much that you can do about item (1) short of cutting the OE uppers out and swapping something else in.

I've been suggesting a 3-link conversion in place of the uppers with either a PHB or Watts link for lateral location of the axle for some time.

It's amazing how a few inches lower rear RCH and near-zero roll steer will change the handling and its "feel" - just drive a 2005-up Mustang GT some time and you'll understand (it's about the same size/weight/wheelbase as these RWD Malibus, MacStrut front suspension vs the Malibu's "not for handling performance" SLA design, so the comparison is between cars that are fairly close otherwise).


Norm