Wanted: Opinions for best rear spring/sway combo, for V8 car. Rear setup. Options

[Dr. Roger]

Hey guys and gals,

I'm setting my car up for street/racing use and i'm not sure about the spring rates and sway bar combo's on the rear.

andyrew, i think, has 180lb springs and no swaybar. he gets around the AX track pretty well. but isn't 180 a bit stiff for street or is it OK with the added V8 weight?

i know going too spring stiff will make streetability low.

keeping stock springs but going large on a sway bar will keep her flat on the ground and retain some spring for streets.

i was thinking of installing adjustable perchs to maintain ride height and keeping stock springs. then getting a rear sway bar and calling it good.


thoughts?

roger

[rick 918-S]

QUOTE (Andyrew @ Jan 2 2006, 01:29 PM)

Rich it was a handful at the wcc track, wasnt it? Whomever drove it (I remember you didnt..) wasnt cornering as well as mine was.. but I do know. it was a BLAST chasing your car around! Most fun I had all day was that half of a lap!! (still remember it) Rogger, get the threaded perches from Coleman. Also their springs are 50 a piece, any rate. If your going with a sway bar on the rear.. and you dont want alot.. Although I rather think that running 165 progressives on the street would be a very nice ride. then hook up the sway bar for autox if you need the rear to rotate (truse me... you will want it). Andrew

Ed Marrow (ejm) drove it around. He said he didn't want to break it. I didn't care. I trust him. The car is a handful.

When I drove it 90% of the handling was the driver. I'm a work-a-holic. I don't do AX's or track days. On my time off I like to build things. I'm more of a builder than a driver. Chris Julian and I were talking about that at the track. He rarely gets a chance to drive his car, much less track the beast.

To give you an idea about how long I have been building and changing my car, I purchased the tires in 1993... So I was driving on old hard tires, with no sway bars, and stock springs. One good thing is I had the torque to throttle steer the car when I got sideways on that left hair pin type turn... (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/driving.gif) 914RS was riding with me. I think I made him Nervous... (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/unsure.gif)

The idea behind my build is to end up with a car that is close to what MY IDEA of a V8 914 would have been, if Porshe built it in the 70's. So I've limited my parts purchases by default. But I'm sure without a dout it will only get better. Not the best it could be but better.

I'm lacking the details like sway bars, stiffer springs, and torsion bars, but their coming. I don't want to over kill the springs before I add the bars. So I hope to get to that this winter. My point is that if you just drive the car the stock 4 parts will work.

If your a serious Track guy or AX'er I'd say go Dan's direction. I'll never have the time or the weather to spend any real time tuning my chassis or suspension. So my goal is to improve my handling a little each year.