Cheap Suspension Solution??

[silvia89]

Hey drifters whats up? I have an S13 and no money. All my money goes to saving for an SR20 but I wouldn't mind spending a little on cheap suspension to get started. I was wondering if anyone has any advice or experience with taking S14 parts and putting them on an S13(sway bars, shocks, etc.) as a temporary solution at least until I can afford some Tein HE's or something. Any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks.

[Buddyworm]

I'd suggest tigthening up the suspension as the first order of business. The SR should definately be high on the list but rock the KA for a little while longer. I've had Tein Flex in my car for a couple weeks now and the difference is astounding. Body roll is your enemy! The less your car rolls, the more momentum is in the lateral direction instead of downward, loading the outside tire and making it harder for your engine to keep the tires spinning. The car snaps out much quicker too. Sure the extra power from the SR will help in that area as well but it'll plow initially even when you clutch kick and you look like a doofus with rediculous body roll. And if you can't hold the drift, hit it faster!

But cheap is definately not the route to go. Don't just throw some Eibachs on your stock dampers, then you just have a lower, harsher riding car that still understeers. I'd go with at least some Tein Basics or KYB AGX with some stiff springs like H&R, they don't drop your car as much as the Eibach Sportlines/Prokits but the idea here should be to eliminate body roll. You could also get stiffer swaybars on the underside and, of course, strut braces up top.

B-Wurm

[N2theSideWall]

Buy some cheap *Censored**Censored**Censored* coil over sleeves and swift coil-over replacement springs. Its in the medium range as price is concerned but youll get good handling and a good ride

[mranlet]

#1 rule of tuning: DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT FROM YOUR CAR.

If you are going to do a lot of drag racing and want power, then do the SR swap first, but if you are going to be doing a lot of drifting or road-coursing, upgrade suspension first.

For the cost of an SR swap, you could have a completely pimp S13 with awesome suspension (Zeal, D Driugs, SilkRoad, Hipermax, whatever), lots of other suspension components (TC rods, Kazama Rear adjustable arms, Shakito plates, urethane bushings, etc) and still have money left over for some aero, LSD and lightweight parts.

Seriously, a car with some $1500 suspension and a J30 LSD is pretty "built" and is absolutely fluently driftable.

Suspension is probably the next to last place that you want to cheap out, after motorwork.

[240silvia]

very well put!

[Ghost of Duluth]

Well, I would suggest not wasting your money at all at first. My first question is: Have you ever Drifted? IF the answer is no, then I would spend your first money going to a practice day. Reason being, you might not like it, you may crash, your car might not survive it and so on and so forth. Make sure it's what you want to do before you dump buttloads of money in your car. Once you get the hang of it on a stock car, then start spending money.

2. Why even bother with an SR???? It's a pretty big chunk of change to basically put down for a motor that you might blow up first time out and then what? If you do block damage you pretty much either have to spend a wad of money for a block or it's half cut city again. My suggestion to you is to go with a KA-T. You can make just as much power, more torque and if you trash a block there are hundreds of em all over the place because people just such as yourself decided to spend thousands on SR's and now have KA's laying around. Plus if you dump something easy on a KA you can run right down to Autozone and get the part. No so easy with an SR. Think about stuff like that since you don't have much money.

I have a stock car. My car came with lowering springs on the front and cut ones in the rear. I have stock struts and a welded diff with a stock KA. I can Drift just fine. Big sweepers take more speed than most but it can be done, ask anyone that comes to our events, I go out there and rock it out. The Ka can do big smokey ones, go to my website and watch my opening movie. That was on an uphill slope on a medium large sweeper. The car does just fine. Once you get down the slides with alot of speed going in, which you will need with a stock motor, then you can grow. Skill is the one thing that you need the most of but money cannot buy. Learn your car first, then dump the cash.

[zack]

i agree with you guys. man suspension and diff first. whats the point of having power with boat like suspension, look at a 86.........no power and they get sideways