suspention upgrades
 

Hey guys
I'm after some advice
I'm going to take my car 1.8 gdi to the nurburgring later in the year now I know the car will never set any lap record's but I can try and make it handle as well as possible
I have lowerd the car 20mm from sport (changing drop links at the same time) I have also bought 17x7 wheels with yokohama pradas on order I've also got a strut top bar ( rear bar is not an option as I sleep in the back of the car when I go camping)

I would like to try and eliminate more body roll and uprated roll bars are out of the question due to price so I'm looking at polybush but can't find any, what do you guys use?
What are your guys views on camber/decambering what should I set the front and rear at?
What is the ideal tracking setting?
Any other mods people can think that will help me have as much fun as possible

many thanks
stuart

Get all youre bushes etc poly rear strut brace. Not much more you can do tbh,lighten the car in anyway possible, if money was no object you could uprated arbs and roll cage etc,another thing you could do is fit bucket seats up front even if the car rolls you won't lol.so it gives you the nerve to push it harder you e lowered it and are getting wider tyres so you shouldn't leave the track

Or just borrow alex121's t4 :), but the volvo is never going to be a bend chucker stuart in the same way say a impreza or a golf r32. It just isint that type of car

Roll cage and bucket seats are a no as it's my every day car
If anyone had an uprated front and rear arb I'd be intrested in it
Oh yea I know it's never going to handle as well as one of thoes but no reason I can't get it as good as I can

On a straight flat road the volvo holds it's own, my little metro used to cling onto bends like sh@t to a blanket,I could litterally just point at full throttle and it would go through lol,if I tried that in a volvo I would be upside down in a ditch.


Ask antz he builds these types of cars I beleive he has a BMW e36 drift car all built on a budget he's the man I would ask

Did someone mention my name? Getting quite a reputation here....

The problem is that building a bmw on a budget is easy as there are loads of aftermarket upgrades available that are stupidly cheap and quite often second hand so even cheaper. on a volvo that isn't the case.

Right, if you're on a budget you want to make sure the droplinks are all good, top mounts ok and bushes not worn out. If that's the case then it's just about making it handle better.

Front upper strutbrace and if you don't have one fitted, get a T4 lower front brace. I can't remember if they are standard on all cars or just the T4 but every little helps. You've ruled out the rear brace which is understandable if you're sleeping in it.

You already mentioned some wheels and good tyres. That's a very worthy addition.

After that you need some decent springs to reduce body roll and understeer in the corners. A set of H&R springs will do the job and they are comfortable enough for daily use. Stock sport springs won't be up to the job but they are better than the wobbly comfort springs.

After that you're pretty stuck without spending money you don't want to. Polybushes is an option but one that's still relatively unexplored as you have to use Mitsubishi Evo ones and it's trying to work out which ones will do the job.

A good alignment will help. I wouldn't bother with setting negative camber in but if you insist, a touch more than stock on the front will help with turn in and front end grip.

If you really want to go the extra mile, get a thicker rear anti roll bar. It'll really improve turn in and stop the rear of the csr lumbering about behind you so much. It'll follow nicely on corners. Best upgrade I ever did on my T4 was the whiteline rear anti roll bar but a ebay upgrade one will do the same job.

The best thing to do is learn the track as much as you can. Obviously you'll not learn it all but play some gran tourismo and learn the basic layout so you can anticipate the next corner.

The front roll bar is the same across all models which is handy as you have to drop the subframe to replace it. The rear roll bar can be upgraded and is an easy swap, the standard is 13mm, the Sport version is 16mm.

You could fit a rear strut brace & get a pair of quick release bolts like they use on mountain bikes. Then just remove the bar when you want access.

What condition are your brakes in? A brake fluid change would be top of my list before going on a track, boiled brake fluid makes a mess. (not just in the engine bay!)

Cheers for the reply guys
The brakes were new fairly recently
But I may have an evo set on its way

I hope you will have the track to yourself, otherwise there is a real danger of a serious rear end collision. Even a fully tuned T4 with 500 hp will be slow around the corners in comparison with a tuned classic Porsche.

Make 100% sure your insurance company has listed all the Mod's in detail and confirmed that track events are covered. The Germans always check the paperwork!

Not sure what you know about tyres, but top of the range Conti or Dunlop summer tyres are tough to beat in the wet. Far Eastern slicks might be OK in the dry.
If the air temp is below 7C, some German tracks will insist you use winter tyres for mixed events.

For best ABS function, the rear calipers must be in perfect working order in addition to the pads etc. If not, the system fails to apply enough force to the front calipers.

Tuning adjustable shocks to match a particular race course is very effective, so if you want to do that, it is essential to look up the exact curve figures and make sure it's a uni directional track etc.