Steering "feel"

[solder_guy]

Mazda:

 

How does your car feel as compared before you modified the front suspension ??

 

for me .. I really liked my mid '70s Celicas .. manual steering through pitman / idler arms setup .. through which I could feel the bumps ...

 

Rob

 

[slngsht]

Mazda:

 

How does your car feel as compared before you modified the front suspension ??

 

for me .. I really liked my mid '70s Celicas .. manual steering through pitman / idler arms setup .. through which I could feel the bumps ...

 

Rob

 

Sorry, just saw this post.

 

Negatives are due to weight of the wheel / rotor combo, not suspension design:

The car is rough over bumps

I've had to stiffen up the shocks to prevent car from going into front wheel hop under braking.

I think some of this could be cured by going to slightly stiffer springs, and backing off on the shocks just a tad... at least on the rebound, but I'm not sure.

 

The positive?

Seems like the car has endless grip. At the dragon, I was giving Boxologist a joy ride, and going at a decent pace. I under estimated one left hander, and thought I was gonna be in trouble, but just kept cranking the wheel and she just kept turning. I'm fairly certain the car would have started pushing with its old setup. And, that was with Zero static camber, something I didn't discover until after I got back from the dragon (I had raised the ride height to get her on the trailer, and forgot to lower her back down, hence, loss of static camber).

 

Also, the brakes feel REALLY nice now. I always thought my original brakes were marginal at best, requiring alot of pedal effort to lock up the wheels, even after modifying the lever ratio on the pedal and changing master cylinders. The same masters and pedal, hooked up to the dual piston calipers and 13.1" rotors can really clamp down. C5 vettes have excellent brakes and weigh almost twice as much. I figure my brakes will stand up to track duty very well. And the best part... rotors are $20 from NAPA :yesnod:.