Suspension setup question. Newbie

[Scotty]

G'day All,

Firstly let me apologise for posing this question again. I have searched the entire forums trying to understand the suspension lingo, however have no fricken clue on what the hell each mod does or more importantly, how it affects the ride.

So where to start. I'm about to purchase a completely stock R33. Wheels and all. What I want, is a car that corners and holds traction really well. I come from a land of Commodores, and they handle like absolute shite.

So what should I get. The hype has been without a doubt, with coilovers. WTF are they exactly!?! I know the symptoms, excellent road handling with a really hard ride to boot, but does this suit my application?? I don't know.

I see so many threads mentioning the sway bars to reduce body roll. Well thats good, thats what I want, but will coil overs answer these problems? How about strut braces, how do they come into play.

Oh yeah, and what the frick is a pineapple!?!? Or camber or dampers. Moreso, how will changing it benefit handling. I guess, I want an overall solution. I have checked threads, the whiteline website, and numerous other suspension related pages, however nobody can give me a straight answer in laymen's terms.

So yeah, basically I want something that will assist in making the R33 handle really well, ie, corners and holds the road really. Well. People tell me coilovers are the answer to everything, are they??

Again, thank you to all who reply. I apologise for my ignorance but hopefully I can gain some valuable insight here.

Scotty

[Scotty]

Somebody help me..........Please!!

[hippy]

patience there ... .. ok i'm no expert .. heck i dont' even know what i'm doing answering this post but since i've done a little bit of research i'll try to answer some questions .. and most of the things i'm about to say is probably wrong so u other guys please correct me where i'm wrong. First of all coil overs are probably what u want if u're into handling .. there are tons out there ... most popular are teins ... they the green colour ones ... and i'm sure they are wholy made in japan ... however u will see heaps of other brands like bilsteins or konis ... i think thats what the whiteline kits have?? and they are from europe ... anyways most of the brands that u see like hks coil overs are in fact made by one of them european companies ... they are just made to the jap companies specs ... i heard from some that jap coil overs are not rebuildable but i've heard otherwise from other people ... something to think about i guess .. anyways .. coilovers are just shocks and springs put together basically ... they are usually adjustable in one way or another ... like height adjustable or damper adjustable or both and even camber adjustable ... all these things let u get the precise setup u want ... to get it all setup right u probably would want to go to a specialist because different cars have different requirements ... i think the reason why coilovers are always hard because they lower the car ... lowering the car gives better handling ... lower center of gravity i think?? anyways according to whiteline u shouldn't lower the car more than 2.5 inches?? or was that centimeters ... i don't know .. u gotta check ... someone correct me ... anything more than that and u will be doing more harm than good ... a strut brance will reduce body roll ... as well as sway bars ... get them all if u want the best setup ... steve on these forums gave me a ride in his car and hes got all of this stuff on there ... all i can say is i'm aiming to do my car the same as well ... i was impressed to say the least ... well i hope i haven't said many things wrong .. good luck ... easiest solution is just to go get a whiteline kit ...good luck!!

[hippy]

i forgot to add .. things to also consider besides ride height is the spring rate ... most of the bumps that ur car feels is absorbed by the spring i think .. lowered cars usually always have a hard spring rate .. meaning the spring is more stiffer ... damper .. gotta do with the shocks ... you hit a very hard bump on the road .. the shock absorbers do their best so that u don't feel it and keep ur tyres on the road ... spring rate ride height and damper will affect your ride the most ... i'm not too sure about pineapples .. something to do with drifting heehhee