Horrible Handling on R34

[Ryan Zhu]

It has come to my attention that the R34 skyline GT is not very good around corners like i had initially thought 

my car came with coil overs but they are maxed out on height. (is that bad for the car?). if i take a fast sharp turn the car starts to skip and sway around. 

Also, when i press the brake, it feels like it steers to one side. 

How can i improve the handling for the R34 GT? 

 

thanks, 

[GTSBoy]

It shouldn't be bad, therefore something is wrong.  Therefore the path to improvement involves fixing the wrong.  Super stiff (Jap brand in particular) coilovers are frequently a bad choice, being just harsh, bouncy and nasty.  Fixing may involve binning them and replacing with something more appropriate, such as a suitable offering from MCA.  But I would strongly suggest you take it to a good suspension workshop and get a survey of what is there, what is good and what is bad, because we can tell you 1000 things and not all of them are going to apply to what you have right now.

Same with the brakes.

[alex182]

Yeah, you actually don't want too harshly sprung suspension, over corrugations in the road, the car can be unsettled at speed.

Slamming a car too will mess with the suspension geometry and is pretty common if all other suspension arms are factory. Would echo GTSboy's recommendation of getting an expert to look at it and point out what needs fixing.

If it steers to one side, it could also be an alignment issue

[ERO54N]

Hello Ryan,
Maxed out as in lowered to the limits?
Can you check if the dampening has also been adjusted to suit?
Coilovers usually work well within a range but when they are set to extreme settings for daily duties they tend to fail.
The short travel stroke can result in over agitation of fluids (decreased dampening, ie springy) and components to physically bottom out on bumpstops.
Also the car's roll centres will be really out if you lower too much.

Disadvantages may outweigh benefits.