Suspension vs. pure power..what to do?!

[ozthunder]

Whys that?

[CleanNeon98]

Originally Posted by onebadgoat9286

Whys that?

no idea, but I definately think that removing 100lbs from my civic and 100lbs from your GTO would yield a different effect.

[HickRocket1258]

Dylan my camaro has stock suspension and it runs perfect fine haha.

[ozthunder]

lol..in a straight line.

[CleanNeon98]

I see that turbotagteam is viewing, and he knows suspensions pretty well, but all I can say is, a suspension will help. It was night and day when I installed it on my car, plus the Kuhmo ECSTA Supras..I love it

[ozthunder]

I'm lookin' at the Kumho all seasons. Believe it or not, I drive this thing in the winter!

[TurboTagTeam]

The way I see it. Who cares how fast a car is if it dosent handle wortha ****.

What's more fun, going 120mph down a road and then having to slow down once it gets twisty because your car handles like a sailboat.
Or
doing 120mph down the straight then blasting thorugh corners sideways at 80mph and in complete controll

Also you will defiantly improve as a driver once you get a properly set-up suspension.

In my experience, the biggest downfall to large cars such as yours is body roll. The only expereince I have in racing larger cars was when I used to track a E39 BMW M5. It had KW variant2 coilovers and even on the hardest setting I could still pull a large amount of body roll out of it. It was allso fitted with larger Eibach swaybars and mounts.

Get rid of the body roll and you'll have a very capable car.

[9 Ball]

Go for suspension.

Upgraded suspension gives you a certain confidence level that power can’t give you. It was also stated earlier but when you start to add power, you’ll be safer when you’ve already got your new suspension set-up.

[cranshinibon]

hm id personally go for the suspension bc i prefer handling over speed but dont forget to factor in that if you get a lot more power you might want to tighten the suspension some more to handle the put out

[Im2Slow]

id say go suspension now,

[ozthunder]

lol..is no one gonna argue for headers? I mean cmon..thats the stereotypical answer for a V8 car!

[CleanNeon98]

Originally Posted by onebadgoat9286

lol..is no one gonna argue for headers? I mean cmon..thats the stereotypical answer for a V8 car!

It is, but it seems like everyone likes balance...I just never liked cars that were only good at one thing. In the end though its up to you.

[JET02WRX]

Originally Posted by onebadgoat9286

lol..is no one gonna argue for headers? I mean cmon..thats the stereotypical answer for a V8 car!

Haha... how about this... My heart screams headers! But my brain says suspension suspension suspension....
I know you said you didn't like the GTO forum...but did you try LS1TECH? Thats where I used to get a lot of good info from. I always thought that was the main hangout for LS1 guys.

[HickRocket1258]

Dylan you know what my choice is. Although you know the type of racing I do as well haha. My heart and brain says power, then suspension if you can't get traction. It's fun running 12.0s with stock suspension.

[NJGOAT]

Originally Posted by onebadgoat9286

I've done the rear seats and some pointless brace thing..I can prolly go further, but I don't really want to sacrifice much more. Spare/jack stuff is also obvious. I should also lose weight going to a short exhaust...I also assume new stuff like springs or headers would be lighter. These cars are no Subarus...they are hefty. They are also extremely comfortable, and extremely well made. So there's a price to pay..do I want racing seats? We will see!

There isn't much weight to be saved in the catback, maybe a couple pounds if you're lucky. Your new suspension pieces will not be lighter, in fact the springs will most likely be a little heavier. You will save significant weight with headers, almost 15 pounds as the cast iron manifolds are HEAVY. Remember though, it's not just about taking weight off the car, it's taking it off in the right places.

Lightening the a** end of your GTO may help with the power to weight ratio, but it can really hurt the balance of the car. Since you are trying to achieve balance, you need to be looking at things to take off the front half to give better weight distribution. The car has about 55% of it's weight on the front. Take weight off or move it (battery relocated to the trunk) to help better balance out the car and improve the road feel even more.

[Brazen06]

id say it really depends on your goals for the car...if you want a fast car at the track, buy some drag bags (cheap version of an ajustable rear suspension) and put some headers and drag radials on. roads going sideways ati drive my car on the street every day, and dont plan on autocrossing or fyling down public 80mph like a jackass. to me the power is more rewarding than handling ATM, however i do plan on upgrading the shocks and springs eventually. its really about your goals for the car, and how you plan on driving it.

[ozthunder]

Right now I just want to be able to have as much fun in it as I saw Clarkson having on Top Gear..

And for me, straight line isn't as exciting as it used to be (well, maybe a 2 month span where it was incredible). Not my style I guess..

[MattGTO]

Go for power. If you are unsure about the suspension now then when you dive into it you'll really be in some ****. lowered GTO's tend to rub the fender well in the rear when launched causing a terrible bog, however if you use drag bags and/or pedders suspension, you will not get a drop but a stiffer setup causing your 60's to improve. when you do the suspension on your goat you have to decide whether you are gonna go for drag/drift/show/handling/comfort, etc. because the suspension aspect of the GTO can be a long and confusing road. good luck man.

[ozthunder]

I don't really drag race, but that's for the input.

[pharnhyte]

I say suspension and brakes.

Sadly you dont have many options unless you can find some stuff from Australia.

Get a hotchkis sway bar kit, its half the price of Eibachs:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ponti...spagenameZWD1V

(cheaper here then LM performance web site)

Shock/struts wow only option seems to be Koni, which are a arm and a leg

Some springs, you have a choice of Intrax,Eibach, Sprint, Tein, and H&R. Lol get something other then Eibach be different haha. And LM performance has a front strut bar which is 180 dollars.

All the GTO's sold and only two companies make sway bars, kind of sad, I guess everyone is all about going straight. I drove a 6.0 GTO, compared to say a mustang or firebird or most domestic cars it felt like it could actually handle, compared to both of my mr2's and other friends cars with suspension work it felt really sloppy. Post some pics of whatever you do, and Ebay is cheaper then most web sites.