Thread: Do our cars SUCK cornering in the mountains, or do I suck at driving? :(

Thanks for all the feedback. I do sound like I'm asking a lot for this car...I still love it for what it is: a big, fast, American cruiser. Thing is I just wasn't expecting it to be this poor under those elements. Like I said my previous car, a Lumina (which I also still LOVE but my wife won't allow it haha) handled noticeably better.

My Coopers are T rated. A higher rating would have been great but I really love how quiet these tires are.

Front wheel drives inherently are not good for cornering. Add that to the weight of a GP, and it is not super impressive. Follow all the previous posts for tips on the mechanical end of it.

I have found some tricks to driving a FWD in a performance manner, but, they only have reall application on the track as doing it on the street is too risky in my opinion. Here is what I found that works well:

Brake later into the corner up to the point to where you are about to say " Oh crap....I just messed up! "... and brake hard. Take a tighter inside line through the corner. Once the weight is transfered onto the front wheels, push the "Go-Go" pedal to the floor and accelerate out of the corner. The natural understeer of the FWD will push you outside of the turn, but, if you are on the right line, you will be able to accelerate straight through and gain momentum the whole time after the apex.

This is the downfall of FWD. Once the motor spools up, the weight is transferred back to the rear and this causes most of the understear IMO. By jabbing on the brakes, you put the weight back onto the front end which should cause a slight oversteer.

I found this trick racing my Fiero. With the engine in the rear, it understeered pretty hard, just like a FWD. I did exactly what I mentioned above and times got much better. I then took what I learned from there and tried it on FWD and had immediate success with it.

OP: What I can't figure out is why you're complaining of torque steer with a stock car. Are the LCA bushings torn? As per the quoted post below, I suggest a Dorman sway bar with Moog bushings (1.26")/end links as well as new LCA's if your bushings are torn.

Honestly still don't understand the claim that STB's make that much of a difference.

I'm curious if you were to remove it and take the same corners at speed if you'd notice a difference if at all. Placebo effect?

There is so much slop in the rest of the suspension that needs looking after before you get to that level IMO.

I posted this elsewhere on here:

Originally Posted by matt5112

Honestly after trying every part on a W body short of lateral links and coilovers, I'd have to rate the front bar as the #1 improvement in handling. It helps control all of that weight out front.

Next was bilstein HD/vogtland up front.

Next was trailing arms, followed by rear sway (ADDCO bar, 22mm solid)/bilstein HD/vogtlands, with STB's in dead last. And by dead last I mean basically worthless with all of those other components.

Arguably, I didn't notice much difference with the rear struts/springs/sway. The rear end still had way too much play on high speed sweepers. That's not to say it didn't help, it surely made a difference, but after you consider springs were $150, struts $600, sway $200. Probably would have been better off buying the BMR rear end link kit.

All depends what you're after. With all of that done, you could feel every little bump in the road. However the ride wasn't uncomfortable. Firm but smooth, the bilstein way.

Oh and I did all of this on 225/60R16. Enough tire to smooth out the bumps, yet still competent enough to provide a solid enough steering feel given the obvious heavy front end. Driven cars with 1" sidewalls, interesting, but not for a daily.

You can easily spend a couple thousand taking the play out of the factory suspension. You can take it out of the tires or the suspension itself. Entirely up to you.

I don't know about your roads, but dodge the pothole is a game you don't always win at around here.

On the topic of speed ratings, mine were W rated. As far as I'm concerned, there wasn't a noticeable reduction in sidewall flex going from an H speed rating to the W. This was probably due to the size itself. Regardless, I've seen some pretty flimsy W-rated tires. For example, a V rated Primacy MXV4 has a more substantial sidewall than say a W rated DWS.

Supercharged cars should have come with H speed rated tires, V if it was a comp G. T speed rating was for the N/A models.

Originally Posted by Oxfire

This is all I did. Lowered + Bigger sticky tires and I take on ramps rated for 40 at 95 with no issues.

same. get rid of the stock struts and springs and make sure all your bushings are good. I have 18's with 245,50,18 tires. imo the biggest improvement is straight line stability tho, the car just burns up the highway and can keep up with cars that cost 3x as much

whhops, did not notice this from last year.