Whats the best way to improve handling on a 2000 sunfire? I've been told things like lowering the car and getting wider tires but being such a newbie am kind of clueless. I guess I'd have about $500 or so to spend but would be willing to spend more if needed (would have to save up).
In terms of performance etc, do the air-ram hoods from places like aplusperformance or rksport really make a difference or are they primarily just for looks? I'm not sure what it's called, but that little latch thing under the hood that keeps it closed even if it pops up, do the replacement hoods have the notch for them also?
thnx.
You are right about the best way to improve handling being lowering. There are also other options such as sway bars, strut tower braces, that sort of thing- but they general augment a lower, tighter suspension. Check out the lowering FAQ in the Suspension and brakes forum- it'll tell you all kind of great stuff you need to know to do this properly.
The ram air hood in and of itself is primarily for looks, you have to do a little modification to the airbox to make it functional. I have the functional ram-air on mine, and it seems to give it a little more pep in the mid to high range, but that's only gauged by the old butt-dyno, so take it for what you will.
Tires- tires are extremely important when it comes to handling. I went from high-performance Cooper Cobra GT's to a wider wheel running the max-performance BF Goodrich gForce A/T KDW2's and it made a HUGE difference in how the car handled (besides the fact that the tread design is pretty spiffy :p ). I mean huge to the point that I now accelerate with confidence through turns that I was riding the clutch through (and still getting tire squawk) on the Coopers.
Hope that helps.
I may not be the sharpest crayon in the box, but at least I'm a pretty color
Working with a $500 budget I'd say get the Vibrant Front & Rear braces (100 total) and the Eibach Anti-Roll Sway Bar Set ($299)
Gravana Tuning for the braces and
Car Customs for the sway bars.
A good lowering set-up will run ya about $700 - $1000
Thanks for the advice everyone. I really appreciate it.
My budget isn't $500 per se, thats just some free cash I have right now. I could put aside maybe $400-500/month for a couple months. So I could technically have a couple grand to spend on it, it would just take me a few months to save it up. Right now, my main focus I guess would be to improve handling as thats really the area I feel I would like an improvement in my car.
J D wrote:Check out the lowering FAQ in the Suspension and brakes forum- it'll tell you all kind of great stuff you need to know to do this properly.
I checked out the faq and it was pretty informative. I'm a bit of a newbie, so I may not have understood this right, but I got the impression from it you could just get a set of lowering springs to lower your car? I noticed RKsport offers a set for around $250 which would be a pretty good price for such an upgrade to handling. What do you think about these two? (
http://rksport.com/product/p_02034603/view_detail http://rksport.com/product/p_020338634/view_detail )
Quote:
The ram air hood in and of itself is primarily for looks, you have to do a little modification to the airbox to make it functional. I have the functional ram-air on mine, and it seems to give it a little more pep in the mid to high range
I noticed it in your car pic and it looks very nice with the spoiler too. What kind of modification did you have to do to get it functional? I'm also curious, after you ordered the hood and spoiler from rksport, how much extra did it cost to have them painted the same color as your car?
Quote:
Tires- tires are extremely important when it comes to handling. I went from high-performance Cooper Cobra GT's to a wider wheel running the max-performance BF Goodrich gForce A/T KDW2's and it made a HUGE difference in how the car handled (besides the fact that the tread design is pretty spiffy :p ). I mean huge to the point that I now accelerate with confidence through turns that I was riding the clutch through (and still getting tire squawk) on the Coopers.
I really think the tires and lowering is what I'd want to do pretty soon. I mean I'm running on the stock tires that came with the car, lol. I imagine they can't be all that great for handling
How wide did you go with the BF Goodrich gForce A/T KDW2's and how much they cost you? What do you think of their performance on snow?
DeadBob wrote:Working with a $500 budget I'd say get the Vibrant Front & Rear braces (100 total) and the Eibach Anti-Roll Sway Bar Set ($299)
I'll definitely have to look into those for that price. Maybe once I find out more about the lowering springs etc, I could just order them all together and have them done at a local garage or something.
Once again, thanks for all the info,everyone. I really appreciate the advice bigtime.
A very important thing to remember when you put lowering springs on is that you will also need new struts. RKsport is a little hazy on the details of the KYB struts they sell. I would advise going here:
http://www.tirerack.com Tire Rack sells KYB AGX adjustables (which they recommend for lowered/performance applications). I believe they'll run you about $144 EACH for the front and $117 EACH for the rear struts- so to do it right (which you can either do now, or after the stock struts explode from the constant pressure) you're looking at, well- do the math and add that to the cost of springs and installation.
Thanks for the compliment on my car
. I really couldn't tell you how much the hood cost to paint- it's a factory hood, came already matching the car.
As far as modding the airbox- there is a part of the air box (the resonator chamber I believe it is called) that sticks off the back of the intake. You have to figure out where that lines up with the outlet for the hood, and cut a hole there. Then you buy some gasket material (need the thick stuff- basically weatherstripping) and cut it to the dimensions of the hole. Then glue that to either the hood or the box (whichever you prefer) and viola, functional ram air. Well, as functional as I've been able to figure out how to make it.
My wheels are 17x7.5" and the tires I'm running are 215/45ZR17's. Again, I would recommend the Tire Rack- I paid $133 each for these tires, and that was a really good deal.
Good luck, and happy modding.
I may not be the sharpest crayon in the box, but at least I'm a pretty color
The springs you posted are good springs. Lost of people here have them. The only catch is it's
NOT recommended to use the AGX's with them. The reason being is the AGX's are not warrantied for the amount of drop the Sport lines give you. Your going to want to use Koni Yellow's or the tokico d specs Shocks/Struts.
However, the AGX's ride great with the Pro-kit. I have that set up on my Sunfire and love it!
Also, if you go for those springs,
GO HERE!! Same Springs, just $25 less than RKsport & free shipping
. Just about everyone and there mother can vouch for that site
I also got my AGX's off of Ebay. a complete set was a hair over $350 shipped.
Your other option to lower would be
THIS. It's a $1,000 to get in, and they still need 7 people to commit to get this to production. However that set-up is going to be by far and away the
BEST lowering set up available for our cars
sorry i have nothing to offer to the thread but i use to live like 5 mins from media and im over there every weekend. shoot me an email if you need help w/ anything or wanna cruise sometime.
