My first car was an '03 Sunfire, nothing special, but I was so attached to that thing that I thought I could never sell it, until I met my '05 supercharged Sunfire
I don't know what my problem is but I can't love another car like I love this one.. It just feels so right to drive. Anyway, I recently got into autox with my car and want to make some more mods to it, especially since I'm still running stock suspension. So far the mods on my car are:
Supercharger
Battery relocation
After market exhaust (don't know what it is, bought it that way)
Short throw shifter
I have a lot of work in my future. Suspension is definitely the next project on my car, I'm thinking KW coilovers-probably V1 considering the cost.
Does anyone have any thoughts/suggestions to making this a better car for Autocross?
This is also the first car I've ever worked on, so everything is a first for me. I'll definitely be using this forum a lot.
best suspension mod to start with, in my opinion would be upgraded front sway bar and add sway bar to the rear
What tires are you running? Better suspension won't mean squat without good rubber. Next best mod is seat time. Once you have more seat time you'll have a better idea what the car is and isn't doing and can make changes accordingly. Throwing money at the car may improve times but a slow car with a fast driver will beat a fast car with a slow driver everytime.
Supercharger basically puts you in smf so your pretty well screwed...
I have g-force sport comp-2 tires (215/45ZR17). They aren't very good, after one season the tread towards the outside is looking really bad from the tires rolling. I want to get a new set of wheels for autocross- do you think I should go with 15"? I have very little wheel/tire knowledge, so any help there is greatly appreciated
The suspension is important because my body rolls so bad that I can hear the fender scraping the tires, sway bars is a good solution for that.
I run 17's to clear my big brakes but smaller wheels will be lighter and you can gain a lot by losing unsprung weight. Are you looking for a track only tire? Also, adjusting tire pressures and negative camber can help keep the tires from rolling over.
Sway bars will help with body roll but it sounds like either you have worn suspension components or possibly the wrong offset wheel on your car if you are getting a lot of rubbing.
My guess on the suspension is that it's still from the factory, I just bought some KW V3, and I'm installing it this weekend.
I also have stock brakes, so I guess I could go with the 15" wheels. I was looking for track only tires, unless there are really good street tires. That would save me from carrying tires to every event.
I'm partial to hankook rs-3... They are about as sticky as you can get on a street tire.
I live and die by Hoosier. I run the R6 compound.
I recommend sway bar mods first after plenty of seat time.
Hoosier is definetely the way to go if you run a track only tire.