New Suspension for Daily Driver/Autocross/Drag

[StealthSS]

This might be too much to ask for but I am going to ask opinions anyways. After ready alot of the threads I am still unsure which suspension to buy?

Since my car is not a daily driver I still like to have a car to take the wife out in on Saturday night.

I also have the new Eforce supercharger so I am going to take it to the track a few times to show off the power.

Also I just experienced my first autocross this past weekend and have found my new hobby. I was the only Camaro in a sea of Miatas and S2000's. I was a boat going through the cones but I had plenty of power.

There is the new Airlift system out and wondering if anyone has experienced this kit. I am looking for performance not just appearance.

Confused any ideas?

[JusticePete]

The best place to start on any chassis is with the foundational weaknesses. On a Camaro for autocross those would be:

Sub-frame bushes
Front track / Tires
Radius bushes

The OE sub-frame mounting bushes have rather large voids to make you Camaro almost library quiet. They also allow the rear sub-frame to move, to shift. When the shift occurs, the rear wheels want to steer you car. This is absolutely unacceptable in autocross. You have to KNOW what your rear end is going to do next and not hope it will respond exactly as you expect. You have two choices. You can replace the bushes completely or you can fill the voids with inserts.

Your Camaro understeers when pushed hard as you do and will in autocross. This is caused by many factors, but some you cannot control. Getting weight out of the front end is not going to happen in a street driven car. That means we need to get the understeer out using other tools. The front track is narrower than the rear track from the factory. The front tires are narrower than the rear tires from the factory. New tires and wheels can address both. You can look around the forum and you will find a number of forum members that are following the Pedders lead with the same size tire all around and using wheel offset to correct the track. Doing this, particularly for autocross will improve the handling by reducing understeer.

The front OE radius bushes are hydraulically damped to isolate the car from everything NVH. Adding simple inserts will firm up the OE bushes and reduce castor changes as well as improve the brake pedal feel. Both are very important to autocross.

Finally, your alignment must be tweaked for performance and not tire life.

Front
Camber -1.5 to -2
Toe OUT .5 1/2 degree each wheel

Rear
Camber 1/2 the front
Toe zero out the toe

These alignment specifications will improve turn in and dramatically improve your on center steering feel. Reducing rear camber to approximately half the front will reduce understeer.

Increasing the castor will help return the wheels on center faster. There is no castor adjustment in you Camaro from the factory. You can add castor with special bolts to fit the brackets that are there from the factory for castor adjustment. The round bolthole must be slotted, but the metal edges required for castor bolt eccentrics to work are welded in at the factory. All you need to add is bolts.

Many will suggest you add sway bars first. We do not think that is where you should start. There is too much low hanging fruit to grab first. Sway bars are the final running element when you have everything else dialed in.

I have not listed any parts for you to buy intentionally. You asked for advice and not a parts list. I hope you do not mind. I also suggest you read through the thread titled The Book.

[StealthSS]

Wow thanks for the info

[BMR guy]

PM sent.