Handling/Suspension - Interesting facts?? - Help!

[KinLoud]

Any compliance in the swaybar bushes act to reduce the effective rate of the swaybar - this is due to the rubber squashing, allowing some body roll before the swaybar even gets to start working.
Replacing the swaybar bushes with new toyota ones will make some improvement on any 10 year old car...
Replacing the swaybar bushes with nolathene (or equivalent) will sharpen up handling more than new factory rubber bushes. This is because they squash heaps less.
Pretty cheap way of getting the best out of your swaybars.
Ewan (10k20v) will also tell you that his trueno handling also improved when he replaced the bushes on the rear suspension arms that run forward from the rear hubs (not the ones that run towards the centre of the car) using nolathene type bushes. Ask him what else he replaced.

With my Carina rwd racecar I searched for higher rate springs of the same dimensions (for carina look for cressida, supra, celica springs) at the wreckers. Also searched for higher rate swaybars (supra and celica). New KYB shocks at the front, rear... bilsteins that I found in a supra at the dump!!!
Also lots of nolathene type bushes where ever I could get replacements.

Ken
Ham
021 408 863

[10k 20v]

well i do post on here now

[Dr-X]

lots of oooold topics being dug up lately.

[ChaosAD]

You again

[B1NZ]

although he doesnt post on the boards the dude to talk to would be ewan from hamilton (silver ae101 trueno from megameet)

there was no silver AE101 at this years megameet! - In fact only 1 person bothered to go north of wellington

[KinLoud]

Ewan didn't go to the Christchurch megameet but has been to:
Toyspeed Taupo Queens Birthday 2002
Toyspeed Taupo Trackday Feb 2003
Toyspeed Taupo Queens Birthday 2003
Toyspeed Megameet Welly 2003
Toyspeed Taupo Trackday Feb 2004
Toyspeed Taupo Queens Birthday 2004
Also Toyspeed Grasskhana Raglan (whenever that was... early 2003 I think)

There were 2 of us from North of Welly PhatStu from Taupo with his mad Will VS and me from Hammy.

Ken
Ham
021 408 863

[Disco]

Just to add to your post ken, putting urethane bushes on a car you plan to drive around on NZs *crap* roads is certainly something I would try before buying (ie. if you've got a friend that has done this) as the handling improves but the ride can become pretty shocking.

oh and ron's email is pretty easy to guess....

ron@totalperformance.co.nz

[Mr Revhead]

well my ae101 handles bloody brilliantly.
unfortunatly im not 100% sure what its got in it....
fyi i can get whiteline at very very good prices....

[Disco]

mine handles pretty damn mint even despite probably needing new bushes...

[Stealer Of Souls]

Okay... So my thoughts..
I think you need to decide what you want and what you can handle. Truth be known, I've swapped every bush in the my AE85.5 for nolethane and won't be going back. Didn't notice any decrease in ride comfort, but I've already got some hard shocks and springs.
Swapped my front sway bar 21-->24mm and this made a huge improvement without affecting comfort. But to be honest I'm not happy with the handling change, I'm in the process of getting a matching rear bar upgrade.

I think if you don't mind a harsher ride then get all the good stuff, but if you like comfort then stick closer to stock. As far as how well a car handles, that's pretty objective too. One persons good may be another horrible...

[10k 20v]

the only bushes that really need addressing in a 101 are the rear trailing arm bushes. i did these on my 101 and didn't notice a huge difference in the ride quality but made the car far more predictable. it also gets rid of the little annoying adjustments you have to make going around rough corners making the drive far less fatiging.

However when i did the same thing to my camry (but every single bush i could replace) made a decent inprovement to handling and there is a lot more road shock transmitted in to the chassis

[85AW20v]

After the first day of Targa this year on my brothers Starlet, we changed the rear trailing arms from the standard AE86 rubber bushes(about 50mm dia) back to the solid rose joints that had been in the car when he got it. Up until then the car had felt very "squidgy" - like the body was trying to go a different way to the tyres. Made it a lot more predictable and gave Joe a lot more confidence in what the car was going to do. He had changed to the AE86 ones to try and make the touring between stages more bearable by removing vibration and noise transmission. Decided it was much better to have the car feeling right in the stages and didn't make that much difference to comfort.

[Mr Revhead]

the only bushes that really need addressing in a 101 are the rear trailing arm bushes

now that sounds like a thing i should be doing....

did you replace the arm/body bush only or the one in the hub 2? if you did the one in the hub where did you get it from?
i assumed you used nolathane style bushes?

[10k 20v]

the bushes come in a kit to do all four rubber bushes, the one in the arm and the one in the hub. They come as two halfbushes with a steel spacer in the middle.

Definetly recommened