High speed, stability in a type one.
 

Now granted I have a kit car, which is weighing in at 1600 lbs without driver. My issue with this vehicle, is that after about 50MPH the nose gets a little dicey in cornering. Even with a full tank of gas which is still in the nose. Any ideas on how I can remedy this problem? If it's gusty forget it! But on clear, calm days, its a blast.

First off make sure your suspension is in good woring order. With wheels as wide as yours there might be some bump steer issues. Make sure your steering damper is good and you might want to upgrade it. Mine was shot with stock tires and the front wheels wanted to move back and forth with every little bump.

I'm not sure what you mean by "dicey", But since you mentioned the gas I'll assume the front end breaks loose before the rear. Sway bars can help balance the tendency to start slipping. If I remember how it works, if the front looses grip on turns you need to DECREASE the diameter of the sway bar in the front, or, INCREASE the diameter of the rear sway bar. Increasing the rear causes more weight transfer to the front. If the front gets too stiff (no sway) one wheel can lift.

Don't even mess with sway bars though until you know your suspension is set up correctly. As front wheels lift it changes the camber to the positive, which can cause slippage. Make sure the camber is not too positive to begin with. Positive camber is good though for straight line steadiness. It is a complex subject, and sifferent cars have differing set ups as to what is best. In case some of my info is inaccurate, I suggest you go down to the book store and buy a copy of "How to Make Your Car Handle", by Fred Puhn, ISBN 0-912656-46-8. I got mine at Borders.

Ron

I also believe toe has much to do with high speed stability. ALso with rear engined cars weight balance and front end lift seems to be a high speed killer. Move the battery and anything else in the car you can to the front and maybe looking into a front chin spoiler would be a good idea. also blocking off any air that can get into the front of your car will help. You want to create a low pressure area inside and under your car. Also making some way for air to escape out of your wheelwells would help too. I think a good start would be figuring out your cars weight balance. It says how to do that in How To Make Yor Car Handle. Oh and putting sheetmetal under your car to make it a perfectly flat surface would woek well too. It seems that this could easily be done by using 3M structural tape and tape the sheetmetal to the underside of your car.

Put battery in the front of the car.
Front Airdam: http://members.lycos.co.uk/vdubhub/a..._front_low.jpg
Lower the car a bit all round.

:)

Should make a nice difference. I noticed a big difference when I moved my battery to the front, and I also noticed a big difference when I fitted the front airdam, that made a BIG difference at anything over 60mph.

Cya,
SaM C

Check the front tire pressures, should be about 18psi (I think)..

How/is your kit-cars suspension modified?

What parts do you have?

Do you have any pics? We can help you if you help us a little :)

At ~725kg your may have ~no front suspension when you need it. No quick fix, have you tried your local wheel alignment specialist?

Matt

Get it aligned and get the steering box adjusted by a pro. It was night and day in my car when I took it to the alignment shop. Best 50 bucks you can spend for handling...I even had all the fancy sway bars and shocks and lowering, but the alignment did the trick.

Nick

loose steering in the corners at high speed
 

I havent finished the mod yet but in addition to the gas tank, there will be a radiator in the nose, I was thinking about creating a pleunum chamber in the nose with vents in the top of nose. My car looks like a ferrari 308 gt. heres a picture. I will also be adding a mazda rx-7 rach and pinion system to the nose.
the suspension is bone stock with no mods yet. everything is in perfect condition. camber and all is zero out no toe in or out.

RE: suspension fix
 

I am looking for very tight crisp handling, while still being plush enough to drive around everyday. Low to no body roll is the goal, (LOL) But say straight cruising like on a freeway is silky smooth, not..."Oh so that's where my kidneys are located".
Any help? I will be changing out the steering system in the car to an RX-7 rack and pinion. it welds right up, or can be mounted, using the stock RX-7 clamps, to the front beam, and then plugs right into the wheels in the stock location. And the steering column u-joint is alot easier to use than the lil VW rubber disk.

Nice tip on the rx7 steering im gonna have to keep a look out. How many turns is it lock to lock. Another good option I hear is the jetta rabbit rack.

The complete lock to lock on the RX-7 rack and pinion is 3 turns.


If you think of all the arms and excessive linkage from the steering box to the wheels in a stock VW setup. Removing it all for a single shaft rack and pinion. It's literally the input shaft and two posts sticking out the side with tie rod ends on them. It really cleans up the nose area, and simplifies the whole system. And because of the gear reduction, you dont need the steering dampner.

If you have a creatively mechincal mind you can go into your local junk yard and pick out the best of the cars there. The result can be very cool, and yes sometimes very fast!
I ran the stats on my kit, weight, gearing, HP, torque, ect and came up with a 3.3 sec 0-60 time when finished, with all my mods.

What do you have done so far? Im currently trying to stick a ford 2.3turbo in my ghia wich should have 300hp if im lucky. So right now im just trying to compesate the rest of the cars systems to keep up. I was planning on using a passat rack/ Its tough to use racks in the junkyard cause most of the strreing wheels are locked and I cant figure out the feel and the lock to lock count. Ill keep lookin and ill definetly check out the rx7 stuff. Oh hey what style rack is it? Is it the style with the inner mounter tie rods where the tie rods that are connected to the rack are in the center of the rack or is it a outer mounted one? If you dont get what im saying I think I got a pic to clarify things.

Steering rack and high speed stability
 

Hey guys,The best alternative for a steering rack is a early model Passat.
This has to be a pre power steering one..it's pretty much identical to a 1975 super beetle rack.
As we all know they are like rocking horse mmmmmmm.
The only real difference is the mounts on the rack and the steering shaft is
longer and a different spline.Iv'e just in the middle of fitting one to my 73
You will have to cut down the lenght of the shaft and really get it built up and re-machined to the original beetle spline.
From what iv'e been told the spines on a early passat rack are unique and a
one off.Antway there you go.Mind you there arn't many Passat ones around either.
From the books iv'e read about high speed instability and the problems me mate found..toe settings are very important.
His car was terrible and very scary at 140mph I can tell you.
Depending on how much you have lowered you car,and tyre size you really need to spend some time just experimenting.you may find allot is from the rear.Hope this helps. :)

Does anyone know if the 'rack on the Dasher is the same as the 75up '03 or the early Passat?

Matt