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| The front suspension is really straight forward, it is all parts that anyone can buy from the tuning industry. It’s not so much the sum of the parts but what you do with them that makes a car sweet. This is all 100% available to any privateer or grassroots drifter. A Battle Version tension rod is used to adjust caster and eliminate a huge rubber bushing. An SPL lower control arm is adjustable for roll center and track width. Camber is also adjusted here and that adjustment also affect caster. Steering axis is also influenced by all of these adjustments. SPL tie rods are used to adjust bump steer and increase steering angle. A Progress Group adjustable front antisway bar is used. The front crossmember is a fully Formula D legal unaltered piece. |
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| A Haraguchi front knuckle gives a lot more steering angle while maintaining proper geometry. We have seen a lot of angle mods really screw up the car’s steering geometry. This part keeps the Ackerman angle correct and bumpsteer in a range where it can be adjusted. There is only about 1/8″ of bumpsteer. The front strut is a KW Motorsports 3-way adjustable unit. It uses an inverted shaft floating on linear bearings for stiffness. |
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| The team is experimenting with this offset tie rod mount which allows more steering angle without overcentering and locking out. This also increases Ackerman angle. Many Japanese suspension tuners feel that parallel steering is the best for drifting but the team has found that this is unstable in drift and lacks steering feedback and self steer. |
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| The KW Motorsports damper has the high and low speed compression damping adjustable on the remote reservoirs. The rebound damping is adjustable on the top of the shaft. Easily accessible damping adjustment is very important in drifting as shock tuning is very critical for set up and changes greatly from track to track and as the track conditions change. In drifting the tracks tend to grip up as the event progresses often requiring tuning changes. KW shocks have a huge adjustment range and are perhaps the greatest aid in setting up the car. |
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| In 2010 suspension pickup points could be moved 1″. Crossmembers could be changed between different models of the same car as well if they bolted in. In 2011 the car has to run the same crossmember it came with and the suspension pick up points have to remain in the stock location. Previously the car had its pick up points moved to optimize traction and now it has to run a stock unaltered S13 crossmemeber. This is a pretty big tuning disadvantage that the team will work hard to overcome as the season progresses. Like the front the car uses rear suspension pieces that any privateer or grassroots drifter can purchase. SPL lower control arms are used with Battle Version camber, toe and traction links bolting to stock S13 knuckles. A driveshaft shop axle with Porsche 930 inner CV’s and Skyline outer CV’s is used with stout 300M axle shafts. The team has never broken an axle ever! |
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| The subframe can be tilted within the range of the stock bolts to somewhat alter antisquat and the team is taking advantage of this small difference with aluminum shims that replace the stock bushings. These can be purchased from SPL. |
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| There is nothing wrong with a super low car if the suspension is designed and adjusted to correctly run low! Even at this low ride height there is still 3″ of bump travel and the geometry is correct. |
