Front end traction

[Stuwey]

Well, actually they last longer.

If you have zero camber and go hooking into a corner, as your car rolls over, the outside tyre ends up having positive camber mid corner, thus scrubbing the outside of the tread, typically understeering, and overheating.

A well set up car will NOT chew its tyres, be much faster, and easier to drive.

[gtimonkey]

I think that hard is too much for street

Difficult to determine what is happening from the description but it sounds like your tires may have been pushed well beyond where they are happy. (check the sidewalls for scrubbing). Stiffer sways put more lateral forces on tires. I doubt that it would be the steering.

Be careful having the bars set on hard, particularly in the wet - although some controlled experimentation (say in a skid pan) could be very informative (the same things happen at lower speeds). I notice that I can get some oversteer since the addition of my RSB.

Stuwey's website farnorth racing is interesting - a bit hardcore:

• Driver
• Tires
• Settings

Seems logical for a race team

Not sure how much is practical given the limitations of the pog in street use. All the going on about tyres is interesting but in practical terms for a daily street car how much experimentation are you likely to do. What you gain in stickiness you lose in wear. I would change the sway bars to suit the tires my car had on it - since it costs nothing.

In the Front wheel drive section the first thing farnorth racing says to go and do is install a LSD. I am not sure that I want to take my pog that far - it is a lot of cash that could be going toward its better equipped replacement. (please someone remind me that I said that when I post that am looking at buying a LSD)

Unlike Stuwey I am fan of the rear swaybar - I think it is a good mod and that it improves the characteristics of the car.

[gtimonkey]

double post

If we lived in Adelaide , it would be great to get out and run the different configurations. I would love to see the mini! Forum talk is cheap - real men argue about cars with beers in their hands

[Stuwey]

Stuwey's website farnorth racing is interesting - a bit hardcore:

• Driver
• Tires
• Settings

Seems logical for a race team

Not sure how much is practical given the limitations of the pog in street use. All the going on about tyres is interesting but in practical terms for a daily street car how much experimentation are you likely to do. What you gain in stickiness you lose in wear. I would change the sway bars to suit the tires my car had on it - since it costs nothing.


Unlike Stuwey I am fan of the rear swaybar - I think it is a good mod and that it improves the characteristics of the car.

The thinking that I have been educated with is that if you need to *add* a rear swaybar then you're just masking a different handling problem. A view which is shared by Steve Cramp here at Manta Racing, who runs his VY in the GT production cars. All that speed, all that tyre, standard sways.

My mate Rob's car:


The Far North Racing site may be a little serious, but the same rules always apply. Learn how stuff works, and its easier to make it work the way you want it to.

[noone]

Learn how stuff works, and its easier to make it work the way you want it to.

I'm not sure why you assume I don't know anything about the hardware I'm attaching to my car. Its great you have achieved good handling without swaybars, but you can't say that there can be no improvement with them.

the original post was about an experience off the track, but reagrdless, I would be amazed if on the track my car was not faster with the sways than without.

[jesum]

Yes! The rear bushes have the same problem as the control arm bushes. They change the geometry of the rear suspension.
Solid bushes, like the control arm bushes, will help the car to be more precise… and it is a big difference.
Do you have the WL rear toe kit? This is other big upgrade for the car’s handling.

do you have the part number for the rear bushes?

where is the bush located?

[Plautos]

do you have the part number for the rear bushes?

where is the bush located?

Hello.

I don't know the Powerflex's bushes quality, but they have it for the Polo.
It is the number 4 in the diagram.

http://www.powerflex.co.uk/products/Polo+%282002+-+2005%29-1237/1.html

[Plautos]

Plautos, the rear toe kit is an alignment product, as there is a lot of difference in rear alignment in some cars ex factory, mine included. I have this installed, I did not find it made a great difference compared to springs shocks or swaybars.

I installed the toe kit after the springs and before the sway bars.

The handling changed a lot... much less understeer.. The rear end finally starts to get out of the track and help cornering.

[noone]

Rear bushes sound interesting. Has anyone else installed these?

FYI, checked my tyre pressure, fronts are 33.5 (1/2 PSI accuracy), rears were 33. I don't like my pressure too hard with with Kumho's, but will raise it to 36.

[seangti]

[QUOTE=noone;461758]Rear bushes sound interesting. Has anyone else installed these?
QUOTE]
Check out Rhys (VWindahouse) red devil thread. he's running the toe kit, if that's what you're referring too. I haven't come across changing the actual bushes as has also been discussed in this thread.

On my previous car I installed a castor kit after having done other suspension mods, it made a very nice improvement to front end feel/confidence. I reckon the polo would benefit from such a kit.

[Plautos]

New suspension set up today. I tune the camber to -2 degrees and the swaybar to the soft.
I felt the car more willing to do hard corners with the foot on the gas.
Before that, I had -1,5 degrees and swaybar on hard, the car had tendency to understeer in this situation… but, if I removed to foot from the gas, I had a massive grip. I had though the LSD was junk, but in the end my problem was just alignment.