TIP Engineering

phastsupra · Joined: 12 Sep 2007 Posts: 3

Hello, IM fairly new to suspension tuning and would like to be pointed in the right direction. More specifically I have a built 94 Toyota Supra single turbo. Though the car has masive power it also weighs around 3400lbs. The car is a targa so its body is more prone to flex. Currently it is all stock suspension with flimsy NA antiroll bars. My goal is to make the car an agile handler aswell as a blanced vehicle that can apply its power to the ground. I plan to street the car and autocross on weekends. I plan to start with alignment,anit roll bars, and coilovers. There are many choices out there for the supra. Being that this car is considered a bit nose heavy how should I go about dampers/spring rate for the front and rear. Tire pressure, and corner weights. I would like my suspension to be reasonable on the streets aswell. What setup do ypu guys recommend I go with? Should I stick to mainstream products that everyone seems to have? Are there cheaper alternatives yeilding better results...Educate me

Thanks In Advance

Wiisass · Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 10:47 pm Post subject:

Aren't the NA sway bars and TT sway bars the same? I always thought they were. I haven't had a chance to measure the sway bar rates for the supra, but I did have some numbers but they didn't seem to be coming out right. But from what I have, it seems that the front bar is already huge and super stiff, but the rear bar is lacking. So if you were to get any sway bar upgrade, I would probably say that just a rear bar would do better for grip than a bigger front and rear.

The supras are really front heavy, it's just the spring and sway bar setup makes the cars understeer very easily. I think this is mostly due to the overly stiff front sway bar and not enough rear bar. But also when you lower a supra, the car will want to understeer more than at stock ride height. This can all be accounted for, but I can't say the best way for sure because I don't know the actual rates of the stock or any aftermarket sway bars.

As for springs and dampers, I am working on a setup for the supra right now. I have most of the numbers worked out and preliminary valving decided on. I just need to verify the sway bar rates so I can predict how the car will act. As for everything else on the market, the only other thing I can recommend is the setup that Gixxer Drew on supraforums has been working on. Go in the road racing section on there and there's a couple good threads about it. It's simply bilstein shocks with slightly stiffer than stock springs and it seems to work well for a street/autox car. The valving is good for the spring rates and it works nicely with the car. It's not a stiff race suspension, but it will probably get the job done for what you want to do. Besides my setup, which isn't done yet, that is the only other setup I can recommend without getting into the high dollar stuff. So if you want to spend $4k and up, there's a lot of good options out there. But all the JDM stuff, I can't recommend.

Also, if you're interested in something like Drew's setup, I can put it together for you and get everything to fit. It's along the same lines as the setup I'm putting together, but without getting into much stiffer springs or revalving the damper. So let me know.

Tim
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TIP Engineering
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R&D, damper development and fabrication.

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phastsupra · Joined: 12 Sep 2007 Posts: 3

The front NA Sway bar is identical to the TT sway bar but the Rear Sway bar on the NA is even smaller than on the TT model. I really like the Drew setup and its theory. I would like to choose a parallel route. The only drawback that i see is the softer spring rates. My car even currently on stock suspension has some rubbing issues. Infact i cannot fit a thumb between the BFG's tires and my rear fender. This is partially due to the fact the the stock srings are fairly old and have sunk quite a bit. I know Drews suspension requires quite a bit of travel being that its softer and i would like to equip a spring rate that would really work with my wheel and tire setup. Im hopping sligtly siffer springs and diffrent valving would reduce if not eliminate any issues. This would make the car a bit more of a agile handler on the track but a back breaker here on NYC streets. I wouldnt mind. In anycase i can always raise the ride height in the rear slightly on Drew's setup and possible getaway with it.
Tim, How much would it cost to have you assmeble such a setup for me? I am familiar with fabrication and the Drew setup is somthing i can defenitly tackle. Is there more to it?

anthracite93 · Joined: 09 Nov 2005 Posts: 12 Location: Langhorne, PA

tim,

if you want to pull the rear bar off of the supra let me know.

it will be off to florida next week, so let me know.
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phastsupra · Joined: 12 Sep 2007 Posts: 3

Hey Tim , Im ready when you are to get this new suspension of yours. Once you do get the Sway bar #'s and do the neccessary calculations let me know what procedures to take. I cant wait! Very Happy

Wiisass · Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 12:01 am Post subject:

Well I spent some time on Tuesday testing an mkiv supra at Pocono. This car was running Tein HA's with stock sway bars and the expected performance was very close to the preliminary calculations. So because I was able to verify the numbers I had, I'm ready to get started on this supra setup.

I will try and catch you on AIM tomorrow, I've just been real busy this week, but we can start getting everything figured out for your setup.

Tim
_________________
TIP Engineering
Just put the TIP in.
R&D, damper development and fabrication.

jrud@tipengr.com