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With my oil sump I have to lift the car to get it on the floor jack. It's not slammed at all but maybe an inch lower than stock. I'm running about 1 inch taller in the front than the rear. I have dual adjusters in front and adjustable plates in back.

Stock trans I think. I've been working on blowing it but it is a tough single sideplate trans. I would love a limited slip!

I have thought of running coil overs up front but I'm worried that going stiffer up front will cause chatter and bounce. The car is weighs in at 1730lbs (before turbo).

I'm running max camber, one caster shim, and zero toe up front. I'm running about 1/16 toe out in the rear. I have not had the car on the rack and have done all the adjustments myself.

I like that it's streetable... I'm not sure I want to tow an old Ghia around to the track. It's impressive when I drive up, race, and drive home. Plus I live next to a great hillclimb road that I use as my test track.

It's interesting, the biggest change in handling besides tires was the trans brace. That brace stiffened up the car like crazy and upset the handling. I haven't got it back yet. I don't want to remove the brace cause with the 30mm bars I think the wishbone will crack. It moves a lot without the brace. I'm not sure if it is normal or not but I inspected it and could find no cracks. Without the trans brace I had no wheel lift at all.

volkswagen50 wrote:Sounds like a sweet setup What sort of ride height are you running?

Can you run coil overs up front or do they interfere with the whiteline bar brackets? Do you have a limited slip or open diff?

If the only stiffening up front is the 15% bars (not counting sway bar) Try some coil overs if its legal.

The time may be coming where the car, in order to be more competitive, becomes track only

What sort of front end and rear end alignment are you running?

Good for you that you want it streetable, knowing that will tell you where your limitations will be. Basicaly, what are you willing to live with? Think about that first and go from there I guess.

As far as alignment goes, you might be able to gain some there. If you're experiencing plowing, give it some toe out up front, it really helps turn in and you'll be able to carry more speed into and out of the turn. But I wouldn't go over 1/4 inch toe out. As far as the rear, go for toe in. That will also help turn in. Specificly on a rear drive car.

That brace on the back is a good thing to have, and the wheel lift it causes is letting you know how flexable the rear was before that. Flex is bad, leads to fatigue and is a 5th spring without a shock or other means of control. The stiffer the chassis the better.

I wouldn't worry to much about chatter and hop with a set of coil overs upfront. Chatter and hop like you see in some other cars at the autocrosses are usually caused by excessive lowering with factory bump stops, or lack of adequate shock absorbsion. Good shock control is very important when you start going stiffer.

With the bars you have in the back it's no wonder it lifts a rear wheel! Stiffening the front will bring it back in line, adjustable coil overs may give you the best of both worlds, drivability and performance when you want it. But adjusting them can take time

I asked about the diff cause if you had one it would help keep power on the ground until it came up all the way off the pavement.

I'm sure you know lots of this stuff already, but I include it for others reading this as well.

To touch the basics again, if the rear lifts, stiffen the front. If the front lifts, stiffen the rear. Start with sway bars and go to springs after you reach max with that set up.

Got any pics? Greg

volkswagen50 wrote:To touch the basics again, if the rear lifts, stiffen the front. If the front lifts, stiffen the rear. Start with sway bars and go to springs after you reach max with that set up.
Greg

That's the program I'm on. Now if I could just get the brown truck to show up with my new rear bar, I'd be in business. I'm burning a lot of daylight waiting on parts.

volkswagen50 wrote:Got any pics? Greg

http://www.theodata.com/Ghia.html

This does not have any picts since the turbo was installed. I will try to do an update soon.

Theo

Theo wrote:

volkswagen50 wrote:Got any pics? Greg

http://www.theodata.com/Ghia.html

This does not have any picts since the turbo was installed. I will try to do an update soon.

Theo

Theo, did you cut out the rear fenders yourself? How did you manage the inside fender liner? Did you also cut the fronts?

ozzie wrote:

Theo wrote:

volkswagen50 wrote:Got any pics? Greg

http://www.theodata.com/Ghia.html

This does not have any picts since the turbo was installed. I will try to do an update soon.

Theo

Theo, did you cut out the rear fenders yourself? How did you manage the inside fender liner? Did you also cut the fronts?

I did cut the rear fenders and replaced the liner by welding in new panels. I'm still working on them with the hope to have a small flare. I cut them so I could run wide rear tires and for the occasional tall tire. The fronts are uncut.

My Ghia was a rust bucket when I started modifying it and it had a bad ding, rust, bondo spot on the rear fender actualy all over. There was bondo on the roof. I've welded a number of sections up using my parts car as a doner.

I should have never bought the sawsall.

Theo wrote:I should have never bought the sawsall.

Do you regret cutting the fenders?

Oh Yeah!!!
The big brown truck just showed up. Finally got the big, fat Whiteline rear sway-bar.
So excited, I had to tell somebody.

Now it's just a matter of the shocks!

ozzie wrote:

Theo wrote:I should have never bought the sawsall.

Do you regret cutting the fenders?

Naw, just kidding. I planned to lighten the car and most of my VW's end up modified by sawsall

Plus the left rear fender was bondo and rust.

Hows the swaybar going?

Theo

Theo wrote:

ozzie wrote:

Theo wrote:I should have never bought the sawsall.

Do you regret cutting the fenders?

Naw, just kidding. I planned to lighten the car and most of my VW's end up modified by sawsall

Plus the left rear fender was bondo and rust.

Hows the swaybar going?

Theo

Having trouble finding time to get to it. I did just rebuild (2nd time) my front beam to get the "stiff" out of it. Got some pointers from John at Aircooled & it worked out. Now it actually acts like it has a suspension. Both left & right lower trailing arms were bound up so bad I couldn't move them by hand. Turned out to be the bushings & a novice mechanic (your's truly). Live & learn. We are in the midst of Ernesto right now. Long weekend coming up. If it clears up I'll be under the Ghia again. Rear sway bar & seeing what the bad oil leak is. Hopefully just a valve cover gasket. We'll see.

EDIT: 9/28/06
It's all in & ran an autocross Sunday. I finished better than ever before, but still a bunch of improving to do. Right now my set-up is this...195-55-15 BFG G-Force Sports at all four. Fuch 2.0L alloys, all four. Koni "Special" Reds, all four. Front at softest, rear at one notch. Full compliment of poly-urethane bushings. Stock front torsions, 28mm rear torsions. Whiteline adjustable at both ends. Front at softest, Rear at one notch. I was expecting it to be harsh. It;s not. It feels firm & solid. Body roll decreased by a bunch, but still want to get rid of more. The front tires stay on the ground now & the rear will come around when pushed. Now my inside rear tire gets light & spins on exit. I've got some adjusting room, so I'll play with it & see what happens. With the new set-up, I have to re-learn how to drive the car.

I've been playing with excel and noticed that if a wheel is lifted off the ground you can't alter the balance of the car until the wheel is planted. Ofcourse the CG moves more if you soften the roll resistance, but the change is so small that it isn't something to take into count.

Also, the roll resistance at the end that lifts the wheel drops to about half (if you do not take the roll bar into account) when the wheel lifts, because only one spring is in contact with the ground.

Calculating roll center height also changes when a wheel lifts off the ground.

Seems like inside wheel lift is something to avoid... At all cost.

I may not have much say right now, but I will post once I have some info but I will be running the 27mm rear and 24mm front whiteline sways bars, they ARE NOT CHEAP! at 190 each, but compared to what a Subaru STI owner has to pay, Id rather drop that for their priced stuff. Im also going to change out to the 29mm sway bars which should really make the cars ass pucker a bit more. Just need to order those damn Bilstiens.

Good thread, Im just hanging in the balance right now to see if the engine is toast or not.