82 vh ss

[HAZZA-VN]

thats good, would prob have something to do with driving skills as well. your early girls lighter I'm sure and you have the big brakes dont you? always a positive haha.

 

[Darren_L]

thats good, would prob have something to do with driving skills as well. your early girls lighter I'm sure and you have the big brakes dont you? always a positive haha.

I wish I could claim it has to do with my driving skills but if it does it would be minimal as I'm still only a newbie when it comes to track days, my racecraft has a long way to go! In fact Lakeside Raceway offers a deal where I can have a professional race driver sit next to me in my own car and give me lessons on how to improve whatever racecraft I might have... They have beginner, medium and advanced. I'm keen to give it a go!

True the VH is lighter and mine does have big stoppers (no bigger than the VY/VZ HSV's), but it's down at least 30rwhp to most of the modified LS powered cars and the VH still has a live rear axle, so that should even up the lighter weight. Which means of the mods have made it a fairly competitive car at least compared to some of the later model Commodores on the track days. Of course I'm not talking about the serious guys out there - I wouldn't have a hope! But it generally holds it's own against the average street Commodore/HSV on street tyres

 

[Darren_L]

I know I said I wouldn't go coil overs, but this is sort of a compromise..... :idea:

They are just threaded standard struts that will still accept my koni inserts & k-mac strut tops. Picked them up for a very reasonable price. Main reason I wanted them is it now allows me to fit 63 & 65mm coil over style springs, which means I now have at my disposal a huge range of different rated springs. So I can fine tune the handling. I also got my hands on some adjustable spring bases for the rear lower control arms, which also allows me to fit the same style of springs to the rear.

 

[ajvx01]

Nice!
Über jealous Darren...


Electrical work, Adelaide all areas.
Pm me.

 

[Darren_L]

thanks mate
yeah I'm kind of excited about the potential it gives me in regards to spring selection.
Just doing some research on spring at the moment. Been talking to guys who race these cars about their spring choice, but of course they are dedicated track cars, whereas mine has still got to have some sort of decent ride quality on the street, so I'm going to have to choose a lower rate spring. But it's a good basis to start from. I get the feeling it's going to be a game of trail and error....

 

[mr j-man]

They look awesome....nice work

well your car is destined for the circuit ..... so id say youve done yourself a big long term favour!

The fun part will be chasing the perfect spring rate for the best of both worlds....itll may well get to a point where you may have to decide whether its to be a street or track car...depends what your using the car on most......if it was track then id setup for it and sacrifice the streetability or vice versa....

dont forget the install pics

ps wheres the rear lower arms??

 

[Darren_L]

They look awesome....nice work

well your car is destined for the circuit ..... so id say youve done yourself a big long term favour!

The fun part will be chasing the perfect spring rate for the best of both worlds....itll may well get to a point where you may have to decide whether its to be a street or track car...depends what your using the car on most......if it was track then id setup for it and sacrifice the streetability or vice versa....

dont forget the install pics

ps wheres the rear lower arms??

cheers
very true, it's always going to be a compromise trying to make a good street car a good track car.
It will always primarily be a street car. I have no intentions of turning it into a dedicated club car. I've spent too much money and effort creating a nice interior, fitting A/C, a half decent stereo system etc. I don't want to gut it, and fit a cage. Ultimately my goal is to have a nice street Commodore that can also return a respectable lap time on the occasional track day. It's always going to be a challenge with a family 4 door car. But I love taking this car out on a country drive just as much as I love taking it to the occasional track day, so yeah it's a matter of trying to get the best compromise of both worlds. However, if a mod is just not practical or desirable on the street, then it won't happen eg big negative camber.

the rear arms remain factory. The two adjusters are on the right hand side of the picture above. Bottom threaded end bolts into the spring seat of the lower control arm and the upper cap fits to the upper spring seat on the chassis rail (as per pic below)

 

[mr j-man]

id keep it mainly street too!...to good to have it as a track car, i was in the same frame of mind when building my engine.

thats a cool spring setup!
i like the idea of it, however ive never seen these before....where do u source these from

 

[ajvx01]

Am I correct in assuming you could adjust your ride height via that set up also?


Electrical work, Adelaide all areas.
Pm me.

 

[Darren_L]

id keep it mainly street too!...to good to have it as a track car, i was in the same frame of mind when building my engine.

thats a cool spring setup!
i like the idea of it, however ive never seen these before....where do u source these from

yeah if I really wanted to get more serious about the track (which I don't think I ever will, prefer to keep it just casual), I'd probably buy an ex Commodore Cup race car, throw a 304 into it and keep it as a dedicated track car. That way I could dial in some big camber and caster, and if I crashed it, I wouldn't want to tie a noose around my neck lol

I'd never seen that spring setup before either until recently. I found out about them from a couple of guys on another forum who race these cars. Apparently the Grp C race-cars used a very similar setup. I ended up getting mine from Autocure Motorsport who had a brand new set of Noltec's before they shut their doors. But I also spoke to GSL Rallysport who said they can get hold of something similar. They aren't cheap though, I paid $460 delivered. Springs on top of that, around $100 each.