Late Model A2 suspension

I am finishing up an 88 16V GTI for AutoX, but want to eventualy run it in IT. What shocks and struts are those with late model A2's running? What bushings? Whose camber plates? Where is the best (quality) to purchase them from? Thanks for the help!

I use the Shine suspension kit. Everything from the spherical bearings to the coil overs (not true coil overs, but IT legal sleeves over struts coil overs), the famous Shine/ VW Motorsports rear bar, NO front bar, and their camber plates. Check them out at srs-vw.com Also check out BSI racing, Stu and the Crew down in Florida are really great, although they reccomend a different philosophy when it comes to suspension on VW's. And certainly not last,check out Bildon.com, as sponsors of this site and two guys that are really in the know about VW racing, Don and Bill can set you straight. I'm happy with my Shine kit. I'd previously used their "real street" kit on my GLI. Becareful though that whatever mods you do to the car aren't illegal in the class that you're looking at running. You could be grouped with other cars that are modified a lot more than your car. Another thing that I feel is worth mentioning, before going nuts with all kinds of suspension stuff, have you played with tires and brake pads? Also don't discount the benefit of a harness set up for auto x. When I instaled harnesses in my 911 and did an auto x I was totally amazed at the benefits. I'd done several auto x events before with my track car etc, but I wanted to learn my 911's handling characteristics with a totally stock set up on street tires. It was a great lesson. Besides, I think the one component of the car that needs the most improvement is usually the driver...especially in my case. Joe

16v GTI, the parts will be the same but the setup on an autox car vs. a road race car will be quite different. At least for the suspension.

R&P ratio and diff might not be able to transform between autox and road racing.

Also, autox rubber won't last long on the track.



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Tim Linerud
San Francisco Region SCCA
#95 LP GP Wabbit
http://linerud.myvnc.com/racing/index.html

Going to run the car in STS and SP for SCCA SoloII, so suspension is really were I want to focus my efforts. I have V700's for SP and BFG KD's for STS, and would run Hoosiers when it goes to IT. I have a harness in the car currently. I plan to run Ferodo DS2000 pads and have Motul RBF 600 fluid. As for tranny, I have a rebuilt AGB close ratio box with semi-LSD kit. I would like to eventualy (say next season) turn it to a full IT car. What struts/shocks are people using (part #'s would be great)?

[This message has been edited by 16V GTI (edited February 11, 2003).]

I don't think you can go wrong with the KONI's from Stu. He has the kit that includes all the shocks and IT legal sleves. As for the springs you are opening up a can of worms, all I can say is we run what Stu does and it works. I started with a suspension model and calculated what spring I wanted - after calling all the shops he was the one that was right on what the engineering work said.

We have run the bilsteins but do not like them as much. They are great in the dry but not being able to adjust them is a real let down (yes you can have them converted, it just wasn't worth it).

On bushings all are similar I will just say if you have to weld it in, it is not legal.
Front: Delrin front and poly rear works great. NEVER run poly in the front. Poly in compression is fine (rear ride bushing) but not on the front (handling bushing that has shear loads).
Rear: Delrin..

One car has handmade camber plates but switching to Stu's and the other has carrera. I like the carrera ones but realize you loose a bit of suspension travel. Having said that I haven't ever slammed a piston rod.

We use the ATE blue fluid with no problems - we switch between the blue and gold with ATE rotors and Hawk blues