Thoughts on struts for Rally Cross?

[Styluss]

So, we all can reasonably agree on which struts are best for daily/street use, but I am wondering if anyone has opinions on struts for "off road" use. I bought a car just to Rally and it needs new struts, BAD. I want to invest in something that is going to perform and last through a few seasons of being completely beaten on.

[3X00-Modified]

Your best option is probably building a set of Koni yellow inserts for the 95-00 J-Body's using the stock strut housing... That will give you adjust ability. You can also go with Koni yellow adjustable for the rear for a SAAB... PN's are in the thread I started.

Not cheap, but honestly you have the option of OEM replacements or KYB's and thats about it.

You above photo is also showing a lot of body roll... What do you have for sways on that car? That should help some by getting possibly a Z51 on there and maybe a larger front bar, but being auto-x you don't want to over do it. FE7 would be the best option for the front I believe.

[Styluss]

To clarify, the rear shocks for a SAAB are direct bolt ins? I read over that thread once, but not in too much detail. I don't think I need the adjust ability that a custom built strut would provide, hell I'm not sure I even need it in the rear! Not looking to go crazy with the car just yet. As you can see from the above pic, I just need struts that actually do something!

As for the body roll? I have it all on there:
- Factory front sway, not sure of the suspension code ('89 base model)
- Factory strut bar
- Radiator to strut bars
- Lower sub-frame brace
- Z51 rear sway bar piggybacked over the...
- Internal rear sway bar

I have a shock tower brace en route to my house as I type as well. I think you are not seeing body roll, but the absolute lack of a strut that performs to any capability and half dead shocks. Bear in mind that was a downhill hard left turn.

And ahem, it's Rally Cross.

[3X00-Modified]

yeah yeah rally cross auto cross... Ones on pavement ones on loose surfaces... lol

The adjustable shocks will make a difference... body roll is also coming from the rebound of a shock not being stiff enough so if you can't hold the rear of the car down as well as increase the compression rate of the front then yes you will level it off. It may make a huge difference to have adjustable.

And yes SAAB ones fit right in. All you need to do is drill out the upper mount to accept a 14mm bolt vs the 12mm that is on the stock shocks. My only complication is they are slightly longer than my current ones so I have spring dropping issue to worry about when jacked up, AND I need the brackets to bolt it to the rear beam since those are a one piece deal on my current shocks.

89 base model front bar may only be a 22mm or 19mm just be aware of that. The one that came stock on my 96 was TINY!

And yes thats body roll.. The car is trying to go left and the body is rolling to the right... Granted yes this can be fixed with new shocks/struts if they are completely blown, but KYB is about the best bolt in over the counter option for you. That's why I recommended the Koni stuff and I wasn't sure where the rest of your suspension stood so that's the reason for the swaybar comments.

[Koots]

I'm looking to do the same with my Corsica, but only because the 2 "highways" out of my town, are both just 300-700mile gravel roads with ever changing road conditions to destroy anything weak.

Having it handle better is also nice

I must say that Rally/gravel driving usually lends better to no sway-bar, but having better controlled dampeners and stiffer chassis'. This is in my experience, but my vehicles tended to slide more on loose gravel/dirt when I had my sway bars hooked up. My guess is due to the sway bar limiting independent wheel travel but i'm talking about 4WD trucks and SUV's.

[ErichZ26]

If you rally that beast you might want to look into putting together some custom bilsteins. Koni's are cool because you can adjust them...but the bilsteins are valves to take that abuse your going to give. Bilstein valving WILL take it....the trouble is finding some Porsche, BMW or other that might fit. I looked on ebay recently and even found some good used ones to try out.

Get some cross members in the back too!

There are some heavy duty springs option i think it was F41?.....lowering springs may actually not help with your rally racing.

Another trick is to Bolt a 90-91 GTZ cradle w/cross member and use the later cross member from a 92+


I have heard some racers NOT using a front bar. Hope you have sucess with your 3spd v6...i didn't have much sucess with using a V6 FE7 on my heavy 4spd/3400 and went back to a 30mm bar.