Suspension upgrades

There's a ton of information already in the forum; I lurked for a year and a half before even registering to ask a question.

And I still had/have questions. And, I sometimes forget the answers I've already found.

I skimmed the thread subject lines, and frequently did a deep dive into interesting threads.

That could be something for the young'uns to contribute.

I'll generalize what I've found:

SAFETY items: spend as much as you want.

GO FAST / HANDLING PARTS: likely are budget items.

Many recommend [edit:]vented rotors rather than [edit:]drilled/slotted.

It's just penalty laps. And the Grand Prize is the IOE, anyway.

Pay the entry fee (early enough if it's over- subscribed, though not many - if any - have recently been over- subscribed) and pass tech, you'll get to race.

Make it safe.
Make it last.
Make it handle.
Make it fast.

As long as your car isn't cheaty (starting with a VW), I am not sure they don't care that much. Even if they give laps, you still race...

Get good endurance brakes (we run PFC08s), fresh rotors, lines, etc. Budget exempt so going all disc would be good as would vented (avoid drilled or slotted though). Get good tires, decent wheels (TRM are nice and cheap).

Suspension is not exempt, but... unless you have bling camber plates and coilovers and shiny swaybars, who knows the difference? We run offset strut mounts (flipped them around and re-drilled strut tower), cut a coil in front, cut leftover stock 540 springs in half for rear, and then have M3-type sway bar mounts and a cabriolet front bar - works great, super cheap junkyard mods. That's in the spirit of Lemons to fabricate something inexpensively.

Thanks guys. I appreciate the confirmation of the info. The thing that got me thinking about it the most is upgrading the brakes. to get good race pads the simplest solution is Wilwood. Color me shocked that they make something that can bolt on to a fox!!! Most of the other items it looks like junkyard scrounging will be the rule of the day. And thanks lemon newton metre for reminding me about teaching the kids how to comprehend the rule book! I wanted to be sure I wasn’t misunderstanding anything myself.