alright guys here is the deal im going to be purchasing a fd this summer and goign to be stripping it down completely to get painted and the chassis reinforced. i will be using this car for drifting. i plan on ditching the rotory motor and swaping something else in. now untill i buy the chassis what suspension parts do you guys suggest. i dont want anything stock if it doesnt have to be. im not familiar with what all can be upgraded.



now for the coilovers im going with stance i have already made up my mind and for sway bars im looking at suspension techniques. i was happy with those on my 240. as far as tie rod ends, control arms, toe links, so on and so forth i want all hard and self lubricating joints. do they make subframe bushings for fd's? i was trying to do some searching and i couldnt find anything i was looking for except the stance coils and the sway bars. i want to have all this stuff purchased before i buy the car.



i dont care if the car i buy already has it, i want all brand new parts. what can i buy and where can i get it. i want to make this car SOLID!!! so any info will help greatly i will continue to search but i really want to start buying stuff now like the tie rod ends, and traction arms. what is the best for me to use.



thanks in advanced,

ryan



p.s. im sorry if i come across as ignorant but i jsut have not seen the underside of an fd in person other than just passing by one at the shop. but im tired of 240's and its time to upgrade my ride in general.

 

how much is your budget? you seem like you're daydreaming

 

I doubt you're going to get much help here given what you've said in your initial post. If you're planning to "ditch the rotary motor" and gut the suspension, it doesn't sound like you're buying the right car. Without the rotary and the suspension under it, you're losing most of what makes the FD an FD.



I'm trying to not sound like an ***, so take the rest of this as constructive criticism, and not as a flame.



* You should probably look at a different starting car for what you're looking to do. The FD from the factory is a capable setup for grip driving, but not a good platform for drifting.

* The suspension itself does it's job extremely well. You're talking about a car that out of the box pulled 1.01G on the skidpad (R1 model). The aftermarket support isn't there due to low volumes on the parts you truly should replace (i.e. bushings).

* The overall cost of parts for the FD is considerably higher than on cars with a higher volume (240's, etc).



Yes, it's a pretty car...but there's much more to an FD than the sheetmetal. The engine when prepared correctly is a beautiful thing. The suspension stock pulls impressive numbers, witnessed by the success of the FD in solo II classes.



Just my $.02....discount me as a purist if you will.

 

see the thing is i only saw tie rod ends on ebay. and im NOT buying ebay parts. i couldnt find any shop that has them. yes im used to building 240's and am probably thinking about the fd build in a similar way. thats why i ned your help.



well lets see figure about 10k-13k for the car. it will cost roughly 10k for the motor swap and paint. so i have about 10k for bushings, suspension, anything after market that i can find. now what do i buy that isnt motor related.



yes i daydream all the time but i have the finacial backing to make those dreams a reality.

 

ok...coming at this from a different angle then. You shouldn't try to build an FD the way you'd build a 240.



The suspension on the FD stock will suit you well for a drift set up, if that's the way you choose to go. I woud recommend some stiff srpings and adjustable shocks to match so that you can dial in the amount of oversteer understeer you want from the car. You may need to look at bushings, if so you'll probably have to have them made yourself. There have been a few special order bushing sets over the years, but they were all custom made, just done in group buy process to lower the cost for those that wanted them.



You'll probably want to look at some of the tranny / diff braces that are available to reduce the risk of damage with the tires spinning. Most of them are made for drag launches, but they might be worth looking into for a drift car.



What exactly are you looking for out of the engine that you can't get with the rotary? Engine swaps are likely to throw off the balance of the car, making tuning suspension setup that much more difficult.



Guess the real question is do you want out of the car (beyond "I want to be able to drift like a 240")? You're trying to take a track car and make a drift car out of it. For fun, you might want to look at making an autocrosser out of a circle track car.

 

the reason for the fd is that im tired of 240s and want to build something that you dont see a lot of. the reason for the motor swap is i want a more reliable motor and like again something that you dont see a lot of. i will be swapping in a 2jz-gte with a 1jz(r154) tranny. im well aware that a fd with a rotory motor can be drifted i just have the money and want to be different.



i was considering droppign a 2j into a 240 but im just getting tired of s chassis cars. unless it was in a s15.



so all in all i will probably just go with stance coils, suspension technique sway bars, and a bushing kit. thanks for all your insight sivart 1.

 

ROFL.....



Sorry, have to laugh....it's been done, and the guy that did it (Jim LaBreck) has more problems keeping the "bulletproof" supra block running than he did his old 13b-rew.



I give up. If you want to waste the money (and yes, I do mean waste) doing your car that way, it's your loss. My only regret is that you'll be tearing apart an already rare car, ditching most of what makes it unique, and eventually ending up with a waste of aluminum and steel.



if you like the 2jz, why don't you just get a supra? After all, there was one of those in the fast and the furious too....



*sigh*



I'm going to bed....depressed.

 

Seems like you'd research the car a little before committing several thousand in modifications. And since your hell-bent to replace all the suspension points with new...whether you need to or not, you value bragging rights and JDM stickers over performance. Of course drifting is a show, but that's for another thread.....

The FD has no "sub-frame" as you expect. It's essentially a uni-body with a a Power Plant Frame which is bolted solid, no bushings. Some of the suspension is already solid bushings, but aftermarket bushing kits can be bought for those wanting even less compliance.

I may have missed it, but didn't see you specify what engine you intend to swap into the FD. Most go with an LS1-LS2. If that's being contemplated, your budget is a little low.

As for non-engine related expenses....Tires, Body Kit, huge wing, wheels, tires, racing seat, roll-cage, tires.

 

unfortunately 10-13k will not cut it for this daydream.



wheels, tires, coilovers, new suspension bushings, toe links, trailing arms, tie rods, differential, etc. will easily put you over $6000, and if you want a really nice set of wheels and an exceptionally good set of coilovers can put you over $8000. i just dont see 13k being enough

 

i stated that 10-13 would be just for the car. then roughly 10k for the motor swap. so that would leave me with about 10k to spend on suspension and chassis mods. i did state what motor i was going to use.



and i have not bought any of the parts yet. thats why i asked here what can be upgraded and whats good to use. so im not just going to buy the first thing i see without researching it. i just wanted some info on what and where to check out parts. all the stores i looked at i didnt find what i was looking for. either i couldnt find the product or they didnt have a good product description.



well i just keep looking for the answer to my questions.