Originally Posted by
Rob_DOHC
What brand of tyres are on it? You will never make a better improvement to a cars brakes/handling than swapping from budget tyres to premium.
Definitely agree this.
Originally Posted by
Rob_DOHC
Other than that on a tight budget I would keep my eyes open for some used lowering springs, you can probably fit the ARB from another model too, I suspect the RS2000 has a thicker ARB, does your car have a rear ARB? If not you can fit one of these from an rs2000 too.
Yes, think the RS2000 does have a thicker front ARB. As I said, the MK6 already has a beefier axle than the MK5 RS2000, so it shouldn't really need the rear ARB.
Originally Posted by
JOHNDQ
I would say you need to be realistic to what you want from the handling don't forget it's a old car with quite a poor lower arm design its never going to handle like a modern car! I had a RS2000 trackday car spent a lot of money on Avo coilovers, semi slick tyres, front and rear braces etc but to me the handling was never great so i gave up in the end and changed to a MG ZR. I found it was best on the 15" wheels with 17's it seemed heavy on the front and the understeer was quite bad.
A MK6 shouldn't suffer quite so much from understeer, as the rear is a touch stiffer. The suspension is actually quite different between the two. Definitely agree on the wheel front, 15s is definitely the best option in most cases. 17s are not a great choice on an Escort.
Tyres are cheaper for 15s too!