ontheway

if money was no object whats the best way to make a mk3 escort handle really well on track? polybushes, rs1600i rollbar, Leda coilovers?

Marvin_hagler_

Marv suggests xtrac transmission,thats the best there ever was and will be

DazC

iTrader: (1)

He said handle?!

Marvin_hagler_

yeah and Marv said XTRAC as in 4wd as in handles, dude come on its not hard is it 4wd handles better than fwd

DazC

iTrader: (1)

No it's completely irrelevant. All it does is add extra mechanical grip.

MO' BENT RIMS

i would say 4wd aswell but with some decent power to make up for the trans loss. if it has to be fwd then look at some proper suspension.1600i roll bar, adjustable tcas, stut brace and rear brace or a cage . bigger brakes and 16s with some really sticky tyres. then id have the car all aligned up on the set up you want . of course theres still more you could do if you want to go mad with it....proper atb diff , gearbox etc after that its just serious money id look at weight distribution etc thats where you re position things etc mega bucks

zetec-Sam

iTrader: (2)

Such a pointless and general statement. 4wd doesn't just make a car automatically handle better than a fwd. Look at the mk2 focus RS, with the same power and engine, but with 4wd, it lapped the 'ring in less time than the fwd version, and that was with Ford developing it!

Jay,

iTrader: (4)

well firstly dont listen to the third person marv as he is fucking clueless ! mind you anyone that answers as a third person is fuckin mental imo

ohlins , poly bushed and a modified anti roll bar to the rear and a double anti roll bar on the front with slide adjustment to tighten them up

Paul_RS

iTrader: (4)

What a stupid statement

davidfox280585

well my mk4 has been spaceframed internally on the floorpan,wih elongated holes for camber adjustment on the front lower arm mounts and has a anti lift bar bolted in the centre of the rear arms mount basically to stop suspension drop under hard cornering,running 195 55 15 s2 wheels and handles superb

nigel b

It all depends on how deep your pockets are
Fully rosejointed,full cage,bilsteins etc..

tabetha

Exactly, need a budget to work with, otherwise it would be an all out track car and ace on track shit on the road, do you mean for road use ?
tabetha

Marvin_hagler_

In terms of handling, traction and performance, 4WD systems generally have most of the advantages of both front-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive. Some unique benefits are Traction is nearly doubled compared to a two-wheel drive layout. Given sufficient power, this results in unparalleled acceleration and driveability on surfaces with less than ideal grip, and superior engine braking on loose surfaces. The handling development of 4WD systems for high performance cars was stimulated primarily by rallying .
Handling characteristics in normal conditions can be configured to emulate FWD or RWD, or some mixture, even to switch between these behaviours according to circumstance. However, at the limit of grip, a well balanced 4WD configuration will not degenerate into either understeer or oversteer, but instead break traction of all 4 wheels at the same time into a four-wheel drift. Combined with modern electronic driving aids, this flexibility allows production car engineers a wide range of freedom in selecting handling characteristics that will allow a 4WD car to be driven more safely at higher speeds by inexpert motorists than 2WD designs.

so you see Marv thinks as the original post mentioned money no object its obvious its got to be 4wd

RichardPON

Richard thinks you can copy and paste from wikipedia really well!

DanW@FastFord

iTrader: (1)

And in the real world where roads are paved with tarmac, not gravel?

xr_craig

iTrader: (2)

He asked how to make his car handle not turn it into something else. Why the fuck would you bother suggesting 4wd?

gjh

Depends what your budget was I suppose, if money were no object you could probably rip the whole old ford stuff out and have a complete new suspension system fitted from a WRC car or whatever takes your fancy so that you could have maximum grip at all times, then have things like active diffs etc, only limit is your imagination and bank balance.

MO' BENT RIMS

hes right though. if money is no object id go for 4wd and then work on making that better!

Physio

FROFL

DazC

iTrader: (1)

For fuck sake...

Right. Another fucking way. Once you've made it four wheel fucking drive, how do you make it go round corners? Just driving the back wheels as well as the fronts doesn't just magically transform a car and get round piss poor geometry does it...

MO' BENT RIMS

ok if you fucking wanted grip and handling are you teling me you would spend thousands and thousands on a fwd car? surely making 4wd and THEN spending thousands on making it better would be a better idea? so that later even on a launch the car will grip up and fuck off unlike fwd that will spin up . now put both cars on a track spend thousands on a 4wd rs and a fwd rs i would put my money on the 4wd rs . being quiker overall

DazC

iTrader: (1)

Sorry. I must have seen the word “handle” instead of “grip” in the original post...

I'm off to buy a Land Rover 90. It should handle like fuck being 4x4...

Less.

Now your being silly my Suzuki SJ410 will beat you

TimC

iTrader: (1)

The best way to get a car to handle is to optimise geometry and damping to find an ideal balance in the car that suits you! Buying such components like 3 way adjustable coilovers, sphericalaly jointed suspension arms, adjustable ARBs, bigger brakes front and rear, LSDs and even tyres are only as good as the settings you can find and adjust to suit conditions and driver which have good balance and provide consistent confidence in how the car will react to each given input.
Handling is more a matter of feel, response and input rather then just overall grip.

massivewangers

iTrader: (1)

Completely gut it, space frame chassis with the Escort panels tacked on the outside, with double wishbone suspension, engine in the middle....or is that a bit extreme?

It's very much budget dependant to be honest. Decent springs and dampers, proper anti roll bars, everything adjustable, then just tweak it and tweak it and tweak it til it's spot on for what you're using it for.

Oh, and using decent tyres is probably one of the best things you can do!

RichardPON

Best have a word with most of the mainstream manufacturers then, as they seem to have spent millions on making a FWD car go well and handle very well, rather than go down the 4x4 route.

It's Czech Mate

Hey Mo, F1 is rwd not 4wd. 4wd was banned because it was heavy and shit in the quest for ultimate 'handling'.

Weight and geometry is the killer for handling. The answer to the op's question depends entirely on the budget available

It's Czech Mate

Hey Mo, F1 is rwd not 4wd. 4wd was banned because it was heavy and shit in the quest for ultimate 'handling'.

Weight and geometry is the killer for handling. The answer to the op's question depends entirely on the budget available

massivewangers

iTrader: (1)

I can't imagine how a car was to "grip up and fuck off" is at the top of the list for a mainstream manufacturer. In the real world, how often do people launch there cars? You might do it every Friday and Saturday night whilst beating Lambos, but most don't. Low and mid range driving, once moving, is far more important.

Ford clearly did spend thousands (more like millions) developing both front and four wheel drive versions of the Focus, and were happy enough to keep it front wheel drive, and it seems most owners/journos think they did a fine job. Not to mention that the inside gossip was that the front driver was a better all round package thanks to lower weight.

Four wheel drive isn't everything. As a really stupid and totally unscientific marker; have a look at the top lap times on the Top Gear test track. Most of the top cars on there are actually RWD I believe!

gus

iTrader: (1)

hopefully i will find out soon

Joshy

agreed

nigel b

Is it nearly ready?

gus

iTrader: (1)

not gone as sweet with arb's as you but yeah they all done

need to look into the dry sump now