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Old 03-28-2018, 03:44 AM   #70 (permalink)
hayden55
Master EcoModder
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: USA
Posts: 1,168

Sport Utility Prius - '10 Toyota Prius II
90 day: 52.98 mpg (US)

300k Sequoia 4WD - '01 Toyota Sequoia Limited 4wd
90 day: 20.19 mpg (US)
Thanks: 352
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Next up on the list:
Adjustable rear coilovers. Contrary to what you think when you hear "Adjustable coilover" they are actually pretty simple to setup and don't cost nearly the premium most charge for this.
Benefits:
You can pick your own spring rate
You can choose your own drop rate (bump travel)
Interestingly, you can possibly lower your frontal area!
Increase rear weigh bias, tune understeer etc...
Formula one actually designs a rake into their chassis to increase the area of the rear wing exposed to wind/ AoA to increase downforce... well this is a hybrid and that is something we don't need. Well sure enough... I'm sure Toyota did this to combat suspension droop at full gvwr but there is a about 1" rake front to rear. I measured this "relatively" using the center of each wheel arch front to rear and came up with 26" F / 27" R.
Next up: we are going to be dropping the roof profile to be more inline with the body so I measured the roof at ~52" to be conservative-ish. Doing the math that is 0.3611ft2 of frontal area! Doing the math on the drag area that would be a 1.567% reduction. Not scientist accurate but it sounds interesting. I think this will be a great little mod because
A: torsion beam suspension won't need to be realigned,
B: I can keep my front approach angle so I wont scrape on everything,
C: everything is adjustable so I can do just about whatever I want in regards to spring rate, ride height, and bump travel, and
D: I'm only lowering the rear an inch! Everything should ride just fine. I'll bump the rear spring rate up to compensate for the lower height to keep the car from riding the bumpstops and be done with it. Also, the spring setup should weigh around less than half of stock so I should lose a couple pounds and the increased rear spring rate should give me less understeer without adding weight with a sway bar. Weight bias change shouldn't be too significant from a 1" drop on a 106" wheelbase but we are in a 60% front weight bias car. Nice part is I already have some 8 and 10" 175 lb springs. Just need some height adjuster to fit the car.
As always math is best-guess accurate and I could have made mistakes so lmk.
Exciting stuff!
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Last edited by hayden55; 03-28-2018 at 04:30 AM..
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