Power or handling & brakes
Discussion
Ok, you're speccing up a Monaro (or HSV, whatever)...you have a choice, power or handling & brakes but you CAN'T have both.
You can have headers and exhaust etc (even a supercharger I suppose) OR you can keep the car stock on the aspiration front but have AP's and any top notch suspension & sway bars etc you wish.
Which will it be?
Having done a few trackdays I think I'd actually now go the latter route...
You can have headers and exhaust etc (even a supercharger I suppose) OR you can keep the car stock on the aspiration front but have AP's and any top notch suspension & sway bars etc you wish.
Which will it be?
Having done a few trackdays I think I'd actually now go the latter route...
v8d said:
Now come on, you know you'll end up doing both anyway! But if I did mine again, I would for sure do the APs first. Had a few scary moments with the old brakes and all the extra power. Stock CV8 brakes are pants right out of the box, never mind the extra!
Humour me...let's blue sky this right out of the box and see what way the wind blows the flagpole...
etc
BigNige said:
Having done a few trackdays I think I'd actually now go the latter route...
And this is the deciding issue, what you want to use the car for. If you are taking it on track days, IMO, I would do brakes and handling first (which I did), power second. If its fast road then brakes are less likely to be an issue, and you could do the opposite.
However, I think self imposed rules are there to be broken, do both!
Brakes would be the obvious with a £600 excess just in case 
harryoz said:
BigNige said:
Having done a few trackdays I think I'd actually now go the latter route...
And this is the deciding issue, what you want to use the car for. If you are taking it on track days, IMO, I would do brakes and handling first (which I did), power second. If its fast road then brakes are less likely to be an issue, and you could do the opposite.
However, I think self imposed rules are there to be broken, do both!
to what he saidI think it depends on what you intend to do with said Monaro.
If your thing is to make noise through tunnels (and boy they sound good) then an exhaust is probably the best way to go. Me, I like track days. Yes the Monaro is not a EVO or Cateringvan but you can have a bloody good time hooning it around a track all day. The standard VXR brakes are not completely rubbish but you do spend a lot of time managing the heat and it can taint the experience.
APs are the top of my list followed closely by the AVOs. Only then do I want to go louder and faster in a straight line.
If your thing is to make noise through tunnels (and boy they sound good) then an exhaust is probably the best way to go. Me, I like track days. Yes the Monaro is not a EVO or Cateringvan but you can have a bloody good time hooning it around a track all day. The standard VXR brakes are not completely rubbish but you do spend a lot of time managing the heat and it can taint the experience.
APs are the top of my list followed closely by the AVOs. Only then do I want to go louder and faster in a straight line.
having done the first step in increasing the power it became immediately apparent that the cv8 brakes really weren't such a good idea. So thanks to caspy I picked up a set of VXR brakes at a very reasonable price. I'll have them fitted before I do any more long distance trips in the car.
I'd love to do the suspension as well but next on the list will be the headers to push the power up closer to the 400bhp mark. Next stage after that is probably going to be a cam or the diff, haven't decided yet. Suspension - might be tempted to simply stick some stiffer anti-roll bars on for now - relatively cheap fix.
Car is mostly going to be road use only but may be tempted to track it after I've had a few lessons.
I'd love to do the suspension as well but next on the list will be the headers to push the power up closer to the 400bhp mark. Next stage after that is probably going to be a cam or the diff, haven't decided yet. Suspension - might be tempted to simply stick some stiffer anti-roll bars on for now - relatively cheap fix.
Car is mostly going to be road use only but may be tempted to track it after I've had a few lessons.
If I could only do one I would defintly just have the exhaust and headers - you just have to let off the power a little bit earlier! And anyway, what's the point of having absolutely amazing brakes and absolutely amazing suspension if your car sounds like a gnats fart and is only a match for some hot hatches (assuming we're talking CV8's here of course)? If you do headers and exhaust at least you can enjoy the insane noise But in reality it would be an enitrely different matter...
But in reality it would be an enitrely different matter...yorkkie said:
stopping is very overrated unless you need to do it...... Power and noise are the order of the day
My thoughts exactly.
I also learned a manouvre from the computer game GTL which involves just using the car infront as brakes, that way you can spend your money on more power
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