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Car Tuning - How to Improve Handling

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Car Tuning - How to Improve Handling

By: Pam Kenterton

Most people think of car tuning as trying to make a car more powerful or go faster. This is acutally only a small part of the equation. It is vital that you pay attention to the handling ie the suspension setup and tire choice and the effect this has on the cars cornering ability. Improving the cars handling and stopping power is equally if not more important as making a car faster. It's a fact that frequently becomes clear too late when the inevitable happens. Faster cars tend to build up greater speed before you hit the corners so slowing up becomes just as important if you want to get a good lap time. Increased braking also produces more heat so standard brakes begin to fail as the heat increases. You really want to be able to stop the car in an emergency so big brakes and high friction pads are an essential. Enhancements such as better tires and different size wheels can have a beneficial and sometimes an adverse effect on the car's handling. They should be chosen carefully and match the performance characteristics of the car.
Camber and toe angles have a big effect on the cars handling and this needs to be setup correctly. The down side is that suspensions setups for cornering mean increase tire wear. The tire is obviously a vitally important component in a car because this is the only contact the car has with the road and it has a lot to do with the handling, braking and general manoeverability of the car. So choose your tires wisely and we recommend that you go with a recognised quality brand. Cheap tires do not generally last as long as branded ones and often under perform.
The tire tread pattern has become a science in itself today thanks to advances in motorsport resulting in many choices and varieties of tire around. There are assymetric tires which must be fitted to a certain position on each axle. These give fantastic grip and are generally specified by manufacturers on high performance car models. Four wheel drive performance cars often require this tread pattern and it allows the auto stability control program the optimum environment to work within. The tread pattern on these tires means that they are not suitable to be used as spares.Then we have directional tread, usually with a V design. These tires are superb when it comes to cornering but often straight line stability is affected to some degree. This is not really an issue for most drivers and the cornering advantage more than makes up for it. These can be fitted to any axle but the direction of travel must be correctly oriented. These are not suitable as spare tires.Then there are conventional tires with Groove designs in many and varied patterns. Some claim to be better in the wet or dry and the patterns have a big effect on road noise and drive.
Lowering the car will lower the centre of gravity and the suspension will have the job of keeping the wheels on the ground when cornering and accelerating/braking. When undertaking car tuning it is recommended that you consult with a mechanic and get the work carried out respected motor trader because we've seen many diy projects turn into disasters and totally ruining a good car. We see many people spending lots of money on rather modest cars, hoping for a dramatic increase in power and ending up with an uncomfortable and noisy car instead.
Larger capacity engines usually give a better return on your tuning investment with a typical NASP gain of 20% for modest engine work depending on the mods selected. Typical tuning modifications would include a fast road cam, induction kit, sports exhaust, sports catalyst, custom headers and fuelling upgrades. The best cars for tuning are forced induction cars as these are already built to handle a larger power figure and with a some remapping you can increase the power from 30% to 40% with diesel power gains being slightly less than that for petrol models.This does mean that there are bargain unfinished projects around for sale and many people have undertaken a tuning project without much experience have got a broken car, and are forced to abandon the project and sell it. As this part finished project is not in running order you can purchase them up for very little money and if you know what you doing it will not usually cost a great deal to complete the project.
Want to make your car go better and get much better performance than a standard model then you need to consider car tuning. Many people are looking into the impressive world of car tuning and making impressive power gains on relatively humble cars with a minimum of hassle and fuss. There is a huge array performance tuning parts available but sadly many of these only provide limited benefits providing little more than any enhancement in the engine know tore the exhaust note. We know well that greater noise does not necessarily mean a car is making more power, a fact that is sadly ignored by many young drivers.
Which modifications you go for there is no substitute for the voice of experience. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others a fool makes his own. It is also handy if you know which parts work well as sadly many performance parts are worse than standard ones. Tuning cars can be a bit of an obsession when you get going and it really does pay to get good advice before starting your project.
Which mods you go for there is no substitute for the voice of experience. The smart guy learns from the mistakes of others a moron makes his own. It is also handy if you know which parts work well as there are many snake oils. If you strip an engine you can get it blueprinted and balanced and this will make it perform better when it is put back together. It is also a good opportunity to upgrade to the internal air flow characteristics of the engine was a process known as port flowing.
Additionally you are able to enhance the air flow through the head of the engine with careful machining and addition of bigger valves smooth or polishing the manifolds which will make a noticeable difference to the power output of the engine and in some cases will give better reliability.
Much money is thrown away in car tuning where people buy performance parts that are just not suitable for their car or they have believed the overoptimistic hype from the manufacturer of them. Here it does pay to get impartial advice from a qualified mechanic or someone who can at least point you in the right direction we found TorqueCars quite helpful. The aim is to get the engine to burn more fuel and in order to get the engine to burn more fuel you need to supply a bigger intake charge of air this is a simple requirements of the triangle of heat, fuel, oxygen. Air intake modifications will allow more air to go into the engine but this needs to be matched with extra fuel.
A turbo or supercharger is a good way of forcing in more air also referred to as forced air induction. An easy job then? It is not as easy as it sounds because a typical engine would just blow up if it were suddenly turbo charged. The engine compression will need to be lowered with a rebore and stroker kit and the fuel supply ratio and ignition timing will also need to be altered to take into account the new air and fuel characteristics of the turbo charged engine.
Improving the cars handling and stopping power is equally important as making a car faster. It's a fact that frequently becomes clear too late when disaster strikes. Tuned Cars tend to build up more speed before you hit the corners so braking becomes just as important if you want to get a fast lap. Lots of braking also produces more heat so standard manufacturer spec brakes begin to fail as the heat increases. You really want to be able to stop the car in an emergency so big brakes and high friction pads are an essential. Remapping the ecu after these mods offers more power and quicker acceleration. Many people have made mistakes tuning their cars and we strongly urge you to consult a specialist for impartial advice. There are parts divided into stages of tune with stage one for simple one off parts, stage 2 which usually requires more parts if you want the full power gain and for competitions the full stage 3 which is not suitable for road use at all because of reliability issues and generally higher operating speeds.
Camber and toe angles have a big effect on the cars handling and this needs to be setup correctly. The down side is that suspensions setups for cornering mean increase tyre wear. The tire is obviously a vitally important component in a car because this is the only contact the car has with the road and it has a lot to do with the handling, braking and general manoeverability of the car. So choose your tires wisely and we recommend that you go with a recognised quality brand. Cheap tires do not generally last as long as branded ones and often under perform. but you will find that the returns in relation to the amount of expense turns out to be a bad investment. So get the right tires and choose your suspension setup carefully.

Article Source: http://articles.tiptopweb.info

Pam Kenterton is a consultant for sites like Tuned cars and BMW tuning and is a car tuner with extensive experience on V8, 4 cylinder and turboed engines and, he has rebuilt a number of stock engines to to a competition standard.

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