I just got my '04 G coupe and now I want to improve the handling. How would you guys rate the following for cost vs results? If I left anything off I'm all ears.

Sway bars
Coil overs (lowering)
Strut brace
Wider tires

 

sway bars are definitely the best and cheapest handling upgrade you can do first.

 

sway bars, coilovers, and I think the GTspec undercarriage braces are known to increase stability

 

If anything, the braces help improve the response of your car. Sway bars will help improve traction a bit, and struts will help plant the tires better. Lowering the car... really doesn't do much for handling. The stiffer springs and shorter struts will help eliminate more sway, but you want a little sway if you want your car to handle.
But the best thing you can do for handling is better tires. Wider tires can give you more traction, but you do trade a little agility for it.

 

IMO - Sways, tires (not necessarily wider, but better quality), springs (coils), in that order.

 

Since tires is the only part to make traction with the ground, they are the single most important part to affect how your car performs. You can have the best built motor with the world's best suspension on your car, if you have sh*tty tires, you still won't have traction to do anything. I don't always suggest tires because 1. it should be common knowledge right there, and 2. RE050s that come stock are not sh*tty tires.

Springs... only really affects ride comfort most, but since it's easier to match the struts to the spring rate, it's just more ideal to look for a spring rate we want first. Better struts will make a huge world of a difference in handling though.

 

Sways are a good addition to the car because they improve handling "feel" and responsiveness, and allow for tuning, but they don't really improve traction; in fact they can have the opposite effect if made too stiff. The purpose of sways is really twofold: 1) To reduce body lean in turns, and 2) To allow for handling tuning - i.e. to +/- understeer/oversteer. Make them too stiff and you can decrease traction by increasing the forces transmitted from one wheel to the other, thereby causing waddling on rough roads.

Overall, this car has a ton of grip from the factory, but needs struts/shocks with higher compression and rebound damping to improve handling response, and perhaps slightly stiffer springs.

 

Yea, my first post was just a general post... didn't want to get too technical...

Sway bars do control over/under steer by controlling which side gets how much traction through the turns. Think about it... more load transfer = more traction on the outside, less load transfer = more evenly distributed weight and traction.

But since the sway bars are connected to both sides, they do keep the struts together vertically in the straights for a bit better traction there too...

 

Yep, I figured. Just wanted to add some info.

 

coilovers/spring and shock combo, swaybars, the right alignment/corner balancing, underbody brace (for coupes it makes good improvement since they are less rigit than the sedans), stock sport package tires are good tires including the michelines that came on 03-04 coupe sport but you can always get better ones for more grip and less life. The most important thing is to make yourself faster first and then you will know what you need according to your driving style.

 

Keep in mind OP did specify cost vs performance. Sways = $250 (less for used), 4 new perf tires = $1000+

 

There is a 0 dollar solution for it... Make yourself faster. I doubt people that post questions about these kinds of stuff can do 90% of what the bone stock car is capable of.

 

Nope. Sway bars do not affect the total amount of load transfer, and in fact lateral load transfer is not dictated by roll stiffness at all. Load transfer is dictated only by the Center of Gravity and the track width of the car (which makes the argument for wider tires, BTW). As for understeer/oversteer, the sways affect how much load transfer is handled by the front vs. the rear and how quickly the load is transferred, but the total load transfer does not change. In fact, a stiffer anti-roll bar transfers the load even faster than a softer one, so you're actually getting faster load transfer to the outside with stiffer bars.

Not quite sure I get this one. If you mean that camber is better maintained through sway bars, then that is true and is a benefit of swaybars. That results in a bit of increased traction as a result of more contact patch being maintained.

 

i got the motordyne sway bars and absolutely love them.... the car is a lot more fun to drive now

i cant speak for the other mods though