Tighter isn't always better. If you have a super tight suspension, then you are more prone to bump steer especially on uneven pavement. If you want "the best", then I'd contact Penske Racing Shocks and see what they can do for you. (www.penskeshocks.com). They are capable of custom building a shock to your specifications and make it anywhere from single to five way adjustable (cockpit or standard external knobs). Several F1, CART, and GT class championships have been won on penskes. These are not cheap ...probably $1000 to $1500 PER CORNER!

Now, if you want something for good street driving and mild racing (ie auto-x or solo) which your name implies (SCCA Steet...), I'd go with Koni's. 600 bucks for all four. Takes a while to get them and the install can be a little tough. Most people will probably recommend the Eibach dampers. Personally I swear by Koni. The ride on them is reasonable and the handling will be far better then OEM.

What kind of BMW do want to out handle? M3? 5 series? Dude, I love Hyundai as much as anyone on here, but it's a front wheel drive econo family car. Makin it hand that well is probably near impossible. Have fun gettin’ there though!!

 

Yamaneko's elantra has front and rear struts, and they appear to be the same front and rear.

Stiffer is not always better, as MarkH said. CONTROL is what matters. If your strut/spring combo allows you to ride over the bump or pavment imperfection without feeling it, then it did it's job. A really stiff strut/spring setup would transmit that shock to the body/chassis of the car, and that would upset your line through the corner. Stiffer is not better, balanced is better.

The Koni's are adjustable, and would allow you to "play" with the settings front and rear to find the kind of handling you like. I reccommend softer front and stiffer rear for FWD cars. The softer front will keep the front wheels planted and allow them to keep steering and driving the front wheels.

The eibachs are a "balanced" set and are made as a "set". With the Koni's, you will have to find a spring to match the Koni Dampning charastics, ask Koni which spring they reccomend for their Strut. An overly stiff or short spring will damage the Struts, just as much an an overly soft/tall spring would.

I would reccomend some SCCA autocross classes if any are offered in your area. I would also reccomend you find the best autocross driver you can, and ask if you can ride with him on a couple of practic runs, then ask him to ride with you on a couple of practice runs. you should be able to pick up pointers by watching him, and he should be able to offer pointers by watching you. Biggest key I have ever seen in autocrossing is the driver. A good driver can make up for a bad car or a poor suspension by changing his driving style to suit the car/conditions/track.

Lastly...if you have already modified your car it is too late, but try to run your car bone stock for the first 5 events. Try to learn what your car can and cannot do, and learn it's messages and what it is telling you via feedback throught the steering wheel, pedals and seat of your pants. Then you can start to modify your car to fix the weakenesses you uncovered while driving bone stock...and notice the increase in times due to the mods...and the improvment in your driving.

 

Let me tell you this: the Tiburon is the second car I've put Konis on. The Konis on the softest settings are noticeably stiffer then the OE struts. The Koni replacements for the Tibs and the Elantras are the same and are single adjustable. It is the rebound that is adjusted, the compression/bound stays the same regardless. Koni's reason for this is to provide a consistent and more comfortable ride. Keeping the rebound stiffer keeps the car from oscillating to much after a bump or leaning/swaying. The stiffness of your springs will help determine ride quality more, since it is mostly their job to store compression energy. The fronts are externally adjustable (there is a knob in the engine compartment)and the rears are standard adjustable (the struts must be removed, compressed, and turned to desired stiffness...PITA in my opinion). However once you get the rear end dialed in, it is not so bad. I change settings about twice a year; that is, softer in the wet season and firmer in the dry. For track events/auto-x's I play with the fronts as I see fit.

I have to apologize. For some reason I thought you had an Accent, not an Elantra. My bad. The Elantra may have more potential then.

FWD cars, especially, are prone to understeer/push both because of the physics involved and the fact that most production cars come with understeer tuned into them from the factory (for safety they say ). It can be balanced out though. Like Random said, and I've seen it said a few more times on here, you want to stiffen the rear while keeping the front soft. That can be done by larger stiffer sway bars in the rear, strut ties, and stiffer shocks. Personally, my auto-x experience has shown me that you can nickle and dime it to death with strut bars, sways, etc, but nothing improves handling overall like a good said of shocks/struts. So if you are truly going after handling, get some good struts, then get your sways, strut ties, springs.... That will overall make a great package. After that the next best investment you can make is in tuning the alignment. Play with the rear toe setting. A degree more past stock of toe-out will make that rear end rotate around very nicely for example.

Now, you ask any autocrosser who's worth there weight in salt what the biggest improvement they can make to car is and they WILL say DRIVER DRIVER DRIVER. When I first ran my Miata stock I had the guy who was mentoring me drive it...he ripped out one of the fastest times of the day while I was still busy trying to stay on the course and complaining about this or that. A year later, a guy drove my Tib at a race about a week after I got it and he was keeping up with tuned out Intergras. So again, seat time and driver training classes are a great handling mod too.

[ November 27, 2001: Message edited by: MarkHazard ]

[ November 27, 2001: Message edited by: MarkHazard ]