scikotictc232

hi i was wondering if anyone had ever heard of any custom control arms for the tc. I was wondering cause i just wrecked my car and bent my lower contol arms and would like to upgrade them if i could. has anyone ever heard of custom aftermarket tie rod ends ? ball joints for thhe tc ? thanx

BrEaK_AwaY

and you would need that why? an OEM one would work just fine

scikotictc232

would anyone on here be interested in aftermarket control arms and if so what would you look for in them ? i see aftermarket set ups for other makes but have not seen any for the tc. i was wondering about these almost two years ago. just wondering if everyone stil lfelt the same way.

divisii

Typically, tubular a-arms are touted as being made stronger/lighter/or to accomodate a larger wheel. I've never heard of any for tC's.

signed,
necro-post conspirator

scikotictc232

i wonder if making them longer or designed different it could help lower the car and give it better slammed geometry. like the new cusco subaru that thing sits nice.

divisii

^ +1
yea, I've seen them used to lower/increase travel on muscle cars

scikotictc232

i wonder if many people would be interested

Ace83

iTrader: (6)

it would be interesting but it would come up to cost vs. benefit, i dont there will be enough interest on it

scikotictc232

i just like the look of a lowered tc ( lower than trd ) but im also into getting the best handling i can. tc has issues when lowered to much and i was wondering if they can be fixed with control arms like they have on trucks and what not.

Ace83

iTrader: (6)

yeah, the tc is a tall car.. even if its slammed it still doesnt look very low..

scikotictc232

^ i know thats the one thing i hate about the car. if they sold a set i would be in.

BlackKnight

Camber kits will take care of most of what you are referring to. Even if you lower the tC extremely you would have to do something with the fenders to accommodate a really low tC so the wheel would sit correctly. The more expensive coil-overs will allow more adjusments to help slam the car further since you can adjust camber at the mount plus a ton of other adjustments to include caster.

BlackKnight

Body Kit! lol.

scikotictc232

my car looks like it can crawl over rocks with my trd set up. i hate it.

tcleezy_09

Lighter than OEM for one (which means less unsprung weight), Stronger than OEM, and custom/aftermarket control arms would allow you to lower the car without affecting the suspension geometry............


3 reasons right there why I personally would get them IF they were available.

1989menace

i got excited when i saw this topic. i thought i was going to be able to find lower control arms for the tc. i love driving behind my friends ek civic with his bright red control arms and tie bar. it looks so sick!

raamaudio

Control arm design has nothing to do with the geometry when talking about lowering the car, it is the pivot points where all data is derived from.

If you want to lower your car and maintain proper roll centers, etc you need to move the mounting points via the inboard side or outboard.

I am going to do just that with extended ball joints but I will modify the arms to fit really beefy rod ends on for more adjustability.

The cost/benifit ratio is quite small just swaping the arms to hopefully save a bit of weight(and not sacrafice reliablity;)

The stock arms up front are not that heavy and do a good job for our real needs.

If you want the best way to make big changes get all the weight off the car you can, front, top, relocate the battery to the rear, etc......fat tires on wide wheels, low weight as possible, will do you far more good than anything for the best place to start;)


Working from the top of the car down, get rid of that massively heavy glass top, done right like I did nearly 4 years ago, 46 lbs off the top made a huge difference;)

Keep the drop modest unless you want to take the time to relocate the suspension mounting points(pivots), anything else is a waste of your time and money compared to other things.

Rick

tcleezy_09

^^^ Really??? So, all these after-market control arms that I see (for almost every car except the TC) are lying by saying you can lower your car without affecting it's suspension geometry? Not being a dick, just asking...

Also, I had after-market control arms on 1 of my CRX's, which I'm sure has much lighter arms than a TC, and I noticed a HUGE improvement on the track... Less unsprung weight and still had full suspension travel with a 2.5" drop!

raamaudio

Unless control arms come with extended ball joints or raised inboard mounting points the only benifits they can give would be in better bushings(available for stock arms for cheap), stiffer, lighter, etc.... without relocating the pivot points, you cannot lower the car and maintain proper geometry which is far more important an issue than lower weight in this case.

I have full scale drawings of the tC geometry I made way back in 05 and have ran same day tests on different ride heights and the difference was quite dramatic. This was using SCCA timing equipment, relative humidity, air temps, tire temps all closely monitored.

The geometry of the tC changes a great deal with just a little height adjustment once past the sweet spot which is not very low. That is why I had a bid done on building me a set of billet knuckles but $5K plus cost overruns was a bit more than I wanted to lay out for them;) The next best option is longer ball joint studs which I will get to sometime this season

Full suspension travel is great to have of course but the control arms generally have little to do with it if any(exceptions would be designs required to clear other parts of the chassis, suspension, etc...)

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All that said, if your CRX control arms came with longer studs for the ball joints then yes, you could lower it and maintain proper geometry (or relocated inboard pickup points or both

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Lower weight, especially unsprung, is always the enemy but for most of us the bigger difference will be from better bushings which are easy to buy, a bit of effort to install but very cost effective.

(Note: you can only count 1/2 the weight on control arms, struts, etc when considering unsprung weight;)

BUT, there are better ways for making improvements first, like a CF roof installed the way I did mine, 46lbs off the top is a huge gain/cost improvement for true performance

Well engineered and well built, low weight control arms would be on my car if available. I could even build my own but I have bigger fish to fry with my time and money right now and take a look at all the serious race tC's, nobody has made the effort to build control arms I know of(often times rules would prevent it of course but not always;)

sorry is this is a bit disjointed, I am worn out from all the work I am doing on the car to try to make the first race next weekend in SoCal, still waiting on some parts so not looking like I will be there

Rick

scikotictc232

^ how much lower is your car than stock ? also what custom made mods have you done and for what reason ? i have followed your car in past threads and its one of the sexier functional cars on scionlife. also did you have to do any mods to run your wheels and tires ? and what are the specs on them ? on a separate thread

that is coming from world racing themselves. that is why i dont know how to think bout it. cause some say go lower than trd with wider tires others say stick to trd.