I've decided, thanks to the smog ****'s of Ca, to work on getting my Iroc (1989, 5.7 tpi) up to perfection on the handling. I'm hoping for ~1 g on the skidpad, might have to settle for .97 or so.

What's the first step in the process?

 

The most important change you can make are tires. You need the widest softest tires you can stuff under the wheel wells. This usually leads to new wheels for the tires. Next I would say is an aggressive alignment. Then it's all the other suspension/body stuff. Lowering, sway bars, shocks, springs, chasis stiffeners, LCA's, torque arm, pan hard bar, etc., etc.

 

you know there IS a suspension forum...

first....stiffen the body.

subframes would be one way. but i'd be willing to bet a good roll bar would do the same, and it may be required at the track.

next is gonna be bushings on the front end, or replace the entire thing with tubular units.

then obviously springs and shocks, Koni SA would be a good choice

then rims/tires..after all they are what connect you to the road.

you'll also need sway bars, lower control arms, panhard, and torque arm

 

Less weight
Stickier tires

I'm no expert so I'll let all of them chime in, if we have any here? Best bet is to do a search on the subject

 

Tires made the most difference on my car, since I have basically a stock suspended car.
For auto-x I recommend the Kumho V710's (can't use for daily driving as they only last about 100 miles).
For street (if you don't drive a gazillion miles a year) I'd go with Nitto 555RII tires, but you need to at least have 17x9" wheels since 275/40/17 is the smallest they come in and they last about 15K miles.

Below are shots of one of my RII's with 15K miles and 8 Auto-x Events on them,




Below are shots with the Kumho V710's,