One thing to improve handeling?
 

What is the one thing you can do to improve handeling? Springs, struts, or sway bars? I don't have enough money to buy them all, so where do you start?

Ditto that. :D Wider wheels or larger-diameter wheels with low-profile tires especially.

My second item to change would be struts.

Tires wear out faster than struts. So I would *invest* in the struts first. Tires will make a big difference too.
Depending on what you are building your car up for, a bigger rear sway bar is another key part of getting the car to handle "better".

rims and tires

for the cost of rims and tires you could buy struts, springs, bigger front and rear anti-sway bars and strut bars. buy springs first. this is the biggest improvement. you will eventuually need new struts, but not at first. then get bigger anti sway bars and a front strut bar. springs run around 200-250 bucks depending on how low you want it, the rear sway bar is 189 from srmotorsports.com you can goto www.procarparts.com and get the front strut bar for 40 bucks. then i would get a set of 215/40R16 kuhmo 712's for tires. they are wider than factory and alittle lower as well. they are a summer tire so they will be sticky as well. if you have to get tires before any of the other mods, then you might as well get ones that are better, but if your tires are in good condition now, then just wait til they need replaced. struts are the same thing, replace them once they wear out, or when you've done the rest.

Kumho's suck. I have them. They are worth there price. I'm switching to Falkens soon.

what sux about them??

Thanks for the suggestions, I think I might first go with rims and wheels, my wife who drives the car every day, didn't like how "bouncy" the MSP was. I told her that was because of the performance springs and struts, which improve handeling. So, I don't think I'll be doing springs and struts soon. With regard to the sway bars, does anyone make them with different brushing you can put on so that the stuts do not have to be replaced? I've read that the stock struts do not have an adiquite contact point, and that they either need to be replaced or reinforced. Does that make sence? How much of a difference will new sway bars alone make?

Kumhos are good for the people who just want a cheap good looking tire. Performance minded people should look elsewhere. My friend had his Kumhos for a while on a turbo'd GS-R.. he loved it until he started driving harder. These tires started bubbling at the inner sidewall and ballooned so much he couldn't drive.

if you wanted a cheap good looking tire i could of bought nitto's. did you friend have the z rates or the h rated ones. also the wet traction on these are better than almost any z rated tire around, the have poor road noise, but they don't require the need to be heated up before they become stick, they are stick period.

Nitto sidewalls had a history of cracking. I've seen far too many to even consider a Nitto tire. I'm not sure why Toyo's dont do it.. they're the same company. :dunno:

really, i didn't konw that. my toyo proxy f4's cracked on the side walls, i wouldn't buy a nitto b'c they just don't stick at all.

Oh so your Toyos did too? Damn, I guess I'll stay away from both then. My parent's Passat is running on 235/35/19 Toyo FZ4's... I hope they last. :smoke:

I noticed a big change in handling when I upgraded to 18X7.5 ADRs' and 215/35 Federal 595. There is a particular road I take my car on after any change...spool springs, skunk2, stuff like that), and with the 18s' I was able to go faster and maintain better control. Last corner the rear slid a little as I pushed the car...:) ..Fun stuff. These cars handle quite nicely. I have only changed to spool springs, and 18s, everything else suspension wise is stock. Hope this helps. Later:cheers:

Are you talking about the swaybar mounting brackets? Take a look at the picture...

http://www.racingbeat.com/Protege/Parts/parts2.jpg

The picture at left is the stock bracket. The picture on the right is the beefier MP3/MSP bracket.

There's still an active debate about whether or not the stronger brackets are necessary with the popular AWR 19mm rear swaybar upgrade. Numerous folks on this list have been running this bar with the stock rear struts for a long time, and AFAIK nobody has broken one yet. However, if you decide to use the stiffer 21.5mm AWR rear bar, it might be a good idea to use struts with the reinforced brackets.

Other people can comment on the handling benefits of the rear swaybar better than I can. However, most folks seem to be very happy with the stock front/AWR 19mm rear combo. It will reduce understeer nicely without making the car too tail-happy, which would probably be the case with the 21.5mm bar. BTW you want to avoid messing with the front if possible; replacing it is a total PITA. :( Do a search for more detail about this.

Good luck! :D