my mate races a 1000 two door with a na ca18. he is always complaining about it always not steering. brace yourselves the reason for this is that it still has the standard leaf spring front suspension in it.
being a friend to this bloke im just inquiring for him about what sort of suspension you guys might be running. he is planning on running super sedans soon and is looking for more steering during hillclimbs and supersprints.
please note this is him coming up the esses now you know why i want to help!
http://www.blcc.com.au/gallery/Hill07l06/pages/_7300463.htm
and if that doesnt work in the thread please put it in your browser
any assistance would be helpful cheers kurt

Woody I think you will find that most guys racing 1000s do still have the leaf spring front ends in them as they are not a bad thing, in fact it is often argued that they are superior to the Macpherson strut setups of the later cars.
I dont know how much extra the CA18 weighs over an A series but I doubt it would be doing him any favours in the handling department.

holy moly. one of the better 1000's ive ever seen!. got an engine bay pic? insane.

I'm not sure if will apply to a 1000 but I had an engineer look at my 1200 coupe racecar & as soon as he saw that I had a rear sway bar he insisted that this should be the first to go.

His reasoning for this was that a) I had a panard rod set up 2) the car is so small that the roll cage is plenty of stiffness 3) with a locked or lsd doff it would be near impossible to get the power to the ground without sliding sideways.

I am running the leaf spring in the rear (upgraded to ute leaf) & a mcpherson strut on the front. By softening the rear of the car it allows for much better steering & stifness at the front end.

Anyone got anything else?

There's been some talk of a coilover setup.

I looked at doing a dirt-bike type coil over years ago and never really got anywhere.

I'll definately be running the standard spring in mine, but then I'm A-powered so that may make a difference.

CA18's or any other larger engine in a 1000 is extremely rare so I think it's unknown territory to most...

My coupe is running a FJ20 with approx 230 - 240HP (final dyno tune next week! yay) & the recommendation I have is to keep it simple & strong which is where the ute leafs come into play.

I guess you can go nuts on some crazy coils for the front as the steering is obviously important but be simple at the rear end - after all, with a locked diff its really a matter of point & shoot so as long as the front is where you want it the rest should be nice!

yeah the car is well presented and almost every thing that you see there is fiberglass including the bumpers but the doors are alloy there are now some sponsors stickers on it to. the engine bay is very tidy and it has been set up to run without a computer so its points distributered ill have to have a chat with aden as he is looking for another na ca18 because that one droped a valve i think.
also racingfuji: my coupe pictured as my avitar to the left has exactly the same stuff as what you have described and with both a lsd and welded diff the thing doesnt even go near to sliding around so im not sure how that one works and my sway bar is like 25mm thick on the rear
its running a 4 link sorta watts linkage rear end with ute leafs in the rear so its well set up. also if you do run front leaf springs what alignments are you running? (camber, castor, toe) the only other thing is that the rear is wider than the front is that normal? and its running a ute diff to
thanks for the info so far too its opened my eyes up a bit to

racingfuji is the fj20 in a 1k???? if so is it the Mammie motors old car? it would have to be I only knew one like that.

Keep this thread alive as its rare to have info on a ca18. The engine itself isnt a heavy weight the secret is to get an adjustable swaybar and some better koni shocks all round. I see a bog load of weight has been saved on the bloody doors which I believe is one of the main things stopping the 1k from challenging 500-550 kg kit cars.

Yeah I'd love some engine bay pics and details of trans tunnel mods (I'm guessing they were extreme) for the above car etc...

Keep us updated Woody, please!!

Racingfuji's car is a 1200 - I couldn't imagine a 1000 with an FJ20 in it - the sump would drag on the ground and it'd flip over on it's roof every time it stopped!

ummm tnpshow when aden got the car the trans tunnel had been severly butchered so just recently aden and his mate kenny rebuilt the whole floor pan and tunnel to suit from scratch.
the car weights around 700 with driver and no fuel so car 630 ish
the only problem is that the way the dissy is set up it keeps on sliping and puts rotor buttons through the dissy cap and has even snapped a dissy shaft.
ill get some photos for all of you as he is soon looking at putting a fresh ca18 in it
the car goes hard and you can even check its results at the australian hillclimb championships via www.blcc.com.au and the link to the results is on the home page.
if you guys want more ill soon get it for you
cheers kurt
p.s. i almost forgot its soon haing the engin taken back around a foot to help with the weight balancing so ill let you know and i might even get some step by step photo's