The roads in my city are horrible and there's construction going on everywhere, on practically a ton of the major highways. If you live in St. Louis, you know what I'm talking about. Anyways, what upgrades will help with turning without lowering the car any?

 

Whiteline Roll Center Correction Kit and Steering Precision Kit
Rear Trailing Arm Bushings
Coil Over Kit

The Evo actually comes stock with a great stance. You only need to lower it a tad for excellent handling. The Whiteline kits and bushings help reduce change in the roll center/camber/caster/toe while cornering. I also mention a coil over suspension because you can stiffen the car at stock height for improved handling.

If you slam the car to the point where basic road construction is dangerous to drive on, you will actually be making the handling worse, not better.

 

rear sway...endlinks...

 

That's absolutely perfect advice. I was going to mention the same thing...lowering macpherson struts actually induces body roll and is counter-productive without the correction kit. Though some (like myself) have coilovers with higher spring rates which help to minimize the extra roll from the lowering process.

 

Somehow.. you both missed the fact that dude doesn't want to lower his car. Why would you need to adjust any roll centers, replace TA bushings and drop $1500 on coilovers if he's DD'ing on crappy STL streets?

OP: Usually, the best answer would be get better tires. But the stock Advans are really, really good so there's not much to do. What exactly is wrong with the car's handling as it sits?

 

No we didn't--and none of us told him to lower the car either. He was given advice on some products that can reduce roll, which in turn can aid in "handling". I was commenting towards touringbubble and elaborated on why the whiteline kit is useful and how coilovers can assist because of the typically higher spring rates.

Adjusting the roll center whether at stock height or lower will still lessen the roll couple. Coilovers don't have to cost $1500, and bushings have already been explained.

But you're right in that the original poster should elaborate on what is "bad" about the car's handling in its current state.

 

I don't doubt that getting the roll center closer to the sprung mass COG has its advantages. But in reducing the body roll, where exactly does the remaining load go to? The tires. This benefits semi-slicks and race slicks, which work better when warmed up. This is no good for other tires that heat up quick and get slippery (street tires).
Also, a possible cause of understeer on ANY car is too much roll stiffness in the front. The Evo understeers, has anyone provided any conclusive evidence that a lowered but otherwise stock Evo is understeering because the roll center has dropped below ground during cornering? Or is it possible that the Evo is understeering simply due to too much roll stiffness up front, even with the larger rolling moment? In other words, too much front bar. I'll assume that Mitsu put on front bar that would induce understeer, rather than one that would induce oversteer (or no bar at all). Might reducing the front roll stiffness allow more compliance in the nose, and help in corner entry? How can that be done? Lowering the RC, for one. And removing the front bar as well. Increasing the slip angles at the rear tires would help as well.
Many are quick to jump on The Roll Center Adjuster Train, but is it always necessary? Just a thought.

 

You make good points...excellent food for thought!

 

ok, now I'm even more confused. haha. Yeah, this is just for daily driving and I don't want to lower my car but would like to be able to take sharp, fast turns when I want to...

 

I'm mainly going off of the data provided by AMS and their tests of the stock suspension with roll center correction and rear trailing arm bushings. Their tests showed increased grip in corners and less push with the roll center kit and trailing arm bushings installed. This was of course tested on a track and not on the street.

Tires are another solution, yes. But, as you said the stock Advans perform well and you'll be hard pressed to find another street tire that performs at that level. But, for the price of the A046s you could DD on R-Comps.

How about this .. get a more aggressive alignment.

 

^ Number 1 thing I would do. Whiteline is coming out with a new camber plate design that will also add caster, and not raise height by too much. I would look into these when they come out.

Bushing kits will help, and you may want to try a new rear swaybar.

- Andrew

 

25mm rearsway set to the stiffest, rear trailing arm bushing, good alignment, and ur car will ride on rails...

 

This is assuming he knows how to handle a car with the tail out... otherwise a large rear sway bar on a daily driver in the hands of a average driver can mean spinning out on a public road or worse.

 

ok, now i'm extra confused. lots of conflicting viewpoints in here...

 

You could just add a rear sway bar and an alignment and be very happy with it.

Set a Perrin (from GT Worx) to the middle setting and you'll be fine.

When it gets slippery out then move it to the lightest setting. It's all you really need right now.

Max your stock negative camber and zero your toe up front. Zero your toe on the rear of the car and set your camber to -1.0deg.

If you become a serious autocrosser or road course driver then the other bits will be more important.