i recently went into the mountains with my freind to take some pictures. on the way we have to go through a bunch of turns and corners to get to the spot. its like a road course. he just leaves me in the dust in that little 5speed integra. i know the japanese cars were made for handling etc... but is there anything i can do handling wise to keep up?

right now i have a shitty western chassis 2/4 drop, stock shocks, and 18x8.5s on 255/55

 

get a 4x4 and take a shortcut . then you will not only keep up, you will beat him to the mountains. i know that is not what you wanted to hear hyper, but i couldn't resist since you have picked on my 4x4 in the past

 

What I like to do, although it gets a bit expensive, is get the big-ole-Escalade right next to them as we enter the corner then I roll right over on 'em

 

hotchkis springs and sway bars, and some good shocks will make a huge difference. I like Hal shocks but they arent the cheapest and i dont think they make shocks that will bolt on without some work.

 

a hotchkis kit and good shocks might give you a chance. also learn some basic handling manuvers like how to transfer weight and whatnot. but if yur friend is a good driver its gunna be hard to make a fullsize truck out-handle him

 

I'll tell ya one thing right now. You won't be able to handle like that rice burner just because of the weight/distribution of our trucks. While my setup is a great improvement over stock, I doubt I'd be able to hang with those little *****...

Get rid of your setup and get the Hotchkis 2/4 and sway bars...
I think the sway bars help more than the 2/4 drop does though, but I'm just guessing.
I have the Edelbrock shocks and while those are ok, I wouldn't mind going a little stiffer. Like 00Silverado said, the HALs would be ideal, but the price is way too high.
Oh yea, and some nice tires, I have the GY GTII and they are alright....ok they suck, but for the price it ain't bad.

 

The swaybars, are bar none, the biggest thing that will improve your handling. The Hotchkis kit is great, but the swaybars make the biggest overall difference in the handling from side to side. Yes with a full size truck, you will be limited, but if you have a standard cab, standard bed, 2 wheel drive, that will get you pretty close. My friends are really surprized on how well I stick with them in the corners, but I am sorry, at best a 4000+ lb truck is not going to be able to stick with a 2600 lb car, with 4 wheel independent suspension, and a decent driver in the Jap car is not going to help either. I can stick with them in almost all the corners except really sharp ones, or ruff surface corners, remember still we have leaf spring suspensions. The best handling truck I have been in that was a chevy, is one that had a four link suspension with a pan hand rod, and coilover suspension. But still weight will be a big factor, but this suspension will way out handle the Hotchkis setup, but man it starts to get real expensive.

 

My 99 Tahoe OBS is 2wd, and my 18x8's handle 5 times better than my 15's.

If I go ahead and lower my already low truck 2/2, it will handle great. Right now I think I need beefier sway bars to really push the handing. but my truck handles better than my fiance's 95 Civic which has a tendency to push in the corners. I think tires make a big difference.

 

Oh yeah, tires make HUGE difference. When I switched to the 20" SS rims and tires the truck handled MUCH better than the stock 16" skyscraper sidewalled tires.

PSJ - I bet if you could get some 26" or 28"ers on that hoe it would be crazy in the corners.

 

i agree....

the ss rim and tire combo are really good... i was surprised...