I have a friend who has a 77/280z and wants to renew his suspension, at the moment he has original springs, original worn out shocks and 225/50/16 tires.  Now he is not an aggressive driver, his spirited driving is still pretty tame and he's looking for comfort for Hwy/in town driving.  At the moment I'm recommending to keep the original springs, install new KYB shocks with proper urethane foam bump stops and replace the tires with 225/60/16 touring tires, the larger tire will give him more comfort and the larger size tire will help fill the wheel well so the car doesn't look like it is riding so high.  So what do you guys think, the new tire size is a given, everything else is up in the air.

Thanks

edit, also all bushings will be replaced with fresh rubber.

Edited March 26, 20213 yr by grannyknot

For non-aggressive driving that sounds like a great combination. Bumping up the tire is a good option too, the stock shocks + KYB sit sorta high, it looks really off when you are on 15" wheels. What other options are there for the shocks? It seems like its KYB/Koni or coilovers.

I think the plan is sound.

KYB's all around. Rubber bushings pretty much everywhere you can get them. I used poly on the front side of the T/C bars even though I could get rubber. Other than that, I put rubber wherever I could. That's what I have in my 77 and I love it.

It's not a track car, but it just performs like it's "supposed to".

Proposed changes look good to me.   Only issue I can see is the impact of the change to 60 series tires on the speedo accuracy.  If that is even a consideration.

Looks good to me too.  I had KYB's and liked them a lot.  CO's comment about urethane on the T/C rod is good, it will steady the steering on hard braking but he'll never notice otherwise.  You might go with urethane on the steering rack also, it will tighten the steering up a little bit.

9 hours ago, S30Driver said:

Proposed changes look good to me.   Only issue I can see is the impact of the change to 60 series tires on the speedo accuracy.  If that is even a consideration.

A 225/60 tire, 7% larger than the 225/50,  23 mm gain on the radius and 4mph difference on the speedo, so not a huge change.

Thanks guys.