Rocinante, The Hyundai Avante

I love your threads. So much fun.

Nice writeup. I love the name!

I was wondering about this car the other day. An inch and a half (what the H&R's dropped) made the car feel a lot better and helped with the massive wheel gap.

Thanks for the kind words, guys. I am having fun with this thing. It's always great to see how much better a "POS car" gets with just a little careful tuning.

Bobzilla, I wonder if USDM and KDM Elantras are different ride heights. I'll check tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure the car is lowered less than half an inch after the coilover installation.

When you lowered yours, did it get understeery?

The car started off riding like a 1980's Lincoln town car, soft, plushy and unstable as hell at anything above 70mph. Added the 19mm GK rear swaybar and a set of Hatch springs (one additional coil) and it settled down at highway speeds but still plowed like a pig (hence hte nickname "Porky" it received). Switched to H&R's and GK tib struts and the car would still plow, but that was mitigated with a little lift throttle oversteer.

I ended up with the H&R springs, GK struts, GK rear sway bar, 16x7 Konig wheels and 225/45/16 Hankook RS-2's. It was still a little pushy, but it could still step the tail out and spin when pushed hard.

I guess what I'm overall trying to say is the car got LESS pushy after I lowered it.

As for stock ride height, with the stock 195/60/15 tires on the 15x5.5 steel wheels, there was about 2" from the top of the rear tire to the top of the wheel well and almost 3" in front.

Haha, wow. That sounds exactly like my car on stock suspenders.

Now, not so much .

I checked your garage here on GRM. You definitely lowered your XD more than I have. I'm very close to stock height.

Right now it feels absolutely nailed down. It's sharper than my Daewoo of Death in that it has vastly better chassis rigidity and doesn't try to jack under load. That said, it's not quite as tail happy or aggressive. The Nubira always felt like it was up on its tippy toes. The Avante, thus far, feels hunkered down by comparison.

I think I need to set the rear toe to zero and see what that does. I can't wait to get the slicks on this one.

DaewooOfDeath wrote: Haha, wow. That sounds exactly like my car on stock suspenders. Now, not so much . I checked your garage here on GRM. You definitely lowered your XD more than I have. I'm very close to stock height. Right now it feels absolutely nailed down. It's sharper than my Daewoo of Death in that it has vastly better chassis rigidity and doesn't try to jack under load. That said, it's not quite as tail happy or aggressive. The Nubira always felt like it was up on its tippy toes. The Avante, thus far, feels hunkered down by comparison. I think I need to set the rear toe to zero and see what that does. I can't wait to get the slicks on this one.

I look back and think that if the Cancer hadn't popped up on Porky in a very bad place I would have likely went back to it as an auto-x car again. This time, actually put effort into it. But then I hop into the Forte and realize that I don't think I could have sunk enough money into the XD to get it to handle, ride and perform like the SX does stock.

Say what you will about torsion beam rear suspensions, but they flat out work. the newer Theta engines make better power everywhere and the brakes..... oh they are so good. But there was something about the XD I loved. Maybe it was the availability of parts bin swaps. Maybe it was the styling of the car. Don't know.... but they are good cars.

Really? The Forte is that good?

I might have to upload a handling video and compare notes. :)

Here's a comparison of stock ride height and my car now.

Action! Brain Damage! Mortal Combat Fatalities!

Got a little bit more done on Rocinante this weekend. Thorough testing (hooning) convinced me that the front swaybar was simply adding weight to the car and thus, it is no more. FINISH IT!

A happy side effect is that the clunking noises this car has had since last year vanished. I find this absolutely befuddling because all the links were find and the bushings looked happy, but whatever.

Beyond the mechanical stuff, I'm actually trying to make this car look good. If any of you remember my Daewoo project, you will realize what a radical departure from the norm "looking good" is for me. As such, I masked off the used wheels, sanded everything smooth and treated them all to a fresh coat of creamy white paint.

Before ^ After ^

Before ^

So, tires next.

Finally gave up looking for a set of decent used tires and just bought new. That's the first new set of tires for me since, Jesus, I graduated college in 2008?

Wow. Anyway, they're Nexen N'Fera SU1s sized 205/45/16 and they're a little bit stretched on the new wheels. The overall package is probably an inch shorter than the stock wheel/tire which has the combined effect of making my car look lower (cool) and like it has shopping cart wheels (not cool).

Pictures coming soon.

Also, figured out why the car is so planted feeling and I now really want to unplant it.

I liked having the 225/45/16's. More meat, better OD.

Yeah, lesson learned. 225 next time.

I found out why Tiburons and Elantras understeer. The fore aft control link in the rear suspension is mounted such that under compression, the rear wheel toes in quite aggressively. It also explains why porky and Rocinante only overcome the understeer on lift throttle - there's toe out when the suspension lifts.

I'll be solving this problem in future installments.

Nice find! There are days I wish I still had mine and Cancer hadn't taken it from me. Then I drive the big block Forte and feel how it handles and I forget WHY I miss it. lol

So is this an issue of making the rear stiffer to combat compression?

Bobzilla wrote: Nice find! There are days I wish I still had mine and Cancer hadn't taken it from me. Then I drive the big block Forte and feel how it handles and I forget WHY I miss it. lol So is this an issue of making the rear stiffer to combat compression?

That's certainly a partial solution. I'm going to either lower the chassis side link until it's parallel or modify the hub side mount to fix the problem, though. The toe in effect is REALLY aggressive on these.

Here's the problem. As the suspension compresses, the fore aft link gets closer to parallel and thus pushes the axle backwards. Since the lateral links are mounted off center, this results in an aggressive toe-in condition. I'm going to lower the chassis side link so that the bar starts off parallel at ride height. I'm hoping this minimizes toe change.

Also, pretty!

I just sent the car in for a dramatic transformation. Radical body modifications, motorswap and turbo kit, new color, new wheels, new brakes, radically redesigned interior. You guys are gonna have your minds blown in about two weeks.

Ooohhhh wide body Avante? Theta swap? CAge?

It's a good thing I held off on buying a new monocle, because I am fully expecting the existing one to fly off of my face and land in my champagne out of surprise.

I bought a thing.

The thing I bought came pre-loaded with another thing.

As much as I like the Avante, this is better. Considering they're basically the same car, I think the blue Tuscani is going to forge on carrying Rocinante's standard.

So, I should probably tell you all something about the new rig. It's a 2002 Tuscani, which means it's basically a two door hatchback Avante/Elantra. Mine has 143,000 km on the clock, a GT28 turbo of unknown a/r, 8.8:1 forged pistons, a really noisy blow off valve and adjustable coilovers of unknown manufacture (I think JY). The engine was freshly overhauled as part of the purchase price. Oh yeah, I got it for 2800 bucks.

Impressions so far -

A) The turbo is hilariously oversized compared to anything I've ever driven. I'm setting a self-imposed 4500 rpm redline until it's broken in. The boost is just barely starting to come on at 4000 rpm. I have a feeling that last 2500 rpm is going to be pretty lively.

B) I have no idea what the wastegate is set at. I'm confident it's never opened since I've owned the car.

C) I'm confident I will know when it opens because this thing has a screamer pipe.

D) It's too low and soft. The Avante handled significantly better. The Tuscani isn't a disaster or anything, and it does turn pretty well, but the Avante was on a different level. The turn in is slower, the limits lower and the understeer more severe. The more setups I try, the more convinced I am that high roll centers and minimal swaybar are better for handling on strut cars.

E) Between the $$$$ turbo kit, the $$$$$ coilovers and the fact that this car is really clean, I feel like I bought somebody's 10 year labor of love.

F) It has luxury stuff! The AC works! That's two cars in a row with AC! Leather seats! A sunroof! A nice sound system with a subwoofer that doesn't sound like feces boiling in a rice cooker! Soft touch surfaces! Useless but pretty guages!

G) This thing makes a TON more power than any car I've owned, with the 89 Supra Turbo as the only possible exception. Even not getting all the way up to boost, this car is FAST. I like fast.

H) The rust problems on this car are less than the other things I've owned in Korea. Honestly, this is the biggest reason I moved on from the white Avante and it was killing the Daewoo as well.

I) I confirmed that I'm the sort of person who drives a sports car. I love the fact that it's slightly impractical, hard to get in to, kind of hard to see out of because all of that stuff means I'm driving a beautiful machine. I love the fact that it has a screamer pipe and adjustable coilovers and forged pistons because all that stuff means I'm actually living every time I wind it out to redline. When the time comes for a family, I'm going to the type of person who takes his kids racing/hiking/skydiving/scubadiving. I'm not going to be the kind of person who wears beige and plays crosswords.

Life is finite and this E36 M3 makes me smile.

That's one nice looking Tuscani you have there, sir!