The driver is the most important part of the handling system of the car. If you don't know how to handle the car, all the following mods won't do you near as much good. Get some seat time with your local SCCA, BMW Club, Porsche Club, Corvette Club or whatever. Autocross/Solo II is a good way to get seat time nearby, safely, and cheaply.

Aside from the larger, more famous, and more expensive driving schools such as Skip Barber and Bonderant, many aforementioned clubs offer driver's schools sometime during the year, and McKamey Driving School travels around the country to various SCCA regions and has very good instruction for the money.
 

(Legal to change in SCCA Stock Class within stock limits of adjustment. For DSM's, that means no camber or caster adjustment. In Street Prepared class you may use eccentric bushings to adjust camber)

Camber is the angle of the wheels from vertical. If the tops of the tires are closer together than the bottom, that's negative camber. Negative camber is will keep more tread in contact with the road under hard cornering, and lessen outside shoulder wear during racing. As the car rolls in the turn, the suspension angle tips the wheel to the outside of the turn, causing the inside shoulder to lift up from the road surface, reducing traction. By adding negative camber, the tire will gain more contact as it rolls over, increasing traction. Too much will also increase tire wear under street driving, and make the car more darty, prone to bump-steer and tracking with grooves in the road. Fortunately, the 2G suspension gains negative camber under cornering, so they can get by with less static negative camber. Note that lowering the car will also induce negative camber.

Camber should be tuned using a tire pyrometer and a skidpad, or lacking a skid pad, an autox course. Something long enough to get the tires good and hot. Measure the temperature immediately, before they cool, at 3 points across the tread:
 

For autocross and roadracing, a set of adjustable shocks important for tuning the suspension, as well as maintaining a livable ride on the street. The stock 2G shocks are fairly weak, so this makes a big difference. The biggest difference you will notice is in transitional maneuvers like slaloms, where you are loading and unloading the suspension rapidly. If you're going to do springs in the future, wait and do both together and avoid doing the same work twice. For the ultimate in adjustable suspensions, get a set of adjustable 'coil-overs', threaded shock bodies with an adjustable spring perch that allows you to easily adjust ride height and balance the corner weights, as well as choose from a variety of spring rates.

The two available shocks are the Koni's and the GAB's. The 2G Koni's, unlike the 1G version, are adjustable without removing the shocks. The current Konis available are only adjustable in rebound. The GAB's are adjustable from the top, and adjust both compression and rebound at the same time. On their softest setting, the ride of the Koni's isn't noticibly different from the stock shocks. Even on the softest setting, however, the GAB's are quite stiff. Consequently, the GAB's are stiffer than the Koni's at the hardest setting. If you're mainly concerned with street driving, get the Koni's. If you're the competitive type, get the GAB. Tokico is coming out with a shock for the 2G soon, too.
 

The larger the diameter, the lower aspect ratio of the tire required to keep the diameter close to the same, and as mentioned under 'Tires'. The shorter sidewall is less compliant, in that it's transition from gripping to sliding is less predictable. The shorter sidewall also means the rim has less protection from potholes and bumps, so you can damage the rim easier.

As with tires, wider is better. A wheel should not be less than about 70% of the width of the tire. Ideally, the wheel should be the widest wheel recommended by the tire manufacturer, since this prevents the sidewall from 'rolling' around the wheel rim. Consider getting at least a 7.5" wide rim for a 225mm tire, 8" for a 235mm tire, and if you can afford it, a 9" for 245mm tires. Lighter is better, and makes a big difference in response, but you'll pay more for it. Remember that you must have clearance between the tire and the inner suspension components! You can choose how much clearance by choosing the offset of the wheel (see the Wheel Offset FAQ).
 

At first, this might seem like a good first mod. Springs are fairly cheap (<$250), and lower the center of gravity of the car. If your goal is looks, fine. If your goal is handling, do the shocks at the same time. The 2G's shocks are somewhat weak, and without the stiffer shocks, the suspension will be underdamped and bouncy, resulting in lots of airdam scraping. Body roll will feel reduced, but the car will actually handle worse in some circumstances due to the lack of dampening, particularly in transitional maneuvers like slaloms. Springs can be used to change the understeer of the car by increasing or decreasing the spring rate at one end. Too stiff, however, and the car won't absorb bumps.

Even stock, the 2G does not have much travel in bump. With the stock springs, the top of the shock sits about 1" from the bottom of the bumpstop! The bumpstop itself will probably compress an additional inch or so, resulting in a rise in spring rate, becoming stiffer as the bumpstop compresses. This is why, especially with stiffer shocks, the 2G DSM handles slaloms great, but pushes heavily in sustained cornering. In addition, you may hit the bumpstops under braking, resulting in a dramatic increase in front spring rate and weight transfer to the front tires. Lowering springs will only make this problem worse! Even the stiff springs available with the coilover kit do not entirely stop this without some consideration as to ride height.

Now, for the coilover springs…The ride, with 450lb/in springs in front and 300lb/in in back, is NO WORSE than with the H&R springs! In fact, the ride is somewhat improved! This is with the GAB shocks, which are quite a bit stiffer on the lowest setting than the Koni's, so I can't say for those of you with Koni's. I believe the suspension had too much damping in rebound for the spring rate, and I was hitting the bumpstops alot. Body roll is almost completely gone, and tire wear during competition is much more even, rather than mostly on the outside shoulder. I would HIGHLY recommend that you go ahead and spend the extra money and get the coilover kit rather than the standard street springs. For some pictures comparing the H&R springs to the coilover kit, see autocross.html.

In addition, to lower the car without sacrificing bump travel, I suggest getting or making upper spring perches that will move the shock rod, and thus the bumpstop up. This will keep the car off the bumpstop and improve cornering in tight, sustained turns. Ground Control makes a rather nice set to go with the coilover kit.
 

Take a look underneath your 2G. You'll notice a linkage going under the car, connecting the lower control arms. It's free to rotate up and down, held in place by the end links and a pair of bushings connected to the frame. There is one front and one rear. These are your stock anti-sway bars! Fortunately, Chryslebishi provided us with some pretty hefty swaybars on the front, and the AWD cars have a pretty good one on the back, too. The front bar is 19mm and the AWD rear bar is 18mm. Compare this with the 8-10mm bar off a 3000GT SL!

Swaybar stiffness increases with the 4^th power of the radius, so a 20mm bar is 52% stiffer than a 18mm bar. Stiffness is also directly proportional to the length of the end arm where it attaches to the lower control arm. By having some sort of adjustability at the end of the arm, you can tune the stiffness slightly, but it's difficult to get much adjustment on a production car, particularly ours. The alloy of steel that the bar is made of makes little difference in the stiffness, as the Sheer Modulus of Elasticity does not vary much between different steels.

Also known as swaybars or anti-roll bars, these are a good way to tune the car's cornering response. Swaybars act like springs, but only when the wheels move relative to each other. If you hit a speed bump with both wheels, the swaybar has no effect. This is good for ride comfort, since many road irregularities hit both wheels at the same time. When you corner, however, the suspension on the outside of the turn compresses while the inside suspension expands. This is where the swaybar comes in by providing additional spring rate under cornering, reducing body roll and improving traction.

Stiffening the swaybar at one end will improve weight transfer to the other end, resulting in improved traction on the end opposite the stiffer swaybar. For DSM's, that means the rear sway bar should be stiffened reduce understeer. You could slightly stiffer swaybar in front will help control body roll, depending on the front springs, and a significantly larger rear bar to eliminate the understeer. The bars must be proportional to the spring rate, so a 1" rear bar will not work well with stock springs…in fact it will cause the inside rear tire to lift of the ground in a corner.

If you're in Stock class, you can change the front bar ONLY. Now, as I said, stiffening the front bar will improve weight transfer in the rear, getting more traction back there, but will also reduce front body roll and keep the tires more vertical, improving front traction as well.

Addco and Suspension Techniques have both promised swaybars in the near future. A company called RM Racing has also put out a set that is 13/16" (20.6mm) both front and rear, and the set is supposed to work well with the stock springs. With the coilover kit, I'm not sure a stiffer front bar is necessary, but would help keep the car off the bumpstops in corners. Ideally, I'd like to have a set of rear bars in 20mm, 22mm, and 24mm to be able to tune the car for various track conditions.
 

A couple of notes on the stock brakes: The 2G AWD cars come with 2-piston front calipers stock and considerably larger rotors than the FWD cars. Some of the early '95 cars also had vented rear discs. Consider these as potential upgrades to save cost, as well as being a Street Prepared legal modification.
 

Bushings will reduce the compliance of the suspension, preventing it from flexing under loads applied during suspension movement. In short, the suspension will react faster to inputs, improving turn in and keeping better control of the movement of the suspension. It will also increase transmission of vibration to the car, however.