Chris Grayson's (of MC2Racing) Guide to a Reasonably Priced, Street Setup for Handling

Chris Grayson has been involved in Merkur XR4Ti performance for a very long time. He formed MC2Racing to provide quality performance parts to the community, even. Even though MC2Racing is not currently (no longer?) selling XR4Ti bits and focusing on getting his , his articles are still available at MC2Racing.com

For what it's worth, here's Chris' opinion (as stated on the Merkur Club of America forums) on the first handling upgrades you'd want to make to your street XR4Ti. Think of this as Stage 1. Stage 2+ will require  more money, and replacement of more parts:

I'll chime in with my opinion of what a good, reasonably-priced street setup would be.

Bushings:

Check all of them, but definitely upgrade the outer TCA and rear beam mount bushings with POWERFLEX bushings (accept no substitutes in these locations). You can use Deflex and save some money should you determine that any of the other bushings require replacement. Install a polyurethane diff mount. The Outer TCA, rear beam mount, and diff mount parts are the most important - upgrade them no matter what, and don't cut costs here to save a stupid $20 or whatever.

Sway bars:

Purchase a 16mm rear sway bar from BAT [cg, no longer in business]. They have awesome sway bars, and I use them. I don't sell sway bars at mc²racing since BAT's bars are so good. Don't upgrade your front sway bar!

Dampers:

Your KYBs are ok. I would use them.

Springs:

I would install a set of the 200lb/in stock-height drop-in front springs. Keep the rear springs stock.

Wheels and tires:

This is probably the most important. If you can run a 7" wheel, that would be great. Tire width isn't all that big of a deal on the street in my opinion. 195s are fine, as are 205s. I tell you what though, running a 195 on a 7" wheels is way, way better than running a 195 on a 5.5" wheel. The car will be far more responsive. You don't have to go crazy with the tire when you have a nice suspension setup like this. If you have all the stuff mentioned above, then running a decent tire is fine. Don't feel like you have to run Azenis or anything that falls into the ultra-high-performance category at TireRack. Those tires will work against your stability goal while it's raining, too.

Of course, ensuring that your tie rod and control arm ball joints are in good shape is mandatory, as is a proper alignment.

3 boxes of bushings, one sway bar, two springs, and a set of rims. Not too bad.