kdemmons

Ok, so you've probably all heard about these things already right? Well I'm just going to give you another review. But first what I want to do is talk a little about my background, and my cars background. This way you should know what to expect, if you have the same, or a similar setup on your car.

My car is a 99' Honda Civic SI. Nothing too special, it has an AEM cai, Apexi N1 cat back, AEM power pulleys, Neuspeed front upper and lower tie bar, Neuspeed rear upper and lower tie bar, and Neuspeed sway bar. Also I have a set of Dunlop SP9000's. No other suspension work is done to the car, rest is stock. The car also has a short shifter, but that won't really be relevant in this situation.

Now myself, I have been racing go-karts for the past 4-5 years, I have also been to the dragstip a few times, but that doesn't really excite me too much. And I would also have to say this product won't do anything for your drag racing career. But if you like the twisties, you’re in for a treat. But in my time racing karts, I would say I'm pretty good, I've won championships, and tons of races. So I feel like I could give a different point of view to this part because of my experience.

Let’s begin with price because in all reality, that’s the first thing you see. When first looking at the product, it looks like a tiny little thing, which hardly seems useful for about $200. But as you read further, you will see why I think its worth more than $200.

So next thing is shipping, this thing comes shipped better than a processor in a computer, which is way more fragile. I have seen tons of car parts, racing parts, computer parts, and nothing comes packed so well. For the first time in the car world, it seems like they used a packaging engineer. I don't know if there is such a thing, but if there is, they have a few on staff.

So I open the manual, and breeze through the thing. Once again by far the most straight forward thing I have ever seen. With all the parts I've seen for cars, nothing is so so detailed. It would not be an exaggeration to say that anyone with common sense could install this product without a hitch.

So I started to install, and I've seen people say they installed it in 1 hour, some in 2, I took my time, a lot, even stopped a few times to talk to some friends that stopped by, and still got it done in about 1.5 hours. Everything in the manual is so straight forward, it's a beautiful thing.

So the parts are installed, time for a drive. I go out and easily notice that every bump I hit now feels a little different. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but more driving was needed (not a bad thing right). One thing I know my car did, that I think all civics and integras do, is while you’re driving, you hear the creaking noises from the chassis flex. I know my car does it, and my friends’ integra does it. And anyone I've talked to with those cars, it happens. Well to my surprise, I wasn't hearing that anymore. Now I have driven the car about 1k miles, and I do hear it occasionally, but I used to hear it all the time. So that’s at least one sign the chassis got stiffened up a little.

So I kept driving around, and they say turn in feel will be much increased. Now this is where I wanted to see something great, because hands down, nothing handles like my kart, nothing. Turn in was definitely better, the car feels dare I say, happy to turn into a corner. Prior to the frame locks, my car would turn, but it would easily understeer (push straight), and you had to slow down to control the car. No more does that feeling of "please don't slide straight" ring into my head.

Next thing in the corner as a racer is the center of the corner, which is where I feel the biggest difference occurred. I know prior to frame locks, the car was still in understeer mode at this point, and you certainly could not expect the car to do much in the middle of the corner, it was kind of like hold on until its done sliding straight, and then get back on the gas. Well now in the middle of the corner, I can slam on the gas, and I mean slam to the floor, not just give it a little gas like before, and I can turn the wheel harder, and it just responds to what I'm giving it, and turns. It's a wonderful feeling being in a corner, and knowing you can trust the car, unlike before.

And the last part of a corner is the part where you’re driving off and picking the throttle back up. That also feels better than before. Before I was still in the mode of can I pick up the throttle, or are we going straight, it was kind of a guessing game and hope it does what you want. Not anymore, from the center of the corner I have already slammed back on the gas, so from the center off the corner, it's already picking speed back up, and being able to get back on the throttle quicker, equals more speed in the next straight or getting into the next corner. To me this and the center of the corner are the most important aspects of this part, because me going down the next straight on a track with more speed, and more momentum, is what will propel me past my opponents and to the win. Another thing to mention is the car feels more flat, while in the corner, it doesn't feel like it's rolling over. And you may think your car doesn't roll a bit. But put these on, and you'll realize how much body roll you really had.

So I'm hoping in the future to have some actual test numbers to show better performance, I wanted to do that before I put them on, but I didn't have time, and just wanted to get them on so bad, I didn't get to that. Hopefully my review helps anyone that might be on the fence, or not sure about how something so small and simple can do so much. If you don't believe me, and you live nearby, give me a shout, I'll take you for a ride and show you. My opinion is they are easily worth $200, probably more. But don't think because they are so small, and cheap, that they don't do their job. For once a good engineer sat down and designed something that didn't have to cost $1k to get good performance. And didn't have to be something everyone has already seen. Just because Neuspeed, or Apexi, or any of those big companies made these, doesn't make them not work. If you don't believe me, contact them, they are great people to talk to and very intelligent.

So that’s my review, good luck.

Kevin