I bought my '93 SE-R a couple of years ago as a cheap beater for $700. A couple thousand dollars later with the help of some friends (not on this forum) I have a well setup car for both daily driving and fun. The fresh JDM SR20DE, most notably, was my best investment even though it renders me illegal for STS. Even so, I found myself replacing OEM parts with aftermarket parts, but my goals were to keep this car from becoming a huge money pit (which I think I succeeded). Some friends and I did a complete suspension overhaul yesterday. We added the Progress coilovers, LCA brace and rear sway. The AutoX was today and it was HOT and windy. That didn't stop us from having some fun though.

FYI, this is my 7th year AutoXing. I've owned/raced many different cars in the past, mostly FWD and AWD ('92 B18C1 swapped Civic hatch, '00 ITR, '03 WRX, now mostly my '05 STi). I ran SM and ended up getting 4 runs on a small, but technical low-high 30 sec course (unfortunately we don't have any big lots to race here).

The SE-R feels very good now with the suspension, but it's hard to compare to blown stock suspension with 155k miles on it that was on it previously. It does understeers a little then it's as if it "snaps" oversteer, but not to the point it feels like I'm losing control. It'll take a little getting used to, but I like it. I had the rear sway set on medium setting. I might even try full stiff setting to see how that feels. I was on beatup old Azenis that have been heat cycled more times that I can count on both hands (had them on my old Civic hatch). Even so the car felt good. The course didn't let me stretch the legs of the SR20, but I didn't have to completely stop and go back into 1st gear either. Overall I'm really impressed with this car and I can't wait to AutoX it again and maybe do an HPDE with it once I get a new windshield. One thing I had an issue with was the headroom with the helmet on. I couldn't sit the way I'd like to for racing at all. I had to tilt the seat back and then I lost some of the control I normally have when I've AutoXed all my other cars. Is there an easy solution for this or should I just get new seats/lower sliders? I've been considering a nice set of seats anyways and I'm sure I'm not the only person with this issue.

Oh and sorry...no cliffnotes.

Now for some pics...

The beater


My beater working the fresh Progress suspension


Yeah I took the first section "a little" too hot then the SOB didn't want to turn so I just ate the cones. I was telling her YES and she was saying NO. Remember guys...no means NO.

 

Cool, are these cars any fun in stock form? I've always wondered, I mean they are SE-R's, it must mean something



oh, and happy 8001th post

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by fast95eg8 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Cool, are these cars any fun in stock form? I've always wondered, I mean they are SE-R's, it must mean something



oh, and happy 8001th post </TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah they're actually quite capable in stock form, but we're talking about a 13 yr old car at this point and most of us have blown suspension. I could've went with a good set of shocks, but I felt the need to upgrade even more. 91-94 SE-Rs are somewhat hard to find, but can be sourced for under $1500. There's a very active group of enthusiasts for them. http://www.sr20forum.com

Thanks...8k posts! I remember way back in the day when this place was rely.net and the big split.

 

b13s are badass cars.... im trying o find a clean one around here but most of em are all beat

 

Nice one.

Regarding the handling: What rate springs are you running? What are teh spring lengths? 2 Things might be going on. You may be bottoming the struts (very common on SE-Rs as I'm sure you know) or coil binding.

As for headroom, yeah that sunroom eats up the space. I'm 6'3" and have no problems with headroom in my sunroofless SE-R.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MaddMatt &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Nice one.

Regarding the handling: What rate springs are you running? What are teh spring lengths? 2 Things might be going on. You may be bottoming the struts (very common on SE-Rs as I'm sure you know) or coil binding.

As for headroom, yeah that sunroom eats up the space. I'm 6'3" and have no problems with headroom in my sunroofless SE-R.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

It's the Progress coilovers with the normal spring rates offered. 350 F/250 R. Check out this thread...
http://www.sr20forum.com/archi....html

The strut bodies are definitely shorter than stock allowing for more travel. Maybe I don't have them tightened down enough. We tightened them down as far as we could from the top to the point we couldn't get a tool on it any longer and tested by pushing down on the front corners. Seemed okay at the time.

Oh and I'm not sure the Axxis Ultimates have enough bite. Maybe I should've went with Carbotechs.

 

Ultimates are plenty good enough for autocross.

I prefer a stiffer rear spring rate than that. I'm currently on 325 front/300 rear, with the Progress bar on full stiff in the back and AGXs set to 11. I would like some 350# rear springs.

Now, about the spring length. When you solve the "running out of suspension travel" issue with the shortened shocks, you might run into coil bind issues, now that the suspension can actually compress. I run 10" long springs in the front to keep that from happening. If you have 7" springs, I'd start there. Rear is usually not a problem. Not much compression going on back there and suspension travel and coil bind are rarely an issue on B13s (B14 is another matter altogether)

 

Funny how I'm completely used to the way my SE-R feels and I'm having to get used to the way the STi autocrosses.

We all know exactly how you feel about the initial understeer that transitions into oversteer. It's a fairly common trait of these cars. I remember Mark Chiles used to run gobs of toe-out in the front on his stock one to get it to change direction. Once it starts moving, it's quite fun though!

I don't know if that initial push is fixable with the allowed ruleset inside STS... but if you want to play with SM rules, then you can try fixing some of the bumpsteer in the front (and the rear if you're really hard up for punishment).

Andy -who had a blast learning how to autox with his stock SE-R for ~4 years before he put a suspension on it... was also not a stranger to looking where he came from...

 

cool se-r they look nice in white.

my good friend has one with the progress coils, eibach camber plates with azenis..

he took it to his first autocross last week and did pretty good

although he thinks his tranny case may be cracked now

look for him on the sr20 forum.. tystyx420 or something