Well, the car is up to 96,000 miles. Stock suspension was feeling a bit soft as it is quite old and I wanted a little stiffer ride for Auto-x. I chose Type R specific Bilstein SP's and Ground Control Coilovers (350#F/400#R) My spring rates were more base on a good deal as I got the set for $220 shipped brand new. I may go 400/500 in the future. As of right now, these rates are much stiffer than stock and the car feels very very nice.

Install of Bilsteins is a pain in the *** though. Rear shocks took 3 times as long as the front thanks to a broken LCA bolt and clearance issues. I know I have read that some have been able to install the Bilsteins by just stepping on the rotor to allow room but I don't see how (We tried everything). The larger piston makes that seem impossible to me. We went ahead and dropped the LCA which made the shock go in like butta, but was a major pain in the *** to realign the LCA. Eventually we got it and went on to the fronts which were simple

Anyway, the ride is very firm. Car feels much more planted now and doesn't nose dive under hard braking nearly as much as with the stock suspension. Feels even more neutral in the corners now too. I can't wait to try it out at the Auto-x this weekend. Now all I need is an alignment. I'm very happy with this suspension and would reccomend it to anyone in a second

Here's an old pic of the car at factory ride height.



Here's a picture to show where its sitting now. I'd love feedback on the rideheight, but I don't think I want to go any lower as my Spoon sports header sits low enough. It's sitting about 1" lower than OEM at the moment.



-Larkin

 

Thats a good looking stance.

 

Nice!
Now put the OEM wheels back on! jk jk

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Doespike &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Nice!
Now put the OEM wheels back on! jk jk</TD></TR></TABLE>

I like them better too. They are in the garage waiting to be put on. These are my 15x7s for Auto-x. I was just lazy between the last Auto-x and the one this weekend and left them on

 

Alignment recommendations would be appreciated as well

 

Looks good

 

Awesome . 350/400 should be great for double duty. I've been in the market for new suspension for a while now(stupid Teins ). Unfortunately my recent blown clutch has put that on hold .

Do you run a camber kit at all?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by white rocket &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Awesome . 350/400 should be great for double duty. I've been in the market for new suspension for a while now(stupid Teins ). Unfortunately my recent blown clutch has put that on hold .

Do you run a camber kit at all?</TD></TR></TABLE>

We'll see about a camber kit after the alignment is done. Either way I'll run without one for a while because most of my money goes to the house we bought in January

 

I'm about as low as you and I don't run a camber kit at all either. Haven't had any issues or complaints at the track. I can't find any front kit that look like they WON'T slip . Seriously, they all look the same. Kinda scary if you ask me.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ITR 00-0477 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thats a good looking stance. </TD></TR></TABLE>

 

very nice

 

I used to run a similar setup. I had the Ground Controls with 400 F 500 R lbs/in, on Koni Sports. The car was lowered roughly an inch from stock, with the front about an 8th of an inch lower than the rear. Camber (no camber kits) were -1.9 to -2.0 degrees up front and the rears were about -1.5 to -1.7 degrees. Toe set to exactly zero.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by KOALA YUMMIES &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I used to run a similar setup. I had the Ground Controls with 400 F 500 R lbs/in, on Koni Sports. The car was lowered roughly an inch from stock, with the front about an 8th of an inch lower than the rear. Camber (no camber kits) were -1.9 to -2.0 degrees up front and the rears were about -1.5 to -1.7 degrees. Toe set to exactly zero. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks, thats exactly what I was looking for. I'm possibly going to go 1/8 total (or 1/16 each side) toe out up front. At the moment, the rear is 0.5 inch higher than the front

 

Likin the setup and the stance. Ive decided to go with the Bilstein SPs as well with prolly either the same Eibachs you have or the Spoon Sport springs. All in time/money/both.

Alignmentwise, if you daily drive ure R, id go with a somewhat neutral setup or possibly a "aggressive street" setup if you find a shop that has that. Camber shouldnt be an issue. i had Apexi N1 99 Spec lowered about an inch from stock and had no problems or complaints. I ran zero toe as well considering i put about 16000 miles a year on my R. Unless ure doing competitive autox, a neutral setup safe for the street wont make too much difference on the track and trust me, ure tires will thank you later. My .02

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by KetteringITR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I ran zero toe as well considering i put about 16000 miles a year on my R. Unless ure doing competitive autox, a neutral setup safe for the street wont make too much difference on the track and trust me, ure tires will thank you later. My .02 </TD></TR></TABLE>

Same reasoning here. Lots and lots of street miles and roughly 4-5 roadcourse events a year. Ive seen lots of other owners and track go-ers that do a little bit of toe out in front but for the neutral feeling, wear and the scrub radius with 15x7s at +43 I stuck with zero toe as well.

 

looking good, happy birthday 171 hehe

Cory - who is running -4.9f // -3.9r, and also don't mind buying tires every 4000 miles

 

Good point. I do Daily Drive the crap outa my R. Better go with zero toe all around

 

i did as well with that camber set up for a year car is not a DD anymore though

 

looks gReat

 

YEP! I couldnt agree with you more Larkin. the front bilsteins are more of a plug and play deal, where the rears actually involved unbolting the LCA to get the hub to droop enough to insert in. real PITA. But I did manage to throw a little antiseize on bolts I normally wouldnt take off, just incase for the future...

took me about 3 hours to figure out how to best tackle one side of the rear...the other side took me 20 minutes after i figured it out

And that height you set looks pretty much OEM (maybe a tad lower). not too bad!

Of course, I had a H&R setup on mine prior to upgrading to bilsteins and GC's, and i also have a 400/500 rate, so I kept it the same height as my H&R setup, which was fairly flush (no wheel gap), but I did do measuring to ensure that my cross front/rear height ratio remained the same until I'm ready to do some corner balancing.

took the setup to summit and wow, what a difference 400/500 is compared to 360/360! better dampening on the bilsteins probably helped...but more the handling... the car was much more tail happy... but in a good controllable manner!I ended up going a bit sideways right before turn 5, but the car was very predictable and I was able to manage to make a few minor corrections to get out of a little hairy of a situation

like many others in the forum will say, 400/500 is a pretty good track setup for a stock usdm itr. (its still very much understeer)

my only complaint would be that the dust boots that come with the bilsteins dont fit over with the GC sleeves/springs, but it doesnt bug me much since i dont daily this car anymore.

How are you handling it the dust boot thing?


Modified by uNF$@#! at 7:28 PM 7/5/2006

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by uNF$@#! &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> where the rears actually involved unbolting the LCA to get the hub to droop enough to insert in. real PITA. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Unbolting the upper rear arm would also be another way, makes the trailing arm/hub easy to push down.

 

Alignment Settings:

Front Toe: -.30 degrees Total Toe Out ( -.15 Left Front / -.15 right Front)
Rear Toe: 0

Give that a shot if you are not using the OEM tires. If you are running the stock RE010's I would do 0 front total toe and use the lower number in the OEM toe spec range for the rear total toe.

 

nice

 

Thanks for the help everyone. I think the rear is gonna go down another 1/4" and its going to get aligned today. Then I'll try it out at the Auto-x this weekend.