Looks good.
Let's us know your street driving feedback when you get it aligned.

 

All in and tested - driven about 200km (40% road, the rest track) so far, and it feels good - makes a fair amount more noise on rougher roads, and bangs and crashes a bit through small potholes, but on smooth tarmac, it does not feel much different to the original setup.

On track, the handling is improved, especially on turn in, and under braking, the nose does not dive noticably - I think my laptimes will improve with some more familiarity, and some fine tuning of sway bars etc.

Suspension is a bit dirty post Saturday, but some pictures, one front, one rear - this is at full droop on my lift, and the main springs have no free play.

 

Have you checked to see if you are running on the rubber stops in the back?

 

I have not checked the bumpstop, but I will for sure.

Much appreciated.

 

Just got back from vacation and catching up on email. I too will check to see if I am hitting the rubber stops in the rear. Thinking of using a tie-wrap at the bottom of the shaft and see if it moves up and contacts bumper. Car is going in Tuesday for CW & align...

 

Thanks for documenting in such detail. Excited to hear the feedback once you get the car on the road!

 

Follow up on rear bump stops... I always had this thunk coming from the rear end like when going over expansion joints. I just took a couple of pictures following up on the question "if the car was riding on the bump stops"

Well, the pictures show that there is only about 1/4" clearance between the top of the shock body to the actual bump stop (had to lighten up the pictures digitally). I ended up removing them, a real pain to cut the thick plastic bump stops, but they are now gone.

Hopefully, it will remove the annoying thunk... If you are upgrading the suspension. you might to remove them as you assemble the struts. Much easier than what I did. Will let you know tomorrow how things turned out...

 

To follow up on the bump stop issue - I calculated how much free travel there would be, and came up with about 2 cm free travel, which is clearly not enough.

So I cut off one of the sections of the bump stop - cut around the axis first with a long stanley knife, pushed the lower sections out of the way, and then cut a spiral into the piece being removed, and pulled it out - I have left the bump stop at the 'bottom' to see how much it will be pushed up when the car is on the wheels again and being driven - if it is hard against the top mount again, then I will cut out the next section the same way and retest - due to our poor roads, I would like to have some bump stop in play - even if it is very short, it should prevent metal against metal bumping.

I wonder if the stock suspension also rides on the bumpstop - anybody care to take some pictures?

 

Did you guys send the shocks out to Bilstein in Cali, or did you find a local shop?

 

I had mine done in CA. You can get forms and address from their website...

 

Thanks, got 'em.

Your car stored for the season or have you put some more miles on your new setup?

 

I had an opportunity to drive it for about 45 minutes after it got corner weighted and aligned. The car felt really good, firm but not harsh. Corner weighting was done with my weight in drivers seat. Shop did an excellent job and it is less than 3# off from ideal in each corner. Mechanic liked the spring rate combo and how it drove. Ended up reducing my rear camber to about -1.5 as the Toyo's R888 do not need as much camber. I was chewing up my rear inner tires with my previous -2.5. Can't wait for next season! It is going to be a long winter...

 

Mine went to our local bilstein agent - a lot easier than shipping them halfway around the world.

I have driven mine twice on-track and am very happy with the change - but I still have not checked what the position of the bumpstops is after the last outing, but it is clearly improved after I shortened them.

I also need to change the rear sway bar settings before the next outing.

 

Super thread lots of detail and informed DIY - any chance there's news Guy or 9 if you're out the garage by now?

 

Matt - definately a worthwile upgrade if your car is primarily track driven, but it does mean relearning the handling a bit to some extent.