Well, it's taken about 18 months of saving my pennies, and waiting for parts to either show up or, in one case, actually go into production, but the new suspension went on to the car last Wednesday/Thursday at Jeff the Alignment Guy's shop. This all started last year when Jeff did his first ever alignment on the car and we found out that one of the front dampers was blown. I ordered up a fresh pair of fronts with the intention of swapping them into what was already on the car, but then it all started to spiral out of control and I wound up acquiring the parts to build up a set of what are essentially custom coilovers. The old parts that came off were Koni Sport strut inserts in chopped up stock strut bodies, wrapped in Eibach Pro Kit Springs, and topped with Grp N Strut Tops. The new stuff is still a set of chopped up stock strut bodies filled with fresh Koni Sport Inserts, but this time they're wrapped in a Ground Control Coilover kit, and the fronts have PDE camber plates, while I stuck with Grp N Strut Tops in the rear. The fronts also have the D_REX spacer that TiC finally got around to making earlier this year. Dustin's original run of them was long gone, which made them rarer than hen's teeth. Original picture of strut bodies on Ebay: After they were cut up and ground down: After blasting: After powdercoating: Fronts after assembly: PDE Camber Plates: D_REX Spacers: Rears: Sorry the pictures of the rears don't show them completely assembled, but the rear bump stops and strut tops didn't show up until the morning of the installation day. Yeah, that's how close I was to having to run the old setup at Valley Fair this last weekend. Impressions so far are that the tail end is a fair bit looser. And while it was still possible to plough it into corners if you were lumpy with the braking, it was possible to get the car to slide fairly evenly on all four tyres, slowing itself down enough to get a grip again, at which time it would shoot off in the desired direction. I also had a couple of unrecoverable tank slappers last year during a couple of events. This weekend, in spite of getting it rather sideways through the downhill section, I was able to get my foot back into it, and pull it straight again. It felt like sloppy driving from inside the car, and probably looked fairly dramatic from the sidelines, but at least I managed to avoid any cones or a DNF. So, as much as I may still be getting used to it, it is much more controllable than last year. In addition to the coilovers, we also threw in the poly bushings on the front LCA, including the offset caster adjusting ones. There's also a new strut bar in the back, and the whole things was lowered, corner weighted, and aggressively aligned. Kudos to Jeff for all his hard work on getting this ready, and to my friend John who did the hard work of chopping up the stock strut bodies in time for me to get them powdercoated. Stuart.
Yeah, I knew I'd get yelled at if I didn't include a couple of gratuitous foot shots I kept the slippers on 'cos it was cold out in the garage.
Dude, this is fantastic. If I can't find a suitable set of coilovers for the wagon, this might be an option. They look great!
I think it's the powdercoating that makes all the difference. The ones I took off don't look nearly as pretty.
Nice! I saw these in Jeff's shop pre and post sandblasting. Did you end up slotting the rear struts or are you running adjustable lateral links? Spring rates/ride height/alignment specs/sway bar sizes/custom valved struts? If you don't mind sharing.
I jest. Super job dude. I worked the short slalom on Saturday and you were screaming by me in heat 2.
And after all that you lost to a focus wagon! Shame on you! Get your act together next time! Pardon my ignorance - what is the role of the spacer on the bottom? Further lowering?
I'll post up some more techie info later. The alignment sheet's at home. And yes, I have the Whiteline adjustable lateral links. I just updated my vBgarage entry, so that should answer some of the questions. Stuart.
I know ! Where the hell did he come from ? DFL for most of last year to 2nd spot at the first event of the new season. Rest assured, I've got my eye on him now. The spacer provides an extra inch of suspension travel by dropping the insert down a bit further than it would normally go. I'll try and post up the NASIOC link later that fills in all the details on those little gems. The bump stops were also chopped in half, just to be sure. Stuart.
Nope, I was DFL most of the time. He was close though. Ah, ok, makes sense, should've figured it out on my own....
I think he was using Prodrive or STi gymkhana springs instead of the GC coilovers. Other than that, yeah, pretty similar. Stuart.
i really wish i would've gone Koni Yellows and GC sleeves at this point, i have heard its really forgiving on the street as well
That is basically the same setup I'm running, only I have noltec front plates and cusco rear's for tophats. The setup works awesome. My setup is 600F/650R springs with 22mm F/ 24mm R bars.
Yeah, I was looking at the photos thinking "Those look very familiar..." Saw them at Jeff's shop post-blasting pre-powdercoating.
Cool beans! I love the way they look when assembled. looks like they were made to be together. IIRC that extra cost also gets you a lifetime warranty on the GCs and the Konis right?
You should PM me what it cost you to do this. I'd be interested to see the cost benefit vs. coilovers.
Ugh, I'll think about it. But we all know how depressed it'll make me when I figure out how much it was, and it still wasn't enough to beat that bloody Focus. Thanks Daniil for bringing up that painful memory :emo: Stuart.
where did you get the giant shrink wrap for the upper threaded sleeve? Thats a damn good idea to keep them from rubbing.
They're actually pretty stiff rubber sleeves that come with the Konis. It helps to keep the water out, as there's a slight gap between the strut body and the insert. In the pictures here, the rim of them is still sitting on top of the insert, but I saw some other pictures online that showed it butting up against the underside of the insert's lip. That made more sense, so I pulled them down a little bit. It's actually hard work getting them to stretch over the top of the coilover sleeves, as they're made to fit just over the stock strut body. Does anybody *know* what the little white plastic disk is that goes on over the top of the inserts ? You can just see it under the bumpstops in a couple of the pictures. Stuart.
Hmm, that make sense. We thought it might be to help channel water away from the piston. He did most of it. But then his sand got blunt, so the powdercoater had to finish off a couple of spots that he couldn't get to. I think he did a pretty good job of it. Stuart.
dang! those are some stiiiiiff springs! I was running 400/450s all winter. boy am I glad to be off of those. of course, I didn't have Koni's helping them out. why are you running the stiffer springs in the rear? and Aquacow just posted a sweet write-up about AGXs and GC springs.
To induce a little extra looseness in the rear as an aid to rotation out on the AutoX course. If last Saturday was anything to go by, I'd say mission accomplished :biggrin: Stuart.
Not a bad guess since the dust boot is gone. I'm hoping to do a similar set-up in a year or so. Huge bar up front with decently stiff front springs and stiffer rear spring rates with little to no rear sway bar... optimize front grip and turn-in and hope the independence and travel in the rear is enough to keep it from tri-podding.
