Saturday, June 30, 2012
Konig Flatout
new street wheels, Konig Flatout 15x8 +25 Magnesium Blue. left is in the shade, right is in the sun
Friday, June 29, 2012
XXR 501
i love wheels! these are actually only a pair, wanted to see what it'd look like. the other side of the car has the mini cooper wheels on it
XXR 501 15x8 +15
XXR 501 15x8 +15
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Racing Beat Tubular Front Sway Bar
so tonight Cuda and I installed the front sway bar and supermiata end links and Cuda changed my oil (i helped a little). the sway bar was a huge bitch to install, particularly the reinforcement blocks. i just hope that we did it right. i later found out that i think i got sent the wrong blocks (PS version and I don't have PS), so i hope that doesn't matter. the end links were a bit confusing at first, but i think i got those sorted out ok as well.
first test drive with the sway bar was amazing. from driving the car with no sway bars connected at all, it didn't oversteer as i am used to and have grown fond of. honestly, i was a bit worried that adding such a large front sway bar would make it worse, but it actually drives like it should now, in fact possible a little more oversteer than i'd want for actual racing (i love it for the street though!) this was on old falken tires.
first test drive with the sway bar was amazing. from driving the car with no sway bars connected at all, it didn't oversteer as i am used to and have grown fond of. honestly, i was a bit worried that adding such a large front sway bar would make it worse, but it actually drives like it should now, in fact possible a little more oversteer than i'd want for actual racing (i love it for the street though!) this was on old falken tires.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
More Xida-S Impressions + Borrowed Varrstoen V1
the springs settled down a bit, i checked the heights this morning and its about 11.25 front 11.5 rear hub to fender (4.25 front, 4 rear at the pinch welds). took off the wheels to check and passenger rear perch was rubbing the axle so i cranked it up 1 turn. both front perches seem to be contacting the control arm on the outside edge. i'll likely raise it instead of lower it =( emilio suggested longer helper springs up front, but i measured it out and looks like i'll run in to the control arms more. i guess i'll just have to accept the fact that these just won't go as low as i want them to without making sacrifices that i dont want to make.
tried on Cuda's new rims, varrstoen 15x9 +15 with 195/50/15. the rims are beautiful and would fit great but definitely would want to be lower if i were to own these
also got my race seat back and reinstalled it, removed the cockpit brace, and Cuda cleaned my engine bay.
tried on Cuda's new rims, varrstoen 15x9 +15 with 195/50/15. the rims are beautiful and would fit great but definitely would want to be lower if i were to own these
also got my race seat back and reinstalled it, removed the cockpit brace, and Cuda cleaned my engine bay.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
949 Racing Xida-S - Initial Impressions
finally got my xida-s and installed them today! also removed the stock strut bar, removed the front sway bar and rear end links. will be installing the new bar and full set of supermiata endlinks once the links arrive and i figure out what to do with the excess material on the sway bar bushings. also, when i removed the stock bilsteins i noticed a kind of pink looking powder coming out of it. turns out my bump stops had basically exploded
these feel quite good so far, just need to play with the damping settings a bit. rates are currently 700/450 and set to full soft, theyre way smoother than my 10/7k tein flex.
unhappy about my height range at the moment. posted a message on the xida thread at mnet, hopefully i'll get an answer soon. my front and rear pinch weld heights are both 4.75" (with 23.2 tires, so this equates to about 4.6" according to emilio's standard 22.9" tire), fender heights were 12" Front and 12.5" Rear. one of the reasons i purchased these was because from all that i've been reading and confirmation with emilio, i was expecting to be in the range of 10.75-11.25 fender height or 3.75-4.25" at the pinch welds. it seemed like people were having trouble even getting to 12 at all. sounds like they're all around the height range i'd like to be but want to be in the range that i got :(
with the fronts at 12", if i lower the perch anymore, at full droop the springs will be completely unseated and even at this height they will rattle
the rears compress the secondary springs a bit at full droop and i can adjust these a little lower, but if i go lower than 11.75", the perch looks to be dangerously close to the axle. if this is normal, i think that my desired height can be reached in the rear, but i wouldn't lower the rear any further until i can figure out why my front is so high. reverse rake doesn't seem like a good idea.
how should i go about figuring out what damping setting i need to be at? one method i believe i read was to start full soft all around, drive it around and increase all settings by one until i arrive at a setting that feels good, but what if the front and rear are not to be the same setting? also, will the both fronts and both rears always be the same as each other, or would it be possible to have all 4 corners set differently?
one of the rear shocks has 13 clicks, the other 3 corners have 12 o_O
aside from that, they're really beautiful, can't wait to get them dialed in :D
they came with eibachs in front and hypercos in the rear. too many colors on the front pair lol.
wish it were a little lower :(
i can't help but wonder if my height is an isolated case since i was banking on being lower than this. at least for the front, the lowest i can go is 12" before the springs completely unseat at full droop and that just doesn't seem right for everyones highest to be at 12 and my lowest is at 12 o_O emilio did say that it is ok for them to be unseated at full droop, but i mean that's kind of the reason i got the dual spring setup in the first place
some pretty charts from 949's website. still don't know what they mean
UPDATE: 2012 06 11
well, heard back from emilio on mnet
i'm a bit confused because part of the reason i ordered the Xida was because he stated in his thread that ideal handling for these coilovers was around 3.75" to 4.25" at the pinch welds, and now he's saying that im aiming to "slam it below what normally works best for handling." o_O
anyway, based on his response, i lowered the rear to 11.75" and the front to 11.25" and the front springs now will unseat at full droop. hopefully i never get that far while i'm actually driving, but it does still make me nervous so i'm considering longer secondary springs and maybe even the 5" rear springs to have the ability to lower it a little more. hope the 5" springs don't bind
i took the new height for a drive and the ride comfort was still impressive. the turn in wasn't as sharp as when the car was higher though. i should add that when i installed the coilovers, i uninstalled the front sway bar completely as well as the rear end links in preparation for the new RB sway and full set of supermiata endlinks so all of my driving impressions are without any sway bars connected at all.
these feel quite good so far, just need to play with the damping settings a bit. rates are currently 700/450 and set to full soft, theyre way smoother than my 10/7k tein flex.
unhappy about my height range at the moment. posted a message on the xida thread at mnet, hopefully i'll get an answer soon. my front and rear pinch weld heights are both 4.75" (with 23.2 tires, so this equates to about 4.6" according to emilio's standard 22.9" tire), fender heights were 12" Front and 12.5" Rear. one of the reasons i purchased these was because from all that i've been reading and confirmation with emilio, i was expecting to be in the range of 10.75-11.25 fender height or 3.75-4.25" at the pinch welds. it seemed like people were having trouble even getting to 12 at all. sounds like they're all around the height range i'd like to be but want to be in the range that i got :(
with the fronts at 12", if i lower the perch anymore, at full droop the springs will be completely unseated and even at this height they will rattle
the rears compress the secondary springs a bit at full droop and i can adjust these a little lower, but if i go lower than 11.75", the perch looks to be dangerously close to the axle. if this is normal, i think that my desired height can be reached in the rear, but i wouldn't lower the rear any further until i can figure out why my front is so high. reverse rake doesn't seem like a good idea.
how should i go about figuring out what damping setting i need to be at? one method i believe i read was to start full soft all around, drive it around and increase all settings by one until i arrive at a setting that feels good, but what if the front and rear are not to be the same setting? also, will the both fronts and both rears always be the same as each other, or would it be possible to have all 4 corners set differently?
one of the rear shocks has 13 clicks, the other 3 corners have 12 o_O
aside from that, they're really beautiful, can't wait to get them dialed in :D
they came with eibachs in front and hypercos in the rear. too many colors on the front pair lol.
wish it were a little lower :(
i can't help but wonder if my height is an isolated case since i was banking on being lower than this. at least for the front, the lowest i can go is 12" before the springs completely unseat at full droop and that just doesn't seem right for everyones highest to be at 12 and my lowest is at 12 o_O emilio did say that it is ok for them to be unseated at full droop, but i mean that's kind of the reason i got the dual spring setup in the first place
some pretty charts from 949's website. still don't know what they mean
credit: 949racing.com
credit: 949racing.com
well, heard back from emilio on mnet
Originally Posted by emilio700There is nothing wrong with your kit or the way you installed it. You simply need shorter springs (5") in rear to slam it below what normally works for best handling.
i'm a bit confused because part of the reason i ordered the Xida was because he stated in his thread that ideal handling for these coilovers was around 3.75" to 4.25" at the pinch welds, and now he's saying that im aiming to "slam it below what normally works best for handling." o_O
anyway, based on his response, i lowered the rear to 11.75" and the front to 11.25" and the front springs now will unseat at full droop. hopefully i never get that far while i'm actually driving, but it does still make me nervous so i'm considering longer secondary springs and maybe even the 5" rear springs to have the ability to lower it a little more. hope the 5" springs don't bind
i took the new height for a drive and the ride comfort was still impressive. the turn in wasn't as sharp as when the car was higher though. i should add that when i installed the coilovers, i uninstalled the front sway bar completely as well as the rear end links in preparation for the new RB sway and full set of supermiata endlinks so all of my driving impressions are without any sway bars connected at all.
Friday, June 1, 2012
A New Beginning
the solo season where im at starts in july so i began ordering parts. Xida-S 700/450, RB 1.125" tubular front sway with blocks, supermiata endlinks, and 15x9 6UL in matte black all from emilio at 949. my friend and codriver for the season got some 225/45/15 hankook ventus r-s3 for us from tirerack
weighed the car in "stock" form in my garage on a borrowed set of scales. the real way to do this i hear is to actually level the scales first, but that's too much work and i'm still on stock suspension so I just wanted to get a ball park figure. what I ended up doing was taking some weights with the front in first, then the same weights again with the rear of the car in first, then averaging the 2. if my thinking here is flawed please let me know, but again it wasn't very important to be accurate, just looking for ball park baseline figures. in fact, i've never weighed a car before so if anything is wrong here definitely let me know lol! the total weights seem to still be relevant anyway
so with that in mind as well as other variables not accounted for and forces from the wind and the alignment of the moon blah blah blah, here are the results!
the car was about 2285lbs, a little less than a half tank of gas, the spare tire kit (the spare, the jack, and the board with the tools clipped to it) is about 24-25lbs (i put the main carpet back in to cover up the spare tire well), and i weighed myself on one of the scales at 140lbs
and the averaged corner weights with me in the car, top down, no spare and kit
weighed the car in "stock" form in my garage on a borrowed set of scales. the real way to do this i hear is to actually level the scales first, but that's too much work and i'm still on stock suspension so I just wanted to get a ball park figure. what I ended up doing was taking some weights with the front in first, then the same weights again with the rear of the car in first, then averaging the 2. if my thinking here is flawed please let me know, but again it wasn't very important to be accurate, just looking for ball park baseline figures. in fact, i've never weighed a car before so if anything is wrong here definitely let me know lol! the total weights seem to still be relevant anyway
so with that in mind as well as other variables not accounted for and forces from the wind and the alignment of the moon blah blah blah, here are the results!
the car was about 2285lbs, a little less than a half tank of gas, the spare tire kit (the spare, the jack, and the board with the tools clipped to it) is about 24-25lbs (i put the main carpet back in to cover up the spare tire well), and i weighed myself on one of the scales at 140lbs
and the averaged corner weights with me in the car, top down, no spare and kit
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)