Thanks. The tires are Yokohama AVS ES100's, 205/50/15 mounted on 15x6 wheels. The radiator is a griffen scirocco style radiator modified to fit.

 

I think it was worth it, totally...but I paid someone to do it. I could have done it myself with saws instead of a plasma torch...and bolts instead of welder... and if I did, I might be siding with you more...but since I did'nt and it came out perfect, I can't complain.
I could of gone that low with just coilovers, but I would of ran out of travel in the front and start to bottom out the shocks.

 

Yeah, I spoke with that guy at Performance Solutions about doing a rotary 510 swap for me. Seems to be a really great guy and does excellent work for a fair price.

So the rear springs are uncut? They really look to lower it nicely er uh perfectly. On my old se it seemed to oversteer more than anything, but I liked it. I had the rb front and rb rear adjustable swaybars with tokiko blues and eibach springs.

You are having an understeer problem though? Do you have a rear swaybar? If not, You may want to get one before upping the spring rate more.

oh Yeah, how do you like that guru diff?

 

i have one of these kit

 

too much understeer on a 1st gen?

mine understeered especially when pushing it at autox. i dialed in 1 degree negative camber and boy that helped out. less front end slide.

250lb rear springs is a lot. most 1st gen racers make their rear springs half or just less than half of the front spring rate. that would equate to a 500-600 front spring to maintain balance and those tires cannot handle that much lateral load. only slicks can.

 

Yeah Matt at P.S. is way cool, I recommend him to everyone.
The rear springs are uncut from G-Force...I dunno if they cut them, but thats how I got them.

i know it's hard to believe, but yeah I was having crazy understeer with the 200lbs on the back. After we first installed the g-force stuff at Mazdatrix I took it for a drive...when I came back I was amazed about the understeer. They did'nt believe me either! Owner Dave Lemon was like..."Are you sure you were'nt just coming in hot for a turn and finding understeer?" I gave him the keys and we went for a ride. Sure enough he felt the same thing...understeer.

G-force told me that 250 springs in the back was the minimum I should run. With the kit I was able to comletely eliminate both upper trailing arms and the whole watts link. Thats stuff has been know to bind and is what makes 1st gens so infamous for snap oversteer. All thats left in there is the stock lower trailing arms and the g-force center link and panhard bar. No sway bar.

I still need to get the car aligned and then play around with adjusting the panhard bar. I doubt I'll need to go higher on the rear spring rates, but from the little I've driven it so far I can tell you that it's not too much.

oh, and about the guru diff. I love it. I think it may play a part in the understeering too, since it's not just locked all the time...however it never spins only one tire.

 

Last time I had the car aligned I dialed in about -.75 camber in the front...I think this time I'll go for -1.0

those spring rates you're talking about on those race cars... those are on cars that still have the basic stock suspension, right? I know of a few E/P cars running much higher spring rates, but in E/P you are allowed much more suspension mods.

Obviously it's a tottally different application, but on my FD I was running 550 in the front and 450 in the back on the street....it was'nt too bad at all.

 

yeah? any pics? How do you like it? what springs are you running front & rear?

 

actually the kit is not installed. I willbe putting coilovers in front and did not know if i should use the lowering kit. My intent was not to use it but after seeing your car. I will be looking into it. Planning to put mopar 8 3/4 rear end with coilovers.

 

Thanks for the info, keep us updated on how your car handles in the end

 

great looking car the lowering springs lowered it an ideal height for more downforce! keep up the good work

 

I've got one too...how long would that take, though? How clean did it cut the folded sheetmetal?

 

I know this is an old thread but just wanted to say that looks nice.
Also FDracer.......how does it ride???
And it looks like you can no longer use a strut bar with that lower kit in place.....does anyone know if thats ture??

 

FD Racer,
What sway-bar set-up are you running up front? Also I would recommed about 1.5' in the front camber, to help you out a bit...

on the panhrad/trilink set-up, how harsh and noisy are you finding it rides on the So-Cal highways and streets? And... 250lb springs eh? I found that with anything over 200lbs my cars jumps and skips over bumps and road irregularities, this is on the street, but on the track my set-up works really well, at 300 front and 175 rear.. I run a F 205/15 - R 225/15 Toyo R-Compound tires on 15x7 and 15x8 wheels.

And yes I understand that the G-FORCE set-up is different than the OEM Watt's link set-up, but 250lb springs are still pretty stiff for street use.

On Performance Solutions, I've known Matt for a long time and also highly recommend his shop and work!


Thanks for the input

-Bern

 

Im not sure if you're going to get much response from him, I havent seen him on the forums in a while. This car was actually wrecked when someone pulled out of an alley and hit him. I believe it was totaled and he no longer has it. Although, Im sure that he can chime in on what he was running before the accident if he sees this thread. It sure was a beautiful car.

~T.J.

 

He's still around, I pm'd him a few weeks ago about something and he responded. I'm interested to his responce to Berny's questions as well! I may go tri-link in the future.

 

One other quick question... what Tokico Illumina shocks are/were you running... the standard 1st gen Illuminas or the MazdaSpeed Motorsports (mazdacomp) (MR2) pieces?

Thanks,

-Bern

 

Tomas (Toe-Mas) is running the Madacomp MR2 front struts and loves them. Apparently their qutie a bit shorter so it keeps you from having use the Racing Beat lowering kit that goes on top of the strut tower.

 

Yes, I saw Tomas' set-up at the MazFest event... the reason for the Madacomp MR2 front struts is that they are better valved for 275+lb springs. The standard of-the-shelf 1st gen Tokico Illuminas are marginal with springs in this range or higher.

-Bern

 

Ah, I see, that would explain why he has Koni's up front and Tokico's in the back.....at least I think that was the set up he had.....lol