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Here's how it sits on the road, having made no adjustments. I think it's overall a little high, especially the rear, but I'm going to let things settle before I make adjustments.
Very nice! I have the ohlins and they are very good on the street and the track. Penske are top notch suspension products for cars. They are used in most race car applications and I would love to hear how compliant they are on normal roads. Sounds like you have done your research and hired the right people, so I am sure they took that in consideration. I would love to see how well it works on both the street and the track. BTW the car looks great.
Penske's are nice. I run them on my Spec Miata. My go to race builder favors the MCS these days but i don't think you can go wrong with either.
Are you running 800 lb springs front and rear? Would have thought the FD would take higher spring rates given the power level, weight etc. SM runs 800 on the front.
Angelo (ANZE) did the final convincing for me on Penske, and he sells and services MCS and JRZ. I am running 800/800, and it's a compromise. Maybe in a race car or pure track car you'd go 1000/900 or something, but It's a street/track car, and that keeps it livable. I can honestly say, too, I can't think of anyplace on the tracks I run where I ever think, "I need more spring here".
The other thing is, I looked at the MCS measurements, and while they solved for the travel at low ride heights issue, they did so at the expense of droop. And there's an up-charge for custom lengths, on a cost that was already more than Penskes, which are spec'd out custom... even things like the offset lower spacers were a part of it. They're also incidentally lighter than my JRZs (so I assume MCS) by about 1.5 lbs per corner.
The other wrinkle is, I'm working on getting drop spindles made. Among other things, they'd theoretically require lower rates because your roll center isn't under ground anymore. That's all top secret though, don't tell anybody ;-)
Forgot about the street car driving. Totally get it.
The drop spindles sound interesting.
Did you ever check for bump steer on your setup?
I've never checked for it, like with a gauge, but I know I get some. I notice it more on like bumpy off-ramps on the street taken at speed, vs. on track. I had a convo with Gene Felber once on ride heights, and his thing was always to never have the lower arms get any further than level for that reason in part, and mine are certailny well past that.
Gas guage seems to work well, but I'm going to pull some increments out, as its fast up top, slow at the bottom. I ran it down to about 30% or so, but was only able to put 10 gallons in. I did the whole event on 93 octane instead of the typical 100, which is great because the GT100 is $10/gallon now. WI, and 11 plugs all around, plus all the Haltech safeties make that seem safe enough.
With the radium setup I am experiencing the same. Were you able to normalize the fuel level range? If so do share!
Congrats on the updates. New shocks makes the car feel new again and perhaps one of the most excited changes to make.
With the radium setup I am experiencing the same. Were you able to normalize the fuel level range? If so do share!
Congrats on the updates. New shocks makes the car feel new again and perhaps one of the most excited changes to make.
I think the Radium may mount the level sender a little off. We drained the tank such that it was maxed down, and that was about 3 gallons short of 20 when I filled in 5g increments. So if it read 30% (6 gallons), and I could only put in 10, that's pretty darn close. I don't mind having some in reserve, i just need to bear it in mind when i refill it so i don't put in too much oil. Right now I have increment voltage for 1%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%. I think if I remove the middle ones and just leave 0% and 100% it'll read more linearly.
Just a small update, I finally got the Garage Alpha Mazdaspeed style strut brace to fit. Backstory: I got one of the original 6 or 8 of these things on the "limited edition" group buy. It never fit right, rubbed the hood. I sent it back to GA with the offer of a refund or a rework, I chose the latter. Months passed and finally a new one showed up. It was exactly the same. So, it sat in storage for a couple years with me not knowing what to do with it, and finally when the GA takeover by SPG happened, I mentioned it to them and they asked me to send it for a look.
Not sure how I originally got two this way, but they said it was obviously different, and sent it back with a new crossbar. This one fits, albeit probably not with a lot to spare. It all comes down to how "soon" the bends happen on the crossbar to go flat on each side. If the angual part is too long, it'll be too high.
I'm very happy, saved a couple pounds, and HUGE shout out to @SakeBomb Garage for customer service on a part they didn't technically sell.
I wish I could get a polished Ti crossbar for my M2 rollbar to match it in the rear!
As I work up to the MK60 Install, one thing that had to happen is to move the coils under the UIM, so the ABS can mount on the fender where the Sakebomb mount puts the coils. This should theoretically been simple, but putting the coils there required re-routing much of the harness, fuel feed, oil feed to turbo, fuel vapor line, and removing some OE bracketry. All in all, a lot longer in the garage than I'd planned, but it's nice and tidy now, and as a bonus, actually ran right the first time! I love the shorter, well-separated plug wires.
There's a couple other hidden upgrades in here I'll get to next. Many thanks to Costas @R-R-Rx7 for all the assistance with this install!
12-16-23, 06:26 PM
