I really haven't posted any pictures of the car here (other then the girlfriends/wives with 8's thread) but I figured this needed posted.

This past weekend I installed a set of Stance GR+ coilovers, and I must say the car handles like a freakin dream. I can't wait to see how she'll do at autocrosses now. She's about 1 1/2" lower in the rear and about 2" in the front. Surprisingly the spring rates aren't as bad as I thought they would be. Right now the dampers are set to about half stiff, and she handles perfectly. Body roll has been eliminated and she doesn't nose dive under heavy braking conditions.

Oh, and forgive the slightly blurry pics (some of them) My girlfriend was taking them during the install and she has an injured thumb right now.

More pics will be taken once the car has been cleaned.


Durning the install:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/RX-8%20Suspension%20upgrade/CIMG0005.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/RX-8%20Suspension%20upgrade/CIMG0006.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/RX-8%20Suspension%20upgrade/CIMG0008.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/RX-8%20Suspension%20upgrade/CIMG0021.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/RX-8%20Suspension%20upgrade/CIMG0022.jpg




Before:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/RX-8%20Suspension%20upgrade/CIMG0001.jpg


After:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/RX-8%20Suspension%20upgrade/CIMG0013.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/RX-8%20Suspension%20upgrade/Picture005.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/RX-8%20Suspension%20upgrade/Picture007.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/RX-8%20Suspension%20upgrade/CIMG0026.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/RX-8%20Suspension%20upgrade/Picture009.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/RX-8%20Suspension%20upgrade/Picture015.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/RX-8%20Suspension%20upgrade/Picture020.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/RX-8%20Suspension%20upgrade/Picture022.jpg

Looks great man! The GR+ is a very nice coilover. Your stance is very nice with those stance coilovers :lol:

this would be REALLY complimented by some 15-20mm spacers.

^+1
I agree it would really set it off to flush out the wheels. Other than that looks awesome

freaking sweet! nice work and nice drop!

very nice drop. looks great man.

Thanks guys. I've alredy been thinking about wheel spacers for some time now. The wheels are a +40 offset right now with a 225 45 18, I'm thinking another 10mm or so should do just fine.

As it sits without the rear fenders rolled I'm about 5/8" from the inside lip, so they definately are getting rolled before this Sunday's autocross. I don't think the 255 Direzzas on the track wheels are going to clear that. :lol: If they do it will be a little too close for comfort.

Nice




http://www.rx8club.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=138718&stc=1&d=1242148777

Nice work man. Car looks very aggressive now. Post an evaluation & review of the GR+.

Having the wheels flush would really improve the looks.

Those look really clean! Nice drop and clean car. Wider tires on there and your money. :biggthump

:rofl: Alfy...

Nice lookin stance the c'overs gave you. Anxious to hear how you like them at the Auto-x.

:rofl: Alfy...

Nice lookin stance the c'overs gave you. Anxious to hear how you like them at the Auto-x.

lol glad someone noticed it. lol first thing that came to my head was hackshaw jiiiimmm dugan lol.

Ok, my life is complete. I have been paint-chopped by Alfy :lol::lol: Nice one:lol:




As for the wider wheels/fatter rubber, the track wheels fill out the fenders rather nicely.

17x8 Motegi Traklites with Direzza Z1 Star Spec 255 40's.

I think I'm definately gonna have to roll the fenders to clear these.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/Shinka/DSC05567.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/Shinka/DSC05570.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/Shinka/DSC05561.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/Shinka/DSC05569.jpg

It looks like you used the original bolts on the top rear mount. Is that bracket threaded now? I got a set from the first production run and the bracket was not threaded, so I had to get different bolts and nuts to fit. Getting a wrench back there on the nuts is a pain.

What springs did you get for the rear?

I had to roll my rear arches when I had 275s on the car. I have 255/40-17 Bridgestones on the car now, and the roll let me drop the rear a little more than last year.

After your first event, if you want help making changes to the car, PM me and I can help you out. I had to go through it last year. Alternately, Stance supports their customers extremely well. You can go straight to the source! :)

Best of luck,
Nick

It looks like you used the original bolts on the top rear mount. Is that bracket threaded now? I got a set from the first production run and the bracket was not threaded, so I had to get different bolts and nuts to fit. Getting a wrench back there on the nuts is a pain.



I can imagine that bracket would be a pain to work around. The bracket is threaded now, and that was the only issue I had with the kit though as they had them rotated 180 degrees from where they should have been so I had to loosen the (4) bolts that hold that bracket on the top of the coilover and spin it around. It was a quick fix.



What springs did you get for the rear?


7k for the rears. She seems to handle pretty well too. I remember reading your posts about you going with the 6k in the rear.


After your first event, if you want help making changes to the car, PM me and I can help you out. I had to go through it last year. Alternately, Stance supports their customers extremely well. You can go straight to the source! :)

Best of luck,
Nick

Sounds good. First event is this weekend. (3rd event of the year) Luckily the club I run with is trying to setup a "standard" course that they will be running once at the beginning of the year and once at the end of the year to check for improvements. Two weeks ago we ran at the lot, but it was still too dirty, so now that the street sweepers came and cleaned all the gravel and dust off we're gonna run the same course again this Sunday. It'll be nice to see improvements over from last week.

Thanks for the offer to help set up the car, I appreciate it. If I need anything I'll defiantely shoot you a pm. ;)

sweet, i need a drop :(

7k for the rears. She seems to handle pretty well too. I remember reading your posts about you going with the 6k in the rear.

Yes, 7k springs were way too much for the car last year. I'm on very different tires this season, though, and all that I did to soften the car last year may be too much now. We'll see.

I would caution you against making too much of an assumption about how the car 'handles' before you put it through the rigors of competition. I thought my car felt great until I took it to the first event, where it tried to kill me. :P On the street I rarely, if ever, approach the 'limit' of my tires on purpose. On a course, I'm trying to do so at all times. :)

Looks good Brian...too bad Im gonna miss Sunday.

car looks good, but please dont kill the beer :)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/RX-8%20Suspension%20upgrade/Picture022.jpg[/QUOTE]

It's the High Life...and knowing Brian...that Beer was long since dead. :P

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/RX-8%20Suspension%20upgrade/CIMG0008.jpg

Is reusing that little gasket a necessity? :uhh:

damn you I need these! nice job!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/RX-8%20Suspension%20upgrade/CIMG0008.jpg

Is reusing that little gasket a necessity? :uhh:

I didn't re-use it when i installed mine.
i didn't think it was necessary...

Awesomes

I'm so glad you didn't post me cleaning your wheels lol. We should have got a picture of me in the trunk with the damper adjustment extensions. The car feels completely different and looks much better now IMO. I'm definitely glad you chose the gr+'s :)

Looking good!

Curious, how much pre-load was left in the rears with them (nearly) all the way down?

Also, are the fronts all the way lowered?

Nice dude...

Looking good!

Curious, how much pre-load was left in the rears with them (nearly) all the way down?

Also, are the fronts all the way lowered?

There is still a decent amount of pre-load on the rears. I'm not exactly sure how much, but definately more than enough to keep it from being "bouncy". She's nice and stiff.

As for the fronts I can probably go at least another 1/2" lower. Although I wouldn't recommend that as I am scraping the front lip in a few places I travel.



Here's a couple shots of her in "race" trim. These are from our points event #3 this past Sunday:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/Autocross%20May%2017th%202009/_DSC1668.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/Autocross%20May%2017th%202009/_DSC1664.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/Autocross%20May%2017th%202009/IMG_2819.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/Autocross%20May%2017th%202009/IMG_2794.jpg

My co-driver really tucking the tires: :SHOCKED:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/tiresmoker/Autocross%20May%2017th%202009/_DSC1866.jpg



All in all the car is VERY balanced now. Body roll has almost been completely eliminated (next up, sway bars..) and the handling is fantastic. The rear end was a little twitchy, but once the tires warmed up it was much better. It was a pretty cold day and with high winds we were having problems keeping the tire temps where they needed to be. It was a good day though as we finished 1st and 3rd in STX out of 7 with the top 3 people being all within .353 seconds of each other. Overall we both placed in the top 10 in PAX out of 79 drivers :smoker:

Wow you are about to scrape those side skirts!

soooo low... how stiff were you running?

Wow you are about to scrape those side skirts!

With the lot we run on there are a lot of elevation changes. I managed to put my front lip into the ground a couple times. The tires we run on are 255 40 17's (Direzza Z1's) and they are an inch shorter in height, thus lowering the car an additional 1/2" in comparison to my 18's. I have to raise the car up a bit to compensate for it. I don't want to tear that front lip off anytime soon :cwm27:


soooo low... how stiff were you running?

Right now the dampers are set at 8 clicks out of 15 on all four corners and the car feels great. I was going to dial the back end a little softer because it was twitchy and we couldn't get the tires warm enough (very cold and windy day) but once we started getting moving through the run group the tire temp came up enough that I didn't have to dial the dampers back.

All in all she handled great, I was very pleased with the suspension.