That's good to hear! How about installing? Any modifications need to be done? or were there anything that didnt come with the kit?

 

Did an install a few post back. Kit is complete, just have to reuse a few oem parts.

 

Yep. I saw that. Does it have electronic control?? like the EDFC of Tein? How do you change your damper force?

 

There's no electronic control - shocks are manually adjustable. There's a **** you adjust on each shock.

Peppy took the following pics - the 1st one is the adjustment **** on the rear shock, the 2nd is the adjustment **** on the front shock. Very easy to adjust.

 

Can you adjust with the wheels on? On the ground?

 

How do you think these would compare to the R3 suspension?

 

Easily. I adjusted my shock settings the other day while I filled up with gas.
I don't have an R3, but these coilovers would be a huge improvement over any factory suspension offered by Mazda for the RX-8.

 

I got a stupid question. I know the suspension between the 3rd gen Miata and the RX-8 are very similar. Is the PSS9 system interchangeable between the two?

 

I doubt it. The shaft lengths for the shocks are probably different.

 

Anyone have photos or video of these in some aggressive driving? I'm also really curious about the effect on steering weight/feel and noise/vibration/harshness.

 

Peppy has some action shots from a track event on page 4 of this thread: https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-wheels-tires-brakes-suspension-55/anyone-here-run-bilstein-pss9s-140733/page4/

Peppy also has two sets of track pics on page 17 of this thread: https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-racing-25/post-pics-your-8-race-trim-138938/page17/

To answer, your other questions, any time you switch to stiffer springs there will be some increase in NVH. I haven't noticed any difference in steering weight/feel because of the coilover change.

 

First event today. 75 drivers. 1st place PAX. 2nd FTD. More to come.

 

That's frickin' awesome for your 1st time out. Where did you PAX with this club when you ran your car in BS last season?

 

Just got home. I dont have the exact numbers yet, but I was about .65 sec ahead in pax on a 33.5 sec course. I have not raced in this region since I got the RX8, so I dont have anyone to compare to.

Thats the good part. The not so good is the surface. This was the first event on a new site for them. Site is asphalt and about 700'x400'.
Absolutely the worst surface I have ever raced on. No grip almost like it was wet. It was like the rocks in the asphalt would come out of the ground and make gravel. More like a rallycross in the AM, with a little improvement in the PM. Not to mention it was 35* this morning warming to about 50*. When someone posts a vid, Ill show yall.
Not saying the car did not handle well. It felt great. Just saying the lower spring rates probably helped. I dropped the struts to 5 and ran 31PSI all around. So I'm not real sure how this will translate to a grippy surface.
Everyone had to race on the same crap, so I'm happy to do as well as I did. Just need more seat time on them to get a real idea of where the car is at.

 

Got some good light at a rest area on the way home last night. Snapped an iPhone pic.

 

Car looks very sharp!

Btw, dropping the shocks to 5 all around sounds like a much better starting point (than full firm). I'll be starting at this setting when I do a test & tune event on 3/20.

 

Nice job Solo8.

As for the setting on the PSS9s, when I talked to a Bilstein tech guy last year, he told me they are valved such that at roughly mid-adjustment, they are more or less critically damped. On the other hand, they also have a relatively narrow range of adjustment, which means even at full stiff you probably are not heavily overdamped. FWIW, YMMV, etc.

 

Thanks for posting this information George. This will definitely assist me in fine-tuning my set-up this season.

 

Thanks George. I thought with the low spring rates you would want to run them relative high. They are very livable at 5. Probably set them there and leave them, unless I need to do some fine tuning.
My next event is back home in 3 weeks. Grippy asphalt, longer course, probably wont have to work, so i'll have time to play with the sway bar settings and such. Will probably do double, so should get about 12 runs. Plus i will be racing against known fast people and fast cars. Our fastest drivers have now had the 2007-08 Nat champ STS CRX for the last few months. I will have a much better idea whare the car is at.

 

That is a compromise autocrossers use in stock class to get around the fact that we have to run soft factory springs. While the PSS9 spring rates are softer in comparison to other kits (KW, Ohlins, etc), the valving of these PSS9 shocks are matched to these spring rates. This is why the shocks need a re-valve if we decide to alter the spring rates at all.

 

what price is everyone paying for their PSS9s?

 

There's supposed to be a price increase on these coilovers in 2010 -- not sure how much though. I bought mine just after the new year, and paid right around $1.5K shipped to my door. I apparently got one of the last sets in the country, as I was told Bilstein USA won't be receiving another shipment until roughly mid February.

 

I paid about the same. I had found them for like $1300 on a site. Ordered them and then they came back and said they were discontinued. Found another site listing them for $1250 after I ordered mine. Who knows if they will honour this price, but try googling them. Might get lucky.

 

Ended up being .669 sec ahead in pax on a 33.5 sec course.
Acouple of vids. Me in the first one and the FTD car in the second. Car is a fully prepped CSP miata. You can see the traction problems hes having, and the dust and rock he kicks up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S6RY7T49O0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBzGqudQH7I

 

Thanks for posting those vids. The PSS9's seemed to offer pretty good motion control as your car navigated the course.

That CSP miata looked liked it was having all kinds of traction issues out there.