Awesome results Chike! Glad to hear you are enjoying the move to STX. Keep it up!

car looks awesome Chike

Thanks man. I don't think I'll go back to stock class anytime soon. After 2 days of autocrossing my STX car last weekend, I got my fix...and I didn't need the hoosier crack! :yelrotflm
Thanks. I put a lot of thought into every upgrade I put on the car. I'm glad everything came together as well as it did!

Hey Chike, what wheel/tire combo are you running? Car looks sweet!

Thanks. I'm running a set of 17x9 +45 Enkei RPF1's with some 255/40/17 Hankook RS-3's.

255 40 17.

what fender height?

beers :beer:

My ride heights (from center of hub to the arch of the fender) is 13.5" F&R.

Came across a few more pics from the Blue Ridge event from 2 weekends ago. One that caught my attention was taken in the cleanest/grippiest part of the lot in a medium speed sweeper (where speeds were around ~40mph):

Attachment 263280

The outside front corner definitely has a little more dive than I would consider ideal. In a lower grip sweeper of similar speed, the car looked like this:

Attachment 263281

I'm definitely looking forward to trying the stiffer springs up front...

P.S. FWIW, on the middle setting of my adjustable front swaybar, my current front wheel rate is identical to someone using the stock front swaybar with a 500# front spring (~960lbs/in).

LOL. I've been doing a lot of reading on suspension tuning, and I feel like an idiot for this answer. 91 Impulse RS, you are correct in saying that the PSS9's would lose a bit of bump travel - I was previously confusing this with shock travel. Doh!

This site has a lot of good info: http://www.fromsteve.net/node/2

Also has a good review of Swift Springs:
I'm definitely happy I followed Bret's advice at Bilstein and went with Swift springs!!!! :)

^What are the spring rates of the Swift springs?

From checking with a couple of sources @ Bilstein, the standard front PSS9 shocks can handle a spring rate between 340-400lbs/in w/o requiring a re-valve. As I'm using a big bar, soft spring set-up for STX, the first couple of events I've done in the car have left me feeling like I needed a slight tweak in my front wheel rate.

Going to the stiffest setting on my front swaybar would be 120lbs/in increase, which is a little too much for what I needed. I decided to increase my front spring rate instead. I went with a pair of 7K Swift springs (392lbs/in), which should be just about right.

https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1268697424

These springs will go on my car sometime around the weekend of May 1st.

Did an event today with the new sways and the difference was night and day. The car was back to doing what I told it to. The new wheels and rs3s did well after a few runs to scrub them in. They only had 40 highway miles on the when I started the event and they were pretty slick.

Paxed third.
Ended up .9 sec behind Kerry in the STS CRX and .1 sec behind a CSP Miata. Both of which won there classes at the TX NT. And Kerry paxed 12th at TX.
Also of note was that the course pretty tight and fovored the small cars. So over all I am pleased. With more time with the car I'm sure the car will be pretty competetive.

One more event for me then we host a divisional next month. Can't wait.

Great job Max! What shock settings have you found to work best for you?

I had my second event with with my local Blue Ridge region today. I won my class (6 drivers) and finished 2nd out of 76 in PAX. The guy that won FTP was one-out-of-the-trophies in FSP at Nats last year.

Not many pics are up but here are two:

https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2069...083df36ed5.jpg

https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2309...deb1ab0a28.jpg

my first one this weekend with fixed results my car is ass happy lol any ideas???

^What swaybars are you running?

Nice Chike.
I liked them at 5 and 5. Never changed them. I did drop tire pressure to 43/41 and picked up a 1/2 sec. Still did not seem to be using all the tire by looking at the wear marks. I will have a codriver next event and will try some different settings and pressures.

Stew- what's you alignment and what bars are you using?

I also tried some lower pressures today - started at 40F/38R cold, and maintained 43F/41R hot. Tires felt quite grippy but not as grippy as the first event when I had a co-driver.

My other region, Washington DC, is hosting the NE Divisional next month. I'm signed up and I'm currently trying to talk Gary into being my co-driver. These Hankooks definitely need heat to work at their best.

Hi guys, t have been looking for bilstein colovers recently and i wanna ask what are the differences between B12, PSS9, PSS10 . Im sorry if this have been cover before. thank you

Not familiar with the B12 but I think that could be the non-adjustable PSS coilover kit Bilstein offers in other countries. From my understanding, there are only two differences between the PSS9 and PSS10 kits:

1) PSS10 has inverted monotube shocks F&R (PSS9 is rear only)
2) PSS10 has 10 clicks of adjustment (PSS9 has 9)

I'm not aware of a PSS10 kit for the RX-8, but they do offer a kit for the MX-5, so I figured it wouldn't take them very long to adapt it for the RX-8.

im on stock sways and im sure i had 43-45 psi and on setting 6 i think I'm going to go softer on the rear and 2 clicks stiffer in the front and maybe try 35-40 psi this sunday and see how that goes

just wondering how can i reach the rear shocks' adjusters? do i have to open the trunk cover?how?

The rears are inverted monotubes, so they are adjustable on the bottom of the coilover.

I see..how do u compare PSS9 to Ohlins DFV? It's nearly double more than PSS9, worth the money?

What tires are you on? And you didn't answer Max's question re: your current alignment? Just to be sure, you know 9 is the softest setting, and 1 is the firmest on the PSS9's?

FWIW, I'm surprised your car is "ass happy" on these coilovers on the stock sways. At your next event, I'd ask a fast local miata/S2000 driver to do a ride-along with you (or even drive your car). I'd be interested to see if they find your car loose or not.
Like Max mentioned, the adjusters are easily accessible at the bottom of the rear shocks. Front shocks are adjusted at the top, rears adjusted at the bottom.
Correct!

P.S. FWIW Max, I was getting a little inside wheel spin this past weekend. Part of that could be due to the lot being dusty in a few sections of the lot, but when I look at this pic I posted earlier:

https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2309...deb1ab0a28.jpg

My inside rear looks like it's starting to loose contact with the ground. At my next event this weekend, I'm going to try the pressures of 40F/38R (cold) again, along with a front shock setting of 3 and a rear setting of 4. I'm hoping with a little more rebound in the front and rear this issue will go away.

This weekend's event is with the DC region. I typically PAX'd in the top 30 (out of 200-250 drivers) in my last two seasons in B-stock. This region is packed with several multi-time national solo & pro solo champions (including Sam Strano, Mike "Jr" Johnson, Ian Baker, Brian Garfield, Brian Burdette, Lee Piccione, Jason Burns, Mike Neary, Marshall Cone). The talent definitely runs deep...

I've never tried the Ohlins, but Strano had very +ve things to say about these coilovers. If I had the money, I definitley would have given them a closer look. However, do realize that Ohlins recommends that these shocks be rebuilt every 20K miles (similar to koni, moton, etc). So these coilovers might not be suitable for a daily driven RX-8.

Bilsteins don't have this rebuild requirement. Their monotube design is very simple yet effective and holds up very well to long-tern use. If you ever need to do a revalve, cost is just $125 per shock which is dirt cheap (just find out the cost to revalve a moton shock ;) ).