Just got the rear spring plates loosened. Set those in the middle of Bilstein's range at 112mm. I'll see where that puts my rear ride height tomorrow. I'll set the front plates next...

I also set the front spring plates in the middle of Bilstein's range at 268mm. Car is now packed and ready to go to my friend's place to do the install tomorrow.

Chike, don't worry to much about the initial height. After about a week the springs will settle and you will probably want to readjust the height. I want to say mine are set about a quarter of the way up from Bilsteins lowest recommended height.

Pics were appreciated, thanks. Looks like they would probably lose a bit of bump travel.

The install went great today at my friend Shawn's place! Took us about 4 hrs, but we were talking and goofing off the whole time. S0l08, I really appreciated your pics/how-to. It made the install that much more of a breeze! :)

Thanks for the comments Peppy! With the front and rear spring perches set in the middle of the Bilstein recommended range, my ride heights are currently ~13.75" front & rear. So the fronts came down ~3/4" from my previous koni ride height, while the rears came down a 1/4". I drove the car for about 1.5hrs afterwards (~75 miles), so I may check my ride heights tomorrow and see if they've changed at all.

Thoughts-

I drove the first half of my trip with the shocks set at '9' F&R (softest setting). The ride felt better-than-stock and while I could feel the spring rates were stiffer, the car didn't feel under damped and soaked up road bumps/imperfections with aplomb!

I drove the final half of my trip with the shocks set at '5' F&R (middle setting). There was a noticeable difference in the ride of the car. The suspension felt tauter, and while the ride quality was a little worse than stock, it was still much better than the super-firm koni ride I've been driving around on for 2 years. I went down a few twisty back roads with the shocks on this setting and it left me with a smile on my face. These coilovers are great on the street! In the coming months, I'll see how they do on an autocross course. When used in combo with my adjustable swaybars F&R, I expect they'll do just fine.

Here's a pic I snapped during the install - red swaybar in view is the Hotchkis MX-5 3-way adjustable FSB.

https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1263703530

I don't think the PSS9 bump travel will be much different from stock as the OE bumpstops are 72 mm Front & 75 mm Rear. As the bilstein bumpstops are 40mm F&R, they'll gain back ~1.5" of travel.

Jung wasn't kidding when he said the PSS9's have a lot of travel for a coilover. I'm very impressed.

The car settled a bit more after my drive yesterday. Took the ride heights again this afternoon and the rear came down to 13.5", while the front was still 13.75". I adjusted the front spring perches to 263mm (from 268mm), and the front is now down to 13.5". So I'm at my target 13.5" ride height F&R, which has given me a rake of ~1/2".

With the help of a local autocrosser, we adjusted my toe back to zero in the front while my rear has 1/16" toe in. With his camber gauge, my measured camber is -2.8 front and -2.0 rear.

Do the PSS9 come with a camber plate at the top to adjust camber or did you use the old cams?

No camber plates needed as we don't have a McStrut suspension. The front a-arm suspension gains camber as the ride height is lowered.

On my former konis, I could only get -2.0 front camber, I'm already at -2.8 with the 1" drop and I wouldn't be surprised if I could get even more. Before my season starts, I'll get the car professionally aligned. I'm thinking about -2.5F, -2.0R, but we'll see what I end up deciding on.

Yes, but you can still change the camber without changing ride height. I guess the cams can still do the tricks to set camber

All I can get at my current ride height is 2.5 degrees in the front. So thats what I got set in the front and 2 degrees in the rear. 0 toe in the rear and about 3mm total toe out in the front.

I'm at 13 3/4' rear and 13 3/8" for 3/8" rake. Chike, just wondering why you say you you have 1/2" rake with the same measurements front and rear.

I started out with more wheel gap in the front than the rear. On my former konis, my ride heights were 14.5" F, 14.0" R and my car sat perfectly level with these ride heights. On the PSS9's, my car now sits at 13.5" F & R -- so my front came down 1.0", while the rear came down 0.5". So it's given me a 1/2" of rake.

On the '09+ RX-8's, I've noticed that Mazda seemed to increase the wheel gap in the back and the rear shocks on the 09's were revised from the earlier models. You mentioned that with konis, your ride heights were 14.5" all around, so there's probably a difference between our two model years.

I too have the PSS9's on my Rx8... I absolutely love the difference they make while flying down the highway and especially cornering

Well after ~1 week and maybe 200 miles of driving, I wanted to re-check my ride heights to see if they've changed at all:

Front: 13.5"
Rear: 13.5"

Based on S0l08's question about my rake estimate, I decided to measure the height of my pinch welds from the ground. I used the front and rear pinch welds designated as the "jacking points" for the car in the owner's manual as my reference points. The front pinch weld was 4.25" while the rear was somewhere between 4.66- 4.75". So from my measurements, there does appear to be ~1/2" of rake in the car.These PSS9's are definitely an excellent choice for a daily driven RX-8. I absolutely love mine, and it looks like their popularity is growing on this forum. There at least 5 people who own a set that have posted in this thread, and maybe 2 others who are on the fence about buying a set.

I daily drive mine on setting '5' front & rear. Not too harsh over the bumps & expansion joints, and controls the movement of the car perfectly on twisty backroads.

I'm Running 235/19's on the front and 265/19's on the Rear, I keep the Rears cranked on about setting 6 for the stiffness and the fronts i have on setting 1... I'd like to lower the ride height probably an inch in the Rear, I have it riding a little higher than i'd like due to the Tires being so wide. I just never have the time anymore to get in there and do it! I Heart Twistys Haha

So S0l08, when is your first autocross for 2010? Have you decided on your wheel & tire set-up yet?

First event is this weekend! I really need a fix.
Right now wheels are 17x9 +35 5Zigen fno1r with 255/40-17 Star Specs. Wheels are about 19lbs and I've been dd on the tires for about 5 months. So they are probably losing a little speed. Next thing on my list is a set of rpf1s and more Star Specs for racing only. Might shave them, not really sure. Is shaving worth it? Not making any NTs this year, just some regionals and local.

I will be travelling outside of my local region for this event. So I won't have my benchmark fast people to compare my times to. But I'll let you know how I do.

First event is this weekend! I really need a fix.
Right now wheels are 17x9 +35 5Zigen fno1r with 255/40-17 Star Specs. Wheels are about 19lbs and I've been dd on the tires for about 5 months. So they are probably losing a little speed. Next thing on my list is a set of rpf1s and more Star Specs for racing only. Might shave them, not really sure. Is shaving worth it? Not making any NTs this year, just some regionals and local.

I will be travelling outside of my local region for this event. So I won't have my benchmark fast people to compare my times to. But I'll let you know how I do.

I've already bought a set of 17x9 +45 RPF1's. I haven't pulled the trigger on tires yet, but I'll probably go with the Hankook RS-3's.

Definitely let me know how your first event goes. Also let me know your thoughts on which shock settings you liked the best F&R. My first event(s) won't be until the weekend of March 20th & 21st. The 20th is a T&T, while the 21st is our first points event. I'm getting a local hotshoe to co-drive with me both days, so he should keep me honest and help me with dialing in my set-up. He's previously driven an ESP camaro so he's very familiar with autocrossing a rwd car.

Stupid iPhone double post.
I'm glad I live in the south. We race all year. Plus I'm within driving distance of 4 regions. So I can usually find an event when I get a weekend off. I get the shakes if I go more than a month without racing.
I'm going to start with ther rear bar on soft and the front on medium. Shocks on full hard and see how that feels.

Definitely report back and let us know how your first outing goes!

Is it gonna fit on SII??

They are on my 09 right now. So, yes they will fit SII.

Running all good?? with no problems?

No problems at all.

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 knob you adjust on each shock.

Peppy took the following pics - the 1st one is the adjustment knob on the rear shock, the 2nd is the adjustment knob 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.
Attachment 266342

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.