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.

 

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.