Paul_in_DC

I've reached the conclusion that one should not keep the D-Specs at their firmest setting for around-town driving. Oh, they do just fine, don't get me wrong. The ride is much tighter, but not harsh. The handling is terrific, and in cornering it's like being on rails. They problem is, since they feel so much better at speed, I'm constantly tempted to speed all the time. I'd guess my average speed around town must have been around 10 mph faster, especially in the corners.

Nearby I took some terrific twisty back roads through the woods, and had a blast... until I took one tight turn like a bat outa hell and Zoomed past a police cruiser going the other way. (Gulp!) I guess he was too busy to turn around and chase me down...

Then there's that other invention of Satan's - speed bumps. Even taking them at 2-3 mph, when the rear end comes over that bump and plops down, it's like riding on a foam-padded brick.

deamicls

iTrader: (1)

I'm glad to see that you're enjoying your D-specs. I'm having mine installed next week possibly and getting a nice alignment to go with it!

Also, it's nice to hear that the ride quality isn't horrible even on the firmest of settings! I can't wait!

As for the cruiser...that's happened to me twice. Once in my fathers eclipse to which he turned around and caught me and then once in my rx-8. Surprisingly, the police officer did not turn around when i passed him down the twisty......i guess he was busy talking to a buddy on his on his cell phone. Cops seems to always be on their cell phones around here.

GeorgeH

iTrader: (2)

You'll also find reduced grip over uneven, slick surfaces at full stiff. Hit a depression mid-corner and all that damping slows down the response of the suspension, which can result in a temporary loss of grip. It's especially noticiable in the rain.

Also, I reccomend keeping the rears about 1/4 to 1/2 turn softer than the fronts. When autocrossing (at full stiff) I find the car is prone to a bit of transitional oversteer when everything is set to full stiff. Of course, this also depends on your wheel/tire package, sways, etc.

But yeah, the steering response is amazing at full stiff.

fastrevmd

After seeing your set, I deciede that is the way to go. Where did you get yours put on at? I have my set in the truck right now.

iridearocket

I've enjoyed the entire summer on D-specs and I can say they were the best thing I did to the car. In combo with H&R springs they work really well. Since the H&R springs are quite stiff, I drive with D-specs 4-5 turns out from full stiff for road use and the ride is still quite agressive, well balanced and a total blast to drive with tons of confidence. (not to mention the ride height looks kick *** with the low ride from the springs)

I've entered in timed track events this summer. My car is bone stock except for the H&R springs and D-specs set to nearly full hard... that's it. I am running about 1 second a lap behind WRX STI's, Corvette ZO6's, race tuned RX-7 twin turbo's, etc. I am faster than S2000's, trans am's in race trim, all the front drive Honda's, etc. I use Toyo RA-1 tires and all those other dudes have Hoosier slicks... so you can imaginge that this suspention setup runs pretty damn good, certainly way better than you will ever need on the street.

Word of Warning: I have 3 of my 4 rims with dents in them now, so be careful how stiff you set the D-specs. The damage is likely done while booking around the race tracks at full hard and using the curbing to help turn the car.

GeorgeH

iTrader: (2)

The bent wheels are more likely due to the spring rates. The D-Spec adjustor only mildly affects compression damping - the vast majority of the change is in rebound. So, the damper forces from an impact with a chuckhole shouldn't change much across the adjustment range.

Truth is, the low-profile tires have more to do with bent wheels than anything. I bent two wheels on a completely stock suspension on the street.

Paul_in_DC

Who, me? I had mine installed (with the rear extensions) by Auto-Upgrade over in Chantilly, and they gave me a pretty good price to install.

http://www.auto-upgrade.com/mainpage.html

iridearocket

Interesting that you bent the rims with the stock setup.... the tire profile is small, but I would not think it would be that bad to bend them with the cushy stock springs. Then I must be very careful driving, when I put the new street rims on the car.

GeorgeH

iTrader: (2)

Yes, I had the misfortune of hitting a fresh chuckhole (read: deep & sharp) in a freeway offramp the very first weekend I owned the car. I'm usually very careful as well but this one caught me off-gaurd. I'm pretty sure that's what did it. Interestingly, I drove the car for about 10,000 miles that way - didn't know it until I had the OEM tires replaced. However, I tend to stay away from high-speed street driving and did not do a track day. I'm sure at 100+ I would have felt the imbalance.

iridearocket

Ya, my car had a wierd vibration all last winter, not really bad but there was the most vibration between 70-80mph. It was not until the 2nd time I had tires put on those rims that a shop noticed that one wheel would not balance out perfectly. After being puzzled he found a mild dent in the rim. I was also surprised, as I can not recall really hammering over anything.

After mashing the tracks this summer, I now have 3 dented rims. I was using the curbing quite agressively and who knows which bump did the damage... thank god for e-bay's used parts supply.

Razz1

That's pretty hard for me to believe you bent rims using the curbing.

I still put my bet on street potholes etc...

Paul_in_DC

For deamicls - here's a rough pic showing the position of the extenders on my D-Specs. The way my installer set it up, the top of the adjusters stick up behind that side trim (that stuff that's like a thin fuzzy wall on the side of the trunk.) To get to the adjuster, I have to pull the top of the trim back a little to see the top of the adjuster. So you can't see it normally. The red arrow points to where the top of the adjuster is (actually a little forward of that).

HTH

deamicls

iTrader: (1)

Awesome. Exactly what i wanted to know!

deamicls

iTrader: (1)

Well, I just had my tokico d-specs installed and WOW! I thought the Mazdaspeeds were good but this is goddly!

When i had them installed i talked to the mechanic about how to position the rear adjuster cables through the lining. Our solution turned out to be Amazing! Just to give you an idea of how it looks:

If you stick your head in the trunk and look all the way back, they are located about a couple inches from the top and the back of the trunk and are perpendicular to the sides they are mounted on. PERFECT! All you see are the *****.

Here's a crappy illustration:
(the dashes are the *****)




I'll be positing pictures later tonight or tomorrow.

lurch519

i have had my d-specs on for close on a year now with eibach springs, and love them. havent played around the the settings on the shocks at all, just had them set at about 1/2 way between hard and soft, and havent gotten around to getting the remote adjusters yet. in time.....

Shinka13

Paul....where is this twisty local road through the woods? Please do tell. We should get together sometime for this. That way you can laugh at how my tires are. (See post in tire section). I wish I could make the auto-x this weekend and finish them off, but I have to work. Sorry for the hijack. Back to your D's.

deamicls

iTrader: (1)

That's too bad that you don't have the adjusters in the rear. If you want to install them you're going to need to pull the rear shocks out and then get an alignment done as well.

Right now I only have it set at 4 turns from stiff. I haven't been able to play around with them yet (Full time job and studying) but i will stiffen them up and tweak it to what feels right.

I forget, how many turns is it to all the way stiff? 7?

Paul_in_DC

Hey Rod - Did you hear they cancelled Max-27? Not enough people signed up to make it viable. But I'll be running with Capital Driving Club on Saturday up in Frederick, so that'll be the end of my season for now.

Ah yes, my favorite local twisties... Head out Burke Lake Road until it gets to Rt 123. The other side, it becomes Clifton Road. Clifton, Henderson and Hampton Roads are all pretty fun if you get them when they're not busy (Henderson and Hampton are best.) But beware of 1) with leaves falling, they can become slick as greased lightning if they pile up in a corner, and 2) DEER. Last year I was zipping around Hampton Road and barely missed one only because of my Autocross skills - and the 8's great handling.

iridearocket

All the way in (clockwise) is full stiff... and 7 full 360 degree rotations/turns out is about as soft as they go... I tried them at full soft once, 7 turns out, and it was still a better ride than my stock shocks which had 25,000mi on them. The stock shocks were reasonable in the beginning, but with a stiffer spring (I have H&R's) you notice the shock degredation as the damping force, particularly rebound, needs to be stronger to manage a stiffer spring. As the spring wore out, the car started bouncing around with the stock shocks.

I had my H&R springs on the stock shocks for 1 whole year, so I could compare very well.

I do track events about 0-1 turn out, summer driving at ~4 turns out and winter at ~5 turns out. Happy as punch with the D-specs... and the ability to change the car's feeling in under 5 minutes...

6speedRenesis

Can't wait to put mine on. Only thing holding me back is that i'm not sure if my snow tires will have the clearance. I'm going to wait till spring to put them on, that way i'm not screwed by having to drive with the Potenzas in ice and snow here in cincy and i wouln't be forced into buying snow tires when i don't have the money for a new set at this time

Paul_in_DC

Full soft is just too "bouncy" for my tastes. I usually have them at 5 turns (front) and 6 turns (rear). Unfortunately I have to compromise, having speed bumps in my townhouse community.

6speedRenesis, what do you mean about clearance? The shocks replace your existing shocks, and don't change ride height or wheel/tire clearance. Did you also buy lowering springs or something?

6speedRenesis

i also have racing beat springs i'm going to be putting on at the same time, Forgot to mention that part

It's going to drop my rie by 1/2 inch, my snow tires had very little cleaence with the OEM springs and Shocks

iridearocket

6speed renesis... if I was you, I would wait until the spring. You will just be putting more mileage on good shocks when you can't really enjoy the benefits from them... especially if your snow tires are balloons that fill up the wheel well with stock setup.

6speedRenesis

yeah, that was my plan, and money is a little tight right now. so i should have some saved up to take care of it in the spring

looking ant new sway bars (front & rear) new ends links, new spirngs, and new gas shocks. a bit more then i want to deal with by throwing on new snow tire if i did it right now

Paul_in_DC

Careful - search the racing forum for springs and sway bars. I remember reading that stiffer springs AND stiffer sway bars can make it TOO stiff, and actually hurt your handling. Better to change one thing at a time, then decide what else in the handling you want to change. Since getting the Tokicos, I haven't even considered getting new sways; the shocks keep the 8 much flatter in turns than before. Bars and springs aren't even on my current "wish list." Strut tower braces are the only suspension mod on my list right now.

I initially got the Tokicos purely to address high-speed stability at the track. But I also found them to be a major improvement in restricting roll - so they're a great help in Autocross too.