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Hey Guys,
Just wanted to give my feedback on the kit, so far:
Open the box: Dampers look great, adjusters are nice and easy to use. Rear spring perches don't have any locking mechanism (I thought this was weird) and there is no upper spring perch in the back. I really don't like the latter - The spring falls out and doesn't reseat in the same place every time.
Love the adjustable swaybar mount, rear shock mounts are great and the long studs were excellent as I've got a home-brew RSM reinforcement in the car that is about 1/4" thick total. Front shocks/adjusters/Vorshlag Camber plates are great quality and went in without any trouble. Really nice to make sure there's no preload in the swaybar, and the fine-thread adjustments are excellent as well.
Installation: Pretty straightforward, I've done this before. The front dampers are short - As short as the AD DA's I owned previously. I think the droop travel ends at ~stock ride height. No big deal because the car sits down at !~12.75" ride height, so there's plenty of usable travel in both directions.
The rears went in quickly as well. The 7mm flats on the top have not been adequate for me to get good torque on the RSM's. I have had them loosen up twice, as I just can't get a good grab on the small 7mm flats. The front 8mm's were no sweat. Maybe I just need better tools.
The rear spring setup is my main complaint. Very simple to install, but with nothing holding the perch to the control arm and nothing to center the spring up top except the body nub, there's a lot of room for movement/error there. I'd really like to see an upper spring perch similar to the GC style that can be zip-tied to the top of the spring and centers on the little nub, just for my own peace of mind.
Initial driving: Wow. Did they give me the wrong springs? The ride is fantastic for 9/11kg springs (503lb/615lb for those of us that don't do the metric system). I had both damper settings at the minimum. Car feels really smooth over undulations, has just a bit of overtravel on larger bump/rebounds. Considering the spring setup, very acceptable. And not in even in the same league as the Advance Design junk I've experienced.
After driving the car a ways, the dampers seems to get just a touch stiffer. Still a fantastic ride, but they feel just a bit more damped after driving. Not a negative, just something I noticed.
Went for a little midnight marathon romp on some of my favorite backcountry mountain roads, and started turning the damping up to see how the car responded. The particular road that I chose is just-resurfaced, and very smooth, so I was able to really dial in some damping and feel the changes. I was blown away by the range of adjustability with these. The compression adjusters in the rear are kinda tough to grab when your fingers are cold and the hot exhaust is in close proximity, but I would imagine these will loosen up over time.
Autocross: We had a practice event this weekend at a site that is, more or less, somewhere between a parking lot and a dirt field. It was paved... sometime in the 70's... And not since. Very weathered and worn, with a lot of loose gravel for the first run groups. We ran 4 runs in the AM and 4 runs in the PM, and my afternoon runs were much faster/smoother than the morning. The surface was fairly slick, and I was amazed at how much grip I gained by dialing a lot of the damping out to allow some weight transfer to the wheels that needed it. I've gotta go recheck the settings, but I believe I ended up with the following:
F: 1C 2R
R: 2C 3R
I'm still wrestling a bit with the car's setup and may go back to the stock rear swaybar. As it is now:
F:
AST 4200
503lb Spring
28mm H&R Bar - Full Soft
R:
AST 4200
615lb Spring
24mm H&R Bar - Full Soft
I have a little trouble with losing the inside rear tire on corner exit and getting power-on oversteer. I'd rather dial that out with a softer rear bar, but I may try stiffening the front first. Any guidance there would be fine with me. I also considered going to the stock rear bar and bumping up to a 12kg/670lb spring instead. Any thoughts on that?
Overall, I am extremely pleased with the setup. I PAX'ed #1 out of 71 drivers at the practice event.. But next weekend will be the real test, as all the fast guys (John and Russ) will be there in STU competing.
Just my initial thoughts. I'm going to make the last two Rocky Mountain Summer Series Autocrosses and I'm doing my best to make it to the PDX/Time Trials in late October. I would really like to get out on track and run the ASTs and see how they compare to Brad Huseman's TCK Doubles. We've run there before and were very close.
Comment away!
Just wanted to give my feedback on the kit, so far:
Open the box: Dampers look great, adjusters are nice and easy to use. Rear spring perches don't have any locking mechanism (I thought this was weird) and there is no upper spring perch in the back. I really don't like the latter - The spring falls out and doesn't reseat in the same place every time.
Love the adjustable swaybar mount, rear shock mounts are great and the long studs were excellent as I've got a home-brew RSM reinforcement in the car that is about 1/4" thick total. Front shocks/adjusters/Vorshlag Camber plates are great quality and went in without any trouble. Really nice to make sure there's no preload in the swaybar, and the fine-thread adjustments are excellent as well.
Installation: Pretty straightforward, I've done this before. The front dampers are short - As short as the AD DA's I owned previously. I think the droop travel ends at ~stock ride height. No big deal because the car sits down at !~12.75" ride height, so there's plenty of usable travel in both directions.
The rears went in quickly as well. The 7mm flats on the top have not been adequate for me to get good torque on the RSM's. I have had them loosen up twice, as I just can't get a good grab on the small 7mm flats. The front 8mm's were no sweat. Maybe I just need better tools.
The rear spring setup is my main complaint. Very simple to install, but with nothing holding the perch to the control arm and nothing to center the spring up top except the body nub, there's a lot of room for movement/error there. I'd really like to see an upper spring perch similar to the GC style that can be zip-tied to the top of the spring and centers on the little nub, just for my own peace of mind.
Initial driving: Wow. Did they give me the wrong springs? The ride is fantastic for 9/11kg springs (503lb/615lb for those of us that don't do the metric system). I had both damper settings at the minimum. Car feels really smooth over undulations, has just a bit of overtravel on larger bump/rebounds. Considering the spring setup, very acceptable. And not in even in the same league as the Advance Design junk I've experienced.
After driving the car a ways, the dampers seems to get just a touch stiffer. Still a fantastic ride, but they feel just a bit more damped after driving. Not a negative, just something I noticed.
Went for a little midnight marathon romp on some of my favorite backcountry mountain roads, and started turning the damping up to see how the car responded. The particular road that I chose is just-resurfaced, and very smooth, so I was able to really dial in some damping and feel the changes. I was blown away by the range of adjustability with these. The compression adjusters in the rear are kinda tough to grab when your fingers are cold and the hot exhaust is in close proximity, but I would imagine these will loosen up over time.
Autocross: We had a practice event this weekend at a site that is, more or less, somewhere between a parking lot and a dirt field. It was paved... sometime in the 70's... And not since. Very weathered and worn, with a lot of loose gravel for the first run groups. We ran 4 runs in the AM and 4 runs in the PM, and my afternoon runs were much faster/smoother than the morning. The surface was fairly slick, and I was amazed at how much grip I gained by dialing a lot of the damping out to allow some weight transfer to the wheels that needed it. I've gotta go recheck the settings, but I believe I ended up with the following:
F: 1C 2R
R: 2C 3R
I'm still wrestling a bit with the car's setup and may go back to the stock rear swaybar. As it is now:
F:
AST 4200
503lb Spring
28mm H&R Bar - Full Soft
R:
AST 4200
615lb Spring
24mm H&R Bar - Full Soft
I have a little trouble with losing the inside rear tire on corner exit and getting power-on oversteer. I'd rather dial that out with a softer rear bar, but I may try stiffening the front first. Any guidance there would be fine with me. I also considered going to the stock rear bar and bumping up to a 12kg/670lb spring instead. Any thoughts on that?
Overall, I am extremely pleased with the setup. I PAX'ed #1 out of 71 drivers at the practice event.. But next weekend will be the real test, as all the fast guys (John and Russ) will be there in STU competing.
Just my initial thoughts. I'm going to make the last two Rocky Mountain Summer Series Autocrosses and I'm doing my best to make it to the PDX/Time Trials in late October. I would really like to get out on track and run the ASTs and see how they compare to Brad Huseman's TCK Doubles. We've run there before and were very close.
Comment away!
... although you still should have let me codrive 
Mostly because he adjusted his dampers backwards, I suspect.
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