4k GT86 Gets a Rocket Bunny Kit & LS3 V8 Swap!
Discussion
Had my first little outing in the GT86 yesterday as I met up with a few of the other members of the GT86 owner's club at the Bexhill 100 Classic car show.
Car looked great parked up next to the others and they've been following my thread on the owners forum so they were almost more excited to see the car than I was to be driving it
Had a few people checking out the car as I had printed off some sheets with some "Before" pictures to show off the transformation it has gone through, and I clocked atleast one person having a little nose while wearing a PH Jumper
Car drives really well and I feel i'm able to give a mini review to anyone that's been considering one but thought they may be a bit too slow or lackluster.
My other cars are both turbocharged so to go from something akin to 300bhp in a turbocharged car to roughly 200bhp in a NA car is quite a bizarre change but i've quickly become quite used to it. The car isn't a torque monster and doesn't give you a kick up the rear when you give it a boot full like a boosted car would but isn't a slouch either, torque wise it has no issue picking up speed and is really fun to rev out to the red line as its happy rev range is around 4-7.5k RPM Whereas most forced induction cars (especially older ones) will start to feel a bit bogged down after 5.5k and as though your effort hanging on to that gear is wasted.
The GT86 would probably feel quite familiar to someone that is used to NA Mx5's or similar but a bit slow if you're used to 500bhp fire breathing monsters.
This may all seem like quite cliche common sense to anyone that is used to NA cars but it was quite eye opening to me. The car definitely feels light, its no Caterham but the ~1240kg curb weight does compliment the power level quite well and it's quite fun to blast around B roads that gives quite a few thrills and a sense of danger that a heavier and more powerful AWD car like my Subaru can't convey although some people may not be a fan of that.
To round it off with a bit of a boring day-to-day note the car averages 32mpg with ease and could easily do more if you weren't so inclined to wind it out to the red line with every opportunity like I am currently (After the engine is warm of course!). The seats are quite snug so you may want to sit in one first depending on your frame (I Weigh about 105kg) the engine has no problem in traffic and is able to handle any kind of city driving even if its uphill in 3rd gear at some ridiculous 20mph limit.
Being electronic throttle it does have a slight <0.5 second delay on the throttle but that's quickly overlooked when you get used to the car and is helped out by turning on sport mode. However the Clutch pedal itself is unnaturally light, I've heard of people swapping out the spring in the pedal to give it a heavier feel but i've already got used to it so probably won't do this myself and the steering is quite heavily assisted as again it is very light, some people might not like this but I'm actually quite enjoying it as a change.
Hopefully that helps anyone out and i'm happy to offer any more opinion but I'd take my words as a pinch of salt as i'm definitely no car journalist
Just a big computer nerd who's handy with a spanner.
Car looked great parked up next to the others and they've been following my thread on the owners forum so they were almost more excited to see the car than I was to be driving it
Had a few people checking out the car as I had printed off some sheets with some "Before" pictures to show off the transformation it has gone through, and I clocked atleast one person having a little nose while wearing a PH Jumper
Car drives really well and I feel i'm able to give a mini review to anyone that's been considering one but thought they may be a bit too slow or lackluster.
My other cars are both turbocharged so to go from something akin to 300bhp in a turbocharged car to roughly 200bhp in a NA car is quite a bizarre change but i've quickly become quite used to it. The car isn't a torque monster and doesn't give you a kick up the rear when you give it a boot full like a boosted car would but isn't a slouch either, torque wise it has no issue picking up speed and is really fun to rev out to the red line as its happy rev range is around 4-7.5k RPM Whereas most forced induction cars (especially older ones) will start to feel a bit bogged down after 5.5k and as though your effort hanging on to that gear is wasted.
The GT86 would probably feel quite familiar to someone that is used to NA Mx5's or similar but a bit slow if you're used to 500bhp fire breathing monsters.
This may all seem like quite cliche common sense to anyone that is used to NA cars but it was quite eye opening to me. The car definitely feels light, its no Caterham but the ~1240kg curb weight does compliment the power level quite well and it's quite fun to blast around B roads that gives quite a few thrills and a sense of danger that a heavier and more powerful AWD car like my Subaru can't convey although some people may not be a fan of that.
To round it off with a bit of a boring day-to-day note the car averages 32mpg with ease and could easily do more if you weren't so inclined to wind it out to the red line with every opportunity like I am currently (After the engine is warm of course!). The seats are quite snug so you may want to sit in one first depending on your frame (I Weigh about 105kg) the engine has no problem in traffic and is able to handle any kind of city driving even if its uphill in 3rd gear at some ridiculous 20mph limit.
Being electronic throttle it does have a slight <0.5 second delay on the throttle but that's quickly overlooked when you get used to the car and is helped out by turning on sport mode. However the Clutch pedal itself is unnaturally light, I've heard of people swapping out the spring in the pedal to give it a heavier feel but i've already got used to it so probably won't do this myself and the steering is quite heavily assisted as again it is very light, some people might not like this but I'm actually quite enjoying it as a change.
Hopefully that helps anyone out and i'm happy to offer any more opinion but I'd take my words as a pinch of salt as i'm definitely no car journalist
Just a big computer nerd who's handy with a spanner.One of my deadlines for the 86 was to get it ready for JAE 2018 so I could bring it along with my local jap car club. A 300 mile round trip to the east of england showground and back over the weekend was proof to me that there are no underlying issues with the car or that I forgot to bolt anything down!
Being the only 86 in our club it got some good attention from people at the show especially with my little "Before" pictures printed out for people to see where it has come from and also thanks to being parked next to a lovely Mk3 supra belonging to one of the other Justjap Members.
I met and had a brief chat with Kesler which was good to meet a fellow 86 owner and strangely enough managed to meet the guy that sold me the 86 in the first place as he recognised it from the pictures he took of it just over 5 months ago, he had some good things to say about how i've done so considering he has repaired a few himself and is able to get parts much cheaper from other breakers or suppliers that was a big compliment which really made my Day!
Got a few pictures of the car parked up on the Friday evening and Saturday.
Being the only 86 in our club it got some good attention from people at the show especially with my little "Before" pictures printed out for people to see where it has come from and also thanks to being parked next to a lovely Mk3 supra belonging to one of the other Justjap Members.
I met and had a brief chat with Kesler which was good to meet a fellow 86 owner and strangely enough managed to meet the guy that sold me the 86 in the first place as he recognised it from the pictures he took of it just over 5 months ago, he had some good things to say about how i've done so considering he has repaired a few himself and is able to get parts much cheaper from other breakers or suppliers that was a big compliment which really made my Day!
Got a few pictures of the car parked up on the Friday evening and Saturday.
Been a few weeks since i've posted any updates but i've been driving it and enjoying it, taking it to a few shows and so on.
Got a couple of shows coming up this week so i've spent this weekend giving the 86 it's 2nd wash and spending a few hours to tidy up the engine bay.
Took so long to clean the engine bay thanks to some weird sticky waxoyl-y stuff that was covering all of the electrical connectors, ecu brackets, bottom of the inlet manifold, ABS module etc.
I'd understand the purpose of keeping it there if it were uniform but considering the vast majority of it was on plastic, aluminium or painted parts I wasn't too sure what purpose it could serve other than to attract dirt.
Anyway here's a few pictures
Everyone loves a before and after
Got a couple of shows coming up this week so i've spent this weekend giving the 86 it's 2nd wash and spending a few hours to tidy up the engine bay.
Took so long to clean the engine bay thanks to some weird sticky waxoyl-y stuff that was covering all of the electrical connectors, ecu brackets, bottom of the inlet manifold, ABS module etc.
I'd understand the purpose of keeping it there if it were uniform but considering the vast majority of it was on plastic, aluminium or painted parts I wasn't too sure what purpose it could serve other than to attract dirt.
Anyway here's a few pictures
Everyone loves a before and after
Edited by Samjeev on Sunday 30th September 16:43
Edited by Samjeev on Sunday 30th September 16:44
FLGirl said:
Spotted!
Weird as I was catching up on your progress this morning and you’ve just driven past me!
I passed you as I was heading up ditching road in the black Z4C
Car looks fab good to see it out and about.
Oh wow that's cool, my first spot too! Weird as I was catching up on your progress this morning and you’ve just driven past me!
I passed you as I was heading up ditching road in the black Z4C
Car looks fab good to see it out and about.
I saw you go past in your Z4C as I was stuck crawling through traffic
Bit of an update with some boring and fun bits this time.
So Since i've finished the car i've put about 3000 miles on it by driving to and from work, a few long 3-5 hour journeys and even it's first track day!
There's been no major problems but there has been one tiny casualty, the driver's side side repeater in the front bumper made a bid for freedom when driving to work one day. It's not a major problem as I had a side indicator in the top of the wings now but it's annoying to be left with this void in the bumper. I've tried sourcing a replacement but i'm being a little too stingy about as I don't really want to pay £25-50 to replace something that doesn't do anything. I might try and cut out a little carbon fibre blanking plate but i've not got around to it yet.
Other than that I did a few small jobs to the car recently and as I mentioned above took it on it's first track day so lets get in to that!
Had to Sort out the a couple of known problems in the 86 community that being a problem with the driver's side window being scratched and scraped by one if its guides and a tiny bit of rust that forms on the Window half-frame. These are both issues covered under the warranty but with all the hassle of handing my car in and with the horror stories i've read of Toyota techs being less than cautious and gentle when working on the 86's.
For the rust it's just a case that the plastic door trim must vibrate against this tiny window frame and take off the paint but it's really simple fix as I just had to remove the door trim piece to get access to the part of the pillar that needed to be cleaned up. Put some Bilt Hamber deox stuff on it to remove the rust and left it for a couple of hours and then clean it off and applied some Hammerite with a tiny paint brush to the area that had been rubbed away by the trim. In Hindsight i should've taken a file to the trim as well just to take it back 1-2mm so it would clear the trim better but I figured I can easily do it again in the future if need be as it all comes off with 1 screw.
Didn't get an after-picture but you can see how much more access you get and the extent of the surface rust on my car with the trim removed:
While I was there I had a look down the door and could see that one of the window guides had folded over on it self and broken, in the long term this would likely have caused the scratching issue that alot of people experience but i've not had any damage on my glass yet.
Again not wanting to go through the hassle of the warranty I figured I would just reach in with a pair of pliers and yank it out. It's been almost 4 weeks since I did and I've had no problems with the window, wind noise, water or anything getting in to the car so it appears to be fine with just 2 of the 3 guides on that window and I didn't have to hand my car off to be fixed
Finally the fun bit.
This weekend me and my dad took the long journey up from Henfield to Oulton park on Friday night, a whole 5 hour drive through what can only be described as a monsoon which definitely gave a little excitement to the drive i suppose.
The day after was our track day, it was really slippery in the morning as there was still a lot of dampness on the track meaning it took no effort at all to get the back end of the 86 out even with the driver aids only half-disabled. We didn't have any big moments or spins in the morning but it was an excellent opportunity for me to get use to how the 86 can relay information to you about how it's slipping and what it feels like when the back end let's loose a little. This is quite valuable to me as the only other car i've driven on track is our Vx220 which doesn't give this same feed back, in a way i've always felt that i've been missing a step with the whole RWD driving progression and I've finally begun to fulfill that with the 86 which will hopefully make me a better driver.
In the Afternoon the track cleared up alot and you could really go for it, I only have Toyo Proxes T1R's on my car so they're nothing fancy but it was good fun to really take them to the edge of their grip in every single corner and absolutely torture them. Even after doing the 86's silly "pedal dance" to turn all the systems off the car understeers a little bit when you really push it wish doesn't surprise me being totally standard suspension wise but it's great fun to drive and feels really rewarding. Both me and my Dad were impressed by how little body roll there is even on the standard springs/dampers as some car's i've been a passenger in on-track in the past I felt like my time had come every single corner when all I could see out the window was Tarmac due to the body roll.
Managed to overtake a couple of people as there were a few cars of similar caliber, an Mx5, N/A Vx220 and another 86 although I do wish I had a little bit more torque lower down to really pull the car out of the corners as Oulton park has a couple of chicanes which really drain your momentum and coming out of both of them you have to go up hill so it can really take a while for the car to pick up when it needs to. It was really fun to be able to drive the car 10/10th's all the time and has really made me want to try and find a day where I can skid around a few cones in a skid pan with an instructor or such but i'm not sure what's out there to facilitate this really.
Only one picture from the whole day i'm afraid and no video either, we were just too busy enjoying our first time at the track, it would be interesting to hear if there were any other PHer's there though.
So Since i've finished the car i've put about 3000 miles on it by driving to and from work, a few long 3-5 hour journeys and even it's first track day!
There's been no major problems but there has been one tiny casualty, the driver's side side repeater in the front bumper made a bid for freedom when driving to work one day. It's not a major problem as I had a side indicator in the top of the wings now but it's annoying to be left with this void in the bumper. I've tried sourcing a replacement but i'm being a little too stingy about as I don't really want to pay £25-50 to replace something that doesn't do anything. I might try and cut out a little carbon fibre blanking plate but i've not got around to it yet.
Other than that I did a few small jobs to the car recently and as I mentioned above took it on it's first track day so lets get in to that!
Had to Sort out the a couple of known problems in the 86 community that being a problem with the driver's side window being scratched and scraped by one if its guides and a tiny bit of rust that forms on the Window half-frame. These are both issues covered under the warranty but with all the hassle of handing my car in and with the horror stories i've read of Toyota techs being less than cautious and gentle when working on the 86's.
For the rust it's just a case that the plastic door trim must vibrate against this tiny window frame and take off the paint but it's really simple fix as I just had to remove the door trim piece to get access to the part of the pillar that needed to be cleaned up. Put some Bilt Hamber deox stuff on it to remove the rust and left it for a couple of hours and then clean it off and applied some Hammerite with a tiny paint brush to the area that had been rubbed away by the trim. In Hindsight i should've taken a file to the trim as well just to take it back 1-2mm so it would clear the trim better but I figured I can easily do it again in the future if need be as it all comes off with 1 screw.
Didn't get an after-picture but you can see how much more access you get and the extent of the surface rust on my car with the trim removed:
While I was there I had a look down the door and could see that one of the window guides had folded over on it self and broken, in the long term this would likely have caused the scratching issue that alot of people experience but i've not had any damage on my glass yet.
Again not wanting to go through the hassle of the warranty I figured I would just reach in with a pair of pliers and yank it out. It's been almost 4 weeks since I did and I've had no problems with the window, wind noise, water or anything getting in to the car so it appears to be fine with just 2 of the 3 guides on that window and I didn't have to hand my car off to be fixed
Finally the fun bit.
This weekend me and my dad took the long journey up from Henfield to Oulton park on Friday night, a whole 5 hour drive through what can only be described as a monsoon which definitely gave a little excitement to the drive i suppose.
The day after was our track day, it was really slippery in the morning as there was still a lot of dampness on the track meaning it took no effort at all to get the back end of the 86 out even with the driver aids only half-disabled. We didn't have any big moments or spins in the morning but it was an excellent opportunity for me to get use to how the 86 can relay information to you about how it's slipping and what it feels like when the back end let's loose a little. This is quite valuable to me as the only other car i've driven on track is our Vx220 which doesn't give this same feed back, in a way i've always felt that i've been missing a step with the whole RWD driving progression and I've finally begun to fulfill that with the 86 which will hopefully make me a better driver.
In the Afternoon the track cleared up alot and you could really go for it, I only have Toyo Proxes T1R's on my car so they're nothing fancy but it was good fun to really take them to the edge of their grip in every single corner and absolutely torture them. Even after doing the 86's silly "pedal dance" to turn all the systems off the car understeers a little bit when you really push it wish doesn't surprise me being totally standard suspension wise but it's great fun to drive and feels really rewarding. Both me and my Dad were impressed by how little body roll there is even on the standard springs/dampers as some car's i've been a passenger in on-track in the past I felt like my time had come every single corner when all I could see out the window was Tarmac due to the body roll.
Managed to overtake a couple of people as there were a few cars of similar caliber, an Mx5, N/A Vx220 and another 86 although I do wish I had a little bit more torque lower down to really pull the car out of the corners as Oulton park has a couple of chicanes which really drain your momentum and coming out of both of them you have to go up hill so it can really take a while for the car to pick up when it needs to. It was really fun to be able to drive the car 10/10th's all the time and has really made me want to try and find a day where I can skid around a few cones in a skid pan with an instructor or such but i'm not sure what's out there to facilitate this really.
Only one picture from the whole day i'm afraid and no video either, we were just too busy enjoying our first time at the track, it would be interesting to hear if there were any other PHer's there though.
Mark Benson said:
My GT86 has it's first trackday this weekend at Rockingham - looking forward to it.
I put Yellowstuff pads and Goodridge hoses on but otherwise it's the standard car - I can't remember the last time I went on track in a road car, I've been racing for so long now, the trackdays I've done have been testing racecars - I hope I don't feel short changed, though I'm pretty confident I'll enjoy it.
When I first started racing I went to Don Palmer for a day (http://www.donpalmer.co.uk/) - he's not cheap (£450 for the day) but he'll give you car control skills that'll last you the rest of your life, I first went to him nearly 20 years ago and still use the stuff he taught me then.
Another popular day is the Carlimits day in Essex (https://carlimits.com/script/viewEvents.php?type=airfieldtraining) which is a bit cheaper if you share the instructor's time with other drivers.
Both worth taking if you want confidence in the car on track, once you learn to 'step over the edge' and control the car you find a whole new level of enjoyment from driving.
I've heard of the carlimits days before actually but i'll check them both out.I put Yellowstuff pads and Goodridge hoses on but otherwise it's the standard car - I can't remember the last time I went on track in a road car, I've been racing for so long now, the trackdays I've done have been testing racecars - I hope I don't feel short changed, though I'm pretty confident I'll enjoy it.
When I first started racing I went to Don Palmer for a day (http://www.donpalmer.co.uk/) - he's not cheap (£450 for the day) but he'll give you car control skills that'll last you the rest of your life, I first went to him nearly 20 years ago and still use the stuff he taught me then.
Another popular day is the Carlimits day in Essex (https://carlimits.com/script/viewEvents.php?type=airfieldtraining) which is a bit cheaper if you share the instructor's time with other drivers.
Both worth taking if you want confidence in the car on track, once you learn to 'step over the edge' and control the car you find a whole new level of enjoyment from driving.
I didn't have too many brake problems although after a few laps they did feel a little bit spongy but it wasn't anything dangerous or having a total loss of braking and I was happy to keep going despite that. The pads and lines may help you out but I imagine some decent fluid would go a long way as well. I found myself braking less than others at Oulton anyway probably due to carrying less speed and weight in to a corner compared to an M5 or such
I would suggest looking up the "Pedal dance" for the 86's if you don't know of it already as it disables the traction control entirely and a lot of Electronic Brake assist or bias things that might hinder you on track and hopefully it's a decent dry day for you. The car was a bit fun in the wet as it was really predictable but once it started to dry up it was really capable for a totally stock car.
https://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2...
Edited by Samjeev on Thursday 15th November 13:55
Another small update from this weekend. Finally got some replacement front side repeaters to fit.
With one of the side repeaters flying off a few months ago I wanted to source a cheap pair to replace them as there's no bulbs in them anyway its just for looks rather than practicality hence not wanting a brand new or expensive pair.
Pleased to say they look alright, the big question is how long will they last before flying off again! It seems it's quite a common issue when you re-fit these lights but unlike most owners I don't have any bulbs and wires to hang on to them when they do pop out, overall its just a bad design by subaru to keep them retained in the bumper.
I bought some tinting spray to make the front indicators match and they came out alright-ish as well. All in time for the BMW HQ meet next week so if any of you are going to be there come say Hi and feel free to have a nose around the car
With one of the side repeaters flying off a few months ago I wanted to source a cheap pair to replace them as there's no bulbs in them anyway its just for looks rather than practicality hence not wanting a brand new or expensive pair.
Pleased to say they look alright, the big question is how long will they last before flying off again! It seems it's quite a common issue when you re-fit these lights but unlike most owners I don't have any bulbs and wires to hang on to them when they do pop out, overall its just a bad design by subaru to keep them retained in the bumper.
I bought some tinting spray to make the front indicators match and they came out alright-ish as well. All in time for the BMW HQ meet next week so if any of you are going to be there come say Hi and feel free to have a nose around the car
Right it's time to get this ex-car wreck rolling again
Just ordered the first mod of the year and keeping up the theme of not doing anything by half measures there's alot planned over the next couple of months.
Order Placed on a set of 2-way adjustable BC ER Series Coilovers!
Along with that once they arrive and im able to take some measurements I'll be ordering a set of Stanceparts Air-cups.. Now I know what you might be thinking, no I don't plan to slam the car and roll around with rediculous camber but I would like the luxury of being able to pop the ride height up as and when I please to save any front lips and the side skirts when it comes to any big speed bumps or Multi-story car parks.
As well as that I plan to purchase a set of thicker and adjustable Whiteline Anti-Roll bars for the front and rear.
Aaaand Finally in April I plan on picking up a set of Adjustable rear lower control arms, Trailing arms and Toe arms for the rear once Driftworks has released their new line of products for the GT86!
The Next few months are going to be busy and its exciting!
Just ordered the first mod of the year and keeping up the theme of not doing anything by half measures there's alot planned over the next couple of months.
Order Placed on a set of 2-way adjustable BC ER Series Coilovers!
Along with that once they arrive and im able to take some measurements I'll be ordering a set of Stanceparts Air-cups.. Now I know what you might be thinking, no I don't plan to slam the car and roll around with rediculous camber but I would like the luxury of being able to pop the ride height up as and when I please to save any front lips and the side skirts when it comes to any big speed bumps or Multi-story car parks.
As well as that I plan to purchase a set of thicker and adjustable Whiteline Anti-Roll bars for the front and rear.
Aaaand Finally in April I plan on picking up a set of Adjustable rear lower control arms, Trailing arms and Toe arms for the rear once Driftworks has released their new line of products for the GT86!
The Next few months are going to be busy and its exciting!
There's been a recent and unfortunate change of plans recently in regards to the suspension changes.
Having discussed my Coilover order with BC racing it appears that the BC ER Series comes from the factory with 10/8kg springs which is incredibly hard to confirm seeing as no suppliers list this or they list it at 8kg/6kg. Although it is possible to get softer spring rates by doing so the BC Racing Factory in Taiwan have advised that they will not be able to offer the units with a warranty.
As 10/8kg is far too harsh for a street car rather than track car in my opinion and due to the lack of warranty support and general lack of compromise on their attitude I have decided to cancel my order with BC and go back to the original, potentially controversial and more expensive plan that I had when fixing the car up, Air Ride.
I don't really want to start any Air vs Coilover arguments however this was my first option when I was fixing the car up as with my other car's i've gone down the dedicated track car route and i've gone down the Low street car route and both have their compromises that eventually lead to an less-enjoyable driving experience so for me hoping to use the 86 as a fast street car with some show potential and potentially some very rare track use (1-2 track days a year at most) I've wanted to go with Air, it's also another one of those "Well if I can, why not. There's a first time for everything" Kind of situations for me and I look forward to the process of installing it, setting it up and reaping the benefits of it in the future.
So that no one feels I didn't get coilovers enough of a chance however I did do my research and unfortunately there aren't really any within my price bracket that suit my purpose on the 86 platform. With the earlier plan of using air-cups so I could avoid scraping front lips and chassis rails any coilover I choose will instantly lose roughly 20mm of its lowering potential through the size of the air cup units. With this in mind with the fact that I was hoping to lower the car around 40mm or so it would mean that the Coilover would need to lower atleast 60mm which is quite a tall order in the 86 world it seems.
With my price target of around £1500 I considered the following:
Tein Flex A: I wanted a little more for my money, hoping to get a dual-valve coilover setup
BC ER Series: See Above problems
KW V3: Lowering on these sacrifices overall suspension travel, not an option I was willing to take.
Ohlins: Over budget when taking in to account the top mounts.
HKS Hipermax GT: Possibly the best option however a bit of a gamble as their specs are on the absolute limits of my desired result.
After all of this and to avoid any further headaches I just decided to bite the bullet and hold off until funds can allow me to go ahead with the air setup, it does also lead me towards the future plans I have this year for the car as well being some pretty big body changes, wheels, etc with some more go fast bits over the next couple of years.
I know this might surprise or disapoint a few people however it's just the option i've been wanting to go with and hopefully the best all round option for how i want to use the car
Having discussed my Coilover order with BC racing it appears that the BC ER Series comes from the factory with 10/8kg springs which is incredibly hard to confirm seeing as no suppliers list this or they list it at 8kg/6kg. Although it is possible to get softer spring rates by doing so the BC Racing Factory in Taiwan have advised that they will not be able to offer the units with a warranty.
As 10/8kg is far too harsh for a street car rather than track car in my opinion and due to the lack of warranty support and general lack of compromise on their attitude I have decided to cancel my order with BC and go back to the original, potentially controversial and more expensive plan that I had when fixing the car up, Air Ride.
I don't really want to start any Air vs Coilover arguments however this was my first option when I was fixing the car up as with my other car's i've gone down the dedicated track car route and i've gone down the Low street car route and both have their compromises that eventually lead to an less-enjoyable driving experience so for me hoping to use the 86 as a fast street car with some show potential and potentially some very rare track use (1-2 track days a year at most) I've wanted to go with Air, it's also another one of those "Well if I can, why not. There's a first time for everything" Kind of situations for me and I look forward to the process of installing it, setting it up and reaping the benefits of it in the future.
So that no one feels I didn't get coilovers enough of a chance however I did do my research and unfortunately there aren't really any within my price bracket that suit my purpose on the 86 platform. With the earlier plan of using air-cups so I could avoid scraping front lips and chassis rails any coilover I choose will instantly lose roughly 20mm of its lowering potential through the size of the air cup units. With this in mind with the fact that I was hoping to lower the car around 40mm or so it would mean that the Coilover would need to lower atleast 60mm which is quite a tall order in the 86 world it seems.
With my price target of around £1500 I considered the following:
Tein Flex A: I wanted a little more for my money, hoping to get a dual-valve coilover setup
BC ER Series: See Above problems
KW V3: Lowering on these sacrifices overall suspension travel, not an option I was willing to take.
Ohlins: Over budget when taking in to account the top mounts.
HKS Hipermax GT: Possibly the best option however a bit of a gamble as their specs are on the absolute limits of my desired result.
After all of this and to avoid any further headaches I just decided to bite the bullet and hold off until funds can allow me to go ahead with the air setup, it does also lead me towards the future plans I have this year for the car as well being some pretty big body changes, wheels, etc with some more go fast bits over the next couple of years.
I know this might surprise or disapoint a few people however it's just the option i've been wanting to go with and hopefully the best all round option for how i want to use the car
Thanks for the recent replies guys, its been good to read over some of the input.
So I have actually been speaking to Driftworks a bit as I was planning on buying the air cups from them but also during the drama with BC racing I messaged Driftworks to confirm whether they run in to the same issue of the BC coilovers they sell being subject to no warranty and they confirm it is the case for them as well (They sell the BC ER series at 8/6kg) and they did suggest to consider some HSD or KW Coilovers (Which they have a sale on currently too!)
Unfortunately their HSD range is currently quite limited for the 86 platform currently as they only sell the mono's and i'd really like to spend a bit more and get a bit more for my money for the same reason I've ruled out the Tein Flex A's however I still plan on picking up some chunkier ARB's and adjustable Arms from Driftworks when they've released them.
The only other one they have on offer that has interested me is the whiteline coilovers which looks fantastic but there's extremely limited info on. Whiteline don't even have them listed on their website for the GT86!
Fensport are good in that they have alot of decent offerings but they're strangely overpriced to other suppliers but I have been emailing them back and forth a bit as some of the coilovers on the market seem to be holding their Spring rates stats close to their chest.
I did see those KW's with their Hydraulic cup system but it's a totally ludacris price and I don't think is currently sold/supported for the GT86 despite that article on it, although I might be having a moment of madness and making that up. Correct me if i'm wrong
So I have actually been speaking to Driftworks a bit as I was planning on buying the air cups from them but also during the drama with BC racing I messaged Driftworks to confirm whether they run in to the same issue of the BC coilovers they sell being subject to no warranty and they confirm it is the case for them as well (They sell the BC ER series at 8/6kg) and they did suggest to consider some HSD or KW Coilovers (Which they have a sale on currently too!)
Unfortunately their HSD range is currently quite limited for the 86 platform currently as they only sell the mono's and i'd really like to spend a bit more and get a bit more for my money for the same reason I've ruled out the Tein Flex A's however I still plan on picking up some chunkier ARB's and adjustable Arms from Driftworks when they've released them.
The only other one they have on offer that has interested me is the whiteline coilovers which looks fantastic but there's extremely limited info on. Whiteline don't even have them listed on their website for the GT86!
Fensport are good in that they have alot of decent offerings but they're strangely overpriced to other suppliers but I have been emailing them back and forth a bit as some of the coilovers on the market seem to be holding their Spring rates stats close to their chest.
I did see those KW's with their Hydraulic cup system but it's a totally ludacris price and I don't think is currently sold/supported for the GT86 despite that article on it, although I might be having a moment of madness and making that up. Correct me if i'm wrong
Just double checked Tuning development and it turns out their current price on the BC ER's is actually a little cheaper than what I was going to pay for them but they also have them quoted at 8kg/6kg springs which would not have a warranty from the factory 
I do actually really like Nitrons as our Vx220 track car has a set of them on and they're fantastic. They have a couple of products for the GT86 but even the cheaper of the two are over my budget i'm afraid.
but they also have them quoted at 8kg/6kg springs which would not have a warranty from the factory I do actually really like Nitrons as our Vx220 track car has a set of them on and they're fantastic. They have a couple of products for the GT86 but even the cheaper of the two are over my budget i'm afraid.
So this weekend has been an exciting one.
With the car show season kicking off I headed back in to Brighton for Incarnation 2019. There were some fantastic cars on display and I managed to get a couple of pictures of the 86 looking clean. Even saw a couple of PH Smiley's about!
As well as this I also took delivery of an exciting Package from Whiteline!
On the lead up to my upcoming suspension changes as well as shocks I was in the market for some new Anti-roll bars and this lead me to Whiteline as they were also one of your only manufacturers to also offer a front Bumpsteer correction kit for lowered cars as well as including Drop Links, bushings and bracing with their ARB Packages. Not only that but I also much prefer the colour/finish of their parts too!
Which brings me to the exciting bit of news that I'm now a Whiteline Brand Ambassador!
As I said before I'm not looking to make the 86 an out and out track car although they are very capable but I do like the extra confidence and grip a lightly upgraded suspension setup offers as well as the preventative measures against any bumpsteer that might arise from lowering the car as I always find it such a sketchy feeling on our bumpy B roads.
I Picked up a set of their Anti-roll bars featuring 20mm on the front (+4mm up from stock) and 16mm on the rear (+2mm up from stock), new ARB bushings, Adjustable Drop links Front & Rear, rear ARB mount bracing as well as their Bumpsteer correction kit, Rear subframe bushing inserts and Diff bushing inserts.
The inserts should really help to tighten up the slack in the driveline without sending too many vibrations in to the cabin and should be far easier to fit too!
The quality and finish of the parts is excellent and I can say from first hand experience that their customer service is awesome as well after there was a little hiccup in my order I was able to get the missing parts delivered in less than 48 hours after emailing them.
Anyway enough of that rambling, on the with pictures!
With the car show season kicking off I headed back in to Brighton for Incarnation 2019. There were some fantastic cars on display and I managed to get a couple of pictures of the 86 looking clean. Even saw a couple of PH Smiley's about!
As well as this I also took delivery of an exciting Package from Whiteline!
On the lead up to my upcoming suspension changes as well as shocks I was in the market for some new Anti-roll bars and this lead me to Whiteline as they were also one of your only manufacturers to also offer a front Bumpsteer correction kit for lowered cars as well as including Drop Links, bushings and bracing with their ARB Packages. Not only that but I also much prefer the colour/finish of their parts too!
Which brings me to the exciting bit of news that I'm now a Whiteline Brand Ambassador!
As I said before I'm not looking to make the 86 an out and out track car although they are very capable but I do like the extra confidence and grip a lightly upgraded suspension setup offers as well as the preventative measures against any bumpsteer that might arise from lowering the car as I always find it such a sketchy feeling on our bumpy B roads.
I Picked up a set of their Anti-roll bars featuring 20mm on the front (+4mm up from stock) and 16mm on the rear (+2mm up from stock), new ARB bushings, Adjustable Drop links Front & Rear, rear ARB mount bracing as well as their Bumpsteer correction kit, Rear subframe bushing inserts and Diff bushing inserts.
The inserts should really help to tighten up the slack in the driveline without sending too many vibrations in to the cabin and should be far easier to fit too!
The quality and finish of the parts is excellent and I can say from first hand experience that their customer service is awesome as well after there was a little hiccup in my order I was able to get the missing parts delivered in less than 48 hours after emailing them.
Anyway enough of that rambling, on the with pictures!
So i have another couple of updates from the last few weeks, the first being my recent drift day it was a little something I got for my birthday at the end of April and I have to say it was SO MUCH FUN!
The next update will be a bit of a hit or miss one for some people as I recently received my brand new air lift setup (so no doubt i'll soon be making my debut on the "Badly modified cars" thread ) so i'll be showing off that a little but i'll save that for tomorrow evening, on to the good stuff:
As I mentioned before I'm not looking to make the 86 a track car or a drift car for that matter but I wanted to take it to one of these days to have some fun and get some experience chucking it around, overcoming the limit of grip and catching/controlling it and learning how the car behaves. I wanted to do this before I start making the car more grippy with various suspension changes just to give it the best chance to slide about but it really wasn't that difficult when I had the OEM wheels back on and pumped the tyres up to 50psi on the rear.
It was a great day and after my first little 5 minute sessions going about it in a ham fisted way, sawing at the steering wheel and being far too heavy fitted I was able to catch it and control some decent donuts around the cones, move on to some figure 8s and by the end of the day I was on their kidney track which was all great fun!
Anyway enough of the chatting I guess, here are some pictures, videos and more!
All of them are pretty much from the morning before I moved up to the other tracks but I have the say the 86 looks so good leant over to one side with a bit of opposite lock.
You can check out the whole gallery of photos here: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AkJa4dCyLSqihIdqoiiHrk5lh9MrJg
As I mentioned before, here are some videos. Excuse the silly giggling, I was just having so much fun!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phInejYFfJk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou_wDdQfxSA
And finally to finish off the report a vulgar display of tyre destruction. The first set are mine after the morning, the 2nd set were a set of part worns that one of the marshalls of the day destroyed after just 10 minutes!
The next update will be a bit of a hit or miss one for some people as I recently received my brand new air lift setup (so no doubt i'll soon be making my debut on the "Badly modified cars" thread
) so i'll be showing off that a little but i'll save that for tomorrow evening, on to the good stuff:As I mentioned before I'm not looking to make the 86 a track car or a drift car for that matter but I wanted to take it to one of these days to have some fun and get some experience chucking it around, overcoming the limit of grip and catching/controlling it and learning how the car behaves. I wanted to do this before I start making the car more grippy with various suspension changes just to give it the best chance to slide about but it really wasn't that difficult when I had the OEM wheels back on and pumped the tyres up to 50psi on the rear.
It was a great day and after my first little 5 minute sessions going about it in a ham fisted way, sawing at the steering wheel and being far too heavy fitted I was able to catch it and control some decent donuts around the cones, move on to some figure 8s and by the end of the day I was on their kidney track which was all great fun!
Anyway enough of the chatting I guess, here are some pictures, videos and more!
All of them are pretty much from the morning before I moved up to the other tracks but I have the say the 86 looks so good leant over to one side with a bit of opposite lock.
You can check out the whole gallery of photos here: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AkJa4dCyLSqihIdqoiiHrk5lh9MrJg
As I mentioned before, here are some videos. Excuse the silly giggling, I was just having so much fun!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phInejYFfJk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou_wDdQfxSA
And finally to finish off the report a vulgar display of tyre destruction. The first set are mine after the morning, the 2nd set were a set of part worns that one of the marshalls of the day destroyed after just 10 minutes!
So the post some people may have been waiting for and others may have been dreading - Air lift time
To give a bit of a look in to the thoughts behind the madness I wanted to go Air lift as I wanted to turn the 86 in to more of an all-round Fast Street/Show car. I've done the whole stiff, low, bump-steery and twitchy track car in our Vx220 which doesn't get driven nearly enough as it's a bit too focused for a bumpy B road blast and i've done the low/static thing with my Subaru which essentially renders me unable to go in to any multi-story car parks or even pull in to the drive way after getting home from work without scraping at our last house which for the car which served as my daily for the best part of 3 years isn't all that useful but it does look great!
The Fast Street/Slow car thing was always my goal with the 86 which is half the reason I went for a write off as my plan is to eventually (this year if thing's go well) fit a body kit to the car which is why i've not been fussed about picking up 2nd hand body panels and re-locating the front indicators, etc. I'm not looking to slam the car in to the ground and park it up with the wheels disappearing in to the arches or run stupid amounts of camber but these cars often do look fantastic when they're low and angry looking but I wouldn't want to risk ruining any expensive body parts I fitted for the sake of looks with a static ride height and Air lift is the obvious (albeit expensive) solution to all of those worries.
Of course there are some worries when it comes to fitting airlift such as leaky lines, tearing a bag or splitting a line but i'm hoping to take the install slowly and take my time with it to make sure it's all as safe and tidy as possible. To be honest i'm not actually too worried about it, I'd like to say im fairly confident with mechanical bits at this point and quite confident even something as fiddly as an air lift install is going to go well as I've always had a history of building PC's, installing custom water cooling loops and so on. The two aren't totally comparable but i'm not worried about it in the slightest!
So without further ado, lets show off the gear!
I'll start off by showing a brief picture of where the majority of it is going to go, the boot space. When you look in to air lift alot of people make some crazy setups although I'm not enough of a designer or upholstery expert to do something like this (and Im too cheap to pay someone else to do it!) and I didn't want to load up the boot with a load of heavy timber making a frame to mount everything to so I've gone ahead and made a new boot liner out of laminate floor. It's a fairly common thing to do as it's cheap, easy and subjectively looks good. I chose a dark grey/black laminate to make it subtle rather than in your face.
And now that i've lost the vast majority of readers! (haha) On to the actual Air lift hardware:
That's it for now really! Happy to take opinions and so on as I know it's not for everyone but hey-ho hopefully those of you that aren't really interested in this have enjoyed the thread up until now and maybe some of you will hang around for what the future holds to get a little insight as to what goes in to this kind of install/build (I'm hoping to find out myself! )
Going to be a little while before it gets installed. I really want to get it done asap but i've given myself a silly milestone first of buttoning up the Vx220 and listing it on the Market before I go ahead with any work on the 86. I also might be selling the Subaru and getting a more sensible daily as at this point I really don't need 3 performance cars in my life, especially considering the scooby hasn't really been touched since fixing the 86 up it's a bit of a shame.
To give a bit of a look in to the thoughts behind the madness I wanted to go Air lift as I wanted to turn the 86 in to more of an all-round Fast Street/Show car. I've done the whole stiff, low, bump-steery and twitchy track car in our Vx220 which doesn't get driven nearly enough as it's a bit too focused for a bumpy B road blast and i've done the low/static thing with my Subaru which essentially renders me unable to go in to any multi-story car parks or even pull in to the drive way after getting home from work without scraping at our last house which for the car which served as my daily for the best part of 3 years isn't all that useful but it does look great!
The Fast Street/Slow car thing was always my goal with the 86 which is half the reason I went for a write off as my plan is to eventually (this year if thing's go well) fit a body kit to the car which is why i've not been fussed about picking up 2nd hand body panels and re-locating the front indicators, etc. I'm not looking to slam the car in to the ground and park it up with the wheels disappearing in to the arches or run stupid amounts of camber but these cars often do look fantastic when they're low and angry looking but I wouldn't want to risk ruining any expensive body parts I fitted for the sake of looks with a static ride height and Air lift is the obvious (albeit expensive) solution to all of those worries.
Of course there are some worries when it comes to fitting airlift such as leaky lines, tearing a bag or splitting a line but i'm hoping to take the install slowly and take my time with it to make sure it's all as safe and tidy as possible. To be honest i'm not actually too worried about it, I'd like to say im fairly confident with mechanical bits at this point and quite confident even something as fiddly as an air lift install is going to go well as I've always had a history of building PC's, installing custom water cooling loops and so on. The two aren't totally comparable but i'm not worried about it in the slightest!
So without further ado, lets show off the gear!
I'll start off by showing a brief picture of where the majority of it is going to go, the boot space. When you look in to air lift alot of people make some crazy setups although I'm not enough of a designer or upholstery expert to do something like this (and Im too cheap to pay someone else to do it!) and I didn't want to load up the boot with a load of heavy timber making a frame to mount everything to so I've gone ahead and made a new boot liner out of laminate floor. It's a fairly common thing to do as it's cheap, easy and subjectively looks good. I chose a dark grey/black laminate to make it subtle rather than in your face.
And now that i've lost the vast majority of readers! (haha) On to the actual Air lift hardware:
That's it for now really! Happy to take opinions and so on as I know it's not for everyone but hey-ho hopefully those of you that aren't really interested in this have enjoyed the thread up until now and maybe some of you will hang around for what the future holds to get a little insight as to what goes in to this kind of install/build (I'm hoping to find out myself!
)Going to be a little while before it gets installed. I really want to get it done asap but i've given myself a silly milestone first of buttoning up the Vx220 and listing it on the Market before I go ahead with any work on the 86. I also might be selling the Subaru and getting a more sensible daily as at this point I really don't need 3 performance cars in my life, especially considering the scooby hasn't really been touched since fixing the 86 up it's a bit of a shame.
Another small update today but quite a sparkly one!
Took the air tank for my suspension to a local custom bike art/airbrush guy and had him spray it in Candy apple red. It turned out great and really pops, just what I was after!
Rather than use a silver basecoat for the candy he just sprayed right over the aluminium finish and it leaves the grain of the material showing through which gives it that extra depth and contrast.
The pictures really don't do it justice but I think it looks fantastic!
Going to get all of this kit including my ARB's and so on fitted as soon as we've got our VX220 on the market, There's a few bits i've been needing to tidy up on it before we can and i know if I worked on the 86 first the Vx would never get sold!
Took the air tank for my suspension to a local custom bike art/airbrush guy and had him spray it in Candy apple red. It turned out great and really pops, just what I was after!
Rather than use a silver basecoat for the candy he just sprayed right over the aluminium finish and it leaves the grain of the material showing through which gives it that extra depth and contrast.
The pictures really don't do it justice but I think it looks fantastic!
Going to get all of this kit including my ARB's and so on fitted as soon as we've got our VX220 on the market, There's a few bits i've been needing to tidy up on it before we can and i know if I worked on the 86 first the Vx would never get sold!
So it's another slow update coming in but quite a big one.
An update that some people have been dreading and others have been hyped for (myself included!)
So the last 3 weeks I've been driving my old Subaru WRX around for a bit because the 86 has been up on jackstands. Throughout this heat i've been taking my time to install a whole host of new parts including my Whiteline Anti-roll bars, Whiteline bushing inserts and my Air-Lift Suspension system.
I wanted to go slowly with it to just make sure everything is installed as best and as cleanly as possible to avoid any future problems or funny noises, etc. I also took the time to put some sound deadening in the boot to dampen some of the exhaust groans as well as the compressors.
I started off on the front, working with a friend to get the OEM front struts and ARB off. Some of the bolts and joints were either a little crusty and hard to break the seal or really slimey from what I can only assume is the underseal they use on these cars if the engine bay was anything to go by when I cleaned it.
The front ARB is a bit of a pain to fit thanks to the brackets it sits on and how many brittle plastic/glass fibre under trays there are under the car. the ARB probably took the most time out of these bits. I didn't get a picture of it but I somewhat sanded back and cleaned up the rusted welds on the ARB subframe thinghs and repainted it with some etching primer and underseal.
The weekend after that we moved on to the rear. getting the struts out was a bit of a paint this time but generally on the rear it was all very easy including the ARB. We also Installed the Whiteline Subframe and Diff bushing inserts which against was actually quite easy to do, it took up a couple of hours all in to do the bushing inserts. While running the Braided Air Lift hoses on the rear they went under the car rather than in to the engine bay. In reality they shouldn't be at risk of getting hot as there's quite a big gap between them and the Exhaust, not to mention that's right at the end of the exhaust rather than up by the manifold but seeing as I had some Mishimoto gold tape to hand I thought i'd dress them up a little bit, if Anything it makes the undercarriage a little sparkly!
And finally this weekend I took on the task of running all the wiring, making the modifications required for my particular dual compressor set up, pulling the air lines and hardness through the car, tucking it all away and mounting the tank, compressors, manifold, etc all in the boot! It sounds easier than rolling around on your back under the car but i can assure you it was just as exhausting!
This is also where the laminate wood flooring comes in, it might be a bit silly but of course you need something solid to mount all the gear in the boot on. In hindsight I could have just used a sheet of MDF and wrapped it in some carpet but it also needs to be segmented to fit in the boot at all which is the beauty of laminate I guess as you can hide the seems in the board gaps, it's also very cheap and it saves me having to deal with fiddly carpet!
All of that hard work results in a car that is lowered, can go even lower if I really want to or can soar in to the heavens if there's a particularly big speed bump or multi-story car park ramp while also having a nice mix of firmness and compliance to the road. It's quite a strange feeling that's quite difficult to describe really. The Air lift suspension is comparably soft to stock but is also a bit more firm, the ARB's really help to dial out any body roll and even when wiggling the car about on the road help to keep it fairly flat. To top it all of there are no big clunks or noises during driving that would scream low quality parts or bad fitment to me, the only noises so far is a bit more feedback from the rear subframe/diff when selecting gears or coming off the accelerator. I'll need to fiddle with the drop links a bit as I think the rear ones are too long and putting preload on the ARB and I still have a whole load of compression settings to play around with on the struts to make it even more supple on the road!
The above pic is how the car sits at its "low" setting, if anything this was me just trying to see how low it can go. In the near future i'll likely need to adjust the front strut to sit lower just so the front and rear lowers at a more equal rate, as you can see the rear looks far lower than the front with litterally 0 pressure in the front air bags. i'll also need to invest in some rear lower control arms to sort out the camber the car gains when its low and maybe some spacers just to make the wheels sit a bit better in the arches.
There's also a video of it airing out I can link to if anyone's curious.
An update that some people have been dreading and others have been hyped for (myself included!)
So the last 3 weeks I've been driving my old Subaru WRX around for a bit because the 86 has been up on jackstands. Throughout this heat i've been taking my time to install a whole host of new parts including my Whiteline Anti-roll bars, Whiteline bushing inserts and my Air-Lift Suspension system.
I wanted to go slowly with it to just make sure everything is installed as best and as cleanly as possible to avoid any future problems or funny noises, etc. I also took the time to put some sound deadening in the boot to dampen some of the exhaust groans as well as the compressors.
I started off on the front, working with a friend to get the OEM front struts and ARB off. Some of the bolts and joints were either a little crusty and hard to break the seal or really slimey from what I can only assume is the underseal they use on these cars if the engine bay was anything to go by when I cleaned it.
The front ARB is a bit of a pain to fit thanks to the brackets it sits on and how many brittle plastic/glass fibre under trays there are under the car. the ARB probably took the most time out of these bits. I didn't get a picture of it but I somewhat sanded back and cleaned up the rusted welds on the ARB subframe thinghs and repainted it with some etching primer and underseal.
The weekend after that we moved on to the rear. getting the struts out was a bit of a paint this time but generally on the rear it was all very easy including the ARB. We also Installed the Whiteline Subframe and Diff bushing inserts which against was actually quite easy to do, it took up a couple of hours all in to do the bushing inserts. While running the Braided Air Lift hoses on the rear they went under the car rather than in to the engine bay. In reality they shouldn't be at risk of getting hot as there's quite a big gap between them and the Exhaust, not to mention that's right at the end of the exhaust rather than up by the manifold but seeing as I had some Mishimoto gold tape to hand I thought i'd dress them up a little bit, if Anything it makes the undercarriage a little sparkly!
And finally this weekend I took on the task of running all the wiring, making the modifications required for my particular dual compressor set up, pulling the air lines and hardness through the car, tucking it all away and mounting the tank, compressors, manifold, etc all in the boot! It sounds easier than rolling around on your back under the car but i can assure you it was just as exhausting!
This is also where the laminate wood flooring comes in, it might be a bit silly but of course you need something solid to mount all the gear in the boot on. In hindsight I could have just used a sheet of MDF and wrapped it in some carpet but it also needs to be segmented to fit in the boot at all which is the beauty of laminate I guess as you can hide the seems in the board gaps, it's also very cheap and it saves me having to deal with fiddly carpet!
All of that hard work results in a car that is lowered, can go even lower if I really want to or can soar in to the heavens if there's a particularly big speed bump or multi-story car park ramp while also having a nice mix of firmness and compliance to the road. It's quite a strange feeling that's quite difficult to describe really. The Air lift suspension is comparably soft to stock but is also a bit more firm, the ARB's really help to dial out any body roll and even when wiggling the car about on the road help to keep it fairly flat. To top it all of there are no big clunks or noises during driving that would scream low quality parts or bad fitment to me, the only noises so far is a bit more feedback from the rear subframe/diff when selecting gears or coming off the accelerator. I'll need to fiddle with the drop links a bit as I think the rear ones are too long and putting preload on the ARB and I still have a whole load of compression settings to play around with on the struts to make it even more supple on the road!
The above pic is how the car sits at its "low" setting, if anything this was me just trying to see how low it can go. In the near future i'll likely need to adjust the front strut to sit lower just so the front and rear lowers at a more equal rate, as you can see the rear looks far lower than the front with litterally 0 pressure in the front air bags. i'll also need to invest in some rear lower control arms to sort out the camber the car gains when its low and maybe some spacers just to make the wheels sit a bit better in the arches.
There's also a video of it airing out I can link to if anyone's curious.
Scottchester said:
I saw the first pic of the tank and thought you'd added NOS.
Air ride is so much cooler though, heard good things about the ride quality
Haha i'm glad you think so.Air ride is so much cooler though, heard good things about the ride quality
I've had a couple of people ask me what they drive like from a performance standpoint, Unfortunately i've only driven about 20 miles or so but I would say they feel exactly the same as a set of coilovers with some mildly stiff springs on. Probably something like 8kg/6kg front/rear which is what most Tein, BC Mesiter R coilovers come with for this car.
There are a couple of things to sort out on the car. I need to lower the front strut as i'd rather have the pressure front/rear more in-line with each other rather than the front bags being considerably lower pressure just to reach my desired ride height and there's a bit of noise which I think is either just the new bushing inserts being a bit noisy or the Anti-roll bars being Preloaded. Nothing that I can't sort out fairly easily after work one day
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