I went ahead and ordered the H&R race springs. They are just a hair shorter than the Steeda Ultralights in the front and about ¼ in shorter in the rear. The definitely felt stiffer while installing them, as I had a little trouble more sliding them into the rears than I did when I installed the Steedas. I did had a bit of trouble with the upper sway bar end link on the front drivers side. While I was removing the nut it started to bind just as the nylon locker was clearing the threads. It got so wedged in place that the backing nut ended up rounding off. I had to remove the lower nut pull the strut out with the end link and cut the endlink off. I ordered the Umi adjustable endlinks to replace the now mutilated stockers.
They are really solid pieces, and I do like that the bolts are shorter since I had to clearance the stockers when I went to the 315 hoosiers.
After driving around a little on the new springs I did notice that the dampeners were a little soft to work well with the springs, There was a small amount of bouncing after bumps and stops sol I took a guess and stiffened them up to 1 ½ turns from full hard up front (D-Specs have 6 turns of adjustment, but compression and rebound adjust at the same time), and 2 turns out back.
Finally got to get out to an AutoX. Between FedEX field changing the schedule and some work commitments I hadn’t been able to try out the changes for quite a while.
Double event with a small offshoot of the WDCR-SCCA called Autocrossers, Inc. They run at a smaller lot at the Blue Crabs stadium, which is only about 45 miles from my house. The pull a smaller crowd and because of that they run two courses in one day. We run one course before lunch, they change things up and we run a different course in the afternoon. (sometimes the morning course in reverse, sometimes just changing up the first course a little)
Anyway, down to the details. I decided to put in two runs before making any changes to get the tires up to temp and feel the car out. After the second run the car was pushing a little so I went in and softened the fronts up another ¼ turn. I could really feel the difference, but I didn’t understand just how much until the last turn. I turned in, rolled into the gas and headed right for the inside cones marking the finish. I ended coming to a full stop at the line, mostly because I was confused to be where I was, as I expecting to be on the outside and my brain took half second to readjust.
After shaking that debacle off I went out for my last run of the morning and put in a clean run, and really felt that the car was a lot easier to drive on these springs. It transitions faster and just feels more nimble. I was out in front of the slaloms and turn in was much crisper. All in all the car just instills more confidence than before.
Took a break for lunch while they reworked the center section of the course and went back at it.
There wasn’t a lot of drama in the afternoon. I can say for certain that the car is now easier to drive than it was, and I didn’t feel like I was fighting it all day. I did get a little push in a couple of sections, but it was predictable and entirely driver error. I found myself over driving and under driving different sections. A couple of times I would turn in and readjust because I was turning too tightly.
Anyway the take away from this event is that I now need to be more aggressive and push myself to drive faster. It is in the car and I just need to catch up.
There are a couple of things I need to address in the future.
First I need to carry boards or race ramps, with the new springs I can’t get the jack out from under the car without lifting up on the fender when I have the 18 in Hoosiers on.
Second, I need to figure out how to keep my rear sway bar from hitting my exhaust. That is getting annoying.
Lastly I think I need to get rid of the two piece drive shaft. There is a lot of slop in the carrier bearing and it is banging around. I don’t want to stick a new stock piece back in, but If I go one piece that will kick me out of ESP. I figure that I will run out these Hoosiers and then swap over to CAM. There are a couple of things I want to do that are out of class for ESP anyway. I do have mixed feelings since CAM in this area is a pretty slow class, and I would feel a little like I am cherry picking. I thought about CP, but I like my AC and interior very much.
Oh and I need to learn how to drive, I keep forgetting about that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4Nu1CptVtw