Pushed it to its limits or a defective part?

[DusterRT]

530-677-8600 is their number from a Google cache of their site. I was trying to load their page yesterday and it was down then too..

 

[Random Asshole]

how much was your kit if you don't mind me asking?
How long did it take to ship?
What shocks come in their full kit?

 

[DusterRT]

It was about $1650 shipped, I believe I ordered on a Friday afternoon and had it the following Thursday. The shocks/struts are shortened Koni's like Dave mentioned, they look rebuildable and I think they valve them in-house there. Lifetime warranty on everything regardless of usage according to who I spoke to when I bought them, which is a nice touch..

 

[SoundGuyDave]

I will be warranteeing the Tokico strut, but from what I hear, that takes forever to get through, so I'm not going to worry about it until winter hits and my life slows down. I'm going to do the GC setup myself over the winter, so the D-Specs aren't going to go back on the car, ever. I've got a buddy in my car club that wants them, and since he helped me with my trans swap, he's going to get them for basically nothing, but I can still loan you the one good strut to get you through the rest of the season. It should be pretty easy to dial them up to match the Eibach strut you'd have on the other side, so no huge hit there, performance-wise.

I'll definitely take you up on the suds, and if you want to run over to my shop (Wood Dale), I'll give you a hand swapping it out, and stringing the car afterwards. I'm PM'ing my phone number to you, along with my email address.

 

[05BlackGT]

I've had the GC kit for almost four years now and it's been pretty durable. The strut housing is nearly bulletproof and I'm sure I will break a spindle before these things. Only thing that broke was a stud off a camber plate bracket.....and I don't know about the lifetime warranty - they charged me for a new set. The Koni valving is OK, but if I remember the rear shocks were off the shelf Koni part numbers. If you primarily auto-x, get them re-valved. Overall, a good product, customer service is hit and miss.

 

[Random Asshole]

PM'd you back Dave. Can't thank you enough for your generosity cause it doesn't look like I can get a replacement shipped in time for my next race. I was thinking if I was completely deranged and desperate enough, I could maybe swap the struts from left to right side and make it work that way.
But, I don't remember if they were side oriented? I wanna say they are, but there are two swaybar link tabs on each side...

Looks like some good info coming out this thread. oh by the way, what's the best shifter? lol.

 

[SoundGuyDave]

Kind of off topic but are you guys actually doing racing? If so what organization/class, I've been doing HPDEs and track days but I want to involve myself more and get into racing.

I have an E30 I was building for spec e30 but I would love to get competetive with my stang... Because I tear up the track in the HPDEs

I'm an instructor with NASA, and have been running in HPDE-3 and HPDE-4 for a while, but I'm making the move to TT over labor day weekend out at Gingerman. I was going to wait until next year (build time!), but with the way they've been scheduling the runs, TT has less of a conflict with the HPDE-1 students, so I would actually get more track time, even though the runs are shorter...

I have no intention of gutting and caging my car, so all of the wheel-to-wheel classes are out for the S197. As for actual competition, TT is a "best lap of the day" type of deal, but instead of a single, flying hot lap, you run multiple 15-20 minute sessions with all the other TT cars on-track, so getting a clean lap to do your flyer requires some strategy and pacing. When wins can be down to thousandths of a second, that little throttle lift to clear traffic can be the deciding factor. Also, it requires some tire and brake management as well, unlike the Time Attack style runs. The Time-Attack requires a braking package that works well cold, as well as tires that can provide real grip when cold as well. NONE of my setup does that, and it usually takes me around 2 laps (4 miles) to get up to speed and get everything working right.

I wish I could do the Milwaukee Mile event, but I'll be out at Gingerman instructing and running that whole weekend...

And yes, the S197 is a hell of a solid base chassis to work from, and it really doesn't take that much (comparitively) to get the car to be quite quick, balanced, and competitive. In the end, though, it's still all about the driver. Put Boris Said or Mike Skeen into a half-ass car, and they're STILL going to kick all of our asses out on the track.

 

[SD07GT]

I've had the GC kit for almost four years now and it's been pretty durable. The strut housing is nearly bulletproof and I'm sure I will break a spindle before these things. Only thing that broke was a stud off a camber plate bracket.....and I don't know about the lifetime warranty - they charged me for a new set. The Koni valving is OK, but if I remember the rear shocks were off the shelf Koni part numbers. If you primarily auto-x, get them re-valved. Overall, a good product, customer service is hit and miss.

with four years of r@d now the valving and springs rates have changed from G/C .

I just bought a set of the track / school set up with 375 @ 200 spring rates and there the best by far over everything else I have tested. I will have these corner weighted in the future and the pre-load dialed out of the front sway bar with my adjustable end links .

For what you get it well worth the 1,600.00 ......


What didn't you like about the valving wile auto crossing ???

 

[SoundGuyDave]

I was thinking if I was completely deranged and desperate enough, I could maybe swap the struts from left to right side and make it work that way.
But, I don't remember if they were side oriented? I wanna say they are, but there are two swaybar link tabs on each side...

Looks like some good info coming out this thread. oh by the way, what's the best shifter? lol.

It looks like you could swap them side-to-side pretty easily, as long as the tabs appear solid enough... It would take some serious cornering force, and maybe a sharp transient suspension motion (like smacking a berm) to tear off one of those tabs, unless the welds were rubbish. You did it, though, so I don't know if I would trust them for another event...

Oh, and MGW for the win!!!

 

[marksti]

I'll throw this out there...

Since i see you guys talking about the GC kits

Griggs sells a version of their kit..the main difference is Griggs uses coilovers in the rear vrs a shock/spring perch combo like GC.

I recall when Steeda was came out with a system for the front..i heard alot of hype..

Price wise i don't think you can go bad with either

 

[SD07GT]

I'll throw this out there...

Since i see you guys talking about the GC kits

Griggs sells a version of their kit..the main difference is Griggs uses coilovers in the rear vrs a shock/spring perch combo like GC.

I recall when Steeda was coming out with their coilovers..Alot of hype..but its seems to been pretty quiet about there system

Price wise i don't you can go bad with either

Ill let people know that your selling your front griggs for 700.00 ...Im into the road race crowd @ auto crossing group , so If I come up with someone ill let you know !

 

[Random Asshole]

It would take some serious cornering force, and maybe a sharp transient suspension motion (like smacking a berm) to tear off one of those tabs, unless the welds were rubbish. You did it, though, so I don't know if I would trust them for another event...

Oh, and MGW for the win!!!

You have any idea how many times I smacked that berm?? probably a hundred times by now. That's why I was wondering whether it was me or a shitty weld, or both. That recall that was posted on edmunds describes EXACTLY what happened to me (thanks for posting that, I'm using it in my case with TireRack) And I don't think all 400 of those were recalled because they were all sold to racers.

So all in all, I would have to say yes, the weld was probably not the greatest, but it might be because it wasn't engineered to take the punishment I was giving it every time I was out there. Maybe it was made more for making highway on/off ramps fun.

Long story short...I need military grade shit because it's a fuckin war zone out there. Hence, coilovers for next year..beefy. ass. coilovers..and a turret of some sort to help with traffic.

and screw MGW. Hurst baby!

 

[DusterRT]

Ill let people know that your selling your front griggs for 700.00

This might be of interest to some Random Asshole here...

 

[Random Asshole]

This might be of interest to some Random Asshole here...

Yeah, who was being talked about there? Who is selling a griggs setup? Marksti?

 

[DusterRT]

Yeah, who was being talked about there? Who is selling a griggs setup? Marksti?

I believe he's the one..he's got a thread where he mentions replacing his Griggs street coilovers with their SLA setup..

 

[BBQBats]

Long story short...I need military grade shit because it's a fuckin war zone out there. Hence, coilovers for next year..beefy. ass. coilovers..and a turret of some sort to help with traffic.

and screw MGW. Hurst baby!

I got your car right here, complete with turrets and suicide doors!

 

[Random Asshole]

Well my sting of bad luck bit me in the ass again at the Milwaukee Mile last Saturday during a track day I used for practice for my race on Monday.

The story:
During the final session of the day, I was chasing this STi that was my class competitor. I was pretty comfortable pushing the car to the ragged edge by then and I entered a hairpin way to hot because I was trying to catch up to the Subie after I made a mistake. My ABS and traction control decided to just cut out unexpectedly. I flatspotted my fronts to oblivion and my rears were also toast, but not as bad. The rears were less than two weeks old from my last fiasco.


Why did the ABS just decide to turn off? I cycled the key after I hobbled into the pits and everything went back to normal.

Could it have to do with my cracked front rotor? I cracked it 3/4 into the day. I felt it through the pedal, but the steering wasn't effected, so I just kept crackin away at it. Maybe the vibration was too much for the sensor and it just decided to cut out? But why traction control too?

So, I ended up having to buy the only <200 treadwear rated tires I could find on the Sunday before labor day/race day. After hours of searching, I had to settle for a set of Bridgestone Potenza re050a "pole position's." Treadwear sounded promising (140), but they just did not do what my kumhos could on the high speed banks. The Subaru won by 1.2 seconds.

So..Who wants a set of brigdestone pole positions??? Not kidding. These tires are actually better on the street than the kumhos. I'd save them for regular street driving and get a separate set of kumhos for racing, but my car gets more miles on the track lately, so it doesn't make much sense. They have less than 150 miles on them. I made sure not to beat on them during practice sessions to prevent "chunking."
275/45/R17

Start the bidding at 600 plus shipping? I paid $800, so please don't try to gouge me. I'm willing to budge a bit because I need them gone, but lets not be rediculous.
Help a racer out!




And a pic of my gimped out car at the track

 

[SoundGuyDave]

I was sick when I heard about the problem you had, but at least you kept it off the walls... No clue about the ABS/TC cutout, but *IF* it was the cracked rotor that made the computer chuck the data from that corner (vibration affecting the hall-effect pulse, maybe?), I do know the TC is tied into ABS, so if the ABS went down...

All else fails, grab some Brembos. That, combined with the GT500HCU and the FR500C control module should make a pretty hot braking package! It would force you into 18" wheels, but...

 

[DusterRT]

I had the same ABS/TC hiccup once while doing some rainy auto-x earlier this year. You're the only other person I've heard of having this issue. Cycled the key and it has been fine since. I wondered if it was due to the GT500 brakes and my stock GT ABS HCU, but now I'm thinking not.

I've got the GT500 HCU in now (if you make the swap and take it to the dealer, don't bother trying to get them to eliminate the TC light; I had the best guys in the area fiddling with it for almost two hours and it can't be done by mere mortals). I think the GT500 module is a little less sensitive than the GT, but I do want to upgrade to the FR500C module like Dave mentioned. There's a lot more to how it works, but in a nutshell, the ABS will come on if it senses the wheels slowing at a rate that would put the car decelerating at greater than ~1.0 G's; the FR500C module stays out of it until 1.2 or 1.3 G's I believe. Anyway, if anyone knows a good hookup for those...let me know!

...and if you're thinking about stepping up to the Brembo's, I think Dex has some take-off's again at a pretty reasonable cost (I got mine through him), though I've seen a number of used BBK's at smokin hot prices lately.

 

[Random Asshole]

I've read about the hcu swap related to gt500 brakes in other threads. It's kinda confusing.

Correct me where I go wrong:

There's a Hydraulic control unit AND a control module?

You can use the stock HCU and control module when you upgrade to a big brake kit, BUT, the control module will come in and stop the party when you try to take advantage of those big brakes because it still "thinks" it has stock brakes.

When you install the GT500 HCU, the traction control light comes on..and you lose traction control?

And thats where the FR500C module comes in.


I've tried contacting Dex about the brembos for the last week. He stopped replying days ago, yet I see him on the forum making new replies to other threads.