Building for the road course...again

[Easter Bunny]

the angle of that broken spring kinda looks like it would have kept the other piece pretty well locked in.

if you arent getting the bolts at the dealer remember that you need grade 10 for metric

 

[gotovato]

the angle of that broken spring kinda looks like it would have kept the other piece pretty well locked in.

if you arent getting the bolts at the dealer remember that you need grade 10 for metric

I’ve got two new bolts from the dealer sitting at the shop right now waiting for me. Just gotta pick them up and that’s it. We’ll see the stance lol. Or at least round 1 of the stance

 

[Awafrican]

Had some fun last couple nights.
Fronts were drama free and straight forward which was nice. I initially measured the length of the stock strut and subtracted 1.5” for the coilover. I didn’t take into account the fact that the much higher spring rate isn’t going to compress as much as stock.

Car was sky jacked lol. It’s a good thing adjusting height takes all of 20 minutes. I got the fronts at stock height and called it good. Turned the car around, pb blasted everything in the rear and got it ready to do tonight.

View attachment 22080

the rears…were a fight lol. Everything came apart nice and easy expect for the lower shock bolt on both sides. What a nightmare.
View attachment 22081

Ended up rounding both of them. Luckily heat, and an extractor bit actually worked well…on both sides! Couldn’t believe it. I had to use a breaker bar though. Milwaukee on the highest setting wouldn’t even touch it. Damn
View attachment 22083

Found this surprise on the drivers side. How many track days you think I’ve down with this two piece spring setup??
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Jobs done other then me needing to go get two new bolts. After that I’ll have to see height and probably adjust some. Then alignment ASAP

This seems appropriate ( phones not letting me embed see attached pic)

 

[gotovato]

This seems appropriate ( phones not letting me embed see attached pic)

Hahaha yea…ooops

 

[SyntheticAtmosphere]

It has been commonplace for Civics to ride on clipped coils for decades now. I dont think it felt out of place. Lol

 

[gotovato]

It has been commonplace for Civics to ride on clipped coils for decades now. I dont think it felt out of place. Lol

lol yea I had no idea. Ah well new stuff is in and looking real nice

 

[gotovato]

Done deal. Had to adjust front ride height like 12 times but fuck it takes all of 20 minutes so no big. I still need to adjust it again lol. Think I need to raise the front by 1/2” and the rears by maybe an inch? We’ll see. Fronts rub at full lock on the fender liner. The wider wheels will probably be worse? Unless the offset fixes that lol

take a look,


Grounds not level but both sides measure even in my garage. Shop will adjust everything perfectly during corner balance/alignment.


Fortune auto 510’s with swift springs. front springs 10k rear springs 16k. Damper set to full soft.
First impressions? Absolutely incredible. It rides softer/smoother then the oem setup but with 0 body roll. 0 dive. 0 squat/lift. It just feels right. You feel the chassis load up and it just takes it.

cruising the same backroads I used to hit in my Mazda and I was already carrying more mid corner speed. I was averaging 6kph more. To the point I had to actually slow down because my shitty 225 wide all seasons were just howling.

I’m going to need to recalibrate my brain. The cornering speeds are immense. Entering a corner “too quickly” or so my brain thinks “too quickly” because in the Mazda I’d be washing out by now but instead, I go wot? The rear loads up but because of spring rate and damper control, it just fucking takes it and goes where I tell it to.

you ever feel a fwd car rotate the rear around ON throttle? It’s something different. I’m going to need to learn to drive again with the stagger tire setup but I already know the car is going to be annoyingly quick.

there are cheater cars in the road course world. Cars that just have no power, but the chassis to be quick.
86
Miata
Evo
S2000
CIVIC.
I’m so excited to get an alignment, and some real fucking tires. This thing is going to fuck. This suspension, makes the b16 setup on my Mazda feel inferior. I’m genuinely impressed.

 

[Easter Bunny]

Who cars if you run at full lock you won't be turning that hard on the course

 

[gotovato]

Who cars if you run at full lock you won't be turning that hard on the course

This is true lol. I still need to confirm if it’ll rub under serious compression like curb hopping. I do a lot of that at the track.

 

[gotovato]

Cool little note about the swift springs. Makes sense because I was noticing some of it already.


I wish I weighed the coils before install. They were definitely noticeably lighter then the stock shit. Effortless weight reduction is great lol.

my tires have gone from eta end of April to eta of “at some point”.

I am now desperately searching for some used shit because brand new doesn’t exist right now. Like at all.

There’s a set of re71’s on some bmw wheels. Trying to see if buddy will sell just the tires but he’s hitting me with the “oh man those tires are worth like 1k blah blah” like yea ok man re71’s are minimum 3 years old because that’s when they were discontinued. They’re old. Just fucking sell them to me cheap please. Haha

 

[Awafrican]

Sucks about the rubber but it Doesn't sound like that's the kind of buddy you want to buy from, from my experience they always loom the "deals" the gave you over your head and how they helped you out whenever they want something.

 

[gotovato]

Sucks about the rubber but it Doesn't sound like that's the kind of buddy you want to buy from, from my experience they always loom the "deals" the gave you over your head and how they helped you out whenever they want something.

Oh haha he’s not like my friend. I don’t know him. This is just off market place I found this sale. I just called him buddy lol.

he agreed to have the tires dismounted and we agreed on $600. They are brand new 235/45/17 re71’s so they’ll go on my wheels from my Mazda.

now I can install the bbk and go get some seat time finally. It’s about to get REAL.

 

[gotovato]

Tires secured. 235/45/17 re71’s. Guy bought them for his bmw. Had them mounted. Made sure they didn’t rub around the block then took them off and decided he didn’t wanna track his car lol.
Works for me


now I have to bring the tires and my 17x9 wheels to the shop to have them mounted. I don’t think it’ll all fit in my Corolla for 1 trip lol. Fuck.

I have brakes to install, then fuck with ride height a little, then alignment. I’d like to get it all done so I could go to the track this weekend but it’s a lot of work. We’ll see. I’d like to.

 

[Easter Bunny]

I don’t think it’ll all fit in my Corolla for 1 trip lol. Fuck.

shame you dont have a nice little hatchback around to make it easier........

 

[gotovato]

shame you dont have a nice little hatchback around to make it easier........

Yes until it pops the dipstick 3 times on my way to the shop. Ooof.

ill steal the girlfriends Mazda3 hatch worst case lol. Or try and pull my passenger seat or something.

At this point all I wanna do it go to the track this weekend. Maybe I need Friday off work. Hmm…

 

[gotovato]

Got some shit done here.

had to remove the brake lines first which the drivers side almost started going round on me. I said fuck that. Vice grips to crack it, then 10mm flare wrench the rest of the way. Nice. No problems. Passenger side was easy no dramas there.

I had to remove the dust shields which sucked a bit but it wasn’t a huge deal. Tin snips and a lot of bending and it was outta there.

now the good stuff,


Stock setup was 33lbs


the big boi setup 21lbs


Those are some awesome unsprung/rotational mass weight savings. Love it.

what a nice setup. It looks so good lol. (rust spots are from washing the rotor with soap and water as per stoptechs directions. Idk why but there’s like 20 warnings that say to use soap and water before brake clean. Weird)


So thiccc. This should help a ton with life span


I’m so excited to drive the thing. I bled the brakes nicely and the pedal feels good but it’ll probably need another bleed after bedding the pads in.

tomorrow I’m picking up my wheels and tires from the shop, bolting them on then dropping the car off at the shop to have it aligned/corner balanced Friday/Saturday morning. Then…

Its race track time hopefully Saturday evening. Fuck yea.

 

[SyntheticAtmosphere]

Pix and vids, Pix and vids!!! Where are you heading out to for the first shakedown on the new setup?...and do you have previous lap times for comparo?

 

[gotovato]

Pix and vids, Pix and vids!!! Where are you heading out to for the first shakedown on the new setup?...and do you have previous lap times for comparo?

I’ll be remembering to bring the GoPro so there will definitely be videos.

I’m heading to Toronto motorsports park. Cayuga. I have a ton of laps there in the Mazda, and a ton of laps there from last season in the civic

 

[gotovato]

Got my wheels on today. Car needs the alignment so badly lol. One wheel has like -4* of camber, other wheel has like -1*. It drove so fucked up lol…but I immediately noticed the lightness. Wow. Thing feels quicker lol.

Also I weighed the wheels/tires. Stock shit with 225/45/17 all seasons on a 17x7.5 wheel weighed 45lbs.
the 17x9’s with the 235/45/17 Re71’s weighed 44lbs.


I love the way it looks. So subtle but so…race car.

trying to bed the brakes in was a mission the car would just squirm all over the place. Alignment!!!!!!! lol

got it to the shop though no problem. They gotta fix the height, corner balance it, align it then roll the rears to fit the wheels. Right now it was way too close so i tossed the wheels in the trunk. They’ll roll the fenders and they should fit perfectly.



I’m hoping to pick the car up Friday so I can bleed the brakes once more then head to the track.

 

[gotovato]

Picked up the car today. Had the alignment done. Had to have the rear fenders rolled because the wheels wouldn’t clear and I knew this, I also half expected this to happen but the fenders cracked. They look meh. It’s no ones fault they were repaired and the body shop wouldn’t do it any other way. I told them I’d be rolling the fenders.

they will need some touching up but it’s whatever. Not a huge deal it’s a 10ft mod looks great from 10 feet away lol.


Car has -2.5* of camber upfront with room to go more. Rear has -1.75* which is probably perfect. 0 toe all around.

we’re going to start here and add front camber if necessary based on tire wear. The car is light, it also has proper spring rates so it doesn’t have much body roll at all. I may only need this much camber. Maybe more. We’ll see.