TSX Hokie

A few pics of my car with the new wheels, tires, and suspension.















and my dad's '63 Lotus Elite

virtualbong

Great pics! Looks like it was a gorgeous day down there in VA!

xizor

you wouldn't believe!

TSX Hokie, looks great! I was the only one w/ SSR Comps for a year (well me and Realtime Racing) and now we have 2 new owners in a month! I still have the only anthracite set I suggest picking up a locking lug, your rims are too nice to go w/o.

TSX Hokie

That reminds me of my locking lug saga this weekend:

I drove from Blacksburg to Lynchburg (100 miles away) to my parents' house, because my dad has a lift so I do all my car work there. However, I left the socket for the locking lugs in Blacksburg by accident (the dealer service dept took it out of the glove compartment because they thought it was the cause of my rattles..which it wasn't..long story there too). So rather than waste half a day driving to bburg and back, I went to the local Honda dealer (there is no Acura dealer in Lynchburg) to see if they had any locking lug sockets. They didn't, but they did have a machine that would dig into the locking lug and torque them out (seriously damaging the lug in the process). So I paid them $30 to do this (since this weekend was my only chance to swap wheels/tires and install the A-spec suspension). This machine didn't take any longer than a normal impact wrench.

Xizor, where did you buy locking lugs that fit the Comps? The OEM locking lugs don't fit.

LannyM

Great pics! Your car looks very agressive with those 235s. They fill the wheelwell up perfectly and they're perfectly flush too.

How was the suspension install other than the lug nut issue?

TSX Hokie

Thanks! Made some dumb mistakes (putting left shock on right side, then not lining up the tab into the fork). But after that, install went fine. Even with all my dumb mistakes, only took about 5 hrs total. If I had to do it again, it would take maybe 3 hrs. I wouldn't want to try it without a lift and another person to help though. The suspension was well-packaged and in perfect shape. Thanks for selling them to me!

I've really enjoyed the setup so far; the A-spec suspension rides almost exactly the same on the highway, but it is much more planted in the corners. The drop is exactly what I wanted too; low enough that it doesn't look like a monster truck, but not so far that I have to limit what parking lots I can enter. The wider track from the 235 tires and lower offset wheels definitely changes the steering feel; it is much more 'twitchy' on rough surfaces, and sometimes the wheel tugs to one side when braking. However, I think I may be out of alignment, so it may be due to this too (the rears look like they have some toe in relative to the fenders).

xizor

that's just how it is, get used to performance tires. what's the offset on your comps? my +42 and 712s were very very twitchy in bburg, not buying those tires again

xizor

I bought a whole new set of McGard Splinedrive lugs w/ locks for $90. This is what they look like, not my wheels of course. I wanted black lugs so I was going to scrap the stock tirerack ones anyways. You can probably buy any silver locking lugs and they'll work w/ the ones you have.

TSX Hokie

These are +42 as well, but only 7.5 width. They were originally purchased for an RSX, but the guy never mounted tires and sold the wheels to me for $900 instead (they are over $1400 new). Fuzion tires run about a size narrow, so the 235s are actually perfect fits for 7.5 width wheels.

These Fuzions seem great so far. Road noise is less than either the OEMs or my Dunlop winter tires. And I haven't gotten VSA to come on yet, with some pretty hard driving. And best of all, they were cheap ($102 each from Tirerack).

Also, I shed almost 9 pounds per corner with the Comps. The Fuzions aren't light at 25 lbs, but that is their only negative I have found so far.

xizor

mine are 7.5 width as well, so pretty similar. Fuzion's will be my next tire as my 712s will die a painful death being autox'd to death in an Evolution school, the price of the ZRi's is incredible.

dzuy

i wish i had some 17 x 8 volks or ssr's right now

BlackAc036

Hey, How much did those springs lower the car?

TSX Hokie

Not very much. The consensus seems to be 0.75"-1".

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

Looks good, dude.

And yes, it was an abso-fucking-lutely gorgeous day in the DC metro area yesterday. Actually, this whole weekend was great...

Powered by Honda

The Aspec suspension looks stock

TSX Hokie

That's the idea. There are many of us that want improved cornering without the limitations that come with an agressive drop (bumper scraping, speed bumps, rubbing, etc). My boss has a slammed A4, and he has demolished his front bumper just driving around town.

NightShredder

That is exactly why I went for the a-spec suspension myself. Corners great and it is hard to tell much of a difference in the comfort from the stock ride.

btw. If you put a-spec next to stock the difference is very noticable.

rmpage

Damn, I missed this.

Very nice car. I have the 18x8 SSR's (I'm the other guy xizor was referring to) but have yet to upgrade my suspension. You can see my thread here if you haven't yet: https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21565

I'm going with Neuspeed Konis and Neuspeed sport springs. I'll drop it a little over an inch, but I opted out of the A-spec because I wast the car to be balanced and as of right now the front sits higher than the rear (I have the 5AT). So with A-spec it'd drop equally, and still be higher in front.

TSX Hokie

Your car looks great too rmpage! Comps have a very classic look. However, the spokes are so small it really draws attention to our ugly brake calipers. I am thinking of painting mine gloss black.

From what I understand. the Fuzion ZRi are basically rebadged Bridgestone RE750, for $50 apiece less. You might want to try them when your RE750 wear out and give us all a comparison. I have loved the Fuzions so far.

The A-spec drop definitely leaves the front with a much larger gap. Then again, in a 60/40 FWD car, you need either more throw or much stiffer springs in the front during cornering.

Viking

Car looks great!

xizor

That's what I did and it looks pretty good.

Before:


After:

TSX Hokie

The gloss black calipers definitely look slick Xizor. I'll have to do that next time I have time.

nbagadio

This looks so good! Sweet!

Bails

Nice ride TSX Hokie , hopefully ill see it on campus.

Zapata

ugh, i had those rims on my CLS....love the look. but man the car needs to be lower

rmpage

I'm going to feel dumb if what you say is true.

On the other hand I hope it is because that means I'll be able to get a replacement set of what I have now for cheaper.

virtualbong

If that's the case, you can just look at pics of the tread and if its truly a debadged duplicate, the treads should be exact.

Dan Martin

The treads are similar but not exact. It's obvious though that they have most the same DNA.

RE750:


ZRi:

TSX Hokie

UPDATE: I got an alignment, and the 'twitchiness' that I noticed before is greatly diminished. The front toe was out of spec by nearly 300%.

Also, I expected reduced gas mileage by switching to performance summer tires, but I got about 32 MPG on my last tank, so no concern there. These tires are also incredibly quiet on the highway, not to mention having great grip wet or dry.

Dan Martin

300%

Oh man that's brutal.

CGTSX2004

iTrader: (1)

300%!!??

Damn...

Newplay1

still 4x4 after a-spec yikes. but hott'ness on the wheels.

TSX Hokie

I can't remember the exact specs, but the toe spec is 0.12 I think, I mine was 0.4 or something, so more like 230%.

I think the wheel gap thing is starting to be like the emperor's new clothes; people see any wheel gap and they say it looks so terrible because that's what other people say. Suspension is designed to MOVE when you corner, hit bumps, etc. If there is no room for travel, why even have suspension? Just have rigid mounts.

I think the golden standard in how a wheel well should look is a 3-series with the Sport Package; there is a uniform gap 180 degrees around the wheel. If there is less gap at 12 o'clock than 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock, it looks pretty ridiculous to me. To each his own I guess.

virtualbong

I hear ya, but when you have the best of both worlds, then its extra sweet

TSX Hokie

You bastards ate up my whole 1.5 GB of Photobucket bandwidth, so I rehosted the images with Imageshack: