Here are a few pics of my '01 CL-P with the new Tein SS coilovers installed. Lowered about 1.8-2.0 inches all around and tightened up with damping at 5 in front and 4 in back. Drives very well - much better than stock. Autoxed this as is on Sunday and it was much tighter and gave very little body roll and brake diving (damping set to 9 front, 8 back). Based on previous experience with stock suspension, I think the coilovers easily took 1.5 to 2.0 seconds off my times.

Note Mr Clean drying my car for me. Great stuff to spray on the car after you've already washed it to get the polymer/surfactant adhering to the paint. The rain sheets right off for about a week afterward, depending on how much you get in your area. VERY few spots anywhere on the car now.





Need suggestions for mods that will keep me in my G Stock class for autox. Front sway will be next, then some Falken Azenis Sport tires on my stock wheels. After that???

 

Red X's

oops...spoke too soon...looks good.

 

fixed

 

nice dropped! How is the ride quality setting on 5 and 4?

 

nice!

 

Thank you all.

Ride at my current levels of damping are just firmer than stock, but not harsh. I think this is the way stock should have felt. Mind you I commute on NJ's terrible streets, so I'm not going higher. If I were back down south, I'd say probably 7 or 8 in front, 6 or 7 in back would be even better - more responsive for handling and even less body roll and nosediving/acceleration squat.

Got my alighnment this morning and it feels like I tightened everything up and made it more responsive. I'm very impressed with the Teins. :grin:

 

can you do front & rear sways at the same time and only get 1 point added?

so you are going to run the falken's full time. I think sarlaac is doing the same with his too. New rims aren't in my budget either. 2 seconds is a lot to take off.. I'm assuming a 60 second course or thereabouts?

 

nice ride and color on the CL!! come to the meet this sunday!

 

There aren't points added, only the classes change. If we change the rear sway, we are moved up to STX. Same for the strut bar. There are only a few things you can do with your stock car to keep it in the stock class (GS). Beyond that you move up to STX or a prepared or modified class where you're running against smaller cars with more powert and a lot less weight. No hope of beating them.

I plan on mounting the Falkens on my stock rims and running those only for the weekends - to the site, for the race, then back home. I'll use my 17"s for my commute.

The courses around here generally run around 40-45 secs. So 2 secs off that really gets you moving up the scale. I believe if I'd run without the Teins this weekend, I would have run around 43-44 secs instead of 41-42. So much more control and neutral handling!

 

Can't make it this weekend since I'm outta town. We are trying to setup a small meet in Northeast Philly on Sept 11.

 

no problem, but on the 11th I might go down to englishtown

 

What's happening at E-town on the 11th? No autox. Come down to Philly Park Raceway for the Ride and Drive event 11th and 12th (Car and Driver AND Road & Track are sponsoring). Drive a 325i, Suby Legacy GT Limited and the Volvo s60 - free. Details at rideanddrive.net.

 

Ah, OK. I think we might be on a different system, where modding will add certain points, and that will determine if you car gets bumped up to a higher class (SS, SP, M). For instance, the addition of "adjustable height shock absorbers are not permitted [for the stock class].

Points sheet

I've given up hope of beating anyone in our club. The courses are just so biased towards agility and not power. That's OK by me, as I'm only doing this to be a better driver in MY ack. At the end of the day, we have a car built in the GT tradition ~ If I wanted to win at Autox, I'd take the $3-4k in mods it would take and buy a used RX-7

Yeah, 2 secs of a 45 second crse is huge. Our last minute course, 8 seconds separated first (modified) from last (stock).

 

GINge-
Yep, our autox seem to be quite different in setting up the classes. I like the ARMS system from what I've read. Seems to be more straightforward to understand and figure out than the SCCA system.

And the more I think about it, the more this money would be "better spent" buying an old Honda CRX or Civic and modding it a little. One guy around here bought and is modding a Yugo! Spent about $400US on the whole thing so far and it's very basic to work on. Of course he's all the way up in a prepared class, so he has the freedom to do lots of stuff with his - and it will still come in under the cost of my coilovers!

But I'm not in it to win (yet). I just want to learn about the limits of my car and how to drive a big, heavy, too tall boat at the limit. Switching to a smaller, lighter, lower car would be a different experience, but maybe easier once I "master" the CL.

 

red x's here

 

Nice ride man.

I like those wheels.

 

I'm still debating that issue. There are guys running older scirocco's and golfs, and literally one of them ran off course an into a tree, drove cross country, and back on the course again!!! Then you have guys with Teg's who will slam on the brakes and reverse in order to avoid a pylon denting their body kit.

I raced this weekend and ran a 77 sec on my first lap and 70 sec on my last. It was a tight race with less than 2 seconds separating the 5 cars in my class.

The funny thing was my fastest time seemed like my slowest! You ever find that?

The couse was excellent; started off into a right sweeper, into a 4 cone slalom, huge left sweeper, 2 cone slalom, hard 90 degree left, another 2 cone very tight slalom (could barely get my car through), into a 360 circle, then into a long slalom (got up to 110kph on this stretch), into a hairpin, back through the long slalom, through a couple gates , hard right, and into the stop box.

I found that the best time came from only using the vtec on the slaloms. I was taking turns way too fast early on, going very wide and adding a lot of distance to the course. The front tires are totally rounded-off on the edges! And that was at 45 psi. I

 

Swweeet! Nothing like rounding those tires. Wish we had soem course longer than 45 secs around here. A 360? Have to suggest that to our folks around here. One direction one week, the other the next - gotta keep the tire wear even.

 

Wow, looks good. I like the drop.

 

The circle was a new one for me too! That is where I was loosing at lot of time, I'd hit it way to fast, squeel the whole way round..basically driving it twice as wide as I needed to. very fun though, pressed up against the door! The trick was to drive slower and stick right to edge of the cones.One of the porshes got some huge drift around it, as we got a sprinkling of rain to make things "interesting".

We're lucky to have a military airfield that is never used, its about 200m wide and over 1km long. We rarely use 50% of the length though. Last months event was much longer - times were well into 90 secs.

Are you still liking the Tiens for commuting?

What's involved in lowering/raising them for a race? My yamaha has a funny looking hook wrench to change the damping on the shock ~ is it something like that? What I'm getting at is, is it a hassle to raise and lower the car?

 

nice ride, i like the drop

 

Thanks for the compliments, everyone. I really love the way the drop has changed the look. I truly feel the sense of pride again that I had when I first bought it (3.5 years ago). I smile every time I look out my window and see it - and especially as I walk toward it after work. Losing the 2" of air has redefined the car for me. Looks meaner and much more aggressive now.

Well, except for a strange "bottoming out" in the front now, they are doing well. I have to check the front bolts and make sure everything is still tight. No biggie right now, but seems to be evolving toward louder sounds.

As for changing damping, it a simple turn of the knob on the fronts and a fishing expedition with a long allen key in the back (thru some small holes next to the speaker grills). Pretty easy. Height changes are more rigorous and require jacking each corner and using the silly hook-wrenches to move the spring perches. Going down is much easier than going back up! But even so, I can do all 4 corners in about 10-15 minutes. And worth the effort in decreased body roll and better control.

 

Found the source of the noises from yesterday: the strut nut came loose again! Don't know why, but these nuts keep loosening and allowing the strut to wiggle up and down. Might have to try some more aggressive nylon nuts on those since Tein's ain't getting it. Still have the stock ones, so maybe that'll be the next move.

Incidentally, ride was back to normal this morning - nice and smooth and controlled.