I hate cars

Right now my combo consists of Koni Yellows, a-spec springs, Progress RSB, H&R FSB, and 255/40/17s on stock rims. Coming soon are the TL-S top hats and TL-S compliance bushings.

The car sits perfect, I love the stance. It has a 1.5 finger gap in the front and nearly 2 fingers in the rear. The rear Konis are in the stock height setting and the fronts are on the low perch.

My dilema is I want to look stock when I take it to the track. I can raise the rear up to the higher than stock perch on the Konis and take the front up to the stock height. While this would be about 3/8" lower than stock, no one would notice.

I highly doubt it would affect handling that much and it would be nice to have all of my suspension travel back and not scrape on every driveway for daily driving.

I would still have stiffer springs, more swaybar than any other TL I know of, some great shocks, and stiffer bushings....all at stock ride height.

Anyone else think I should go for the sleeper effect or am I crazy to give up the aggressive looks? For what it's worth, I tangled with a newer Vette through some very tight corners for about 12 miles and I could consistantly pull away until we hit the straightaways. This guy was pissed but how much more pissed would he have been if my car looked stock...

Hi speed

iTrader: (3)

I like the stock look mostly to avoid unwanted attention. The MT suspention handles nice, but I do like the more agressive look.

Elegant TYPE S

iTrader: (2)

Dam.. all this suspension mod going on all of a sudden.. what are you getting your car prepared for huh.. cough cough?

I hate cars

Second attempt at going to Willow Springs. Last time the car got hit by a garbage truck. This time I'll keep it garaged and then trailer it to the track lol.

It's a bunch of co-workers with everything from a Scion to a GTA to a Cayman to a Cayenne S to a 944 to a Vette, and a WRX.

Trying not to get embarassed and it would be less embarassing to lose if everyone thought mine was stock lol. And if I place well I'll leave them scratching their heads. I know on the proper track (read short with lots of corners) I have a fighting chance with the Vette, Cayenne, WRX, GTA, and the Scion. Not sure about the Cayman or 944.

Wilwood 13" fronts are next if I can find out for sure if they will fit under my stock rims. And the biggest difference, tires... Thinking of an R compound. That should give me the edge to be competitive with the Porsches. This is another reason I'm going with the larger swaybar and thinking of raising the ride height. With a tire like that I'm worried about hitting the bumpstops around the corners.

chill_dog

The only reason I don't like the ASPEC suspension is that it doesn't lower the car enough; it looks stock. It's purely form, though, as I have 19's. With the stock wheels, it looks fine. I live with the form for the function...plus I don't scrape . If you're going to be tracking your car, I'd be more concerned with function than form.

Also, the 13" Wilwoods fit under the stock wheels...it even says so on their site.

TLheaven

iTrader: (4)

I'd keep the lowered look. TLs at stock height are just way too high IMO. Looks too monster truck like.

JMillerUA6

iTrader: (1)

I'm biased because I prefer the lowered look, but if you're looking for honest opinions I'll give it to you.

Personally I think you should find a happy medium. If you're tracking your car it might be beneficial to go with a more aggressive spring. Even if you go with something like an H&R Sport Spring, it's not going to lower your ride height that much, and you can even counter the drop a little bit by raising the perches on your struts, but you'll still benefit from the more aggressive spring rate.

I read over all of your suspension mods and it seems like the only thing that your lacking is a good spring. I'm sure the ASPEC spring is good, but it certainly wasn't developed for track use.

I do agree with what you said above, lol......having a lowered car does attarct unwanted attention. It seems like every Civic in Hartford that sees my car feels the need to start messing with me on the highway.......I just laugh.

chill_dog

Where do you get your info? Excerpt from an article on the ASPEC package:

JMillerUA6

iTrader: (1)

My bad, never read the press release that came out for the ASPEC suspension. My main point was that he could benefit from a more aggressive spring rate. Plenty of manufacturers boast "sport tuned suspensions".......

09 Camry: http://ask.cars.com/2009/05/does-the...e-v6-does.html

09 RAV4 Sport: http://www.toyota.com/rav4/features.html,

09 Kia Spectra5: http://www.cars.com/go/crp/research....=&aff=national)

I have no earthly idea what the spring rates are for the ASPEC springs, but I'm sure something like an H&R or Neuspeed Sport Spring or Eibach Prokit would yield increased performance over the ASPEC springs.

I hate cars

I don't know the rates, I tried to find them before purchase and apparently they must be top secret.

Going by feel I would guess about 20% stiffer than the 04-06 TL. For me, it's a perfect compromise for a daily driver. They're not an all out track spring obviously but I don't want anything stiffer on my daily driver. I already have one race car.

While it's not the ideal way, I'm going with the larger than normal (28mm, 24mm) swaybars to help out with the body roll.

Ideally on a race car, the correct way is to get 90% there using springs and shocks and fine tune with the swaybars. There are disadvantages to doing what I'm doing but it's all about compromise.

JMillerUA6

iTrader: (1)

How much of a difference in handling did you notice when you upgraded to the TLS FSB and the Progress RSB? The only mods I've done to my car thus far have been the H&R Race springs (which I might add are softer than I thought they'd be) and aftermarket struts. I'm a firm believer in getting the suspension mods out of the way first and both of those items are next on my list.

I hate cars

The Progress made a nice difference. I haven't done the TL-S bar but I have the H&R 28mm bar on order. It should take some of the tail happiness out of the car.

chill_dog

He could, and he knows that. However, it's not what he wants.

@ the Kia. I'm sorry, but that's just funny.

Nobody knows the spring rates for the ASPEC springs, but I'd guess they're somewhere between stock and the aftermarket sport springs, leaning towards the sport spring side. I've ridden in a car with H&R Sports springs and Koni Yellows...not much different than ASPEC, if at all. Honestly, the only major difference I noticed was the ride height.

MrHeeltoe

iTrader: (1)

Haha, if you really get you jollies looking stock that is what I'd do, but you do need to think a LITTLE about the whole center of gravity thing. You can't have lost that much travel and as long as there is like an inch of wheel gap it isn't going to look overly aggressive.

On the TL-S top hats, you only need to get the bushings. The rest of the hat kit is identical.
http://www.heeltoeauto.com/product.php?productid=64843

jnice

iTrader: (1)

I would recomend the tanabe df210 10000%. They lower the Tl 1.6 in the front and 1.4 in the rear slightly stiffer but feels almost like stock when paired with the kyb gr2 struts. I have a comptech rsb and the type s fsb, i never feel the car out of control and it handles like an m3 around turns. I get lots of compliments and i enjoy the hec out of it.