Turbo4WD.com

What a weekend. (5/17/03-5/18/03). On Thursday evening I found out I would not need to work over the weekend, so Friday afternoon

I called Mike at RRE to see if John Mueller would be available to help me work on the car. It turns out he was, so Saturday morning Wendy

and I headed down to LA. We left at 8:00am and got to RRE by 3:30pm. (Would have been there sooner, but LA traffic sucked). We went

and got a hotel room and went back to RRE. I started wrenching around 4:45pm... and here are the pictures and the story.

at	First thing I started to do was pull the suspension off the car. As I started to pull the suspension John started assembling the JIC coilovers. Here is a picture of my Tokiko/Eibach ProKit vs the JIC fronts.	Here is a picture with the suspension removed. you can see the dirt on the grease I added to the adjustable camber kit. I later removed the adjustable camber bushing and replaced them with Poly Urethane ones.	This is the drivers side with the old stuff still in there.
Pulling more suspension pieces off... There is a rotor. That is a stock sized rotor that was cross drilled.	Oh boy... what is that. Yep, Stop Techs. The AEM box is for the rears!	These are the 4 piston calipers for the Stop Techs. They are massive!	Here is a size difference between the GSX factory size rotor and the Stop Tech rotors!
Here is a picture of the rear suspension with the Tokiko/Eibachs.	Here is the difference between the JIC rears and the Tokiko/Eibach rears.	Another view of the rears.	While I was removing parts off the car. John started to press out the stock bushings. Here is a rear control arm with the bushing pressed out. John said this one bushing alone makes a huge difference.
Here is another one being pressed out.	This is the factory bushing. On one of mine, the rubber was cracked.	John is pressing in the new poly urethane bushing.	That is a pretty solid bushing. Should stiffen up the suspension nicely.

Bet you were expecting to see the Stop Techs... I was too, but it was not meant to be. The Calipers were so large they actually hit my Racing Hart C5 spokes. We would have needed to shim out the wheel over 1/2 inch. That would have caused too many problems. I instead went with the AEM big rotors. These are the Non-Cross Drilled and instead just Gas Slotted to make them stronger.	Here is a closer shot of the JIC's installed along with the larger calipers. The upper control arms had their bushings replaced also. If things go well, in the far future, maybe the Stop Techs will become a reality.	Here is a picture a little farther back.	Had to stop for a Starbucks break in my RRE shirt, so I look like one of the crew.
Now you know why I had to stop for a little Mocha... 11:45pm and still going...	Here is the car on the stand.	Front view of the car on the lift.	Drivers side front suspension with the brakes removed. Don't look at the caliper dangling by the braded brake line.
Put the rear control arm back in with the poly urethane bushing installed.	Rear suspension with the JIC's installed. Still has the old brakes...	Here is the size difference between the AEM big rotors for the front vs the stock cross drilled.	Another size difference comparison.
Hey... Here is Mike and Shawn Glass in Shawn's built 1'st gen. They are playing with the EMS before their test drive...	Here is a shot of the size difference between the rear AEM brakes vs the stock crossed drilled.	Another size difference pictures of the rear.	John is pulling the rear suspension to get to the 3 bushings. This was probably the hardest part of the whole job...

Getting to that suspension component was tough. John knew a few tricks to help.	Got the bushing pressed in and now I am adding the new AEM rotor.	Car on the lift with a farther shot. Trying to get the big picture feel.	Got the brakes on and then I realized that I put the rotor on the wrong side.
So close to being finished with all the installed components.	Nice shot of the car on the lift.	Here is the close up of the front. I am now running the Porterfield pads. Their street strip pad.	So close to being completed...
Time to work on the alignment.	Car has been completed. It is time for the 1st test drive, to make sure everything is working correctly.... John drove the car and man what a ride. Some of the highlights... a 15mph 90deg left turn at 45mph and flew over some railroad tracks at 70mph, like they weren't even there. The brakes brought us from 80mph to 0mph with such force the seat belt actually hurt....	We brought the car back in and made a few changes to the alignment. Now it is my turn to take the car out for a test drive. Oh yeah... and did I mention it is about 8:00am Sunday Morning!	Here is a nice shot in front of RRE. What is that in the back ground. Yes, that is correct, an EVO VIII.

What a difference a day makes...

All I can say... Why didn't I do this earlier!

The car handles completely different. With the previous suspension, which was definitely better then stock, had a large amount of understeer

under hard corning. You could feel all the weight of the car transfer onto the front outer wheel, and once the suspension bottomed out, or

lost all shock travel, it would plow through the turn. Under extreme conditions it would actually plow straight, and not even turn.

With the new JIC suspension, the car is significantly more balance. I asked John to set it up with a touch of understeer. (primarily for safety in

street use). As I take hard turns now I can feel the weight actually transfer to the rear wheels. I have been able to take on-ramps and off-ramps

at 60+mph as I am accelerating. That is in 2nd gear at high RPMs.

The ride is actually pretty good too... There is a slight amount of bounce, which is firm - not stiff, and not soft like the tokiko's. The rebound is

also firm. When going over a bump the car will not continue to bounce after the bump. It will drop and come back and immediately settle. Wendy

says she prefers the ride of the JIC's to the Tokiko/Eibach combo.

Ride height is a little bit lower in the front. I would say it is about a 1/4 of an inch lower then the Tokiko/Eibach combo. I was hoping it would

actually be a little higher, because I have to be careful of parking blocks, and steep drive ways. Sacrifices, you sometimes have to make.

If you are wondering... I would recommend the JIC suspension and Poly Urethane bushings. The brakes and pads are also far better too. For

a track day, I can see that I would definitely need to switch to the Porterfield race pads...

Now I am waiting for some free time to go up to the mountain twisties to have some real fun!!!

-Shawn