Kirk's Ride...

[kabel]

^awesome, they look even better installed. And yes Kirk's "assistant" is very nice indeed, but she is not a permanent installation on the car now is she?!

[Kirk]

Finally got my JRZ coilovers done! What a royal pain in the ass! In the front I got the front remote reservoirs hard mounted (no more zip ties) with some custom brackets and I had to remove the shocks again (3rd time) to get them shimmed up a little more. Fit seems to be just about perfect now, ride height is set, and alignment is near perfect (still needs some toe work though). I'm running about -2.3 degrees camber with the camber plates. Only down side is that the sperical bearings in the camber plates are damn noisy. I'll have to get used to that.

Here's the new reservoir mount in the front:



The rear shocks turned out to be a lot more work than what I had expected. It turns out that you can't get the reservoir through the shock mount in the wheel hub because the drive axle is in the way. The solution? I had to remove the rear axles. The only problem is that they're held on with 340 ft lbs of torque. I could NOT get the nuts off the axles. I thought maybe a local shop would loosen them for me, but I second guessed that as I doubt anyone would let me drive home with loose axle nuts. Finally, as a last resort, I borrowed an impact socket, 3/4" drive breaker bar, and 4' (yes four FOOT) cheater bar from the millwrights at my work (they work for me, so I get some special treatment). I got the nuts off, axles out, shocks in, and remote reservoirs run to the rear trunk. Then I used a HUGE torque wrench from my work to get the axle nuts tight again. All in all it took two weekends of work. The car is way too low now, so I still need to raise it up more. It's a bit of a game though as the wheels can rub on the outside fender and can rub the coilover adjustable perches. I need to raise the perches just enough to get them past the rub point. The 275 mm tires on 10" rims are just pushing the absolute limit of what can fit. I'll go to 265 mm tires once these wear out (too soon I'm afraid). I'm running about -3.0 degrees camber in the rear, but I haven't done an alignment yet.

Here's the remote reservoir mounting in the rear trunk:





I won't really push it until I get ride heights set better and a more thorough alignment done, but some quick test drives have suggested that the car is now unf_cking believable. It corners so damn hard and fast that it will make your neck snap. It is just totally insane for public road driving as the limits of adhesion are so extremely high and I've still got the shocks set to their softest setting. I have GOT to autocross this car can take it to the track!

I'm also working on a nitrogen setup. I've got the valves, gauges, regulator and tank. I've just got a friend making some custom hose for me. Then I'll be able to adjust the nitrogen pressure to get the ride stiffness where I want it.

[Kirk]

One more mod this last weekend. As long as I had the front of the car jacked up and both shocks out to re-shim them, I thought it would be a good time to install my latest trick mod. It's an OEM front anti-sway bar from a Porsche 996 GT3. This is the preferred sway bar for Boxsters as it's much beefier than stock and is 5-way adjustable. The only problem is that you have to use aftermarket sway bar links to fit it and adjust for the different hole positions on the bar.

Here's the GT3 bar compared to stock. Stock is on top and is a little under 24 mm in diameter. The GT3 bar is on the bottom and is 27 mm.



Here you can see the adjustment holes on the GT3 bar compared to stock.



Here's the new end link (bottom), which is adjustable, compared to stock (top). Think it will be a bit stronger?



Here are a couple photos of it installed, not much to see really. I've got it on the softest setting for now to limit understeer until I get a spare $450 to buy the Tarett aftermarket adjustable sway bar to go in the rear. I may actually stiffen it up a bit for more understeer as I got the car sideways today on the street with snap oversteer and it's pretty abrupt (although I was doing a heroic move at the time, so it wasn't a total surprise). I may want a little more understeer for now until I get used to the new suspension and then dial it back more towards neutral once I get a rear bar.

[Kirk]

I had my car and camera at work today, so I snapped some pics at lunch. I had the top up because it was a bit chilly today...







You can see how low the rear is. The tires are almost tucked up into the wheel well. It rubs even if I corner hard! I'll get it raised up this weekend if I have time.

I got my nitrogen filling rig done for my shock reservoirs, but I didn't have enough bottle pressure to set them. So instead I pulled the valve cores on all the tires to deflate them, and then refilled them all with nitrogen. Woo Hoo - 10 more horsepower!!!

Kirk

[djomlas]

very nice progress man
i love your car (aside from the til light, but that was beaten to death already).

how do u like the new suspension?

[Kirk]

Originally Posted by djomlas

very nice progress man
i love your car (aside from the til light, but that was beaten to death already).

how do u like the new suspension?

So far the suspension seems pretty amazing. It certainly pushes the limits of the car beyond what's reasonable on public roads. I'm going to try to get the rear end raised up this week and get a good alignment on it. Then I'll be able to push it more and get a better gauge for how it performs. I've got an autocross coming up this weekend, so my hope is to get everything relatively dialed in so that I can compete with the Boxster this time rather than my regular Honduh.

Kirk

[Gary in BR]

Great mods, the car is coming along great