Coilovers Project (rear)

Despite my busy schedule I still somehow manage to enjoy doing things to the car. The next project I wanted to tackle on is creating coil overs for the EVO. Some might say why not get some off the self stuff. There are so many out there, but from what I experienced, I have learned that majority of them are not specifically designed for the car. Now I'm not saying that every company is doing this, but majority of them are.

I got the idea of doing this through my buddy Mike Croutcher at Diamond Star Specialties who was once well known in the DSM community for his knowledge of suspension tuning and performance tuning. It was unfortunate that he moved to Germany but he is now is back in the States and is getting his hands and head into the EVO and Subaru community. Mike and I have also a mutual friend, Shaikh (pronounced Shake) who specializes in revalving Bilstein shock and have revalved allot of shocks for SCCA National winners and is more than capable in handling the revalved for our shock. It was this idea of getting the Bilstein revalved that has convinced me in doing this project.

The parts used on this project was from Diamond Star Specialities (805) 541-4483. Mike is very patience and can help you in all your suspension needs and other things. Currently he is working on the top hat for both front and rear which you will soon see.

Now onward into the project

Rear Strut Assembly


The Rear Strut laid out


Hammer off the collar of the strut

after hammering off the collar I noticed a tab on the strut which needs to be removed inorder to fit the coil over sleeves on to the "C" clip that will hold the coil over sleeves in place.


These are the sleeves I used for the project. For the rears I am using the the 5.00" coilover sleeves.


A pic of the sleeve on the strut


The Completed assembly


Next to come will be the fronts
More detail will come later.

http://diamondstarspecialties.com/
http://www.fatcatmotorsports.com/

Finally some updates

So I know it has been awhile, but I guess I really didn't realize time has flown by so quickly. Work has been keep me very busy and tired these days. As for what is new, well, two things has changed since my last update. One I got a factor front lip and second is that I have some tarmac springs from GTWorx.

The GTWorx's tarmac springs were supposedly designed for the person who is daily driving their car and who does occasional track days and auto xing. The spring rates are 300lbs/sqin for the front and 300lb/sqin in the rear, which is designed to be somewhat neutral balanced on the EVOX. I'm not going to go in full detail about suspension design but some of you might ask why are the spring rates the same and should that cause more over steer. B/c the EVOX has multi link suspension in the rear and the location of the pick up point for the rear strut which reduces the effectiveness of the spring that is why the rates in the rear are as high as they are. The stance of the car has dramatically changed it looks. Its allot lower than what I have come to expect.

The ride quality is decent, I am currently riding on stock Bilstein MR Struts, I can totally tell that the Bilstein are doing its job on the high speed, the increase in velocity of the struts are allowing the springs to its job. The Bilsteins could use some more low speed valving cause its alittle jump on the low speed driving.

The Factory Lip is something I have wanted for the fact it creates more down force. Watching allot of the time attack cars especially Ryan Gates who drives the Blue EVOX. He claims that the the lip on his car which is the Voltex Brand (looks like the factory lip but is slightly more extended) creates more down force and makes his car stable at high speeds.

May 15 is around the corner and the local college at De Anza is hosting the annual autocross event called Duel at De Anza. The Norcal UFO group is the one who organizes the event and all proceeds goes to the De Anza Autotech school, so going to this event not only is fun but going towards a good cause. With the current setup I have I fall under the category STU, which I believe stands for Street Touring Ultra.

Trackday at Mazda Raceway :Laguna Seca

New years eve I signed up to do a trackday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, which was hosted by NCRC (Northern California Racing Club). This was my first trackday I have ever done and I was excited and scared all at the same time; sure I have autocross, gone gokarting, drive spirited along many twisty mountain roads, and played GT5 (Grand Turismo 5) on my Playstation 3 religiously. But nothing really gives you that feeling of stepping foot on a famous race track where professional race car drivers have raced on and have crashed on.

I had the luxury of checking out the track prior to my trackday by attending the Global Tuner Grand Prix and what I have learned was that the "Cork Screw" is a 3 story drop. Playing GT5 you don't really notice its a 3 story drop, even looking at videos on youtube or even pictures really don't depict the awesomeness of this steep decent. Looking at this track in it's face seeing Porsche GT3 Cup cars with professional race car drivers crash in to the wall of the "Cork Screw" only made me more nervous.

On the map above the "Cork Screw" is turn 8. So Laguna is not a novice track, but once you know the lines and the markers to help you over comesome of the blind turns you're good to go.

This first video below is w/ my instructor. This video was captured on my 4th session. I highly recommend getting an instructor if it is your first time doing a track day or driving Laguna Seca for the first time.


This second video is w/o the instructor.



I must thank Mike at DSS (Diamond Star Speicalist) www.diamondstarspecialties.com for tuning my car. His tune was very smooth, no rough spots and improved the horsepower delivery on the car. If you need your car tuned he's the guy to ask, they take their time in making sure everything is running correctly and can tune according to the type of power delivery you want.

I must also thank Flowmaster for their new Hushpower DBX, this muffler was great it keeps the car pretty quiet, yet flows quiet well. If you have a droning problem in your car or if you have strict sound regulations then this muffler is for you. At Laguna Seca they have a sound restriction of 92dbs and this Hushpower muffler made it worry free of any black flags.

And last ATP turbo, who was kind enough to let me try out their O2 housing down pipe. This is a nice piece and is upgradable to use an external waste gate.

Some pics taken at Laguna Seca.