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Samwise

Bringing an 86 back from the dead

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Now it's all in one piece and alive once again you should get yourself to tuning development mate. I got mine a new UEL manifold and a remap (their N/A package) about 4 or 5 weeks ago and the difference is incredible. So much more mid range torque! 

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1 hour ago, Samwise said:

Cheers guys :)

Never driven one before but i'm quite enjoying it. I've not had a car that loves to be revved right out through the range before so the driving home from work through the twisty roads of the sussex dyke is always fun

Henfield! I work in small dole. I look forward to seeing it about. Always use the dyke road and Horn lane.

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Been a while since i've updated this but did a couple of things recently to/with the 86!
 
First was a couple of little boring things, sorting out the problem with the driver's side window scraping before it got bad and the tiny rust on the A pillar. Both are easy jobs which can be done at the same time.
For the rust I removed the door trim piece to get access to the part of the pillar that needed to be cleaned up. Put some Bilt Hamber diox stuff on it to remove the rust and left it for a couple of hours and then clean it off and applied some Hammerite with a tiny paint brush to the area that had been rubbed away by the trim. In Hindsight i should've taken a file to the trim as well just to take it back 1-2mm so it would clear the trim better but I figured I can easily do it again in the future if need be.
 
Didn't get an after-picture but you can see how much more access you get with the trim removed:
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While I was there I had a look down the door and could see that one of the window guides had folded over on it self and broken, in the long term this would likely have caused the scratching issue that alot of people experience but i've not had any damage on my glass yet.
 
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I know that this is covered under warranty by Toyota but considering that would mean having to hand over the car and some dealerships track record with work on the 86 platform seems to leave much to be desired I figured I would just reach in with a pair of pliers and yank it out. It's been almost 2 weeks since I did and I've had no problems with the window, wind noise, water or anything getting in to the car so it appears to be fine with just 2 of the 3 guides on that window and I didn't have to hand my car off to be fixed tango_face_smile.png
 
 
Finally the fun bit.

 

This weekend me and my dad took the long journey up from Henfield to Oulton park on Friday night, a whole 5 hour drive through what can only be described as a monsoon which definitely gave a little excitement to the drive i suppose.
The day after was our track day, it was really slippery in the morning as there was still alot of dampness on the track which on a normal road would have been fine but a super smooth and rubber ingrained track surface was almost like Ice in some corners. We didn't have any big moments or spins in the morning but it was an excellent opportunity for me to get use to how the 86 can relay information to you about how it's slipping and what it feels like when the back end let's loose a little although this was with the Traction Control Semi off rather than all the way.
 
In the Afternoon the track cleared up alot and you could really go for it, I only have Toyo Proxes T1R's on my car so they're nothing fancy but it was good fun to really take them to the edge of their grip in every single corner and absoluetly torture them. Even after doing the pedal dance to turn all the systems off the car understeers a little bit when you really push it wish doesn't surprise me being totally standard suspension wise but it's great fun to drive and feels really rewarding. Both me and my Dad were impressed by how little body roll there is even on the standard springs/dampers as some car's i've been a passenger in on-track in the past I felt like my time had come every single corner when all I could see out the window was Tarmac due to the body roll.
 
Managed to overtake a couple of people as there were a few cars of similar calibur, an Mx5, N/A Vx220 and another 86 although I do wish I had a little bit more torque lower down to really pull the car out of the corners as Oulton park has a couple of chicanes which really drain your momentum and coming out of both of them you have to go up hill so it can really take a while for the car to pick up when it needs to.
 
Only one picture from the whole day i'm afraid and no video either, we were just too busy enjoying our first time at the track tango_face_grin.png
 
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Nice little update Sam. Is that window guide meant to be fixed in place or does it follow the glass up and down. Mine has marks on the glass like this may have happened already. Toyota couldn't see anything wrong with the door card off but I bet that's what's caused mine. Cheers for the in depth pictures. 

Glad you had a good time on track, oulton Park does look like alot of fun. The 86 is very communicative and adjustable in standard guise on track, probably more noticeable when your used to the vx220? Out of interest what was your sound test with the HKS single exit recorded at? 

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19 minutes ago, Luke said:

Nice little update Sam. Is that window guide meant to be fixed in place or does it follow the glass up and down. Mine has marks on the glass like this may have happened already. Toyota couldn't see anything wrong with the door card off but I bet that's what's caused mine. Cheers for the in depth pictures. 

Glad you had a good time on track, oulton Park does look like alot of fun. The 86 is very communicative and adjustable in standard guise on track, probably more noticeable when your used to the vx220? Out of interest what was your sound test with the HKS single exit recorded at? 

It's difficult to describe and I can't find any pictures of what the window guide should look like but it looks from the others as though the part you can see in my picture which is broken, twisted and sticking upwards would be connected to the rest of it with a small brush strip across it which just presses against the glass. I don't think they follow the glass in any way and they're just there to apply a constant pressure to it probably to stop it from going up in a weird way and to stop it from rattling but i've not had any problems since pulling that broken part off on the one.

 

Yeah the 86 is alot more communicative than the vx220 in my opinion but i'm sure it's just a mixture of stiff shocks, really sticky tyres and the sharpness of the loss of grip that really causes it to creep up on you as once it goes it goes but with the 86 you can really tell early on when you're starting to get a bit of slip as the back end goes light before it starts to rotate around.

Oulton is a great track and although i've not done many track days it's right up there with Brands and Snetterton as a nice technical and challenging track that you can really master over time as it's got some fantastic corners, big camber changes and so on.

The exhaust registered at Oulton at 92db, just Catback with no other exhaust changes. At Goodwood a little while ago it came back at 94 so there's a bit of variation.

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Good insight about the window runners. 

You're right about it going light before it comes around. Makes the car so Playful. How did you find the stock brakes? 

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They weren't too bad around Oulton. At first I was using them more than I had to and they did start to get a little spongy but nothing dangerous. I was braking later or less than most people anyway obviously to carry more spead through the corner! Or you might just say because I was going slower than the rest of them :lol:

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Yeah I had the same issue, spongy pedal but still feeling safe. Just went a bit deeper into the corner and cooled the brakes for a lap. 

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Another small update from this weekend smile.gif Finally got some replacement front side repeaters to fit.

They're used smoked ones which I think look quite a bit better so i'm pleased with them but the question is how long until they decide to fly off again!


I fitted them this weekend and also sprayed the front bumper indicators to match.
neither of the indicators are in use anyway as now have them in the light clusters and wing trims so they're just there to fill the gaps smile.gif



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Wanted to smarten the car up before the final meet of the year at the Pistonheads BMW HQ meet next sunday. Also these are the first pictures of the car taken on my new phone so that's pretty exciting too, they look great if i do say so myself tango_face_grin.png

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Right it's time to get this ex-car wreck rolling again!

Just ordered the first mod of the year and keeping up the theme of not doing anything by half measures there's alot planned over the next couple of months.

Order Placed on a set of 2-way adjustable BC ER Series Coilovers!

Along with that once they arrive and im able to take some measurements I'll be ordering a set of Stanceparts Air-cups.. Now I know what you might be thinking, no I don't plan to slam the car and roll around with rediculous camber but I would like the luxury of being able to pop the ride height up as and when I please to save any front lips and the side skirts when it comes to any big speed bumps or Multi-story car parks.

As well as that I plan to purchase a set of thicker and adjustable Whiteline Anti-Roll bars for the front and rear.

Aaaand Finally in April I plan on picking up a set of Adjustable rear lower control arms, Trailing arms and Toe arms for the rear once Driftworks has released their new line of products for the GT86!

The Next few months are going to be busy and its exciting!
 

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There's been a recent and unfortunate change of plans recently in regards to the suspension changes.


Having discussed my Coilover order with BC racing it appears that the BC ER Series comes from the factory with 10/8kg springs which is incredibly hard to confirm seeing as no suppliers list this or they list it at 8kg/6kg. Although it is possible to get softer spring rates by doing so the BC Racing Factory in Taiwan have advised that they will not be able to offer the units with a warranty.
As 10/8kg is far too harsh for a street car rather than track car in my opinion and due to the lack of warranty support and general lack of compromise on their attitude I have decided to cancel my order with BC and go back to the original, potentially controversial and more expensive plan that I had when fixing the car up, Air Ride.


I don't really want to start any Air vs Coilover arguments however this was my first option when I was fixing the car up as with my other car's i've gone down the dedicated track car route and i've gone down the Low street car route and both have their compromises that eventually lead to an less-enjoyable driving experience so for me hoping to use the 86 as a fast street car with a nice balance of looks and practicality with potentially some very rare track use (1-2 track days a year at most) I've wanted to go with Air, it's also another one of those "Well if I can, why not. There's a first time for everything" Kind of situations for me and I look forward to the process of installing it, setting it up and reaping the benefits of it in the future.


So that no one feels I didn't get coilovers enough of a chance however I did do my research and unfortunately there aren't really any within my price bracket that suit my purpose on the 86. With the earlier plan of using air-cups so I could avoid scraping front lips and chassis rails any coilover I choose will instantly lose roughly 20mm of its lowering potential through the size of the air cup units. With this in mind with the fact that I was hoping to lower the car around 40mm or so it would mean that the Coilover would need to lower atleast 60mm which is quite a tall order in the 86 world it seems.


With my price target of around £1500 I considered the following:

Tein Flex A: I wanted a little more for my money, hoping to get a dual-valve coilover setup
BC ER Series: See Above problems
KW V3: Lowering on these sacrifices overall suspension travel, not an option I was willing to take.
Ohlins: Over budget when taking in to account the top mounts.
HKS Hipermax GT: Possibly the best option however a bit of a gamble as their specs are on the absolute limits of my desired result.


After all of this and to avoid any further headaches I just decided to bite the bullet and hold off until funds can allow me to go ahead with the air setup.
I know this might surprise or disapoint a few people however it's just the option i've been wanting to go with and hopefully the best all round option for how i want to use the car :)

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1 hour ago, Samwise said:

With my price target of around £1500 I considered the following:

Tein Flex A: I wanted a little more for my money, hoping to get a dual-valve coilover setup
BC ER Series: See Above problems
KW V3: Lowering on these sacrifices overall suspension travel, not an option I was willing to take.
Ohlins: Over budget when taking in to account the top mounts.
HKS Hipermax GT: Possibly the best option however a bit of a gamble as their specs are on the absolute limits of my desired result.

I have a set of HKS Hipermax SP arriving next week. I'm hoping the amount of dampening adjustment makes it tolerable for the road! I believe the only difference between the two, is where the standard level of adjustment is set to out the box. Happy to give you an update once fitted if you like 

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2 minutes ago, James18 said:

I have a set of HKS Hipermax SP arriving next week. I'm hoping the amount of dampening adjustment makes it tolerable for the road! I believe the only difference between the two, is where the standard level of adjustment is set to out the box. Happy to give you an update once fitted if you like 

It would be good to hear how they go. I had heard the GT were a bit more suited to everyday roads as there's a video from HKS themselves comparing the differences of the two.

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So this weekend has been an exciting one.
 

With the car show season kicking off I headed back in to Brighton for Incarnation 2019. There were some fantastic cars on display and I managed to get a couple of pictures of the 86 looking clean. Even saw a couple of 86's!


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As well as this I also took delivery of an exciting Package from Whiteline!
On the lead up to my upcoming suspension changes as well as shocks I was in the market for some new Anti-roll bars and this lead me to Whiteline as they were also one of your only manufacturers to also offer a front Bumpsteer correction kit for lowered cars as well as including Drop Links, bushings and bracing with their ARB Packages. Not only that but I also much prefer the colour/finish of their parts too! laugh

Which brings me to the exciting bit of news that I'm now a Whiteline Brand Ambassador!
As I said before I'm not looking to make the 86 an out and out track car although they are very capable but I do like the extra confidence and grip a lightly upgraded suspension setup offers as well as the preventative measures against any bumpsteer that might arise from lowering the car as I always find it such a sketchy feeling on our bumpy B roads.

I Picked up a set of their Anti-roll bars featuring 20mm on the front (+4mm up from stock) and 16mm on the rear (+2mm up from stock), new ARB bushings, Adjustable Drop links Front & Rear, rear ARB mount bracing as well as their Bumpsteer correction kit, Rear subframe bushing inserts and Diff bushing inserts.

The inserts should really help to tighten up the slack in the driveline without sending too many vibrations in to the cabin and should be far easier to fit too!

The quality and finish of the parts is excellent and I can say from first hand experience that their customer service is awesome as well after there was a little hiccup in my order I was able to get the missing parts delivered in less than 48 hours after emailing them.
Anyway enough of that rambling, on the with pictures!

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So i have another couple of updates from the last few weeks, the first being my recent drift day it was a little something I got for my birthday at the end of April and I have to say it was SO MUCH FUN! tango_face_grin.png
The next update will be a bit of a hit or miss one for some people as I recently received my brand new air lift setup so i'll be showing off that a little but i'll save that for tomorrow evening, on to the good stuff:


As I mentioned before I'm not looking to make the 86 a track car or a drift car for that matter but I wanted to take it to one of these days to have some fun and get some experience chucking it around, overcoming the limit of grip and catching/controlling it and learning how the car behaves. I wanted to do this before I start making the car more grippy with various suspension changes just to give it the best chance to slide about but it really wasn't that difficult when I had the OEM wheels back on and pumped the tyres up to 50psi on the rear.
It was a great day and after my first little 5 minute sessions going about it in a ham fisted way, sawing at the steering wheel and being far too heavy fitted I was able to catch it and control some decent donuts around the cones, move on to some figure 8s and by the end of the day I was on their kidney track which was all great fun!


Anyway enough of the chatting I guess, here are some pictures, videos and more!
All of them are pretty much from the morning before I moved up to the other tracks but I have the say the 86 looks so good leant over to one side with a bit of opposite lock.



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You can check out the whole gallery of photos here: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AkJa4dCyLSqihIdqoiiHrk5lh9MrJg
As I mentioned before, here are some videos. Excuse the silly giggling, I was just having so much fun!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phInejYFfJk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou_wDdQfxSA


And finally to finish off the report a vulgar display of tyre destruction. The first set are mine after the morning, the 2nd set were a set of part worns that one of the marshalls of the day destroyed after just 10 minutes!
 

 
 
 
 

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So the post some people may have been waiting for and others may have been dreading - Air lift time


To give a bit of a look in to the thoughts behind the madness I wanted to go Air lift as I wanted to turn the 86 in to more of an all-round Fast Street/Show car. I've done the whole stiff, low, bump-steery and twitchy track car in our Vx220 which doesn't get driven nearly enough as it's a bit too focused for a bumpy B road blast and i've done the low/static thing with my Subaru which essentially renders me unable to go in to any multi-story car parks or even pull in to the drive way after getting home from work without scraping at our last house which for the car which served as my daily for the best part of 3 years isn't all that useful but it does look great!


The Fast Street/Slow car thing was always my goal with the 86 which is half the reason I went for a write off as my plan is to eventually (this year if thing's go well) fit a body kit to the car which is why i've not been fussed about picking up 2nd hand body panels and re-locating the front indicators, etc. I'm not looking to slam the car in to the ground and park it up with the wheels disappearing in to the arches or run stupid amounts of camber but these cars often do look fantastic when they're low and angry looking but I wouldn't want to risk ruining any expensive body parts I fitted for the sake of looks with a static ride height and Air lift is the obvious (albeit expensive) solution to all of those worries.


Of course there are some worries when it comes to fitting airlift such as leaky lines, tearing a bag or splitting a line but i'm hoping to take the install slowly and take my time with it to make sure it's all as safe and tidy as possible. To be honest i'm not actually too worried about it, I'd like to say im fairly confident with mechanical bits at this point and quite confident even something as fiddly as an air lift install is going to go well as I've always had a history of building PC's, installing custom water cooling loops and so on. The two aren't totally comparable but i'm not worried about it in the slightest! tango_face_grin.pngtango_face_glasses.png


So without further ado, lets show off the gear!
I'll start off by showing a brief picture of where the majority of it is going to go, the boot space. When you look in to air lift alot of people make some crazy setups although I'm not enough of a designer or upholstery expert to do something like this (and Im too cheap to pay someone else to do it!) and I didn't want to load up the boot with a load of heavy timber making a frame to mount everything to so I've gone ahead and made a new boot liner out of laminate floor. It's a fairly common thing to do as it's cheap, easy and subjectively looks good. I chose a dark grey/black laminate to make it subtle rather than in your face.


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And now that i've lost the vast majority of readers! (haha) On to the actual Air lift hardware:


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That's it for now really! Happy to take opinions and so on as I know it's not for everyone but hey-ho!
Going to be a little while before it gets installed. I really want to get it done asap but i've given myself a silly milestone first of buttoning up the Vx220 and listing it on the Market before I go ahead with any work on the 86. I also might be selling the Subaru and getting a more sensible daily as at this point I really don't need 3 performance cars in my life, especially considering the scooby hasn't really been touched since fixing the 86 up it's a bit of a shame.

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Well I never saw that coming from you Sam but I say fair enough. Alot of development is going into air atm to make it more performance and track oriented. I'd be very interested in how the car feels to drive after its all fitted. 

I guess queue the 3 piece wheels and slow rolling shots dramatic video for YouTube coming afterward right?

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4 minutes ago, Luke said:

Well I never saw that coming from you Sam but I say fair enough. Alot of development is going into air atm to make it more performance and track oriented. I'd be very interested in how the car feels to drive after its all fitted. 

I guess queue the 3 piece wheels and slow rolling shots dramatic video for YouTube coming afterward right?

Haha yeah I can imagine it might be an unforeseen turn for some people but it was something I had planned on paper from the start. It's just what i want out of the car really as although they are immensely capable when pushed and tweaked in that direction i'm not really looking to having another track car right now. Although if the itch for one comes back up in the future maybe a 2nd 86 might be on the cards 😃

You might not be far off about the 3 piece wheels and so on but i'm not really looking for the car to become some kind of instagram famous thing 😂

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7 minutes ago, maurice said:

Laminate flooring in a car? 😲 I think some carpet stuck to a board would look far tidier, but if you think it looks good.

That would work too! I wasn't sure about it at first either but after googling images of other air lift setups and talking myself in to it maybe after a few beers or a lack of sleep I placed the order for the pack of flooring so figured I may aswell put in the work to cut and make it fit. If once everything is said and done I think it looks a bit naff i'll just chuck it out and get some decent marine ply, stick some nice material to it and be done with it.

Whatever it is has to get in the car in sections as of course it can't fit through the opening for the boot otherwise that's part of the beauty of laminate because the seams and joins can be hidden between the boards 🤷‍♂️ We'll see how it goes and if I feel it was a mistake i'll be the first one to admit it!

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Another small update today but quite an exciting and sparkly one!
 
Took the air tank for my suspension to a local custom bike art/airbrush guy and had him spray it in Candy apple red. It turned out great and really pops, just what I was after!
Rather than use a silver basecoat for the candy he just sprayed right over the aluminium finish and it leaves the grain of the material showing through which gives it that extra depth and contrast.
The pictures really don't do it justice but I think it looks fantastic!
 
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So it's another slow update coming in but quite a big one.

An update that some people have been dreading and others have been hyped for (myself included!)


So the last 3 weeks I've been driving my old Subaru WRX around for a bit because the 86 has been up on jackstands. Throughout this heat i've been taking my time to install a whole host of new parts including my Whiteline Anti-roll bars, Whiteline bushing inserts and my Air-Lift Suspension system.
I wanted to go slowly with it to just make sure everything is installed as best and as cleanly as possible to avoid any future problems or funny noises, etc. I also took the time to put some sound deadening in the boot to dampen some of the exhaust groans as well as the compressors.


I started off on the front, working with a friend to get the OEM front struts and ARB off. Some of the bolts and joints were either a little crusty and hard to break the seal or really slimey from what I can only assume is the underseal they use on these cars if the engine bay was anything to go by when I cleaned it.

The front ARB is a bit of a pain to fit thanks to the brackets it sits on and how many brittle plastic/glass fibre under trays there are under the car. the ARB probably took the most time out of these bits. I didn't get a picture of it but I somewhat sanded back and cleaned up the rusted welds on the ARB subframe thinghs and repainted it with some etching primer and underseal.


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The weekend after that we moved on to the rear. getting the struts out was a bit of a paint this time but generally on the rear it was all very easy including the ARB. We also Installed the Whiteline Subframe and Diff bushing inserts which against was actually quite easy to do, it took up a couple of hours all in to do the bushing inserts. While running the Braided Air Lift hoses on the rear they went under the car rather than in to the engine bay. In reality they shouldn't be at risk of getting hot as there's quite a big gap between them and the Exhaust, not to mention that's right at the end of the exhaust rather than up by the manifold but seeing as I had some Mishimoto gold tape to hand I thought i'd dress them up a little bit, if Anything it makes the undercarriage a little sparkly!


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And finally this weekend I took on the task of running all the wiring, making the modifications required for my particular dual compressor set up, pulling the air lines and hardness through the car, tucking it all away and mounting the tank, compressors, manifold, etc all in the boot! It sounds easier than rolling around on your back under the car but i can assure you it was just as exhausting!
This is also where the laminate wood flooring comes in, it might be a bit silly but of course you need something solid to mount all the gear in the boot on. In hindsight I could have just used a sheet of MDF and wrapped it in some carpet but it also needs to be segmented to fit in the boot at all which is the beauty of laminate I guess as you can hide the seems in the board gaps, it's also very cheap and it saves me having to deal with fiddly carpet!


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All of that hard work results in a car that is lowered, can go even lower if I really want to or can soar in to the heavens if there's a particularly big speed bump or multi-story car park ramp while also having a nice mix of firmness and compliance to the road. It's quite a strange feeling that's quite difficult to describe really. The Air lift suspension is comparably soft to stock but is also a bit more firm, the ARB's really help to dial out any body roll and even when wiggling the car about on the road help to keep it fairly flat. To top it all of there are no big clunks or noises during driving that would scream low quality parts or bad fitment to me, the only noises so far is a bit more feedback from the rear subframe/diff when selecting gears or coming off the accelerator. I'll need to fiddle with the drop links a bit as I think the rear ones are too long and putting preload on the ARB and I still have a whole load of compression settings to play around with on the struts to make it even more supple on the road!


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The above pic is how the car sits at its "low" setting, if anything this was me just trying to see how low it can go. In the near future i'll likely need to adjust the front strut to sit lower just so the front and rear lowers at a more equal rate, as you can see the rear looks far lower than the front with litterally 0 pressure in the front air bags. i'll also need to invest in some rear lower control arms to sort out the camber the car gains when its low and maybe some spacers just to make the wheels sit a bit better in the arches.
There's also a video of it airing out I can link to if anyone's curious.

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Nicely done Sam I can see you've been working hard in this heat. Can I get the link to see it airing out and going up and down? The noise when changing gear and accel and decel is most likely because you've changed the diff bushings as most people complain of this after they do this mod. 

So do the drop links adjust as the car moves up and down? That must be a limiting factor. Also where do you feed the airlines inside the car, because that must be a big hole you have to make?

How much noise do the compressors makes, is it like a hgv air brake system that releases excess air every now and then?

Finally can it lap the nurburgring faster now or slower 😛

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3 hours ago, Luke said:

Nicely done Sam I can see you've been working hard in this heat. Can I get the link to see it airing out and going up and down? The noise when changing gear and accel and decel is most likely because you've changed the diff bushings as most people complain of this after they do this mod. 

So do the drop links adjust as the car moves up and down? That must be a limiting factor. Also where do you feed the airlines inside the car, because that must be a big hole you have to make?

How much noise do the compressors makes, is it like a hgv air brake system that releases excess air every now and then?

Finally can it lap the nurburgring faster now or slower 😛

Yeah the front diff bushing inserts create most of the noise apparently, I might take those out and leave the rest in as it can be a bit annoying but I might just get used to it.

The drop links don't change as the car does, that would be pretty cool :) but seeing as they're set for stock height currently and even my highter ride height preset is lower than stock height they just need to be shortened atleast a bit.

The only video I have currently is one I posted to facebook:

Facebook Video

The compressors are pretty much silent from outside the car which is what I was hoping for. From inside they are a bit noisy but my exhaust is louder haha and they don't run for particularly long so it's not all that bad.

I imagine it would lap the ring a little quicker now :P As it is currently it feels like a soft coilover setup with some nice weight management thanks to the ARB's and bushing inserts.

Here's a couple of extra shots from the boots too

 

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That's pretty cool. Do you need to service the air lift the same as regular coilovers. I guess the rubber bags will fatigue over time? Does it have bump stops? Do they weight less than a conventional coilover? 

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