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Old 09-26-2006 | 09:55 AM
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autoexe sports tunable suspension

Went to Super Autobacs on Sunday to pick up front/rear sway bars. Autoexe and Revolution had demo cars there. Unfortunately they didn't bring stock of sway bars with them Oh no! Started talking about the tunable suspension and Autoexe took me for a spin in the demo car.

On street settings, the ride was pretty comfortable. More so than my 8 (with stock sports suspension). That surprised me. It was a 2cm drop on all corners which looks great. I was only a passanger but the handling felt very flat and fluid. Diving under braking was also a non issue which was nice. He drove the car quite hard for me and took lots of aggressive corners which helped sell me no end :D So instead of dropping a small amount of money, the wallet slipped open and well, I got a new suspension now!

The drive home was too short so detoured a little. Car is immediately different. Getting in it actually feels lower (more like it should). Car feels more glued on the corners but I wasn't taking them so hard as its a city street. Can't wait for the track to really test it out. The roll on the city street is at least gone or wasn't noticable on the night.

They are 12 stage tunable. I've currently got them on recommended street setting of 6/8. Recommended track setting is 3/5. So lots of room to adjust. At 6/8 they feel great. I can't imagine wanting it any softer. I haven't been out in the car since Sunday... Its kinda hard to drive midweek in Tokyo with work. Still can't wait to get out in it again.

Tsukuba 10/17 here I come!

Tom.
Old 10-14-2006 | 10:52 AM
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Ok. been a while and done a little city driving since I got the suspension done now. The car is definitely different. I can't believe how it corners. Just feels totally connected and flat. I haven't even changes sway bars.

The ride quality is not bad around town. I would say better than before. However its far noisier. I can hear the shocks when going over bumps. Its not a noisy sprint type of noise or anything more like a thump or something. Is extra noise a feature of most tunable systems like this? Just wondering. Doesn't bother me at all but I guess if I sold my car to a non-entusiast at any stage they might be surprised :D

One other thing is that the stock front tower brace wasn't designed to take these shocks with the tuning **** on top. Its hard to get your fingers in to turn it and when you do its hard to feel the clicks that say what level they are set to. Hmmm. New tower brace is definitely on the cards now. Which one??? Rear settings are very easy. You can easily feel the click for each setting as you turn the *****.

One circuit setting on the street the car gets way more pointy. You think about turning and it dials right in there. On really bad surfaces though its not pleasent and feels like it might jump out under hard cornering. On smooth surfaces though, it sheer bliss. Really looking forward to Tsukuba this Tuesday to see how she handles.

For tower brace, I was looking at the following today in Super Autobacs...

Cusco (Al) - 13,000 JPY
Greddy (Al) - 11,000 JPY
Cusco (Ti) - 42,000 JPY
Autoexe (f/r set) ~70,000 JPY (4 point kind)
Revolution (Al) - 42,000 JPY (4 point kind)

Aparently the Cusco Titanium one has a master brake brace arm that increases the brake performance. Anyone got that one?
Its supposedly 60% lighter than the other one. Is there a big difference between 4 point and 2 point kind on the 8? Wondering if its worth the extra money for the Autoexe one?

Tom.
Old 10-14-2006 | 07:35 PM
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Thanks for the update. I'm looking forward to your impressions @ Tsukuba.
Old 10-15-2006 | 10:30 AM
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Was washing the car today, first time since the install and got to thinking that the front looked kinda higher than I would have expected, so I got the tape measure out and found out that it was 1cm off the recommended drop where as the rear was bang on. So back to Super Autobacs (temptation land) and got them to lower it and check the height at all 4 corners. Drive home was pretty jammed so don't know what difference it made. Have to wait till sunlight. Track is 2 nights away!

Tom.
Old 10-15-2006 | 11:13 AM
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Wow tpo, please keep the review coming!
Old 10-18-2006 | 10:22 AM
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Yesterday I spent 2 glorious hours on Tsukuba TC2000 with the new Autoexe Sports Tunable Suspension. My last time at Tsukuba was 2 months ago and it was my third time at Tsukuba and actually, my third time on a track, period :D. My best time at Tsukuba up to now was 1'15.888 which I actually scored on my first day out. Last time out, I was actually fighting for grip quite a lot and the best I could do was a 1'16.

Yesterday was a whole new ball game. My best time was 1'12.723 and I had a bunch of 1'13s and 1'14s along with it as well as some other bad times cause of traffic. I actually bet my last best time, a total of 12 times! Since the last track day, I put in the R-Magic air filter and SpeedMaster RE tuned oil also, but I still have stock tires (Potenza RE040) aswell as stock sway bars, braces etc. Oh, I also drove mostly with DSC off on one-press where as my first two outings it was mostly on.

The times themselves speak for this mod. Car was pretty neutral where I got my entry speed right, I didn't notice any sway as such even under mental cornering forces. Where I got the entry speed wrong though, the tires let me down and I mostly understeered until it slowed enough to bite which felt nasty... Understeer on exit was correctable via more trottle as I learned quite late in the day.

I had three incidents due to bad heel'n'toe ing (still learning!!!). One was where I completely missed engaging second on the inner hairpin and nearly kept going straight cause of extra braking. Opps. 2nd was where I just wasn't getting enough speed off on the hair pin before the long back straight and finally the tires locked up and I wasn't turning.

The Last incident was on what would have been a 1'11 lap time. My first 2 segments were nearly a second better . On the 3rd and last segment, I was screaming into the last corner and got a mental block with my gearing and left it too late, Ended up downshifting stupidly mid corner (D'oh!) and popping the clutch with too many revs, thus engaging a very impressive drift at about 120kph which I kept going for about 2 seconds before losing it and ending up thrown at the far side of the corner heading for sand before somehow managing to get the car slowed down and straight again crawling over the line for a final time of 1'20. What an experience!!! The car actually handled the drift incredibly well. It felt like you could control it if you did the right thing which is why I didn't hit the brakes or panic early on. Only the driver let it down due to it being his first one... Not something to repeat too soon again. My driving skills came on quite a lot during the day from taking DSC off and feeling more about how the car reacted to throttle inputs, etc.

The suspension gave me the confidence to push the car where I hadn't been able to get it before. I'm still not quite up to my 1'05 GT4 time but I think I can get my current car into the 1'10 zone with some more skill honing. RE01R tires would definitely help but there is lots of learning left in my current corners as yet :-)

One negatives thing I will say about the suspension though, is that the front tuning dials are not right. Its near impossible to feel the "all important' clicks. I had a feel of a pair in the Autobacs again yesterday (on the way home) and you can both hear and feel the clicks. I think its something wrong with the ones on my car rather than something wrong with the product. I'll be bringing the car in to get those checked out probably next weekend. As for the rear, its really easy to feel where the clicks are. I'll let you know how that goes.

Oh nearly forgot!!! I finally hooked the HKS Circuit Attack lap timer into my speed. That rocks, it recorded a top speed of 157kph on the back straight before the last corner. The mod involved taking out the center console and tapping into the center audio cable which for some reason has speed info streaming out of it. My S2000 mate helped me out big time with that particular mod... Makes a huge difference to see your lap times coming up in your car each time. The device of course is always on, so its always egging you on to record a top speed on the highway too... Eeek!

Tom.
Old 10-22-2006 | 12:49 AM
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Took the car in to Super Autobacs yesterday to get them to check the front tuning dials. After a bit of fiddling about the guy explained to me how they worked. I was feeling for a click at about 30 to 60 degrees but if you actually go about 90 degrees you feel where it gets a little harder to turn. Its not that clear in my opinion but I'm definitely happier than before knowing what to feel for now.

When I drove over to SA, I'd the car setup in track mode. Its defintely not good for street. Way to hard, not feeling wise inside the car but seems a bit skippy over bumps. Where the road is quite bad, it lead you to rock come off or go on the accelerator and jerk the car a little. Tokyo inner city roads are just too uneven it seems. I put her back on street setting on the way back and thats pretty much perfect. It rides the bumps well, steering is still great - no complaints there. Track settings are difinitely just for the track it seems ;-) Its amazing the difference between the different levels.

Actually from learning how to tune it properly yesterday at SA, I believe I had the front on 2 instead of 3 at the track which may have caused some extra understeer. Not sure. only the next track day will tell.

Tom.
Old 11-24-2006 | 09:36 AM
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Another update on the Autoexe suspension...

Was back at Tsukuba on the 16th and actually lost the rear on the long left before the last hairpin. Track was a little damp but drying off. I'd just got a new best time on a previous session 1'12.439. Scraped the body work up a bit, but not too badly. Getting rear bumper sprayed.

Anyway, back on 10/16 I posted about getting the suspension checked and how the height settings were off but I got the front fixed where as the back was bang on. After the incident I thought I'd give the measurements another look. Front was bang on. Rear was a mess. Left Hand Rear was 20mm down from what it was supposed to be. Right Hand Rear was 5mm down. So I was racing around the track with a 15mm difference between the left/right rear ride heights... Yikes!

Anyone care to guess how that would effect handling? I'm kinda thinking it pushed the car over the edge a little (still should have caught the slide but). Mazda is fixing the height for me (again!).

When people talk about the suspension "settling" in, is this what they mean? I'm wondering if the mechanic didn't tighten the locking well enough the last time or if this is expected with a new suspension.

Tom.
Old 11-24-2006 | 10:32 AM
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it seems that the mechanic would not have tightened it all the way and the vibrations would have rattled it loose (unscrewing it) i guess at that setting it would make you feel understeer in one direction of turn and oversteer on the other... i assume you would also feel the rear push out more turning in one direction...

dude awesome thread please keep it up, you mind if i ask what other mods you have
Old 11-24-2006 | 10:35 PM
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Originally Posted by whoneedspistons
it seems that the mechanic would not have tightened it all the way and the vibrations would have rattled it loose (unscrewing it) i guess at that setting it would make you feel understeer in one direction of turn and oversteer on the other... i assume you would also feel the rear push out more turning in one direction...
Hmmm. that pretty much matches what I felt was happening. Most of Tsukuba corners are right handers. I actually under-steered off on exit of three right handers on previous runs where I thought the car *should* have straighten out fine with a little more throttle (as per previous experience) but didn't. It was a left hander where the back came around.

Originally Posted by whoneedspistons
dude awesome thread please keep it up, you mind if i ask what other mods you have
As for other mods, the list is short: R-Magic air filter, DOT4 brake fluid, Revolution 4 point front tower brace (latest mod), AxialFlow short shifter and a HKS lap timer hooked into my speedo :-D. I'm still on my stock (4 year old) RE040s which might explain my lack of grip too, but there is still decent thread on them.

I'll see if I can post some pics of the last track day.
Old 11-24-2006 | 11:15 PM
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Tsukuba photos

Compressed suspension photos on some corners at Tsukuba. Stock sway bars.

Tom.
Attached Thumbnails autoexe sports tunable suspension-20061116255.jpg   autoexe sports tunable suspension-200611161002.jpg  
Old 11-24-2006 | 11:16 PM
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Ah forgot to mention that I also have the Racing Beat Exhaust which keeps my blips happy.

Tom.
Old 11-25-2006 | 12:59 AM
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nice info on your 8! keep us posted, maybe one day i can go to tsukuba! and superautobacs is my favorite place to go in tokyo!!!!!!
Old 11-25-2006 | 09:25 AM
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man that is awesome.... its always good to see people racing the 8
Old 11-25-2006 | 11:17 PM
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Just dropped into Mazda to pick up my 8. She looks great again. War wounds are pretty much all cleaned up. Before signing off, I checked the suspension heights with them and sadly the Right Rear side was still 5mm down so I had to leave the car there for another day until they fix it. I told them I wanted it exactly on the nail as balance was important on the track. If I can make it away from work in time, I should have it tomorrow evening. I've also eaten up half my brakes, so I need to think about what to get next... Got 5mm on the pads to play with still.

Tom.
Old 11-26-2006 | 12:10 AM
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you need to quit worrying about exact corner height differences and get the car corner weighed
Old 11-26-2006 | 06:00 AM
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Originally Posted by TeamRX8
you need to quit worrying about exact corner height differences and get the car corner weighed
Interesting comment TeamRX8. Could you elaborate on what you mean by corner weighed and how one would do that? I'm mostly been **** about the corner heights because I'm still starting to explore and I feel a balanced setup should be pretty important. Maybe 5mm is not worth worrying about too much but I think 15mm sure made a difference my last day out. Why not get it bang on. Now, back to what you mean by corner weighed?

Tom.
Old 11-26-2006 | 07:13 AM
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what he means by corner weighing is when you bring your car to a shop... they throw the car up on scales, one under each tire, weigh the car with you in it and adjust it so that each wheel has the same amount of weight on it..... thus balancing the car
Old 12-17-2006 | 01:49 AM
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Back at Super Autobacs again. Lots of noise coming from the suspension over bumps (there was always noise but its getting worse). Took a mechanic out to check the problem and then headed for the pits. They retightened everything and on the way home it was really quiet just like stock used to be except firmer. Hmmm. I thought the noise was a feature. Turns out not everything was tight from the first day.

Felt happy until I got home and noticed that the guy had also tightened down my tuning *****. It was really hard to open them by hand. Now one side "clicks" on each of the 12 settings (as it should) where as the other side is still really hard to tell what setting its on. It seems everything is not right yet but now that I know it should be clicking I can take it back and ask them to fix the other side. Its getting better though.

I'm beginning to realize that if you want it done right, you gotta bite the bullet and do it yourself. Unforunately thats kinda hard though as I park on the street and getting the wheels off and on to stands would be a bit of a headache. Wish my next mod could be a garage :-D
Old 12-17-2006 | 09:21 AM
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Great story of your epic journey on/off track (even literally !) into coilovers tpodowd. Thanks for that. I agree w/Team, cornerweighting is your friend. Just need a garage with the (expensive) scales and the knowledge and patience of doing it. Note that some tracks have scales and you can do it yourself for free if they let you and you are fairly quick with your adjustments. Perhaps watch/take notes whoever does it for you 1st time.

Really interested esp. is your accurate timing of results on the track (my favorite place - I use a Traqmate GPS datalogger) as I'm considering what suspension mods to get for next season. I went with Whiteline adjustable sways and Autoexe 4pt frt/rear strut braces 2 seasons ago; this last season added 18x9.5" w/275/35/18s RT-615s. Happiest change was 1st yr, 2nd yr traction became not a problem - so now I'm wanting more handling control / better times that your coilovers seem to have given you.

One observation - your experience highlights something I'm feeling is almost essential with new gen product - remote adjust capability. You struggling with both what settings to use and problems with / how to adjust must be depressing - when what you really want is emperical tuning at the track to get best results ! Some will argue it's fluff, but I see it as evolving technology allowing results more quickly w/less pain.

I really love Autoexe quality and perfomance, too bad they don't use remote adjust..... BTW how did you feel the 4pt strut brace you installed after coilovers changed handling? Any noticeable difference / lap time improvements? Boy lucky you at at Tsukuba - things to dream of!!!!! Cheers!
Old 12-18-2006 | 08:58 AM
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Spin9k,

It finally dawned on me today that corner weighting can be achieved by lowering/highering each corner. D'oh! I was a bit confused earlier thinking that they would add weight to each corner to get balance. Not my brightest of thoughts! LOL... Thanks for the recommendation TeamRX8, I can finally understand what you mean now when you say to quit worrying about corner height differences! I'll go search out some scales. I'm pretty sure Super Autobacs has them but perhaps I'll search out a good pro shop instead as they seem to have screwed up too many times already.

For the lap times I have two sources. a) the track gives you a sensor which you put in the car and they give you printout at the end of each session and b) I use "HKS Circuit Attack Counter". Link below. It has a sensor which you put under the car. Different tracks like Fuji Speedway, Tsukuba etc have a magnetic strip embedded in the circuit which the device detects and can count/time laps properly. They are very accurate giving the same times as the offical track sheets. Not sure if US tracks support them. It also plugs in with some wiring to your speedo so you can get accurate max speed etc. Some tracks support sector timing ;-)
http://www.hks-power.co.jp/products/...nitor/cac.html

Regarding the 4 point brace, I think turn in has improved but I've only driven on TC1000 (smaller track at Tsukuba) in the rain since. Actually that was a fun day. Pissing rain and my stock tires had lots of grip compared to the 7s which litterly slid off the track infront of me. I took some rather embarrising in car footage which I might be bribed into putting up if there was interest. Its got no sound though. TC1000 is a very tight track. I learned quite a lot that day.

Off to Fuji Speedway (the short course - also first time) Jan 16th. Hope it doesn't snow now!

Tom.
Old 12-18-2006 | 09:32 AM
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We all love video - esp. if it's a bit embarrasing
Old 12-19-2006 | 06:28 PM
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I asked R-Magic about corner weighting yesterday. I'm going to pop in there in the new year. Those lads are pretty damn good.

In the mean time, here is me in Tsukuba TC1000 (short corse) in the wet. You can see Dunlop corner of TC2000 in the background. I guess you can also see if there is any roll on the Autoexe suspension although it was wet so wasn't taking the corners that hard since my last day in the barriers. No sound unfortunately.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...41006343&hl=en

Tom.
Old 01-22-2007 | 07:32 PM
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Ok. Finally got the car on a track in the dry. This time Fuji Speedway (short course). Its quite technical and basically blew me away. It was the first track I ever tried with grade changes. I actually messed up getting into 3rd gear quite a lot. The last lap I span out when I missed a blip on change down into second a little too close to the first corner. At least that is my take from looking at the footage.

Suspension-wise car was great. Great turn in - no real understeer except where I caused it. Tires are RE040s which are 4 years old at this stage. Me thinks they need a change.

Got sound on the video this time:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...90150834&hl=en

I plan on getting it corner weighted soon. Will let you know when I do. It costs 23,000 Japanese yen at R-Magic. Will look around a bit more for a closer pro-shop.

Tom.
Old 01-22-2007 | 07:39 PM
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well the answer to preventing mistakes is practice, practice, practice

you're lucky to have such a great track to practice on


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