PUR NRG

To paraphrase Tom Hanks I got a lot of stuff done this weekend... and yet not done.

Thanks to board members I ordered 245/40-18 S-02 tires for all four corners. They fit the OEM 18x8" wheels just fine.

Mazdatrix wasn't able to ship the Racing Beat exhaust until thursday so it won't arrive until today. That means it will get installed next weekend. [sigh]

UPS delivered the Racing Beat front and rear sway bars to the wrong address. Fortunately the neighbors handed over the box when asked.

UPS also left the JIC Magic FLT-A2 shocks on the sidewalk instead of next to the front door but they were recovered without incident.

Installed the front shocks and sway bar saturday. Getting the sway bars over the control arm is a major pain. Forgetting to drill out the connector hole to fit the RB end links before putting the new bar in only added to the aggravation. I ended up mounting the shocks three times all together. First I put the shock in, then I removed it to make it easier to fit the sway bar, then I removed it again so I could drill the end link without having to remove the sway bar. It's much easier to remove the shock than futz with the sway bar.

Thanks to swankmonkey and the others for putting together shock DIYs. I wouldn't have tried this without their help.

Since the rear sway bar is easy to remove the rear went much quicker. However I didn't count on needing a spring compressor to remove the OEM hat. Fortunately I have a friend who owns one and a quick call confirmed they were come. Get over to friend's house, take the OEM assembly apart and fit the hat over the JIC shock. Problem. The OEM spring is 4.5" in diameter while the JIC spring is 5.5". It will not fit into the rubber mount. I didn't want to risk it so we reassembled the OEM shock and I went back home. Put the OEM shocks back on the car and buttoned everything up.

I have a call in with Ben from JIC USA. All their 7kg rear springs are 5.5" in diameter. He's going to call JIC Japan to verify that is the correct spring. If it isn't it will probably take a couple weeks to get replacements.

So as it stands I have the JIC shocks and RB sway in front and OEM shocks/sway in rear until this is resolved. I still plan to put the RB exhaust and MS rear undertray on next weekend but it would be nice if I could get the shocks done at the same time as well. We have three autocross events back to back starting 4/11.

Oh, as a consolation I also replaced the brake fluid with Super Blue. Oddly enough the rear bleed nut is 10mm while the front nuts are 8mm. The whole operation takes 2/3rds of a can.
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djmano

i am jealous! i cant believe your JICs were sitting on the sidewalk all by themselves....i woulda snatched them up right away if i saw them. j/k.

sounds like your gonna have a nice handling 8 on your hands......sticky tires, stiff suspension and 0 body roll. on top of that the RB exhaust!!!!! did i mention i was jealous?

p.s. is that you at the track with a 5 series in your avatar?

bdeitemeyer

Sorry about your bad luck, can't wait to hear your review once everything is installed.

PUR NRG

In a big box with "JIC Magic" printed on the sides no less.

Yeah. Thunderhill high speed driving school. Which, if you know anything about driving schools, means I was the slow guy that session holding up the other cars. (It was raining lightly and I didn't want to push it.) Makes for a great photo though. I'm in the lead! Yeah, that's it!

You'd probably like the 5er. I put in a Dinan stage 3 suspension, CAI, chip, throttle body and MAF body. A lightweight flywheel, StopTech big brakes and quaiffe rear diff finish off the performance upgrades. For electronics I retrofitted front/rear PDC, installed a K40 radar (V1 is better), SmartTire system, twin a/d/s PH30.2 amps, twin Image Dynamics subs, MB Quart speakers, Alpine surround sound processor, 6 disk DVD changer and 6.5" screen. The center channel speakers are actually mounted flush on the inside of the center air vent. Completely invisible but gives good imaging.

On the 540i I went for stealth--except for the red calipers and LCD screen you'd never notice it's been modified. Since my wife's RX-8 is yellow we're going for "sassy" with that car.
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