Suspension is up!

Well, due to some unforeseen circumstances, I had to cancel the order for the KW Variant 3. This is due in no part to any problems I foresee with the suspension itself. The decision was purely because I was tired of waiting around for it and the garage I was dealing with doesn't seem that customer-oriented to follow up with me. I had to call them up for updates every now and then and was always rewarded with no-answers. Even refunding me my deposit after cancelling the order took them a week. Quite simply, one of the worst garages around that I have had to deal with.

Anyway, now that the deal was off, I had to look around for something else. Not much out there, Tein, HKS, JIC, that was it. I couldn't afford the Zeal, Ohlins as well as the Motons, so those were out. Just as it looked like I was gonna join the green camp, one of my mates was talking to me about BC Racing. Now, Taiwanese brands aren't really renowned in the tuning circuit around these parts, so I was a bit apprehensive. Searching online seems to suggest the same as well. The only glowing reviews about this coilover seems to be from the subaru camp. Everyone else seems to slam it as ghetto crap and not worth the money.

For the uninitiated(like me), they have a website here. The version I eventually got was the BC BR Type RA damper. Yes, it is quite a mouthful. Here's a fancy picture from its UK website.

Not too bad, monotube, 30 level damping adjustments, etc. You can read the full writeup of the coilover here.

Well, I figured at this pricepoint(around USD 1k), there isn't much to lose. So I ordered it through the local distro. Placed the order on Tuesday, coilovers arrived from Taiwan on Thursday.

Talk about efficiency. I was really surprised when I got a call almost the next day asking me to fix a day to install the coilover.

First thing that made me 0_0 was the spring rates. 7/5. I have never seen a coilover with a spring rate like this. I'm not a suspension techie, but I normally see spring rates for coilovers thats like 8/6 at least, with the track people always opting for something like 12/10. I was thinking this might be too soft and I'll probably need to push the damping almost up to the max. Here's a picture of the coilovers out of the box.

Well, on first impression, the build quality is good. nice anodising. Some more pictures of the coilovers installed.

Here's one of the rear

And here's some pictures of the stock suspension! I've noticed there isn't much pictures of these available online. Everyone always seems to enjoy talking shots of "nice" aftermarket suspensions more than the plain stock dampers.

Back in the box!

I had the car set to a somewhat stock height to start off, as I have a front lip kit, and our roads, although mostly well-laid, have some nasty speed bumps as well as some notorious underground carparks. Damping was left at around the stock level(10 clicks out of 32). I was apprehensive of this rate as I felt it would probably be too soft, but I figured it should be fine to drive for a week or so, before I get the car aligned.

Here's a picture of the ride height of the car. I will take more pictures in the coming days, when the suspension has "settled" in.

Driving Impression: In about the 100kms that I have driven the car since it was installed, I can feel the bodyroll reduced significantly. Car feels a lot better on turns and I was surprised at how "firm" it handles at highway speeds. Just outside the workshop was one speedbump and on going over it, I can feel the difference in damping being noticeably stiffer than stock(although I would prefer it to be stiffer still). The front also seems to be a wee bit stiffer than the rear. I would probably finetune this when I bring the car in for alignment.

One minor gripe is I do notice the hardtop creaking more often if I make hard corners or when going over some bad roads. This of course, is not an issue when the top is down. Overall, I'm satisfied with this coilover. Not as bone jarring as I would have though, but firm enough. Hopefully, it'll get better.

Meanwhile, here's a picture of my next mod. I'm not saying anything, but you can pretty much make an educated guess from the teaser=)

Voodoo

I've been waiting patiently for Team Voodoo to come up with this so here it is, a voodoo spun knob, from the good people at Thompson Automotive. Voodoo has been making knobs for miatas for a while, and they already had knobs for the NC almost as soon as the car rolled off the production lines. However, its was kinda strange that they have it in polished, pearl, piano black, even titanium, but nothing in the matt silver spun finish that I so require.

Well, I guess more than a few people have been enquiring so they made one. Here's a picture of a spun knob from Thompson Automotive's website.

As you can see, its basically a simple design. Just how I like it. Mine came about less than a week after I placed my order with Tom at Thompson Automotive. I had a bit of trouble sending the order in and he answered my emails almost as if there wasn't a 12 hour time difference between us.

Knob felt good in hand, decent weight. Finish was good. Not as fine as I would have liked, but still within my expectations, and for the price I paid(about USD45 inclusive shipping), its not too bad.