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.

Black complele

Managed to find time today to take some pictures of the rebadged car, so here they are. First up is a close-up of the MAZDA emblem.

Lets zoom out for a bit.

I like this rear shot the most. Now that the emblems are all back on, for some strange reason, they seem to grab more attention then before when they were chrome. Weird.

Yes, I know I have some massive wheel clearance. My suspension has been delayed so many times that now I don't know when I'll get it. Oh well, that's a story for another post.

Not much of a difference for the front, it is just a little bit more discrete, thats all, which is just the way I like it. Now all thats left of my little matt black project are the A-pillars/windshield surround. Now I've got to think of more things to do!

Black Roadster

Took out all the badges yesterday for my matt black project and discovered that the front emblem is actually riveted in. Now why would they do that?

Anyway, here's a picture of all the stock emblems off the car!

You can really see the bling on them, especially the thick MAZDA emblem. Taking out the badges were really easier than I thought. Clearing up after them, now thats the tough part. The sticky gunk left on the car is a pain to get off, and my car is less than a year old! I'll hate to imagine the effort if its an 06.

Anyway, it was kinda late after I finished, so I did not take any pictures of the badges back on the car. Maybe this weekend, if I can get around to it. Meanwhile, here's a teaser pic.

The Black Top

Been toying around with the idea of a steath presentation lately. I've been trying to find pictures of roadsters with blacked out badges, but have not been able to see one with the exact look I'm going for. More specifically, I was looking for pictures of matt black NCs or at least, one with a matt black top. No such luck, so I got tried of searching high and low and took matters into my own hands.

Spot anything different in the picture below?

Here's a close up.

Actually, here you only see a half-completed project. These are actually vinyl stickers but look very much like a paintjob in these shots. Though truth be told, they look very like a spray job in the flesh as well. The two pictures above were taken in the midst of completion. If you realised, the C-pillar areas/rear windshield areas arent done yet.

Here's a completed picture.

I wouldn't actually say its completed, but more on thats it for the moment. I have half a mind to matt black the A-pillars as well as the retractable top cover as well, though I'm still undecided as of now if I should go ahead with it. My overall aim is to achieve a nice two-tone look. Maybe I'll matt-black the top half of the car, or maybe I'll just leave this look as it is. I'll see how it goes. Your guess is as good as mine. Meanwhile, here's more pictures.

Close up of water on the roof. Here's one unexpected benefit of doing this mod, water just wipes off! One lesser area to detail. Though I've got to admit, this was not something on my mind, only realised until I decided to give the car a wash.

Top down shot!

And one from the front. This shot really makes me feel I should have given the A-pillars the matt black treatment as well.

For some reason, this is always the angle I like best when it comes to my NC. Ironic, considering I can't see the front.

I'll be looking to spray all badges on the car to matt black next week, provided I can spare the time and James(my friend who did all the sticker works you see in these pictures) isn't occupied with other projects.

Fender Roller

Been busy with work and some other stuff, so couldn't really spare much time to make an entry. Anyway, I've become increasingly bothered by the "KRUK" sound the rear wheels make whenever I go through some rough ground. Its not really a big deal in the beginning, since we have some nice asphalt here in the garden city, and potholes as well as uneven roads are a rarity. However, it's come to a point that I have to consciously make an effort to drive "carefully" whenever i see bumpy roads; and I could really do without that.

After much procrastination, finally scheduled a visit to a body shop over the weekend, Lye Designs.

These guys are basically the best we have on the island for this sorta work, and its tough to get them at a good time, especially over the weekend. I had the rear fenders rolled and fixed up some dinks that have accumulated. The guy had some problems with rolling one of my rear fenders so it took a while longer than it should have, but I was fine with it. I was actually planning on rolling the fenders only AFTER the coilovers come in, but i guess it doesn't hurt to do it first.

Interestingly, it was a "grey" afternoon. There were 2 S2000s in the shop, both metallic grey. Halfway through my car, a grey GTR popped up, and just as I was leaving, a grey Golf GTI showed. Was a pity I forgot to take more pictures, would have been quite a sight.

Torque

The issue of the photoshoot that I mentioned previously is out. The magazine's called Torque. Its one of the bigger local car mags we have here on our little island. Come to think of it, you can probably count with one hand the number of respectable local automobile publications we have here. Anyway, I don't have any soft copies of the photos(a pity), so the best that I can do is pictures of the pictures.

Like I mentioned previously, the write-up is mainly about the sound system. Its not much and it isn't a big spread. To be honest, I think my article is more or less filler as it was alongside reviews of a modded Porsche GT3 as well as a tricked out BMW M3. To top it off, we were featured in the same section as well, although we are hardly in the same league. Not that i mind!

Momo?

Got a steering wheel cover yesterday at Autobacs. Stepped into the place as it was on the way to where i was headed, and decided to pick up some air freshener that I've been putting off. So this was a totally impulse purchase.

I don't think its even made by Momo, seeing that there were Manchester United as well as Liverpool variants as well, but the quality wasn't too bad(for the money), and it kinda looked the part too. More pictures below.

I'm just glad that this makes the steering wheel nicer to hold as I'm not particularly fond of racing wheels that takes away the airbag.

Shoot!

The month of march began with a photoshoot. Apparently a local automobile magazine wanted to do a shoot of my car.

The pro getting everything set up.

Here's a shot of the shoot in progress.

You know the guy's a pro in the automotive photography business when he drives the stuff. Take a look at the guy's ride.

It looks ordinary from this shot, but on closer inspection, the landrover's got a fully functional winch, lockheed martin brakes and a wicked suspension, among other things. The car's even equipped to cross rivers. The air intake was the first thing that caught my eye.

In any case, the article will mostly focus on my sound system setup. I haven't had much engine mods, so I think the editor will be hard-pressed to come up with stuff about the car itself. I don't even know how comprehensive the article will be though, perhaps it might just be a tiny column.~shrugs~

I tried to take a nice shot while the photographer was busy, and this is one that i liked best. I've always had side or frontal shots so its not often i tried to take a picture from the rear.

Blitz

I had been pondering getting this for the longest time, and I thought today was a good day.

The Blitz Power Meter i-Color Flash. Its basically a diagnostic display device pretty much similar to the older Apex'i RSM, although this installs in seconds and requires no wire splicing, unlike the older RSMs. I wouldn't go into what the device can display since its all here. There's even a whole PDF document over here that goes into specifics.

Anyway, here are some actual pictures in-car.

Now I'm not exactly sure if a position as low as this is a good one. It could be a bit too low for my liking, although I kinda like this setup. I'll drive around with this for a while to see how it goes. My next alternative location is right next to the wiper stalk, on the air-con ball vents.

Night view. Minor quirk. The blue doesn't really blend in well with the red and white interior of the NC.

Close up of the device. I've gotten it to show 6 parameters.

You can do further customizations of the view, such as colours, warning tones, background, etc. I think its quite a neat device, although it costed me a pretty penny. But since my suspension seems to be in limbo at the moment, I guess I won't be spending any mod money in a while.

Bling Bling

Had something totally beng/chav/rice done over the week. I've always liked the look of the latest GTR R35, especially those little LEDs on the front bumper collectively know as the HyperLED edition. Not hard to see why.

The GTR is a handsome car and I'll probably go for one when I can afford it. Hopefully this will happen in the next 5 years? But i digress....

As I was saying about the LEDs, here's what I've come up with.

3 superbright LEDs on each side of the Au-tobahn lip. On closer inspection, these are even brighter than the GTR equivalent although the finishing is not quite up to scratch since its a put-together part.

Didnt really take daytime shots, but suffice to say its quite a discrete look. The whole car looks more "aggressive" only in the dark but I guess I am not capturing that look as much as I would liked with my puny cellphone cam. I'll probably come up with better pics when I have time. Been raining quite a bit lately, so the mood to take pictures gets dampened somewhat as well.

Still Bouncing

Had military service the last 2 weeks and was unable to make any entries. Nothing much happening, although i received some bad news from my workshop. There were some complications in bringing in the JIC suspension. Turns out my workshop gets their stuff from Japan and JIC specifically released their NC coils to the US market ONLY. So the local agent is "restricted" from selling it here. Its all very strange if you ask me, since you can clearly see the NC available in Japan if you go to the Japanese JIC webpage.~shrugs~

So now the only way for me to get JICs would be to purchase online from US dealers. I'm not comfortable with online options for something like suspensions, since I'm not exactly a super techie guy and I need the assurance of someone in the event something breaks down or if servicing is required. Buying online would be tricky in the unlucky event of a lemon. So now its back to the drawing board. Same old choices now, KW, Tein, HKS. I guess its going to be a while before my car corners properly. =(

Breathing

Fixed up the air intake yesterday. Took me more than an hour. Well, the actual install actually took at most 30 minutes, even for a layman like me. The reason why I went overtime was because I couldn't figure out how the heck did everyone fit the filter so nicely. Look at mine.

The filter element is a little to the left than it should be. Its not lined up with the intake hole in the bumper at all. Its kinda hard to twist the flexitube onto the mouth of the filter element. I took everything out twice, but no go. End result still looks the same. And I was sure I wasn't missing out any important steps. And the weird thing is, if you look at the spacing of the tubing leading towards the intake, it sure seems like it was meant to be in that direction. There doesn't seem to be enough wiggle space to "shift" the intake to the right.

The fitting of the silicon tubing to the MAF sensor adaptor doesn't look fantastic too. If you look closely, there is a slight gap, even though I've fastened everything tightly. But then again, it could be me doing a shoddy job. ~shrugs~

I refitted the intake again after taking these pictures, so now the filter element is a little bit closer to the intake, though not by much.

Initial impressions on driving; throttle response did seem a little bit better, though it could be a placebo effect for all I know. I've only driven about 100km or so on the new intake so I'll see how it goes once the ECU gets used to the intake. As for the sound level, I was surprised by how quiet the intake is, I was expecting something similar to the suction sound from the Apex'i cone, since the K&N element basically looks like a smaller version of the Apex'i. There isn't much induction noise from the intake, in fact, you've got to concentrate to hear the sound the intake is making, which is a good thing in my book.

More carbon

Had the eyelids fixed up yesterday. I thought I'll just go with the carbon look first and in the event I feel body-coloured is the way to go, I'll just take them off and spray them. Here's a look at the eyelids before fitment.

Looks kind of thick but that was the effect I was hoping for.

Here are some pictures of the eyelids fitted on the headlamps. Didn't occur to me to take any night shots with the HIDs on. Maybe I'll do that in a later post.

Top view.

Frontal view.

Full frontal view

Nice top-down shot. I like this shot.

These are a continuation of my interior sticker mod. I was tinkering with the idea of converting the glossy piano black trim to the same look. But on second thought, I figured it would be too "carbon overkill"

starts from the left....

all the way to the right...