SuperSkyline89's Timeline

I spent Thursday at my mechanic's shop getting everything installed. Once they cleared out the cars in for oil changes and other quicker jobs they got to work ripping apart my front end. The Whiteline Bump Steer Correction Kit was first, they were loaded up with grease and the black grease boots weren't used so everything went smoothly.



Next was the Tyrolsport Subframe Deadset Kit and the Whiteline Anti Lift Kit. The Tyrolsport collars that go on the lower control arm mount didn't clear the Whiteline mounts so they swapped the bolts with some that did from another location on the subframe. Once they were in they moved to the fun stuff.



Out came the old front struts which I'm pretty sure are blown. At my last autocross event my front end got worse and worse all day. At one point when I turned in to a right hander the car bottomed on the left shock, bounced onto the right (while entering a right turn remember), and then hit hard on the left again. I didn't look too closely to see how bad they were but there was definitely something wrong.



Before the new parts could go in there was the minor issue of closed shock towers. With the shock towers the way they come from the factory I wouldn't be able to adjust camber or compression on the dampers without taking them off the car so like eurocars did to his car my shock towers had to be cut. After removing the sealant and taking a plasma torch to the towers they were looking pretty nasty.



But since I knew they'd have to be cut I brought a rattle can of white paint with me to the shop. After almost half an hour of grinding they got three coats of paint and looked like they had never been closed at all.



Between coats of paint the coilovers and camber plates got assembled and adjusted. We left the rebound setting where it was but set compression to five clicks from the softest setting. Height was as high as they go while maintaining full thread engagement.



To give the paint some more time the rear was done next. These parts took some serious abuse for me over the past year. I feel like they deserved better than being scraped but there's really nothing else to do with them.



They were set as high as possible and within fifteen minutes the rear was back together. Compression was set five clicks from soft just like the front.



There was nothing else left to do at this point so the front was put back together. The paint was a little tacky but as dry as it was going to get without baking. Looking at it once everything was installed you'd think the car came from the factory with camber plates, I'm really happy with how clean the install looks.



I took the car around the block before we adjusted the ride height back at the shop. With everything spun all the way up the rear was sitting at 26" ftg and the front was at 27" ftg so we lowered the front to match. I went for another drive and it stayed at 26" ftg. I've got over an inch of thread left front and back so there's a ton of room to work with but for now it's staying where it is.

I got an alignment today at a shop run by an ex race car driver specializing in Nissan's. The shop has such a good reputation that I had to book the appointment two weeks ago and base my install date on it. Since the owner was a race car driver we could talk about what I wanted from the car and he could recommend specs that would be a good balance between the track and the street. We talked about staggered camber to compensate for the crown in the road but decided that we'd do equal camber and see how it goes. He also recommended I try a little bit of toe out and see how I like it. I'm going to keep an eye on tire wear for the rest of the year to see if I need any fine tuning.

Alignment Specs
Left Front | Right Front
-1.9° Camber | -2.0° Camber
7.6° Caster | 7.5° Caster
-0.9mm Toe | -0.9mm Toe

Front
-1.8mm Total Toe
0.00° Steer Ahead

Left Rear | Right Rear
-1.4° Camber | -1.5° Camber
-1.0 Toe | -1.0 Toe

Rear
-2.0mm Total Toe
0.00° Thrust Angle

I haven't had time to take pictures of my car after the install so you'll have to wait until tomorrow for before and and after pictures.
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I finally managed to get some before and after pictures. It's been cold and raining all weekend so they aren't ideal but you get the idea. It's nowhere near slammed but it is obvious that it's been lowered. I have an inch of thread left all around and because of the camber my tires don't poke anymore so I don't need to get the front fenders pulled. I'm going to let the suspension settle for a few weeks and see how the current height performs at autocross and the track and then I'll gradually lower it a little bit more.



The ride is really comfortable. With the rebound at the factory preset and compression at five clicks from full soft it feels almost stock. The initial impact is harder because the springs are stiff but after that it's really nice. I'm going to try some fine tuning because I felt a little bit of bounce through high speed dips on the highway last night. I also got my cousin to drive it last night to get an impartial opinion and he thought it was very comfortable.



I haven't done any aggressive driving with it yet but so far on the road turn in feels instant. Millimeters of steering input send the car from side to side and throttle response feels quicker and more stable coming out of corners. For myself the only negative is a little bit of vibration from the Anti Lift Kit, after around thirty seconds at a red light I can feel a slight vibration going through the car in sync with the engine. It's very slight but it is there. For other people my car is a little bit more difficult to drive now because it's so actively moving around now, between the wide tires following cambers in the road, the power of the brakes, and now the instant directional response it surprises people when they get behind the wheel because it takes more concentration than they were expecting it would. I don't think it's a negative as much as an involving experience that car people would like.


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Spent a couple hours downtown driving around and taking pictures. Didn't get any great shots because it was too bright out but I liked the spot. All these shots were auto adjusted with Windows Live Photo Gallery, the raw pictures were really washed out.

NOTE: Since I've started using Adobe Lightroom I went back and touched up all my shots so that's why these shots look so good even though I originally said they were crap.






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Went autocrossing yesterday. Half way through the day some jerkoff from the Walmart next door called the police. They checked paperwork and confirmed with GO Transit that we had an agreement to rent the parking lot but the Walmart douche caused such a scene that GO Transit got sick of arguing and said they'd rather just have us leave. Such a load of crap, I was part of the first marshaling group so I only got two runs in. My times were so damn good and the car just flew through the corners with the new suspension. I was lined up for the third run with a GoPro mounted behind the front wheel so I could review how much suspension movement I had when they shut the whole thing down. I was pretty pissed off so I went home and spent a couple hours wreaking havoc in GTA V.

I don't blame GO Transit or even the police but I can't stand it when ignorant people like this piece of crap from the Walmart act like they have any clue what they're talking about. Doesn't know a thing about what we're doing but he has the nerve to force us out.



It's been raining all day today but I drove downtown again to scout out some parking garages with rooftop access. There was a thick layer of fog downtown so the tops of most buildings weren't visible but I liked a couple of the locations.






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