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So, after this car basically sat after a number of parts issues / other stuff (I bought a C5Z06 which I've had substantially more success in, and made a bunch of my money back on parts), I've decided to un-mothball it a bit. I also sold my other daily driver, so the 128 is now the actual daily driver.
The basic changes that happened after last season:
- Stock seats put back in.
- Stock battery put back in.
- JRZs / Camber Plates Sold.
- Custom offset lower control arms sold.
After some conversations with folks earlier this year, I actually ended up picking up a set of incredibly cheap Megan Racing (yes, really...) shocks for the car. Jeff Wong, a national champion solo driver, and shock tech, developed a set for his FRS, and has the ability to revalve/modify these as needed, so this was mostly a "how bad could it be", combined with a desire to lower the car and fit the Forgestars back on it, solely for aesthetic reasons.
I installed the Megans last week, and ran into a couple issues. My goals for this car now are basically to get the 450lb (come with the shocks!) springs on, swap the rear 12K springs for some 850lb springs, get the SuperPro front bar back on, and fit some 245 Rival S 1.5s on, and see what's what. The car will be almost 200lbs over weight, and about 100lbs over where I used to have mine even with light-ish weight prep done, but it's a suitable platform to get the handling working, and it'll also be a nice enough car to drive around on the street every day. It still makes STX power (241whp, 221 wtq on a Dynojet).
First, the camber plates that come with the megans have non-countersunk adjustment screws which butt into the strut tower, preventing full camber adjustment. It looks like the studs on the plate are long enough I can just put a spacer under the strut tower, sandwiched between that in the plate, and that'll space it down enough to tuck the camber plate under the strut tower opening, allowing a LOT of adjustment (I could custom mill a new top part of the plate if I wanted even more). Also, the strut tube on the Megans is quite a bit thicker, along with an adjustment perch for ride height in the way of the tire (separate from teh preload adjustment, which would be very nice if the car was NOT tire limited by it). I'd already decided to use 245 Rival S over the 255 RE71R or Rival S, because of the gearing help it offers, and the feel improvement on the 245, while being nearly the same mounted width, so this will likely not be an issue, even if I need a bit more spacer than before up front.
I've acquired some 245 RE71R takeoffs to use to do general testing, and some M3 lower arms (to substitute for STX-legal offset camber bushings until winter). I've also got a 245 Rival S for test fitment, so we'll see what's needed to make that work.
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