WELL... I finally got the car on the road after several months of being on jack stands. I'll update my build thread here in a couple days but I figured I'd let you all know what the initial impressions are. I installed the complete TQ Arm and quiet watts link in the rear and the SLA front suspension with billet spindles up front along with BAER Extreme 6s brakes at all four corners.
The first question everyone asks is what is the NVH like. The rear suspension is extremely quiet. There is a tiny bit of noise from the gear set through the tq arm only at about 35-40mph. It is not even close to as loud as the transmission. My trans has the 1200hp Geforce mods with a custom MGW shifter. There is a tiny bit of shock noise on hard compression and a tiny bit of squeak from the bushings in the watts link. Hind sight being 20/20, I wish I would have not gotten the quiet watts link as the rod ends are silent. Probably the most noticeable noise is the backlash in the rear end when on and off the throttle. The only other thing worth mentioning is that you can hear the backlash in the gear set when on and off the throttle. Not loud, but it is there. The front suspensions, with rod ends at every mounting point is SILENT. Not a clank, squeak, vibration... nothing. I was fully expecting the front end to be noisy and was willing to except it, but I'm amazed at how quiet it is. Keep in mind that this is all on 20" wheels as well. The prevalent noise in the car is still the transmission and the added noise from the suspension is negligible.
What can I say about the ride??? I live in Massachusetts where the roads are horrible. There are no roads that don't have some sort of pot hole or frost heave. The ride is, IMHO, as good as stock, if not a little better. I had to add a little bit of rebound damping in the rear to settle the car down when going over bumps, but this only took about 10 seconds with the double adjustable varishocks which I recommend to anyone who puts this suspension on the car. I will be swapping out the front Koni's for the varishocks soon. With the stock suspension, hitting bumps caused the car to unpredictably jump from side to side, and bumps on turns led to a white knuckle experience if under power. With this suspension this is completely gone. Whether or not you have traction in the rear, you just steer and the car goes where you want it to go.
Probably the most surprising thing is the confidence that the car is going to go where you want. I knew that this suspension would make things more predictable but I was unprepared for how much so. The BIG negative(not really) here is that in order to get the adrenaline going, you have to push the car WAY harder than you did before. Going into a rotary with the stock suspension at say 40mph with the stock suspension would leave the heart pumping a little. With the Griggs stuff, you can do it one handed while eating a sandwich and holding a conversation with someone in the back seat. The Recaro's help too.
I have to say thanks to Van at Revan Racing and Bruce and John Griggs at Griggs racing. All I can say is the tech support is second to none. There were many nights that I was on the phone with Van or Bruce well after hours and on weekends. Bruce returned a call at 1:30am my time! The best things is that they worked through issues that most companies would have left me on my own.
The Baer brakes gave me some headaches. I used a GM assembly lube on the seals and pistons when I re-assembled them after powder coating. This fluid leaked out as soon as it got hot and made it look like all four calipers were leaking. In addition, both rear calipers were leaking from the two larger pistons. One really bad. I pulled them apart and compared the new seals that I installed against the ones that I removed from them before powder coating and found the old ones to be tighter. Not sure why, but Rick at Baer was fantastic, emailing me all weekend. I put the old seals back in and so far it looks like they are no longer leaking. I'll send the calipers back to Baer over the winter so that we can figure out what's going on. The new seals should have fit. I do have to do something about pad knock-back. It is a little disconcerting. Maybe I'll have to move the 9" axle ends and axles up in the list of things to do. The car stops! Like really stops! Took a bit to get used to the pedal as it doesn't take much to make the car stop. With the FR500S ABS module, the ABS doesn't kick in early like the stock one. I highly recommend it. Not to mention, the traction control is turned off when I start the car now!
I still have a bit to do with the alignment and the car has to go in to get the KR hood painted. I'm looking forward to being completely finished and finally enjoying the car.
Mike
The first question everyone asks is what is the NVH like. The rear suspension is extremely quiet. There is a tiny bit of noise from the gear set through the tq arm only at about 35-40mph. It is not even close to as loud as the transmission. My trans has the 1200hp Geforce mods with a custom MGW shifter. There is a tiny bit of shock noise on hard compression and a tiny bit of squeak from the bushings in the watts link. Hind sight being 20/20, I wish I would have not gotten the quiet watts link as the rod ends are silent. Probably the most noticeable noise is the backlash in the rear end when on and off the throttle. The only other thing worth mentioning is that you can hear the backlash in the gear set when on and off the throttle. Not loud, but it is there. The front suspensions, with rod ends at every mounting point is SILENT. Not a clank, squeak, vibration... nothing. I was fully expecting the front end to be noisy and was willing to except it, but I'm amazed at how quiet it is. Keep in mind that this is all on 20" wheels as well. The prevalent noise in the car is still the transmission and the added noise from the suspension is negligible.
What can I say about the ride??? I live in Massachusetts where the roads are horrible. There are no roads that don't have some sort of pot hole or frost heave. The ride is, IMHO, as good as stock, if not a little better. I had to add a little bit of rebound damping in the rear to settle the car down when going over bumps, but this only took about 10 seconds with the double adjustable varishocks which I recommend to anyone who puts this suspension on the car. I will be swapping out the front Koni's for the varishocks soon. With the stock suspension, hitting bumps caused the car to unpredictably jump from side to side, and bumps on turns led to a white knuckle experience if under power. With this suspension this is completely gone. Whether or not you have traction in the rear, you just steer and the car goes where you want it to go.
Probably the most surprising thing is the confidence that the car is going to go where you want. I knew that this suspension would make things more predictable but I was unprepared for how much so. The BIG negative(not really) here is that in order to get the adrenaline going, you have to push the car WAY harder than you did before. Going into a rotary with the stock suspension at say 40mph with the stock suspension would leave the heart pumping a little. With the Griggs stuff, you can do it one handed while eating a sandwich and holding a conversation with someone in the back seat. The Recaro's help too.
I have to say thanks to Van at Revan Racing and Bruce and John Griggs at Griggs racing. All I can say is the tech support is second to none. There were many nights that I was on the phone with Van or Bruce well after hours and on weekends. Bruce returned a call at 1:30am my time! The best things is that they worked through issues that most companies would have left me on my own.
The Baer brakes gave me some headaches. I used a GM assembly lube on the seals and pistons when I re-assembled them after powder coating. This fluid leaked out as soon as it got hot and made it look like all four calipers were leaking. In addition, both rear calipers were leaking from the two larger pistons. One really bad. I pulled them apart and compared the new seals that I installed against the ones that I removed from them before powder coating and found the old ones to be tighter. Not sure why, but Rick at Baer was fantastic, emailing me all weekend. I put the old seals back in and so far it looks like they are no longer leaking. I'll send the calipers back to Baer over the winter so that we can figure out what's going on. The new seals should have fit. I do have to do something about pad knock-back. It is a little disconcerting. Maybe I'll have to move the 9" axle ends and axles up in the list of things to do. The car stops! Like really stops! Took a bit to get used to the pedal as it doesn't take much to make the car stop. With the FR500S ABS module, the ABS doesn't kick in early like the stock one. I highly recommend it. Not to mention, the traction control is turned off when I start the car now!
I still have a bit to do with the alignment and the car has to go in to get the KR hood painted. I'm looking forward to being completely finished and finally enjoying the car.
Mike
