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4 hours to install?! My install took maybe an hour and a half with lots of shooting the shit and beer drinking in between.
Anyway I have had the SPs on my car since late last year. Haven't been to the track yet but will be getting out there soon.
Install:
Fronts are fairly straightforward unbolt old bolt in new. Simple enough for the front. The rear is where I ran into a few small issues and had to break out the rubber mallet and some old school install tactics. The bottom joint of the Coilovers doesn't actually fit in the Stock LCAs with the provided spacer pieces it required a good amount of pounding and shaking to get it in and aligned properly. This is an easy fix if you also got LCAs but that is being reserved for a later date for me. Whole process took maybe a few hours this is with drinking a few beers, several breaks to shoot the shit, having to remove my strut bar and pounding the LCAs into submission.
First impressions after install:
I have the dampening set at 15 clicks all around. The ride height in the front looked pretty awful as it sits higher than the rear and makes the car look off. This could have been cause I was coming from Eibach Pro Kits which dropped the car more in the front than the default setting of the SPs. Prior to getting a full alignment I was running nearly 0 camber in the front and about 1.5* in the rear this was how my car was setup with the lowering springs and the install did not knock the alignment off much at all. The ride quality is definitely stiffer than the Pro kits were but not by much. I'll leave this section short as its just the post install notes.
A few Months in:
I'm under the impression one of my front struts got knocked off the 15 clicks cause my right/left sides have slightly different rebound characteristics but this could be related to camber being slightly off or something similar. Upon getting my car properly aligned I am now running -2.3* in the front and around -2* in the rear. It bothers me that the top hats are not the same in the front running the same camber...the bottom mount must be slotted enough to get an extra degree of camber and I just din't pay attention during install and did it on one side but not the other. I'll fix this when I get LCAs rather not get my car aligned an extra unnecessary time. The dampening at 15 is perfect for daily driving providing a comfortable ride while still improving the sideways feel of the car. I partake in the occasional drift when its wet out and the car now feels solid when I do this before you could feel a lot more roll when entering and exiting a slide.
Thats a short daily driven review of the SP coils I would definitely recommend them. Don't be scared by the 8k spring rate they are valved appropriately and don't have much worse ride than stock even at the middle dampening setting. I will be getting out to the track at least once before the end of the summer and can provide a more track oriented review then. I'm sure they will perform fine.
Notes from the peanut gallery(friends):
The biggest things non car friends notice is the ride quality. they don't complain per say but they do notice that it is bouncier and stiffer than a normal passenger car(expected). As for the fellow twin owners they have complimented the ride with some not even knowing I was on coils, the few people that were shocked to find I was on coils were running BC, Stance, and other spring or coil setups I can't remember off the top of my head. SO grandma may say something about the ride but your buddies won't even notice
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