Review: Bilstein B8 + RCE Tarmac lowering springs.

[Turkish]

Howdy y'all! I am reviewing the suspension components listed in the title, which I installed earlier this week on Monday. I will not be discussing the install in this post, but feel free to ask and I'll try to answer to the best of my ability (NB: the stubs on the oe top hats are weak and 1 ft-lb of torque over specification will result in sheared studs).

About my car: The pertinent info is that other than the shocks and springs everything related to the suspension is oem, even the wheels and tires.

Front rates: 5.0k
Rear rates: 5.1k

On dry asphalt, the car is well planted for cornering. I now have -1.8/2.0 degrees of rear camber as measured on my alignment performed yesterday morning. On a stretch of twisty road that will be my benchmark for all suspension work, I was able to maintain speeds through the turns that were 5-10 mph higher than I was able to do previously. When the nannies are on, VSC is triggering significantly less than before as well. The car is very balanced right now in terms of oversteer/understeer.

On wet asphalt, the car is very twitchy and does not not like it. I believe this to be due to the stock Primacy tires having less wet traction and the stiffer suspension exacerbating that performance weakness.

What I have noticed now with the stiffer suspension, is a significant increase in drivetrain movement when shifting between acceleration and deceleration. As with any plan, they change; so instead of my next step being sway bars to fine tune suspension, I will instead probably work on securing the drivetrain in ways that will keep me legal for the STX class of AutoX. The Bilstein shocks do have a bit of a break in period where they feel a lot harsher than what they will settle to. That said, if you want a comfortable ride you probably will want something different.

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[Turkish]

Redipping rear wheels, then I'll take pictures to show stock wheels with B8/Tarmac effects on overall stance. I'm not part of the "stance scene" and do not mean to imply any such thing.

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[BrandonB]

how much stiffer is this setup than stock?

[Turkish]

Springs are 280F/290R, oem is 131F/181R if I recall correctly. The only significant difference in the dampers is the max length is shorter, but I don't recall the difference; all else is supposedly the same as stock though.

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[Turkish]

Also in autocross, the lack of negative camber in the front contributed to a lot of understeer in extreme cornering situations. I gave since added -1.2* in the front and have my next autocross event this coming Sunday.

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[dem00n]

Do you think it's worth it? You don't seem super satisfied with the buy.

[Turkish]

I'm actually very satisfied with the buy, I'm a car mod newbie and didn't realize what else I needed to do. I'm still reserving final judgement until this coming autocross.

Afterthought edit: The car is now at the stiffness I first expected prior to test driving the car. Despite being a half to three quarters of an inch dropped, the car actually bottoms out on road dips less than stock.

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[vroom4]

Hes on stock tires, so the 'limit' of the car before was hindered signficantly by grip. I feel he didn't get a great base line to compare.

[Turkish]

Originally Posted by vroom4

Hes on stock tires, so the 'limit' of the car before was hindered signficantly by grip. I feel he didn't get a great base line to compare.

While that may very well be true, I feel that a lot of the bad rap that the stockers get is partly due to an un-ideal alignment, which is not unexpected as they have to compromise greatly on things since the end users have a great many different intended uses for the car, particularly at this price point. I do plan on switching to 225 Michelin PSS on the stock wheels when it comes time to get new tires.

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[vroom4]

No, the rap they get is because they stick worse than a mid-range all season and handle heat like a snow tire

What you running the shocks at?

[was385]

I pulled the trigger on a set. I'll be moving from RCE yellows/stock dampers and 245 ZIIs to this setup for my budget-minded STX build. It'll be interesting going from a non-stock setup to the B8-Tarmac setup and should provide a different perspective (doesn't seem to be much experience with this setup on the forums).

[Racecomp Engineering]

Thanks for the feedback! Glad you got your alignment sorted, now it's time for some real tires.

We designed the RCE Tarmacs as a small step above our RCE Yellows in performance for those that want a little more edge while keeping a fixed perch damper to keep things simple. Not really intended for stock tires...we expect most would run them with a stickier summer street tire. Also designed specifically for aftermarket dampers like Bilstein or Koni.

Our RCE Yellows are softer and more of a OEM Sport+ option that can work well on stock shocks for a DD and some light auto-x or track time. Still a good handling spring and perfectly fine with stock tires or something a little stickier. Better ride quality with those but the Tarmacs will handle better.

Yes Bilsteins do seem to soften a bit after install. I think the B8s are a good shock (love the gas pressure) but I wish that they were not shorter in overall length. Makes me consider B6s as the better choice BUT those probably have a longer bumpstop internally, so the B8 is probably the way to go.

- Andy

[Racecomp Engineering]

double post? what is this 2004

[was385]

Originally Posted by Racecomp Engineering

Thanks for the feedback! Glad you got your alignment sorted, now it's time for some real tires.

We designed the RCE Tarmacs as a small step above our RCE Yellows in performance for those that want a little more edge while keeping a fixed perch damper to keep things simple. Not really intended for stock tires...we expect most would run them with a stickier summer street tire. Also designed specifically for aftermarket dampers like Bilstein or Koni.

Our RCE Yellows are softer and more of a OEM Sport+ option that can work well on stock shocks for a DD and some light auto-x or track time. Still a good handling spring and perfectly fine with stock tires or something a little stickier. Better ride quality with those but the Tarmacs will handle better.

Yes Bilsteins do seem to soften a bit after install. I think the B8s are a good shock (love the gas pressure) but I wish that they were not shorter in overall length. Makes me consider B6s as the better choice BUT those probably have a longer bumpstop internally, so the B8 is probably the way to go.

- Andy

When I install this setup, do I just leave off the supplied front bumpstops because the Bilstein struts include an internal one? Just run the tarmac bumpstops for the shocks?