Review: Bilstein B8 + RCE Tarmac lowering springs.
 

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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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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how much stiffer is this setup than stock?

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

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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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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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?

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).

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

double post? what is this 2004

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?