My Review of RCE Tarmac II Coilovers

[SupraFly85]

First off let me start by stating that I am not the most technical car guy or most mechanically knowledgable, but I have recently bought and installed some RCE Tarmac II's and had enjoyed them so much I wanted to put my thoughts up here for others to see. I also wish I had some more photos of the coil overs before the install but I don't, however you can always visit http://www.racecompengineering.com and see them there.

If you have any questions or requests for photos let me know and I will try to answer you the best I can.

Now before I discuss them, I just want to say the customer service from RCE in my experience was fantastic. All emails and questions were answered immediately and clearly. I went to the shop and got to meet Myles personally and he is a really nice and knowledgable guy. There was a slight delay on shipping because they were out of stock but he told me when the coil overs would ship and they actually arrived a day after that, so in the end, earlier then expected. And after this, he shared with me the settings he used on his car so I could use that as a good starting point for my compression/rebound settings.

Now to my perspective on the coil overs.

I did not personally install them so I had Pure Automotive do it. They had mentioned to me after the install that adjusting the ride height with these was extremely simple and that anytime I wanted to adjust them just let them know and they can do it really quick. I also got an alignment afterwards. I set the height to be about an inch gap from tire to fender all the way around. The compression and rebound settings were initially set to a sort of track setting. 10 from full stiff up front and 13 from full stiff in the rear for rebound. When I drove on the street this was pretty stiff but still comfortable. So I dialed it back two more clicks on the street and it was very comfortable. With this setting I was still able to drive the backroads pretty hard (and these backroads have lots of bumps, elevation changes, potholes, etc) and the car handled really well. It had a much more stable feeling then the stock platform, especially going over bumps with the throttle on, the car did not feel like it was getting upset at all. This car is a daily driver, to school twice a week and work three times a week plus lots of backroad driving whenever I can, and also an occasional track car so comfort and streetability was a major factor for me when buying coil overs (Did not want full race setup that was so stiff it was unbearable on the street) as well as performance. They have been on for a few weeks now so I can't say anything about durability other then I have never heard of anyone else having issues. So all in all, on the street, very comfortable and very stable.

For the track, and I have another disclaimer, I had my first track day ever this past weekend at Summit Point on the main circuit so again not a lot of experience, but they did extremely well. I set the rebound to 9 clicks from full stiff up front and 12 clicks from full stiff in the rear. First few sessions were mostly me getting the nerves out but after that I was pushing it as hard as I could through the whole track. The car again felt very stable. I was able to keep up with many faster cars including a 911 Carerra 4S, some Mustangs (GT 5.0, Laguna Seca Edition), M3's, Mercedes C63 AMGs, and others (including some miata's and brz's). Some of them passed me on the main straight and the straight between corner 9 and 10 but after the first corner up to 9, I was pretty much gaining on everything and in some cases, gaining enough that the faster cars could not catch me on the big straights. I talked to another BRZ driver who was hitting turn 10 in 3rd gear and I was able to hit it in 4th flat out and hold a higher speed through the corner. The car felt really solid in turns 6 - 9 as well, which is where they have a long looping right into a quick left and then another right. The weight transfer felt very minimal when I drove the sections correctly (not lifting throttle completely off in between corners and allowing the suspension to decompress). Another thing I noticed was when I went in to turn one a few times at what I thought was good speed, my instructor said brake later, the car feels stable, you can hold more speed. I was very surprised when I listened to him and threw the car into the turn at a speed I thought was gonna cause issues, and the car just stuck. I dove in and mashed the throttle and nothing gave, it just held and came out with very good speed. Overall for the track, I was extremely impressed, the car handled much better than I thought it would and I could not be happier with the setup, and the best part, after the track I made a minor adjustment and drove the car home, comfortably!!!

Special thanks to Myles for getting these in quickly and in time for the track day. I have some videos from Summit Point that I will be putting on YouTube for any interested and will get the links in here as soon as I can, just need to do some editing. And as previously stated, if you want any more photos, just let me know and I will upload them as soon as I can.

The first photo was after the initial install, once the springs settled I had the ride height adjusted to what you see in the second photo.

Here are the links to the videos from the weekend. The first two were from day 1 so I was still learning the car and the track. The last two are from the last session on day 2 and those were some of my best laps of the weekend.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb0vVuyARhg"](4/26/14)13' FRS Summit Point HPDE1 Main Circuit - Part 1 - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qia__Cpp1zk"](4/26/14) 13' FRS Summit Point HPDE1 Main Circuit - Part 2 - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96xceUfl5Tc"](4/27/14) 13' FRS Summit Point HPDE1 Main Circuit - Part 1 - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce3SqDT3Nf0"](4/27/14) 13' FRS Summit Point HPDE1 Main Circuit - Part 2 - YouTube[/ame]

[SupraFly85]

Thanks @Racecomp Engineering

[smbstyle]

Looks great! Also can't beat that you live a stone's throw away from them in Severn.

I love my Tarmac II's; they have performed flawlessly to the beatings that they take once a month at Sebring. I can also attest to the outstanding customer service. Anytime I have a question or need something; Andy and Myles are right there to respond and help out. It's been fantastic.

What size wheel and tire setup is that by the way?

[SupraFly85]

Originally Posted by smbstyle

Looks great! Also can't beat that you live a stone's throw away from them in Severn.

I love my Tarmac II's; they have performed flawlessly to the beatings that they take once a month at Sebring. I can also attest to the outstanding customer service. Anytime I have a question or need something; Andy and Myles are right there to respond and help out. It's been fantastic.

What size wheel and tire setup is that by the way?

Thanks. Yea definitely nice to be so close to them.

Their Enkei RPF1's 17 x 9 +35 and the tires are Hankook Ventus V12 Evo's 245/40ZR-17

[smbstyle]

Originally Posted by SupraFly85

Thanks. Yea definitely nice to be so close to them.

Their Enkei RPF1's 17 x 9 +35 and the tires are Hankook Ventus V12 Evo's 245/40ZR-17

Nice; any rubbing issues on track?

[SupraFly85]

Originally Posted by smbstyle

Nice; any rubbing issues on track?

I didn't hear or notice anything. But since this was my first time on tack ever I wasn't really listening for it, more focused on getting lines and turn-ins down. It is a little lower then I would normally go so I may bring it up a tad more for when I go to a bumpier track/backroad but I didn't notice any rubbing.

[Racecomp Engineering]

Awesome! Thanks for the review. We love it when people get their car on track for the first time and have a suspension set-up that gives them confidence. Huge advantage being able to trust the car and knowing it will be stable while increasing grip at the same time!

- Andy

[frslee]

@SupraFly85

I think I saw your car on Saturday at Summit Point... I was there for hyperdrive with few of my buddies. Ride height looked perfect when I saw it. Glad you had fun!

[ja1217]

Originally Posted by SupraFly85

I talked to another BRZ driver who was hitting turn 10 in 3rd gear and I was able to hit it in 4th flat out and hold a higher speed through the corner.

Yeah, you definitely want to be in 4th for turn 10. I was at Summit Point this weekend as well in HPDE 3 and I think I found my limit for turn 10. Entry speed of 82-83mph was A-OK. Some small corrections but pretty smooth and fast. Entry speed of 86-87mph, not so ok -

[SupraFly85]

Originally Posted by Racecomp Engineering

Awesome! Thanks for the review. We love it when people get their car on track for the first time and have a suspension set-up that gives them confidence. Huge advantage being able to trust the car and knowing it will be stable while increasing grip at the same time!

- Andy

Thank you for the suspension! After my first session or two, I started getting comfortable with how the car felt and was able to keep pushing myself and the car closer to their limits throughout the weekend. Still have some room left to go so looking forward to next track day.

[cjsporl1996]

whats the difference between the tarmac 2 and the kw club sport.

Where can i get camber plates for the tarmac 2?

[SupraFly85]

Originally Posted by ja1217

Yeah, you definitely want to be in 4th for turn 10. I was at Summit Point this weekend as well in HPDE 3 and I think I found my limit for turn 10. Entry speed of 82-83mph was A-OK. Some small corrections but pretty smooth and fast. Entry speed of 86-87mph, not so ok -

Nice, I like the video. What software is doing the overlays for the video, looks cool. I was not going quite that fast, I still got some work to do. I also ran in sport mode all weekend since Ive never done any autocross or track days before so next time I want to try with that off completely. I think the highest I hit in the day was mid to high 70's, not too bad for a first timer though lol.

[SupraFly85]

Originally Posted by cjsporl1996

whats the difference between the tarmac 2 and the kw club sport.

Where can i get camber plates for the tarmac 2?

That might be a question that Andy or Myles from Racecomp could answer a little better. I believe the Tarmac II is based on the KW but I think they make some adjustments of their own and change out a few parts. (Don't quote me on that.)

As for the camber plates FT86speedfactory has a good amount of top hats/ camber plates. You can always check out their site, Ive had pretty good experiences with them in the past.

[ja1217]

Originally Posted by SupraFly85

Nice, I like the video. What software is doing the overlays for the video, looks cool. I was not going quite that fast, I still got some work to do. I also ran in sport mode all weekend since Ive never done any autocross or track days before so next time I want to try with that off completely. I think the highest I hit in the day was mid to high 70's, not too bad for a first timer though lol.

The data was collected with an Aim Solo DL. The software for the overlay was Race Render 3.

More seat time of any kind is really valuable. I'd recommend practising your car control without traction control on in autocross first, as its pretty hard to screw up in a way that will hurt you or the car. I did about a year of autocross before I brought my car to the track and am glad I did so. Just remember to be smooth when going back to the track. The quick inputs you can use at 40mph in autocross can easily upset your car going 90-100mph.