CSG and RCE tag-team suspension Q&A thread! Ask us anything!

[marco_mc22]

They're stiffer, less sag under weight keeping the same preload.
They also use weaker helpers up front, 3-60-80 instead of 10-60-80, basically 3nm vs 10nm, well, I've never understood why honestly...hopefully Andrew will enlighten us ahah

[Racecomp Engineering]

Softer springs require more preload for a given ride height, which takes up more spring length. But you also need to be sure that you have enough spring travel for the amount of bump travel that you have at your ride height.

And yes, nothing in between 170 and 200 mm from KW springs.

- Andrew

[falcon_wizard]

Good day,

I would appreciate some insight to help to plan the stage of evolution of my brz set-up, based on my specific needs. My turbo 13 BRZ is my all year daily driver including in very snowy canadian winters, however I do use it for about 5 HPDE days a year. As my driving skills progress over the last few years, Next year I plan to replace my aging stock suspension with the RCE Superstreet 1 coilovers, and at the same time move up from my PS4S to Nitto NT01 tires for dry track time. My current alignement has -1.9 neg camber in the front using camber bolts and stock -1.2 neg camber in the back.

With the added stiffness of the RCE SS1 and higher tire grip levels, I was wondering if it would make sense to replace some of the stock bushings for stiffer ones in order to keep a balanced set-up, or if I should stay with stock bushings. I do use my car for long rides so would need to keep it civilized (it’s not a race car) from an NVH standpoint, but would be ok to make some compromises to help the car behave well on track and have a set-up that is well balanced. Also since I do drive in the deep snow in winter my goal is to limit the drop of the SS1 to no more than 1inch from stock.

Any feedback would be appreciated,

Thanks

[Racecomp Engineering]

For your 9 year old daily driver I would definitely inspect your bushings. Even from a non-performance standpoint there is likely some wear and they could be due for replacement.

You can replace with new and fresh OEM or switch to something firmer. I think for your uses new OEM is totally fine. Or add a few easy aftermarket pieces like the rear diff and subframe bushing inserts. Do you have any adjustable arms or plan to add them?

A 1 inch drop is no problem.

- Andrew

[falcon_wizard]

Originally Posted by Racecomp Engineering

For your 9 year old daily driver I would definitely inspect your bushings. Even from a non-performance standpoint there is likely some wear and they could be due for replacement.

You can replace with new and fresh OEM or switch to something firmer. I think for your uses new OEM is totally fine. Or add a few easy aftermarket pieces like the rear diff and subframe bushing inserts. Do you have any adjustable arms or plan to add them?

A 1 inch drop is no problem.

- Andrew

Thanks for the quick response,

Indeed, Actually the car is inspected before every hpde event. I failed to mention that the rear diff bushing was due last year and we did replace with an aftermarket insert on top the a new OEM one that made it a bit stiffer but not too much, that worked well. Also Years ago when I went forced induction we added the transmission insert as well, which really help smooth gear change due to the extra torque. I have no plan to add adjustable arms at the moment. Normally when something is due I look for opportunities to upgrade at the same time, or if there is clearly a performance issue I want to fix, and incrementally build things like that. So something I would consider if parts are due to be changed.

The rear subframe bushing appears to be a fairly simple to install, so I’ll dig into that more and look to put that on the candidate list for next season…. Regarding the drop, I saw the instructions and feedback on the SS1 said that the optimum drop was between 1 and 1.5inch, so that’s why I was planning on doing the “minimum optimal” drop, to minimize having the car clearance issues in daily driving. One option could be to rise the suspension for the winter, but I was trying to shoot for a happy medium that would minimize/avoir the need to do two alignments per year, vice one in the spring. Maybe the trade-offs is not worth it however and I’d be better offer with another one in the fall.

[Stang70Fastback]

Here's an interesting one. I tried spreading a tiny bit of silicone grease I had laying around on the coils, but it didn't seem to help any? Not sure why they're sticking, but both fronts are doing it!

EDIT: Someone suggested I flip the springs to place the helper at the bottom. It hadn't occurred to me to flip them... but now that I think about it... I wonder if the lip on the top perch (the silver part from my Raceseng camber plates) is tall enough that it's wedging against the lip on the "mid-perch" that separates the main spring from the helper spring? Maybe under full load the two are wedging inside/outside of each other, and combined with the helper spring, forming a tasty perch lip sammich. Maybe I just need to try shaving down the lip on both pieces slightly. I'll need to take a closer look and see if the two are tall enough to interfere when the helper is fully-compressed.

I suppose flipping the springs around would also have the same effect by separating those two collars so their lips can't interfere at all. Assuming that is indeed the issue.

[Stang70Fastback]

So as a follow-up to my previous post, I tried flipping the springs around, but then observed that the helper spring seat would still interfere with the collar on the BOTTOM of the coilover... and it also placed that seat right at the edge of the shock body, which I wasn't a fan of.

SO, I grapped some HDPE sheets I had lying around, and machined a pair of spacers for each side. Pressed them onto the top hats, and effectively reduced the height of the lip enough to eliminate the interference. Just had to lower my coilovers by the same amount as the thickness of the spacers.

Still not sure why I'm seemingly the only one with this issue, but at least it's resolved! We shall see how the HDPE holds up, but I can always machine more out of ABS or Nylon or even Aluminum if needed.

[Racecomp Engineering]

Sorry missed this...and whoa, never seen that before! Send me a PM with your email.

- Andrew