Alignment

12.13.07
After installing the coilovers I took the car to get aligned. I wanted to try some street settings, just a lttle bit more agressive than stock in order to take advantage of the coilovers, hopefully without confusing the difference in handling. Since it is winter time here and there has been some snow, I kept it relatively conservative. One interesting thing to note that I had not though of was that in order to chieve these numbers, the front camber plates were not set evenly, but asymmetrically. This could be due to the stock lower camber bolts not being identical, or weight distribution, I don't know. The goal was to have something relatively neutral so I could more easily recognize results and adjustment from the coilovers.
I did not try to align for any significant oversteer, as I want to first see how the handling responds to damping changes, and also how the bigger Progress rear bar affects body roll.
These are the settings I am trying for daily street driving and street "coilover tuning" (messing around):

Naturally, once I am better acquainted with the suspension and effects on handling, I will try more aggressive settings when I put the stickier tires back on.

JIC FLTA2 Coilovers

This past weekend I got the opportunity to get some used JIC FLTA2 coilovers for a really good deal. Since I bought the car it has had Tein S-Tech springs on the stock struts that the previous owner had put on. These are notorious for their tendency to be too soft, too low, and horribly mismatched with the stock struts and the resulting ride quality (or lack thereof) can attest to this. Although I bought some stock springs to get rid of these soon after I bought the car, I had been holding out on installing them because of the likelihood of the stock struts being worn out by the Teins, and didn't want to shell out for installing and aligning the stock springs, only to have to buy new struts soon after and do it all over again, only to end up stock. Not that there is anything wrong with stock on this car, but the cost to benefit ratio seemed a bit disproportionate for my goals.
Donour Sizemore, another local Evo owner and SCCA instructor who races in STU class (quite successfully) had had these on his VIII RS, and was ready to step up to something more serious. With a rock bottom price including installation that I could not refuse. Before he owned them they were on the Showcase Evo, which won ESP at SCCA nationals in '04 or '05. They do not have the standard spring rates, but rather a unknown combination that the Showcase guys selected, probably 8/10k respectively.
The suspension is pretty stiff now, which is what I wanted,but also not as low, also good. I have not yet had the chance to play with the settings or race them yet, but the street handling (not comfort haha) has improved immensely.
Donour took the car an I on a test run on a tight and twisty road in the Sandia foothills after we installed them. Besides actually being a little scared in my own car for the first time (I was reminded of those gin and tonics I enjoyed the night before in the VIP section), I was also reminded of how much improvement is needed with my driving, and that at this point I must overcome the temptation to add more power and focus on improving my skills through more seat time and keeping a handy stock of consumables like tires, brake pads, etc.
Unfortunately I forgot my camera at home, so I don't have any pictures. I look forward to learning to use the car and suspension more to their full potential.