I finally had a chance to take my Zeal Function XS coilovers to the track (Mid-America Motorplex) and really work them. The results were fantastic!

With the coilovers dialed in with proper cornerweighting and preloading the car was fantastic! First off, the spring rates on my set-up are 8K front, 10K rear - it was a set-up provided by Adam at Z1. The 6+ hour road trip to the track was comfortable - no complaints at all about the roadability of these untits.

At the track things started slowly - there was rain in the morning so the best we could do were parade laps - low speed stuff to get familiar with the course and help dry it some as rain let up. With the track wet, I left my coilovers dialed to full soft. I was also running on stock Advans for this event instead of RA-1s which I usually use for track events.

As the track dried and the course went hot, I had a chance to really start to work the suspension. MAM is fairly technical track with 15 turns and a mix of high and low speed corners. What I found is that the car was neutral - completely and totally neutral - in both high speed and low speed corners, and both coming into and driving out of the corners. The kicker was that at the end of the day, I realised that I had never stiffened up the shocks - I spent the entire event running full soft. I can't wait to get back there and try the tighter transitions with the dampers turned up!

The set-up worked much better then the stock suspension, and much better than the JIC coilovers I had been using last year. Other than that, the car is running the same alignment as last year and is still running the stock sway bars on both ends.

These new Zeals are fantastic - thanks Adam!

 

nice!

 

Zeal Xs is great for the track and street. I just got back from Thunderhill last night after 4 sessions of HPDE with my new custom Function V6 (12kg/10kg). I was amazed at how well the susp absorbs the bumps but also stiff enough for very little body rolls. The setting was 3 front and 4 rear with a 24mm whiteline rear swaybar which dialed the car to be neutral. There were very slight understeer because I was running street tires (now its slick)..hehe. Overall, the Zeal is undeliverable on the track and I would recommend them to all car enthusiasts, not just Evo owners.


I was also testing out my new Endless SSS pads which I think it held up great at the track. The rotor temp reached upward of 420c and I didn't have any fading issue. As hard as I drove the car yesterday...everything performed the way I expected.

Thanks,
Tom

 

Good to know, Zeal has great parts.

 

Very nice! I was too busy drooling over your rear diffuser to ask about your suspension. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to drive around the course with you. As soon as the rain ended, I had to leave because I felt physically ill that I couldn't join in the fun. What was your fastest lap time? Anyhow, nice meeting you, and here's a picture of your EVO:

 

what kind of times were you guys running on this set-up (at T-hill)?


Percy

 

It wasn't a time event...only HPDE. All I can say is I was going fast enough to melt my street tires. With 20 mins session and 27miles drove each (3mile track)...I am guess my lap time is avg 2mins 22sec per lap.

Tom

 

sweet!

I knew I was going to be reading a post like this from you at some point

 

Yeah - It's just been rough getting to the track this summer. My last scheduled outing was canceled when a good friend totaled his ride the day before we were supposed to go and he needed my help sorting through the aftermath.

One other point about my set-up - the car is still running the stock sway bars. The only changes to the suspension were adding the coilovers and dialing in a track alignment with good corner weighting. I figured that I would make changes to the sway bars if needed after I had the coilovers dialed in.

The grip this set-up was putting down was insane, even on the stock advans. I can't wait for my new track wheels to show up so I can mount up some 255/40-17 Toyo RA-1s!

 

I didn't bother to hook up a transponder since this was my first time driving this track iin anger. Oh, I'm sure the stock rubber didn't help either

It was nice to meet you and the other EvoM guys and to spend some time at speed with everyone. We're heading back soon and I hope you'll be able to get on the track with us!

 

Alright - I finally managed to get the Evo to BIR (a track I know well) and really push the suspension. I spent the day with the dampers set to full firm at the track, and full soft on the drive there and back - about 2.5 hours each way. I'm also back to Toyo RA-1s for track tires.

Just like MAM, the set-up was completely neutral with the abilty to transition into very mild oversteer. While I was initially skeptical about running 8K front and 10K rear springs; the combintaion works perfectly with my alignment. I'm even still running the stock sway bars and feel no need to change them.

What really punched home just how well this suspension was working was that the only car that could out corner me today was a striped and caged 'Vette C5 race car with what the owner described as "a 10 thousand dollar suspension" on a set of amazingly wide racing slicks - they stuck out a good 1" past the fender lip. That and being able to consistantly run down an '05 Ford GT lap after lap - Amazing.

 

Congrat on your purchase....just glad to have another happy Zeal Evo owner!

Tom

 

erioshi:

What are your corner weights? How much fuel in the tank, were you in the seat when it was measured?

How did you determine preload for the springs?

What are your alignment specs? did you weight the driver's seat, back seat, trunk before aligning?

Interested to know...

 

awesome

 

OK - I can't tell you exactly where my corner weights are sitting, but when we balanced the car we worked to get the diagonals and side-to-side balance as close as possible. We also introduced a very slight nose down rake to help with understeer. I will try to take some measurements for you later.

The cornerweighting was done with about 1/2 tank fo gas and no occupants or added weight. I usually end up with a passenger on the track so I figured that would roughly balance out.

My alignment is pretty extreme. I run -4.5 degrees camber in front and -1.8 degrees in back. I also use 0 toe in both the front and back.

To dial in the pre-load I started with Zeal's recomended preload (I don't have the instructions handy) and then just increased or decreased either the front or back (one end at a time) about 1/4 turn at a time until the ride felt close - then I used 1/8 turn tweaks to finish the job. I set my preloads with the dampers at full soft because I spend most of my time with the car in that setting. Set your preload to match your ususal driving settings. Preload is mostly about controling bounce. You want your pleload to be as light as possible whil still keeping your rebound in control.

I had a friend with a video camera in the car when the Ford GT had a couple of clear laps with me behind him - I'll post up the video once it's uploaded and compressed.

Adam - Thanks again!