A fellow Evo owner near me achieved -2.0 degrees of camber simply by rotating the camber bolt.

 

I, too, started another thread regarding my Tanabe install. I probably should have posted my pics here.

I am dreading having the car aligned. I write that because the car feels quite right in it's present set-up. With the drop and the camber bolts set "arrows out" the car feels really nice, I'm impressed. The ride is noticeably stiffer but less jiggly; interesting, considering tsi90awd wrote that it is more jiggly. The car has a nice locked-on-center feel, steering effort has increased a smidge--there's a bit more resistance just before the steering wheel turns, I'm really digging it

I have yet to really "drive" it, I will be at Road America with tsi90awd on April 17; it will be interesting to compare impressions on nearly identical mods

 

Bogie - just be careful about the toe. Lowering the car seems to increase the toe-in at the front. This can lead to high tire wear rates. I'd definitely get the toe checked. Maybe the camber is fine as it is.

I went for a long drive last night to get some more impressions. Part of the "jiggliness" that I mentioned in the first post is likely due to the solid camber plates. The stock top strut mounts have rubber in them to isolate vibrations/shocks from the front suspension to the car body. The camber plates don't have any rubber isolation. You feel more of what's happening at the front wheels and the effective initial spring rate is higher because there is no "give" in the top strut mounts anymore.

Let's switch cars at Elkhart Lake (off the track!) to check the differences.

 

WARNING!! Ramble Alert!

I neglected to mention that I probably have some toe-in now. I may or may not have had it before the drop--the car tracked straight and true before the Tanabe install. Moreover, it may or may not be a concern because the tires appear to have a 1 year (road race season) lifespan; I won't be keeping them long enough for it to truly matter. Additionally, it depends on how much abuse the tires' shoulders continue to encounter. I dumped a set of tires last year, even after remounting the tires on opposite rims, the shoulders had been scrubbed off way before the inner edges. Subsequently, the tires may wear more evenly/equally. Finally, I may (or may not) be able to live with the resulting minor trade off in turn-in vs straight-line stability toe-in produces. And another thing, at high speeds, road drag on the tire tends to push things toward toe-out. If the car reaches a toe-out situation, then the car can become unstable.

 

Ok I realligned the car today to broeli's specs.

And It does feel a tad better but not better then stock. Let me rephrase that....it does feel better then stock but not the turn in. Its actually not noticeable to the average person. But its very noticeable to me.

I brought 2 evo owners with me to the install that have stock evos and then we all swapped cars back to back to get a impression of the cars before and after.

Well the 2 other guys did not notice the loss of responsivenss and lack luster turn in until I poinetd it out to them. Then 1 of the guys thought it was not a big deal and the other guy agreed with me.

All in all they are good for springs but I would never do it again because I lost the crisp feel of turn in like the stock car exhibits.

I know I am being picky here but it really bugs me. I will keep them in until I get ohlins down the road.


Also as Bogie stated I also did feel more resistance on the wheel.
BTW thanks all for the help and offering your settings and input

 

I only let family drive my car, professor

 

Chapter8.....what is the mileage on your car when you install the Tanabe spring?

What about Tsi90awd and Bogie?

I try to compare you guys mileage....may be Chapter8's experience has something to do with the (stock) shock's wear !!

 

The conditiion of the struts may have something to do with it. I have 6K miles on my car, but they are pretty hard miles

 

would the lesser turn in be a result of them being a progressive spring? Do they have a real soft spring rates at the begining of compression? Just a thought...would linear springs with similar spring rates be better?

 

It makes sense that a lower effective spring rate at the front would reduce turn-in response. But, it seems that the tanabe gf210 fronts are linear rate springs. Again, that is what they look like to me, but I didn't actually measure the rates or look to see if the wire diameter changes. If only one person is observing this, then the problem is probably specific to their car. It doesn't seem to be a characteristic of the spring itself. Am I missing something here?

 

You got me...I am wanting to get some lowering springs until I can save up for coilovers but seems like there is something wrong with every lower spring...Tein's are too low...or sag....Tanabe doesn;t havea great turn in......Eibachs are ridiculously soft......RSR...i forget what was wrong with them...anyways is there ever any end or answer to what is good? If there is let me know...lol.

 

I found the Tanabe Japanese website....doesn't look like they say anything about linear or progressive.


http://www.rd-tanabe.com/lineup/spri...ept/index.html

I did try to click on the "Spec" but can't find anything useful....

 

We have 15k miles on our Evo. I had to install my front springs upside down to get them to seat properly. How about the rest of you guys?

 

I have 1300 miles on my car its brand new!

I think I know what is causing the turn in issues, the fronts are linear but not a true linear spring and the rears are not linear. This makes the car feel like its trailing a bit. I went driving in the mountains this weekend and put 700 miles on the springs and I got used to it so it no longer bothers me. But if you are picky like me these do not feel like stock. However I noticed in the mountains that reduce of body roll greatly improved.

So basically my short evaluation of these springs

PROS:
Nice drop
Comfort almost stock like
Less roll


CONS:
Turn is is less crisp


If you can live with this then these springs are

 

I am still driving on my all-season tires, but, my car retained it's sharp turn-in, albeit, as I mentioned above, steering feel was altered--requires a bit more effort (however, I like the exta effort). However, I did install a rear sway bar with the springs.