I had pretty good experiences with Speedware so far, and I wasn't too bent out of shape about the spacers (they got me the right ones this morning). Spacers are always hit & miss anyway. Now that I finally have all the parts and test fitted the wheels, it turns out I will need a 20 mm spacer, and not the 15 mm I ordered to clear the front calipers - go figure. The guys at WORK Wheels estimated I'd need 5-8 mm, I got 5 and 15 and thought I'd be safe, but looks like everybody got it wrong.

So anybody know where to get an 18-20 mm spacer for an Evo in the next 12 hours? I already tried calling everybody I know, and nobody stocks anything . Best solution so far is to drive up to Bellingham (H&R, 3 hours round trip) and pick up a pair of 25 mm (they only make 5,15,25 for the Evo).

Hey Eric, are you open to the possibilty of working your car earlier to give me time to get the parts? It's not for sure yet (haven't talked to Robert since he's in the air), but I might call you later. What's the latest / earliest I can call you? Sorry about the chaos...

 

Ralph I have 4 10mm spacers laying around if that helps. I'm not sure what to tell you though, because if you're going to use the 25mm H&Rs you *may* need longer wheel studs, leaving us SOL.

I just talked to Andre and had him call my old roomate who works at H&R to find out about the stud issue. Hopefully we can figure out something for you tonight.

I'm going to stop by tomorrow, but I won't be doing any wrenching as I'm just coming back from a nasty case of strep throat (don't worry I'm on penicillin, it's not contagious anymore)

 

Ralph, I'll see you at the shop tomorrow, I can't wait to see this sickness

 

Hehe - now I know what he meant by a late night thrash: we worked on the car 'til 2:30 am last night. May have found a solution to the spacer problem too. Gonna go catch some breakfast, and then see you guys at PINA!

 

so how did it turn out?

 

I'll let Ralph fill you in on the handling after he gets back from the airport.

 

Just got back from the shop, Boy does that thing look sick, I'll post pics, Ralph and Robi can fill you in on everything else.

Robi It was very nice meeting you. Hopefully see you again sometime.























Matt

 

Void, that last photo of your car looks absolutely great. It looks like the front tires tucked in nicely with the spring drop.

I certainly appreciate your efforts in pulling this day off with Robi. He is definately the master of cost effective suspension tuning. I just need to replace my 255's with some 275's now that Robi rolled my fender lips.

Robi mentioned about coming up here sometime this summer to join in on a track day to provide some tips on Evo handling characteristics and lines on the track. I'd certainly want to participate and would recommend the same to anyone who tracks their car.

Overall, I was very happy with the work that Robi did on my car (and Andre for hosting us at his shop). He listened to what I wanted in terms of handling for a track/street car and did everything possible to reach those goals. I only drove the car home from the tuning event and am surprised at how supple the suspension is. A couple off-ramps on the freeway just provided clues on how much more capability the suspension has now.

My discusion with Robi included his statements that the car would rotate much better while still providing the same level of high-speed corner stability. Roll and understeer are much diminished. Coming from a background of German cars, I think that its absolutely incredible what can be accomplished with our cars for a very reasonable amount of money. Thanks again Robi and eveyone else.

Good times were had by all today!

 

The MR looks amazing. Pina Motorsports is a great place. i just wish they were not so far away.

 

I would love to be down for that.

 

Guys.... where do I start? The last two days have been absolutely amazing. I feel like it will take me a year to digest everything I have learned. First, credit where credit is due (in no particular order):

Vince @ World 1 Performance, for getting my wheels in time
Jason @ Discount Tire (Bellevue), for flying those tires in from the East Coast!
Adam @ Speedware, for pulling through on the spacer battle
TM Engineering, for a custom set of shiny black McGard Lug nuts/locks
Matt, for being the Paparazzi that you are and getting good pics.
Eric, for rolling with the punches and being flexible with the schedule changes
Andre and the whole crew @ PINA - thank you for being such great hosts!
and of course Robert (Robispec) - the installation machine (!) and master of the sticky Evo

For those of you that weren't there, here's a quick recap of events: Robi flew in to Seattle Wed night. I picked him up at SeaTac, and after the first five minutes knew my car would be in good hands - from the Racing Engineering mag he was carrying to the freakin' heavy suitcase full of suspension arms he had "gearhead" written all over him. We headed to Bellevue, met up with an old racing buddy of his (Derek) for dinner, went to my place, set up shop in my garage and got to it.

Until 2:30 am Robi wrenched, ground, and pounded on the MR, with me handing him the occasional tool, but mostly asking stupid questions and trying to soak it all up. I haven't received any threating phone calls from my neighbours yet, but it can only be a matter of time...

Thu morning we headed out to PINA (via Denny's for breakfast), at which point my car already had a beefy new rear sway bar, longer wheel studs, rolled fenders in the back, and the new wheels bolted to it. Both Andre and Eric (owner of the second Evo to be "robispeced") were already at the shop when we got there around 9:15, and I now owe Andre the life of my first-born for making him get up 3 hours earlier than he normally would .

For the next 9.5 hours (!) Robi worked over Eirc's and my Evo, taking maybe 15 min of breaks total to inhale food and a steady stream of highly caffinated beverages - robi you are a machine! At 7:30 pm I dropped him back off at SeaTac, prowled home in my new street menace (I saw an STI on the freeway who waived me by to get a better look ), hit the sack and slept for 12 hours straight.

The results speak for themselves :




The car feels very different from before. It's difficult to put into words, but I'll try. The springs are very nice, the drop is perfect, and the ride feels both smoother and firmer than the stock springs did. Small holes / bumps are totally absorbed (better than stock), but the car feels much more settled than before and provides a lot more feedback to the driver about what's going on with the road. The MR shocks and Espilir springs are a match made in heaven. The car isn't so low as to be a pain for daily use, but it feels so much more predictable to me now. The rear sway bar also seems to be doing it's job nicely - the car corners flatter, with less roll. The first time I drove the Evo, I found the amount of body roll a bit spooky (having come from a very stiff / low Celica), and now the Evo and I seem to have found a good middle ground.

The alignment is a noticeable improvement - the car just "carves" in turns. Even with still virgin tires the front grip is simply ridiculous. In a way, the Evo feels like a "ligther" car to me from before (certainly not true 'cause the monster tires are heavy). It is dead straight and poised at high speed, yet hair-trigger agile when turning - truly amazing.

Not everything turned out perfect of course (it never does the first time out), and I did learn a couple "how not to do it" lessons too. The 18x9.5 Work wheels are meant to go on the rear axle of high power RWD cars, and Work warned me that they may not clear the front brake calipers without using a 5-8 mm spacer. They were right, and in the end it took somewhere between 15-20 mm to make it work, which is a bigger spacer than I like. Having the wheel pushed this far out is great for front grip, but does cause some tire rub at full steering lock in a hard turn.

I haven't yet decided what to do about it (different brakes, shaving the wheel spokes, shaving the calipers, going wide body, using a smaller width wheel in front, etc.). It would have been smarter to solve this problem before mounting the tires and wheels to keep my options open - as usual the temptation of doing too much too quickly sucked me in (and sucked my bank account dry) . At this point there's no going back though, so no matter where things go from here it certainly won't be boring .

 

how did you feel about the bumpsteer correction?

glad things worked out for you, your wheels look killer on there. did you throw em an a scale? adam is a good guy, gotta call em and get a seat bracket for the evo.

 

I had a great time and meet a dedicated bunch of EVO crazys! Pina is a Fab shop direct from Heaven you seattle evoites don't know how hard it is to find a shop like this!
Glad everyone is happy. I enjoyed meeting a great group of new "EVO friends".

 

Great stuff! Your car looks better every time I see it. You have any plans to test out your new setup at the tack?

 

Yeah you're pretty much the man