New suspension : First (early) impressions !

I thought today I'd wrap up the subject of that big decision regarding my suspension upgrade mentioned a few posts earlier.

After much research and deliberation I took the bait and ordered Seeker's circuit suspension for a DC5. Branded with Seeker's logo the suspension is actually made by Racing Gear (RG), a company well known in Japan for its motor sport performance parts.This particular suspension model is JTC'N1 7-stage circuit damper.

Between the hours of 3pm and 6:30pm today the guys at Seeker got rid of my already highly performing (but not adjustable) Type-R stock suspension and replaced it with the new RG fully adjustable circuit suspension.

The front damper is adjustable in 5 steps from softest (street) to hardest (circuit) whereas the rear damper is adjustable in 7 steps. Springs are from Swift and all four are linear with 10kg in the front and 12kg in the rear.

The car has been dropped 3.5 cms all around, camber adjusted to -3 degrees in front and approx. -2 degrees in the rear. Toe is set at 0 degrees all around.

As per Seeker's recommendation I left the shop with adjustments all set at 1 all around (softest) and will remain like this for the next 200 kms until the damper wears in adequently.

So moving on to my first and still early impressions !

Leaving Seeker I didn't feel anything different other that the car was much lower than I had imagined it would be! Steering-wise it felt nice and easy to turn (despite majority's somewhat negative impressions floating around on the internet) but it wasn't until I got on the highway that I noticed how a small steering input would really make the car turn. It was so responsive but mostly at higher speeds. Great feeling ! Love the camber !

Damper even though set at its softest settings was definitely much firmer than the stock DC5 damper. I can only imagine what the mid or hardest settings feel like (for that of course I need to head out to a circuit).

At the moment I feel like I need to go back to the drawing board and re-learn my car's handling in order to extract maximum performance from the suspension but I am looking forward to the challenge and will document it on this blog in the months to come.

For the time being, some photos from today

Enjoy !

A reminder of what the car looked like with stock suspension