Wildncrazy

I bought Gernby's JIC coilovers and this was my first event on coilovers. This is to give those considering coilovers an idea of how they differ.

On the street they are much smoother than the stock suspension except under hard sharp bumps and then you feel the xtra springing.

They totally stopped any rubbing I had with my tires. I only rubbed in extreme situations but that has disappeared totally which I put down to the stiffer springs limiting suspension travel.

I feel the shocks need to be rebuilt as one was leaking fluid and there is very little difference in feel between shock settings - there are 15. That might be partially attributed to too great an expectation or just great shocks. I have read about how other people have a bone jarring ride when they stiffen the shocks but I can barely feel a difference on the street. I run full soft on the street.

I still can't figure out how to adjust the height on them. JIC won't respond to email and "the person you need to speak to" is never there when I call. I tried to do it the way Gernby told me, but the whole assembly won't turn to lower them, only to raise them a short, short way when it abruptly stops. There appears to be lots of thread left so I am doing something wrong.

The right rear is a little too high based upon other people's corner weight figures I've seen. I do intend to have the car corner weighted but I couldn't find any scales to use and I hate paying people good money for things I can do myself, but I may have to end up letting someone else do it. For my money I think that is one of the main advantages of coilovers.

Now on to how they feel on the track. GREAT, but I think most of that is due to the stiffer springs. I don't know the spring rates on the JICs I just know it is stiffer than stock.

The biggest difference I felt between my S and my Miata, except for the weight, is how the S transitions. There has always been a slight hesitation in direction changes when compared to the Miata. This is noticed the most in slalooms. The Miata is immediate and the S seems to breathe before moving. Not a bad feel or major problem but nowhere nearly as immediate as the Miata. Just look at the Miatas going thru the slaloom and then watch a few S's and you'll see exactly what I am talking about.

Now to be fair a lot of that is the extra 400 lbs the S is carrying. You can't change the laws of physics so you need to compensate

Now the S feels as good as the Miata in the slalooms! As a matter of fact one of the corner workers on corner 1 commented that I seemed to fly thru the slaloom compared to most of the other S's. Of course he also asked me why so many of the S drivers tried to take it in first with lots of onthrottle/offthrottle drama instead of just taking it smoothly so maybe that wasn't as good a compliment as I'd like it to be.

The transistions feel so much better that the faster I took the Box the better it felt. Hit rev limiter in 2nd, tap the brake, flick right, floor the gas when cone is right beside the driver's door, flick left and on to the next corner.

I still had a little too loose a back end I felt but I think that is due to a compromise alignment. I would like those expensive tires to last a little while

In the morning when it was wet I knew that I needed to have the car set softer due to the wet so I set it at full soft. In the afternoon because of the oversteer I set the front at full hard and the rear at 2 clicks less than full hard. There was some difference because my son drove the car first and he said the car went about 5 feet further to the right when he first entered the slaloom than he was expecting. That could also have been dry pavement vs. wet. Hiindsight says I should have softened the rear a little more to see if it helped.

Every lap was with 2 people in the car so I never got to see it's potential but every lap except the 2 that I spun in were improvements. I ended up with a 61.01 with 2 people in the car. I don't really know how that stacks up with others because I wasn't really comparing times except between my son and daughters. JD got a 63 in the car.

In any case the car felt a lot more settled. I simply didn't have to worry about the car or how it would handle I KNEW it would do exactly what I asked it. Unfortunately I wasn't asking it the right things in many of the places. But it was good enough that I found that I could talk to my daughter and explain everything I was doing, tell he what she should be doing and analyze my misteaks outloud all without loosing concentration enough to significantly interfere with my driving. It was almost like a quiet Sunday drive thru the course.

All in all I'd say this is the suspension the S should have come with, the car has really come alive. If any of you want to drive it at the next autocross to see the difference you can.

cdelena

I have JIC's and there is a huge difference in the settings so I would say that something is not right.

Think I got one of the first sets sold after the intro at SEMA and would not buy the JIC's again. Mine are very temperature sensitive (probably because if the type of fluid used), and I find they faded after 7-8 laps or so at TWS. Then there were the setup issues.. took a long time to figure out they need a substantial amount of pre-load even though the company said none was required. The spring rates supplied are a good choice (heavier than stock and less of a rear bias).

Adjustable coilovers are a nice mod and especially useful if you track your car, but all makes are not equal.

turbolane

Do you have the "wrench" for the coilovers? If so, I believe I remember how I adjusted the height on my S with the JIC's. It's pretty easy to do, but it took me some to figure out.

Anyway, be glad to help if I can.

PS: no expert here, so while I can show you what I did I can't say that it's correct

Wildncrazy

cdelena that confirms my suspicions about needing a rebuild.

Lane I do have my wrenches so I would appreciate any help you can give. It looks obvious how to do it, it just won't move.