TGM done the business this morning, - apart from the existed bolts rusted up, no drama, and no alignment issues.

Adrian - the exhaust is more or less (give or take a mm) central from the back, and the pipes are protruding at the same distance when looked at from the side. So, i'm guessing its either the berk decat, or your manifold which has caused the slight alignment issue on your car.

Car does feel more responsive under throttle, feels like its much more happy to accelerate & rev, - this could be placebo of course.

Who said the Mugen sounded similar to stock?! okay, i've had the decat done at the same time - so how much difference each component has made who knows, but the difference is night & day - the car sounds SO much better, - it's not "lairy loud" - its just a much DEEPER, bassier tone - very nice, - i'm very happy with it

Pipes look good too, I'll probably put up a few pics at some point.


I had a little chat with Tom about suspension, - he suggested that for road use, i'll could be *wasting a lot of money on coilovers that are only going to be used on the road (*all the ajustment capability I'll hardly use), - and said it might be worth considering springs alone, - Eibachs are designed to work with the existing shocks, and i'll still benefit from less body roll & somewhat better handling. Considering the price difference (plus I wont need drive shaft spacers etc) - it sounds like an attractive option...

 

PS - Big thank-you to Redun for organising the group buy.

 

Ideally shocks will be matched to spring rates, and valved acordingly.
They will also have an ideal area of operation along the piston stroke.

If you up the rates and keep the stock valving you may well end up with something less capable, certainly with compromised ride quality.

Price is always an attractive option, but I asked that recently to the lad on here who bought cheap tyres and dissapeared into the scenery.

Exhausts, very subjective.
I like my Invidia, the throttling just felt 'better'.
But, after refitting stock pipes and cat I note the car performs better in the higher rev range.
The pull to the line is more definate and obviously smoother.
To me it suggests that whilst the weight loss was excellent, and noticable in handling with wheel and tool tray removed etc, the car may actually have lost power/torque.

Steve.

 

Theres only very few that are close to stock springs or not far off yet offer a lower look, im talkin MY00/01.

Swift are one, but there quite expensive but very good quality (they are Jap). They only lower the back by 0.9 inch and the front by 0.7 and isnt too far off the stock spring rates.

 

Happy days... I always thought My Mugen was a fair bit louder than Stock, not that I'm complaining. I love mine but would not anything louder.

Have you got any intake mods?

 

Mate glad you are happy and Tom did a good job for you, they are and should be highly recommended for anyone in the SW. Funny the alignment issue, I am tending to think it is the Berk decat, as Eho fitted his I think he may have also fitted the Berk sports cat and his sticks out on one side even more than mine. For the record I have the mugen manifold as well so I doubt it is that. If you are using the J's decat I thought it didnt have an extension to put the sensor out of the exhaust stream, any cel's yet?

As far as the springs go I disagree, but sneakfish has had these fitted by TGM, I tend to believe if you are going to change anything go with coilovers or dont bother doing anything, my experience with lowering springs on a different car were they are only for asthetics. I do not rate Tein so be careful which group buys you join, my money would be with Ohlins and if you couldnt stretch to the DFV then HKS Hyper Max III would be my next choice and I could get these for the Tein price.

Lets arrange a Mugen meet, only for those with mugen mods and hypersonic is invited to see what he is missing out on. Next you should get the manifold and N1 ECU :-)

 

NineBolts - no intake mods - but I do have the FIPK to be fitted sometime soon, - i know Adrian's not keen on this thing


Yeah the J's has the sensor extention (below).

I'd like to get myself to a meet one of these days, - I know there was one last night at the Wheatsheaf I would've gone to had I not had other plans.

As for future mods - i'm going to keep a little hold on the purse strings whilst I consider what to do - To get coilovers plus spacers, fitted etc i'm looking at

 

As I said ask sneakfish, his car certainly looks better with the Eibach lowering springs fitted, but mine handles better, we have driven each others cars and to be honest there are other variables. I have had CG geometry and also on RE01Rs which would also make a difference

They dont go for a drive at the wheatsheaf, we should start our own weekend meet, perhaps we can drag ninebolts into starting it, I dont know any good roads

Was the decat pipe used, I did look at getting J's but it didnt appear to come with the extension hence I went for berk. Drove 820 mile round trip last weekend for my latest Mugen Bling

What is the FIPK? Not the dreaded K&N , if so both Redun and sneakfish have gone from K&N to mugen now......

 

Don't ever follow me.. I'm always late, get lost, usually forget my sat nav and I'm always in the slowest queue at the Tesco.

fit the FIPK and you'll have the same setup as me.

 

Now if you organise it you wont get left behind as we will have to wait for you