John Scott Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 My dreams of 13" brakes and cool coilovers with Illumina 5ways has gone by the wayside. My car sees 99.9% street use and Z-funds are pretty slim. Good advice from our experienced members to the rescue! The hawk HPS pads with high quality brake fluid, new MSA rotors have made a substantial difference. Anything past wheels locking is wasted braking force, right? My old "upgraded" pads were toast after a few hard stops. Hawks/Ford HD fluid are good for many more. Also much quicker to bite. MSA springs gave my car a great stance, but I'm tired of banging on the 225 50 16s rear on the hard bumps. Always worse with a passenger. Up front the rates are too soft, especially with a big torque motor. 129/184 rate. Two thumbs up for ArizonaZcar HD springs. 180/200.Highest rate I could find with the stock struts. It sits about 3/4" higher than the MSA lowering springs, but for the first time I can cruise through the speed bumps and dips with no interference. Front end is much flatter in the corners. Less lift/dive on accel and braking. Seem a better match with the KYB struts. Well worth the $$. Driving on public streets with a race track only capable car seems a bit silly to me if your pride and joy only skips you onto the shoulder. Surface conditions around here are only getting worse, not better. Lessons learned are to stay within your scope of driving, road conditons and budget. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike C Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 Nice John! I agree with you 100% how nice it is to have a 9/10 car that drives nice rather than a 10/10 car that pounds the crap out of you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zfan Posted May 11, 2003 Share Posted May 11, 2003 John, I just installed the arizona Z springs and with my tokico blue struts I am in hog heaven. Just perfect for me! Hope your ride is coming along well! Mike W. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Modern Motorsports Ltd Posted May 11, 2003 Share Posted May 11, 2003 The hawk HPS pads with high quality brake fluid' date=' new MSA rotors have made a substantial difference. Anything past wheels locking is wasted braking force, right? ___ Driving on public streets with a race track only capable car seems a bit silly to me if your pride and joy only skips you onto the shoulder. Surface conditions around here are only getting worse, not better. Lessons learned are to stay within your scope of driving, road conditons and budget. John[/quote'] Great advice John. I agree and disagree on points.....hawks are agressive on rotors so keep an eye on your rotor wear. The brake upgrades, whether pads only, 4x4's or my XTreme 13" stuff all progressively increase the modulation available BEFORE lockup.....no gains after lockup as you state......their's a huge difference between having a system that will allow you to modulate within 8.5/10's braking force and one that will allow you to modulate 9.5 or 9.8/16's braking force......that is realized in greater braking/shorter distances whether that's just fun on the track, missing a pedestrian, making a key corner when you get out of your league on a winding road etc......many have not realized the gains and modulation available from an upgrade. Same comparison as an average guy trying to setdown a 200lb sidewalk block in a neatline square.........or a huge built guy doing the same thing...with greater available force to a limit it's far easier to thread the needle at the edge of tire/surface friction limits. The gains you realized with HPS pads and new rotors are a fine gain and their's always more one can have to a point FWIW, if I setup a customer with struts/coilovers/Xtreme brakes it's far from a track only or kidney killer car unless that's what they've specified. Customers full considerations/expectations/desires/experiences are taken into account for his package. A full race package is quite rare.......they're more commonly enjoyable street with some track......and your spring rates are right in a typical window for such uses/if not one notch tighter out back with higher torque so I'd your feedback falls right in line for a fine street/handling car. You may want to enjoy the KVR pads once your HPS are worn thru or eating your rotors faster than desired, they suit your needs quite well. Enjoy your recent mods Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Scott Posted May 11, 2003 Author Share Posted May 11, 2003 My dreams were to have a set up like Ross offers. I'd send you a few tousand tommorrow if I could. I stand corrected on the ability to modulate bigger better brakes. I'm not much of a race driver, so many of these refinements might not be able to be appreciated. Reality of minimal finances, and the desire to be driving and not sitting on jackstands for years at a time dictated my choices. For under $200 I have much better braking. Hawk warns of higher rotor wear, (noisier too) but my weekend and fair weather driving won't put many miles on the car. For under $200 the suspension is also greatly improved, again the highest spring rate I can find for the stock struts. Compromises yes, but I'm out there driving instead of wishing and dreaming. Anyone up for cat and mouse around some less than perfect on/off ramps?? They're out there, but have yet to see anything even close to catching me. What I don't have in cornering and braking I can more than make up for in acceleration. Its fun to open a dozen car lengths and triple digits a few seconds after you hit the straights. Not perfect, but I'm having a blast! John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Modern Motorsports Ltd Posted May 12, 2003 Share Posted May 12, 2003 John, I understand and can completely associate with you! I did nearly very similar things 3 or more times:) Aftermarket semi metallic pads (2 or 3 sets), and I swapped in used parts yard springs from lower miles (percieved anyhow) 2+2 cars a couple times....student budget and I even used a set of TRW's that I really liked that were OEM 'cargo' springs that fit and worked great at the time in my 280ZX rear. It is truly great how much we can benefit from even such slight 'mods' as brake pads alone! I'll always recall the effect of the 3.36 to 3.9 diff swap and improved exhaust......was a whole different car for about $200US total or less years back! " I'm not much of a race driver, so many of these refinements might not be able to be appreciated." I'm not a natural when it comes to driving skills at all........quite green at it/most every time as I usually only get out 1 to 3 times per year and last year missed all events with other committments/some motorsports related. I fully agree it can be harder for non-natural's to understand/notice the dynamics as easily as the more gifted natural drivers.....but a neutral car sure feels sweet and when someone else pointed it out then I understood what that 'quick/smooth' rotation on corners was I was enjoying:) (drastically altered springrates/struts led to quite a different experience). And the braking effort I could modulate was only greater under skilled feet, just glad us less natural drivers can still enjoy it all, whether on a basic maintenance budget, simple pad upgrade or mods more involved to most any level, that's a huge beauty of automobiles IMO! At Shasta in particular I truly enjoy how one car can literally be a $500 car still being very actively enjoyed and another could have a custom-owner derived intake/custom turbo/custom firewall.......you get the idea......we all share common passions and I'm still far from having some of the setups on my car that even my customers have on their cars.....maybe some day but even if I don't I'm still having fun as are many others! Life's a highway.....maximize the straights and enjoy the pitstops! Ross (feeling reflective today.....it was a volunteering wknd spent mostly in sunny nature without serious engineering brain cramps!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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