Mca Suspension X-series Race For R33 Gts-t Review

[billywhiz]

This Sunday shall review all

How did you go at Wakefield, enough runs to get the dampers set up to your liking?

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Alright.. what a day it was on a Sunday, racing a car in 36 degree heat isn't such a good idea... It's just too damn hot - but the Skyboat kept it together.. she kept sailing through Wakefield Park, however about 5~6 laps at a time before water temps hit about 115 and oil around 130. Even after all the overheating and what not, still managed to drive home with the AC on

So tell us the time right?

Managed a 1m12.03s according to QStarz, I'm sure on a cooler day I would be able to get it down to the low 11s even 10s but that's no excuse at all as my mate laid down a 1m9.50s in his S15 Silvia.

Car was pretty consistent too, most other sessions was doing 1m12.0~5 but probably need to work on the driving style as now the car behaves completely different.

Being an open at (Speed off the Streets) I was often held back by slightly newer drivers to get a few good clean laps, all in all was a great day the squat came there with their cars and drove home without any grenaded motors or gearboxes.

Damper wise, started in the middle 6 ouf of 12 all round then started to click up the goods.. Found a sweet spot around 8/12 up front and 9/12 down rear. This did have 1x compromise, made the car a little edgy but allowed me to be able to control the car much better when it was unsettled.

Probably wait till when it cools down a little and I'll be back out to give it another shot!

[Dale FZ1]

So spring rates 10kg F, 7kg R. Whiteline sway bars 24mm front and rear.

Can you explain characteristics with more words - not easy to interpret "edgy"

ie. can you break down cornering behaviour in 3 sectors. Turn in, mid corner, and exit. What does the front and the rear do in those zones.

And what is the Wakefield surface like? Any choppy sections, bony asphalt, or off camber sections that can all make setup hard to get sweet in these heavy chassis.

[niZmO_Man]

Yeah man, this shit is serious now. Full report, 4 page feature please.

[Dale FZ1]

It's not that serious.

But trying to get a better idea of what it's doing and how the thing feels compared to previous.

Stopwatch says it is better.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

haha.. no dramas, my definition of Edgy: Able to unsettle the car with harsh steering movement, similar characteristics to a go kart

So at the same time it appeared to be very sensitive and break get the car into a slide, I felt that there was much more control over the car and also stopping in a straight line just after the kink (turn 1). Allowing me to gracefully dart across turn 2 then into the uphill area.

I'll post up Go Pro footage soon

In terms of handling

Turn-in: Superb, even with the ARBs set to soft rear and 2nd softest front the car just turned as though I was doodling around the street

Mid Corner: Not sure how to explain, but it just gripped. No need to constantly feed steering any input

Exit: Depends, but if you gave it a load in 2nd it would go sideways LOL.. but in 3rd car just powered out without any bouncing feeling, etc. (this is what I believe is due to the superb dampering)

I found with the SK Bilstein kit when I powered out of corners it would squat so low hit the bump stops and the car would bounce around like a mad man and into corners the car would bounce up and down due to the sloppy spring rates, and lack of real dampering. Yes they were great on the street and during my first few times at Wakefield, but as soon as I threw on some proper semi-slicks the suspension really showed all it's flaws. Even though SK promtoes super dooper ARBs, that was pretty trivial as they kept snapping my ARB link brackets. Even MCA said to throw on stock ARBS, but I don't own any so I just set mine to a reasonable setting.

Overall, extremely happy with the MCA coilovers, and at the same time I haven't even found the traction/mid corner limits of my setup yet where as with the Bilstein setup it was pretty easy to find the limits.

So yeah, I need new brakes now. BREMBO calipers are on their way

[Dale FZ1]

Win, win, win. Great to hear.

Hunt up some standard sway bars and try them out.

Josh knows his suspension.

[billywhiz]

BTW, are the rear adjustment extenders wire coils that you trim with something like tin snips/big pliers?

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

BTW, are the rear adjustment extenders wire coils that you trim with something like tin snips/big pliers?

I used a pair of decent side cutters and they snapped like a fresh broccoli stalk..

So I've got the video all ready, but for some reason Sony Vegas has died so I have no quick way of converting a 1.5GB clip into someone more manageable

[kingtube69]

I am also thinking of going with the X series for my 33, I was thinking of going comfort because its a daily driver. I'll shoot them a message and talk to them about what I want.

Thanks for writing the review and following it up, this helped make my mind up regarding what brand of coils to get.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

I am also thinking of going with the X series for my 33, I was thinking of going comfort because its a daily driver. I'll shoot them a message and talk to them about what I want.

Thanks for writing the review and following it up, this helped make my mind up regarding what brand of coils to get.

I am so glad I bit the bullet and bought these without any review from others using them on R33 boats... day and night difference over BC BR coilovers with softer springs.

I could have gotten BC BR coilcovers for nearly half the price but I am so glad I didn't!

Next track outing should be fun, BREMBO brakes going on and hopefully the weather is cooler!

[sneakey pete]

My main complaint about these are that they decided to call them X, and not purple.

Have not really had a chance to test mine out properly, put them in, drove 2000km, did PI (possible oil starvation issues yay) then did a headgasket.

The drive down was pretty comfortable i'd have thought considering they're 10/6kg springs, but that's everyone preference and i think i may have higher tolerance than others.

the car felt controlled at PI once i'd got tyre pressure set right and fiddled with the damping. Of course i had nothing to compare it to but by the end of the day I hadn't found the limits. Not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing.

With any luck i'll have the car back running out at QR again in a few months and will be able to make a somewhat comparison to my old shocks, though I last drove on there with them in July, and the cars engine and drivetrain will now be... different.

[billywhiz]

My s14 Reds arrived to replace leaking BC ER, the extenders weren't too difficult to cut, tin snips were able to make clean cuts. MCA recommended base height is nearly an inch higher than my BC setup with parallel susp arms, leaving as recommended for now. They have same 180 spring length but MCA front springs have 10mm of free play/slop the BCs didn't - can't wait to find out if this will result in anything audible. Alignment in new year then we'll see how it compares on road, PI will be a couple of months away for the track comparison.

[34GeeTeeTee]

I am so glad I bit the bullet and bought these without any review from others using them on R33 boats... day and night difference over BC BR coilovers with softer springs.

I could have gotten BC BR coilcovers for nearly half the price but I am so glad I didn't!

Next track outing should be fun, BREMBO brakes going on and hopefully the weather is cooler!

I ran the BC BR for a few track days and found they were too soft in the front, Road2Race then changed to a 11.5kg front spring which helped a bit... However since i went nutz with the modifications on my car and introduced aero i found they were wayyyy too soft and boaty now, poor splitter copped some damage at the test day...

I had quite a few messages go back and forth with Josh at MCA in regards to the setup and we have ended up with a set of reds with 13kg front and 5kg rear, i have no idea what it is like yet but have also been told to revert back to standard swaybars and suspension etc (As mentioned by Duncan earlier there are 2 different ways with the suspension setup and i am going from the SK trend to the MCA i guess)...

Unfortunately i wont be able to test until March, but it will be at Wakefield so i will know how they feel in comparison to the BC BR... Times wont be relevant as i have got rid of weight, added bigger brakes, bigger tyres etc...

EDIT - And massive thanks to Dale for all the help with his wealth of suspension knowledge too!!!

[Dale FZ1]

^^ Mat, I'm tipping with MCA Red and a caged track-only 2wd R34 you will find the 14F/5R combination better than the 13/5. But you are somewhere in the right ballpark IMO.

We trialled a couple of different combinations, 13/4.5, 13/5, 14/4.5 12/5. Depending on availability the plan is to run 14.5F / 5.5R next time and see how that goes.

The spring rates being mentioned may not "look" right compared to what's been historically mentioned on this forum, or in the context of GTR. But it's what I have experienced, and in a R33 barge without aero.

[_Ryan_]

well that is the basic difference in 2 fundamentally different schools of thoughts about spring rates.

The high spring rate/ light or no swaybar camp (eg MCA) use high spring rates to control both rear/aft and side/side movement.

The low spring rate/ harder swaybar camp (eg Sydneykid) say there is benefit in using swaybars for at least some of the side/side because it does not affect fore/aft and it is more readily tunable.

so yes, you would expect less traction out of corners from the high spring rate approach because there is less squat/less weight on the rear wheels and therefore less grip. Not so much of an issue with 4wd of course.

btw braking balance is affected just as much by this sort of change; the right front/rear balance may change if you change the spring rates too

Different approaches for different applications, I've experimented with both as I'm sure you have.

For those interested in the theory behind it all, the papers in the spring and damper section found here ( http://www.optimumg.com/technical/technical-papers/) goes into a little more depth, but the approach is sound.

1- Determine target undamped freq.

2- Determine spring rate to reach this.

3- Use swaybars to set balance and/or remove remaining [undesirable] roll.

-R.

[Scooby]

Lots of positive feedback on the MCA's, everyone still happy with them?

[Dale FZ1]

Yes

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

100% happy with them, my friends and I have privately booked out Wakefield Park on the 30th of May for more testing/racing

max. 30 cars only, we have filled up 23 spots at $235 per head. If anyone is interested, please PM me (and hoepfully you have facebook) and I'll add you to the group.

[dontfeelcold]

Stiffer suspension means less squat and less pressure on the contact patch.

Less squat correct but the pressure at the contact patch will be the same (possibly more) given the same acceleration. The stiffer spring applies the weight of the car to the contact patch faster than what a softer spring does.