ABP fast road....amazed.

[dan the man]

Went to ABP in cheshire yesterday to have the rearadjustable arms fitted, front bolts and fast road set up.

OMG FECK CHRIST CLASS MINT. how happy am i.

To be honest i thought the car struggled to put power down cos of the weather, being damp and greasy lately etc. I always thought my cars alignment would be out a bit as been lowered- but never envisaged it would totally change the car. Ok u read posts about it etc, but untill u actually feel it u cant believe the change.

As soon as turned onto the main road i knew, it felt different straight away. It was like i could feel the tires bite and turn instead of turning the wheel and the chassis turns cos your sat in it.

The straight ahead aloofness and nano second flatspot has gone, it just turns when u turn, and u feel it bite and hug the tarmac( sorry pothole shite we call roads). The first big push on a corner was onto the motorway sliproad, i just nailed it hard and the power was nailed down and she tracked round so composed and true i was whoopin!

Had a play on way home and at night and its amazing.
This is how the cars supposed to be, i just thought it was too powerfull and often thought of my DC2 as it used to just bang through corners and hang on like sh1t tio a blanket. Now my DC5 does this and its amazing, can really lean on the LSD now so hard, the back follows the front and bang u feel the Gs round every corner if your going hard enough.

could go on all day, im sure peeps who have it know, but people who dont- SOD the power mods, go get your car set up. Its the best thing ive had done to it and GUTTED i havnt done it sooner.

ABP were excellent as always, let me in the workshop to have a look at whats what, take a few pics etc... and they also gave me the time of day when i just nattered on and on about tires, springs, brakes,set up, their race DC2...was great to get feedback and a feeling of real friendlyness.

They checked my engine monuts and top mounts for me and never charged me either which was good. They had 2 CTRs in having same thing, one guy came from london. bet he had fun on way home :lol:

Many thanks ABP- u have gave me my car back.

just get some female receptionist we can perv on ok? :wink:

Dan (one happy fu**ng bunny)

 

[Welsh-Rich]

could go on all day, im sure peeps who have it know, but people who dont- SOD the power mods, go get your car set up. Its the best thing ive had done to it and GUTTED i havnt done it sooner.

Couldn't agree more Dan.

I got mine done at the start of the year with Tom @ TGM. The car feels so much more planted and smooth now it's mad. It's just givent he car a completely new dimension, and as you said, it feels right now 8)

 

[jonster]

Same here. Been thinking about writing a post like Dan's from just having had mine done at TGM two weeks ago. I can only conclude lowering does put things out a little bit but you don't realise how much until you have the camber kits installed. I was immediately blown away by the difference and it made me think DC2 feel too. I don't care that we don't have double wish-bones when our DC5's can feel like this. It really completes everything for me now. The car is brilliant. Can't wait to do another track day to really try them out.

 

[sherv14]

Dan what is your suspension setup? spoon springs?

also is the rear adjustable arms the kit that allows you to adjust camber?

edit: i think jonster answered my question

 

[chunman81]

how much did it all cost dtm?

 

[dan the man]

I have tanabe springs and standard dampers.Its good enough but u can have better..all down to how much u wana spend?....

COST.

I got the rear adjustable arms for £100 from ABP, second hand tho as they were selling some from their CTR which has been put back standard. usually £150.

Then to fit the rear arms, supply and fit 2 front camber bolts (bolts shaped like an oval so when rotated changes centre of axis) and set it all up to fast road spec was £155.

Front bolts were £35 so labour/setup is £120

Had more razzing today at the CTR meet at system R..its ace!!!
and even slides better too...im loving it!!

dan

 

[turbo5]

I got my fast road set up done on the same day at TDI north. Mine is standard suspension. apparently the facelift does't have a spring upgrade option unless you fit coilovers or put on pre-facelift shockers.

Got to admit it was worth the £123. my tyres were wearing unevenly causing a little lip on the inner side of the tyres. My chamber was out slightly (so one chamber bolt required. The tow on the fronts were 5mm out, the wheels were set like a snow plough.
Has Dan has already said the car feels a lot better, my private roundabout testing ground proved this :wink: The car feels more planted and the turning feels sharper, The car runs perfectly straight now I tried driving in the centre of the crown on a straight road without having to correct the steering.
I suppose £123 is cheap compared to set of tyres.
Its a worth mod,
if you suspension is standard you might not need rear arms and chamber bolts. the bolts are only about £5 each

 

[JiB]

Just saw this thread, needless to say i'm intrigued! What does this "fast road" geometry set up entail?

Is it specific to ABP uk? Or am I able to have it done in NZ?

 

[dan the man]

ABP tried loads of settings on their CTR and eventually found this to be the best for feel, grip, sharpness etc etc etc..

so they use that. as for others like SYSTEMR, TGM i dont know but cant be too far off as everyone says same when they get it done.

maybe one of the companies would be nice to you and give u their settings?

dan

 

[Evs]

I don't know what ABP use but AFAIK the generic 'fast road' settings are 1 deg negative camber all round, a small amount (1-2mm) of toe-out at the front and the same amount of toe-in at the rear.

HTH?

 

[dan the man]

im sure someone posted it up b4. do a search on it :idea:

 

[Evs]

http://www.itr-dc5.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4341

 

[JiB]

After reading through the search results, I'm afraid I'm even more confused....

...Uh, so I need adjuster kits and things for the camber and toe?

And with Spoon Progressive Springs, it is recommended to return to the factory settings?

I don't really mind that bit more wear for these "fast road" settings..I mean, my rear's look like they're cambered a good 1-2 degrees lol. but my fronts seem to have almost positive camber sometimes :? :shock:

...Sorry for being an ignorant knob, but I'm tryin to learn! Honest!

Argh looks like I have to get this done ASAP :?

Um, any help on what adjustable arms and things to get would be very welcome(hmm, maybe I should check to see if the car already has any bits in it..) Found a recommended place to do the tuning though, maybe I should go have a nice long chat to them..

*sorry bout the long whiney post..

[EDIT] Thanks Evs for the post, I didn't see that thread when I searched [/EDIT]

 

[Evs]

Mate, you're not being 'an ignorant knob' at all. No harm in trying to learn and asking questions to find things out, especially if your search results haven't helped much.

The standard car doesn't have much adjustability built in. You can adjust front toe with the track rod ends, as with any car. There is no designed-in adjustability for front camber as the top mounts are fixed and the strut is bolted to the hub carrier with two big bolts. There is a very small amount of slack in this assembly that you can leverage slightly, but this doesn't amount to much. To adjust front camber you need to either replace these bolts with smaller/eccentric ones to give you some movement there, or fit adjustable top mounts that will allow you to change the position of the top of the strut relative to the chassis. Decent coilover kits will come with these included.

At the back, the hub carrier sits on three rubber bushes in an upright triangle. The lower two of these mount it to the rear trailing arm (RTA), and the rear of these two has an eccentric bolt that gives some limited combined adjustment of camber and toe. The top bush mounts the hub carrier to the upper control arm (UCA), which as standard is fixed length and non-adjustable. This UCA can be replaced with an aftermarket part that has adjustable length, which gives much more camber adjustment at the rear.

If you're lowering the car then you'll be shortening the distance between the top mounts (F and R) and the fitment to the front LCA and RTA. This won't affect the toe, or at least not to the extent that you'll need aftermarket parts to set it up. It will affect the camber though, so you'll need at least the front eccentric bolts and rear replacement UCAs to do a proper job. If you're getting coilovers, get some with adjustable top mounts and budget for some rear UCAs.

If you've imported the car used then it's possible it has some goodies already fitted - a few lucky people on here have had some nice surprises. Coilovers are obviously different from OEM (sorry stating the obvious), but to check for rear adjustable UCAs just take a back wheel off and look at the part that connects the top of the hub carrier to the body, directly above the brake disc. If this has nuts & flats and a threaded section then it's adjustable.

Hope that helps a bit more?

 

[Evs]

Might be worth moving this thread to the 'suspension, brakes & wheels' section? :idea:

 

[The Meist_R]

What tyres do you have on Dan?

I think the soft sidewall of my F1s are taking some of the sharpness away.

 

[dan the man]

At the mo YOKO AVSs..seem plenty good enough. 8)

all yokos seem hard sidewalls.

 

[andyd]

Cool..... sounds impressive bud.

Andy

 

[dan the man]

bit of an update.

Went out last night in the pouring rain for the first time since ive had it aligned. OMG full gas 2nd gear on M65 roundabout. whats all that about??!!! It just nailed it.

it seems guys our tires need to be in contact properly for them to grip :lol:

no spin just went round in pouring rain..my faith in this car gets better man.,

anyone who aint had it done. WTF u doing!! :lol:

carried away but hey im a happy chappy

 

[NZITR]

After reading through the search results, I'm afraid I'm even more confused....

...Uh, so I need adjuster kits and things for the camber and toe?

And with Spoon Progressive Springs, it is recommended to return to the factory settings?

I don't really mind that bit more wear for these "fast road" settings..I mean, my rear's look like they're cambered a good 1-2 degrees lol. but my fronts seem to have almost positive camber sometimes :? :shock:

...Sorry for being an ignorant knob, but I'm tryin to learn! Honest!

Argh looks like I have to get this done ASAP :?

Um, any help on what adjustable arms and things to get would be very welcome(hmm, maybe I should check to see if the car already has any bits in it..) Found a recommended place to do the tuning though, maybe I should go have a nice long chat to them..

*sorry bout the long whiney post..

[EDIT] Thanks Evs for the post, I didn't see that thread when I searched [/EDIT]

Jonathan, I got some 16mm front camber bolts from SAS in Silverfield lane to dial my fronts in to match my rears which sound similar to yours. I expected it to just look better but I was amazed at how the steering has come alive. Alignment to come but she already feels great.