Bc Racing Coilovers (caution - Long Post)

[BodgerBen]

Hi,

It's a bit long, but I'd like to give my personal opinion of fitting the BC Racing Coilovers to a 1998 Mk 4 LS400.

Firstly I'd like to say that I only bought a LS400 for the engine - my wife uses my mums old Scimitar as a track day car. We have changed the front suspension and brakes, ditching the old Triumph based setup with Jag XJS and fitting a roll bar to the Salisbury 4HA axle (it already has a watts linkage) the Scim (being almost mid engined - the front pulley behind the center line of the front axle) now handles and stops like a dream - it's only the old Ford V6 that lets it down. Do we tune it up or put a more modern and powerful engine in. We went for the more modern engine pretty much on cost alone.

I bought the missus a 94 LS400 for Christmas (what better gift is there?) and she smoked around in it for a few months.

As you may have guessed she got quite attached to the old barge. So before pulling the engine she bought herself a 2 owner 1998 Mk4 with full Lexus Service history, but sods law just needing a service (Chris at CTP sorted that lot out).

So we didn't go out of our way for the magic carpet ride or ultra quiet car - to us it's a cheap car that has a nice engine, and we've now got rather attached to it.

Caroline's 98 LS has bigger wheels and lower springs - a dealer fit option. The OSF spring had broke - so I set about pricing replacements. Chris at Cheap Toyota Parts gave me a price for a complete set of original dampers. gaitors, bump stops etc. (not springs) and Lexus Guildford did the same - but also said it would be worth changing the top mounts. Ouch - we're now getting into some serious money.

KYB and Bilstein list shocks - but lowered springs can be a problem - at least in the UK, and I'd still need gaitors (mine had split) and probably top-mounts - so I bit the bullet and went for a set of BC Racing Coilovers from BC-Racing.co.uk - who are Apex Performance.

A few weekd ago I fitted the front coilovers (along with upper arms - just to be safe) - and tried to adjust the ride height. Caroline's car was sitting at a ride height of 28" (ground, through center of wheel to wheel arch). With the Coilovers at their max height I could only get 27" - one inch drop may not be much but it looked wrong (you've all seen cars like that).

We set the dampers to 9 and Caroline used to car for a week or so - ride was great. The only bug bear (apart from the looks) was on large undulations at highish speeds you could hear a scrape - this was the outside edge of the tyre hitting the inner plastic arch clips. Maybe because I have the larger wheels, anyway something needed to be done.

In the mean time - I thought I'd get on and change the rear. When I put those on I set them to thier maximum height - as I needed to on the front. That was a mistake - after dropping the car down I had over 29" rear ride height. I then set the rear to 27" so the whole car was level.

We then played with damping rates - settling on 6 rear 9 front. There are 30 levels. In the future to set the rears I'll need to remove the rear seat back - which is no great hassle - and BC Racing do an extended adjustmet rod that would almost fit between the rear seat back and rear panel (where the sub is) - but we didn't want to hack things about just in case.

So - what to do about the ride height?

The car looks wrong - but the worst bit is the odd noise on those large undulations when the car compresses after lifting. Bumps don't trouble it, just high speed compression (yeah yeah drive slower).

4 up was also no problem, so the ride height did not make the car undrivable - maybe I'll change the inner arch screws or the arch itself?

I phoned up BC-Racing.co.uk and asked the lady that I was having trouble getting the ride height correct - she put me onto a chap called Kev. After checking that I'd actually got them set to their max height he emailed the factory.

I was now expecting a long wait. The next day Kev phoned me back saying that BC Racing have sold lots of the kits in the US with no problems - maybe they packed the wrong length dampers, could I go and measure them. No problem there - they should have supplied 220mm front dampers - and my dampers were 220mm, hmmmm.

I took a couple of photos and sent them back to Kev - he immediately replied not to worry and that he'd get the car set back to it's 28" ride height asap. In fact he was arranging longer dampers from the factory to be flown over with their next order - the next day!!

A couple of days later the longer dampers turned up. The following weekend I fitted them and set the rears to 27 3/4" (actually I set the whole car to 27 3/4" as I couldn't be bothered to wind it up that last 1/4" inch).

Caroline has now been using the car for a couple of weeks - her normal journey is fast dual carriageway - where the LS really shines. She has also done a fair bit of rough back lane journeys.

Are we happy?

A definate yes - Ok the LS did have a magic carpet ride around town, but felt a bit floaty and dare I say unhappy at speed (silly speed I have to say). Now the car is "planted" - as Caroline says. All that floaty and slightly nervous feel has gone.

If one of our springs was not broken I expect the car would feel the same with new Bilsteins and original uprated springs, but that would have cost a whole lot more.

There are no noises or squeaks.

Our 94 LS was too soft, the 98 LS was much better - the high speed lift/floaty feel being the only let down. The BC Racing setup is perfect for Caroline's dual carriageway/motorway journeys. In fact Caroline would now take it around Goodwood as it handles so much better (that, I'd like to see!).

I have to say a big thank you to Kev at Apex Performance, who true to his word sorted out the ride height in a few days, it's great to find a company who know their product and are willing to help.

If you want that slammed look - stay with the standard package - if you want a normal ride height ask for longer front dampers (220mm standard - 260mm long). If you want a more original ride ask Kev for different springs and he'll sort out a package for you.

I also have to say thanks to Chris at Cheap Toyota Parts for loads of other bits that he's got me and Naveed at PRI Racing who has been helping me out with Poly bushes for the car (he's got loads listed for the earlier models, we're working through the car at the moment for our 98 car). I'll post details when I have changed a few more.

And if you've read this far the Scim has the Lexus V8 in - prop made, dad's currently making the manifolds.

Cheers,

Ben

(p.s. - I'm in no way connected to Apex/BC Racing - CTP or PRI - just a happy customer).

[janey]

Great write up Ben :D

Good to see customer service still exists too

[aaronabbott]

yeah bc racing seem really good.ive emailed them a few times with questions and they have come straight back to me no problems at all just can wait to get mine now :winky:

[BodgerBen]

Update on the BC-Racing Coil Overs.

Caroline slipped a disc helping me move the snow in the early part of the year - after a long lay up she did say the Lexus ride was not as comfortable as she would like - the front springs were 12kg and rears 8kg (per mm or whatever, 600lb and 400lb ish in real money) so I gave the boys a BC a ring and asked what they could do - a set of 10kg and 7kg arrived in the next post (ok I had to pay for those) so I put those on and set the ride height to 27 3/4" (a bit more than the 12kg, 8kg as I thought the first 3/4" would easily be taken up).

So what difference is there between the original 12/8 and 10/7 - well firstly I noticed the recommended LS430 setup was 10/8 and wondered if I could go softer that 10 - apparently not - the factory say 10 is as soft as they recommend.

The original dhp springs were magic carpet ride - a bit floaty but very comfortable - the 12/8 setup is very firm - not uncomfortable but with our current pot holes can jar. The 10/7 setup is like our BM - nicely firm, fine over most potholes and most importantly still feels planted at speed, no floaty feel at all. I only wish I had chosen the long front dampers with 10/7 springs as the inital setup.

That's the way the car is going to stay.

And a brief update on Caroline's LS400 engined Scimitar - it's first track day is 7th June - and now moves under it's own steam!

Here's the Scimitar/Lexus/Jaguar/BMW/Porsche (bit of a Heinz this one) page http://www.bodgerben.com/Scimitar.htm

[bazgtr]

Can you tell me what the feel is on corners to which spring rates.

Like was there tyre squeal on hard cornering with a bit of drift with loss of grip.

Understeer or oversteer more or less bodyroll on corners between the two spring rates.

Did the back inner tyre get up in the air on cornering hard with the full hard set up?