Do Not Sell My Personal Information Jump to content


Busy Day For My Is200 Sc


DJ Wozza
 Share

Recommended Posts

Where do I start ?

The day started fairly early yesterday, empty the boot, get some petrol, then of to WIM.

After the usual battle around the M25, I arrived at WIM, warmly welcomed as always by the WIM Team :)

Rabster (LOC) turned up for his (virgin) WIM Geo on his newly lowered IS200 SC, whilst I awaited the man

from Arch Enemy. They needed doing, as I run IS250 18" Sport Rims, with 255/40 tyres, they fit inside the

arches only just, but today I had other things planned, and rolling the arches was the way to go.

After explaining thoroughly the process that was being undertaken ( & the risks involved), Phil got set up

and quickly got underway...

P6041909.jpg

The arches were gently heated and then teased with the roller/press moving back & forth into the desired shape,

eventually bending the metal arch lip up inside itself, so it was virtually flat against the outer wing.

P6041916.jpg

This is then very thoroughly sealed. I just made it sound about a million times easier than it looks, especially as

there was no paint cracking whatsoever. I was very impresed with the technique, and the results :)

(excuse the video brightness, it was very sunny today in Chesham)

th_P6041922.jpg

Top job Phil !! He even offered an extra discount if Rabster got his arches rolled at the same time :D

Now of course there was a reason I needed the arches rolling, several months ago Dave (W481 ggc) decided to

upgrade his Eibach Lowering Spring/Tokico Adjustable Damper combination that he had only had on his car

for a few months, and he offered them for sale at a bargain price. I had been in Dave's Mini-Monster previously

when it had this set-up fitted, and I felt it was a really good compromise between comfort & road holding, and it was

certainlya massive improvement from the OE Lexus set-up.

I have had to wait a fair while to save up the pennies as...

A: I knew I would need the arches rolling to fit lowering springs as I run big rims on the rear

B: I needed the Springs/Dampers fitting as I havent got a garage at home to do it (I don't even have a driveway)

So after the arches were now fully modded, time for the new (well nearly new) suspension to get fitted.

I was in the capable hands of Tony Barber. Along with Rabsters help, most of my boot install was removed,

so access for the top of rear suspension was now easy, Tony got the car up un the ramp and clock started.

The suspension damping settings were left exactly as set on Daves car (softest setting of 5)

CoiloverDampingAdjuster.jpg

It didn't take Tony long to get the rears fitted

EibachLoweringSpringsTokicoAdjustab.jpg

In fact it didn't take Tony long to get the fronts fitted either

EibachLoweringSpringsTokicoAdjus-1.jpg

The entire job finished within the hour !! The man really does know his stuff. It was his second full suspension

swap of the day. Many thanks mate, a top job :D

Then my car had a recalibration of the Chasis Geo by Tony Bones, bringing everything back into correct order

now the car was sitting some 20mm lower at the back, & 10mm lower at the front. My car hadn't been on the

ramp @ WIM for over a year, yet it is testament to the previous set-up how perfectly evenly my rear Dunlop's

had worn over the last 16,000 miles since fitted @ WIM.

There were some adjustments needed, as the camber adjusters had been disturbed during the suspension fitting,

plus of course lowering the suspension will make some of the green bits red, so Tony worked his chassis magic

and everything was sorted in next to no time.

After carefull replacement of my boot install, & myself & Rabster were off on the road to enjoy our new set-up's

on the road trip back to Essex. The drive for myself was in interesting one, mostly M25 and some dual carriageway,

and not nearly enough corners, but the initial impressions were of less weight transference under hard acceleration

and braking (due to the stiffer springs), and a taughter feel to the suspension all round. This was just about what I

had expected having ridden in an IS200 with this combination before.

I did however notice that the rear was slighty wayward at motorway cruising speeds when encountering undulations,

in a similar way the standard OE set up feels when attacking 50-60 bends. This lead me to believe I would need to

turn up the adjustable damping, but for some reason only on the rear, as the front seems to still have the nice ride

quality, but with a tighter feel. I will come back to this....

After a brief stop at Hellfrauds on the way, once we arrived at Rabster's, the next job we had was to fit Aztecbandit's

Carbon Fibre Spoiler to my car. This was a tricky task with layers of dynamat in the bootlid etc, but with some minor

trial & error, the Rabster/Wozza combination again proved victorious :D

What do you think ? I really love the way the end curves around to join the swage line...

CarbonSpoiler3.jpg

Here is another pic showing the cars stance on the new suspension, with the new spoiler

(with Rabster hiding :lol:)

P6041956.jpg

I have to say a big thank you firsty to Phil from ArchEnemy, then of course to Tony Barber for fitting the suspension

in just under 1 hour, and to Tony for his setup Geometry of my new suspension.

I also have to say a mahooosive thanks to Rabster for all his help (& on his Birthday too !!)

Tony pointed out my rear tyres need replacing soon, and once this is done I will start pushing the handling envelope

a little further. I will need to turn the rear damping up to 2 or possibly even 3 (of 5), the reason for this was puzzling,

until I called Tony last night, and he hit the button straight away. The extra weight of my ICE boot install compared to

Dave's donor car means the rear is wallowing slightly under the extra suspension load. I am expecting that one or

maybe two clicks up on the damping should hopefully cure this.

I will keep you posted how this progresses once the new tyres are on shortly.

P.S remember when having fun working (or having work done) on your car, wear suitable protection in the sun.

I have a beetroot head this morning :o

Link to comment
Share on other sites

car stance looks great now wozza. bet the handling is bang on as well, especially with ur arbs...

still not sure on the spoiler though matey, i've never quite worked out if i like that design or not. :unsure:

anything else planned in the near future then fella??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice one, looking good. Personally, I am not so sure about the rear spoiler (mainly due to the additional length)! The standard sport lip spoiler looks the nicest I think.

But, glad you like it all. Car is looking very nice indeed. Hope you manage to get the right setting, sure you will.

Rock on, so to speak :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

car stance looks great now wozza. bet the handling is bang on as well, especially with ur arbs...

still not sure on the spoiler though matey, i've never quite worked out if i like that design or not. :unsure:

anything else planned in the near future then fella??

as for the handling... I had a more spirited twisty drive home last night :)

a click up on the rear damping and 2 new rear tyres will mean even more smiles :D :D :D

no other plans tho, am skint (again :crybaby:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Nice in Wozza, i know you been waiting long time to have all this done :D

Since November, but it's been well worth the wait, it sits just right now.

Just hoping the lottery numbers come up so I can take it to the ring !!

Yer i thought it was my turn the other week for winning the lotto :D did get 5 numbers :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice in Wozza, i know you been waiting long time to have all this done :D

Since November, but it's been well worth the wait, it sits just right now.

Just hoping the lottery numbers come up so I can take it to the ring !!

Start saving now lol well ok not now after your rear tyres :P

Rabs

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest inicol63

Car set up looks really good mate i dont like the spoiler but that only me mate, i would like it if painted the same colour as your car.

Well other job done so what are you saving your pennys up for next?

Link to comment
Share on other sites


think i saw carbon fibre JDM style rear spoilers like urs over on the US eBay matey, but like u say, i've never seen another over here in this country and painting it would be a bit mad. lol.

think with a bit more carbon fibre touches wozza then it'll all look very nice and everything will compliment each other. cars looking good mate. keep up the good work.

rob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest inicol63

Sorry mate i did not mean paint a carbon spoiler.

What i was saying is if i had a spoiler it would need to be the same colour as the car.

I guess some people can not believe you get 17,000 miles of a set of tyres.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That looks stunning mate, love the new stance and ride height, looks spot on with those 18" alloys too..........really getting tempted to lower mine as well (I hate you guys! :shutit: :hehe: )

I'm not overly keen on the spoiler either, but that's just because I don't really like big spoilers but if you like it it's all good :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry mate i did not mean paint a carbon spoiler.

What i was saying is if i had a spoiler it would need to be the same colour as the car.

I guess some people can not believe you get 17,000 miles of a set of tyres.

lol no worrries mate, 17,000 aint bad considering my driving style :winky:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

car stance looks great now wozza. bet the handling is bang on as well, especially with ur arbs...

still not sure on the spoiler though matey, i've never quite worked out if i like that design or not. :unsure:

anything else planned in the near future then fella??

Rob i can get hold of those spoilers in carbon fibre, Pm me if you want to know where.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share



×
×
  • Create New...