blahahahahaha!

hahaha, yah this keyboard's keys dont light up so it will be a while before my kids actually plays on it.

 

Washed my FitS today. looking good.

The TR wheels were actually pretty easy to clean despite the many spokes. Maybe just because I'm so use to cleaning mesh wheels those are easier. Hahaha.

My wife took the 09 so couldn't wash it. Oh well, maybe next weekend.

 

no car action today. in my music room pretty much all day.

i think this week im going to start sanding the old DR21 wheels to prep it for some primer. my local auto parts store is suppose to get more wheel paint this week.

 

not much action today, looking forward to the drive home.

need to dyson up my house again... every monday and tues. hahaha

 

i think i finally found a buyer for my old 06 legacy's factory carpet mats. been in my car for the longest time looking for a buyer.

i still have a full set of gray factory carpet mats from my old 06 civic sedan.... still cant find a buyer ($20, almost like new condition).

anyone know anyone that wants a set locally in chi-town? the thing is too big to ship to make money off of. still have the original packaging and the hooks from my a/s floormats which apparently used the same floor hooks.

 

another not-much-car-action day today. just looking forward to the drive home.

driving my FitS is one of the few highlights of my day.

it's been over a week now since selling my beloved Cooper-S.
im happy to report i do not have any bad feelings or regrets.
i think a lot of it goes to the fact that my FitS brings so much
reliable enjoyment driving it to and from work everyday.
it's a worry-free fun car for sure.

 

man, i got a huge headach today. i think i strained my eyes too much staring at the screen.

looking forward to my drive home. luckily the clutch on the FitS is light so i dont have to work myself like i do on my G to get the car going seamlessly. hahaha.

the G's clutch is like 10x heavier. i think people complained and on the 05 onward they used a softer spring but on the 03-04's (mine's a 04) they are heavy. heavier than the STi/Evo's, heavier than S2K, Cooper-S, etc. etc. it's fine for motoring on the weekends in light traffic but can get pretty annoying when you get caught up in construction zones ,etc. lol

but with the FitS's clutch no biggie.

 

looks like rain this weekend so going to work on sanding the old DR21's. havent had a chance to check my local parts store yet for wheel paint.

anyone detailing their cars this weekend?

 

drove my FitS tonight to pickup some chinese food. have to say with the 50F dry weather, it felt reaal good. window rolled all the way down, no a/c.

 

by the time i realized it was the weekend, it was already over.

spent most of the time in my music room so didnt do too much as far as car things. did motor my G on sat morning and SpeedShine'ed (griot's detailer spray) afterwards. i was about to start sanding my wheels when i noticed i had to do the laundry and some other housechores. by the time i was done with that it was well into the evening.

sounds like im just making up excuses not to work on the wheels. hahahaha. well, it is rather low priority...

 

They say time flies when you're havin fun........... I'm glad you're enjoying the Bentley...

I have a question, why did you remove the rear sway bar?

 

hey tanuki, im trying to rep you back but fitfreak says i need to spread it? anyway. hahaha, yah, the bentley of a piano is coming along nicely. did some final setups and effect processor configurations and it sounds excellent.

the rear swaybar was giving me too much torsion resistance where it made the steering feel like it has torque steer (very bad) coming out of turns and even lane changes.

plus with the EnduraTechs i dont need it.

 

I think you gotta rep ten + before repping someone again. haha thanks though

I got the T1R dampers with V2 springs. 3k front and 6k back vs 5k and 3k of the Enduratechs. I think I'll test it without at test and tune next Sunday. I've been struggling ever since I got the dampers when I got it I put on RE 01rs I thought it was that. Now I have Ecsta XS and still feel like delay in steering. I just toed out the fronts a little feels a lot better. Shucks, I better bring all my tools to this test and tune.

 

oh i see...

sounds like you need a front swaybar. 3K in the front is too soft expecially if you're running 6K in the back. theoretically it would appear that high spring rate in the back will improve turnability, but that goes into effect when your entire suspension can handle the weight of the car. have to remember that the car's cg moves forward when you turn... into one corner of the car while turning actually, so to a point the front springs need to have a certain amount of resistance...otherwise you load it up, there is no resistance for your car to transfer the weight to the outer front tire.

wat you're doing now is you are turning hard on your bumpstops on the front, probably. so the slack(throw) you have until your bumpstops is what you are feeling.

 

I don't know why all the lowering springs are like that, lower front higher back. I helped my friend put in his Skunk 2s and all I could think of is if I put this in my car I'd give my daughter some whiplash. I almost bought the Enduratechs but, they wouldn't send it USPS and UPS was 215 dollars. (huh my logic, now I am going to lose more money chasing a fix) I did order a Blox 24mm sway bar Saturday I hope it comes by Friday)

 

dang, freight is expensive to Hawaii. there was someone selling
their fairly new set of ET's a week or so ago.

yah, it would make sense on my G35C to have higher spring
rate in the back given that it's RWD, but on a front drive car
especially when it's doing double duty of turning the car while
driving the tires, maintaining posture and keeping the stroke
within the designed optimum suspension geometry is key.

i know some manufacturers have bright ideas of compromising
the shorter rear suspension stroke by using higher spring rates
for those times you have passengers and cargo onboard....

ET's have shortened dampers so the suspension travel is
unchanged even though the car sits 1.5" lower. and no, ive
never scraped the belly on anything.

if you cant get a hold of a front swaybar another trick you can
do is use higher offset wheels on the front and lower offsets in
the rear. ive done a lot of experiments with anti-roll tuning
just changing the wheel offsets front and back.

 

Yeah, I noticed the Spoon fit car had +35 in front and +45 in back but, 12k front and 10k back yikes. I tried 215s in front and 205 in back and it felt pretty good but, it had like a bouncy feeling around the sweepers. Now, two of the tires are 215/45 16s. So, if I play around with offsets I got to buy tires again. At one point I was thinking of getting the +41 rpf1s 15s and +48 SSR back but, that would look kinda strange.

What do you think about the HKS COs 6k front 4k rear? There was only one write up saying it felt softer than stock. (no way) I heard that about the Skunks too.

Oh BTW thanks for the info.

 

my ET's are about or tad softer than stock. stock ride is kind of
choppy and it introduces abs noise during hardbraking....also
engine spool disrupted on bumpier roads. so i welcome the
softer setup on this car.

12k and 10k are ranges more consistent to a car like my
3500lbs+ G35C. hahaha. much too stiff for street. it will
slow down your car.

as far as playing with offsets, your best bet is to find stock
wheels with +55, run 195/50/15's on all 4 yet run a 15mm
or 20mm spacer (kics spacer) on the rear. that's wat i would
do on your setup. (reverse to wat spoon is doing). u might
rub with the 20mm spacer.

skunk proc1 (was it called?) appears to be a good setup for
track use but for dd, you want to be in the range the ET's
come in...especially if you're going to carry kids in the car.

my car literally feels smoother than stock.

 

tanuki- check this link out. scientists say kids have it the easiest to be bilingual from birth to about 7yrs of age.
Unraveling how children become bilingual so easily - Yahoo! News

my kids have a tendency of mixing 2 languages in one sentence so we teach them to separate. in their heads 2 languages aren't two languages. it's actually one tot/kid language with more variations in their word portfolio.

the trick for me is to teach them in sentenses (well, once they can speak..hahaha) and not just by words. giving them examples of how to use the various tot words shows them how to use their selection of words despite the language. they dont discriminate which language they are using.

just thought to run it by.

i see a lot of international parents (japanese wife, caucasian husband, vise versa) and they only teach their kids English. and the japanese person can't even speak English natively most of the time. hahaha.

such a waste imho. being bilingual or even trilingual can be a natural thing for kids...

 

Thanks, but I'm sansei and my wife's yonsei so we don't speak japanese we only know word and short phrases. Ah sumimasen, nihongo wa sukoshi wakarimasu. I have several neighbors who are japan nationals and they try to talk to me once in while. Shame, I only remember some of the stuff my Grand parents taught me. Urusai, bakatare bozu.

Kyra's new preschool has japanese but, my neighbor said it's a waste because it's old japanese used over a hundred years ago.
I guess it's kinda like what I learnd at Karate.