tomtnc

Last Saturday I had the Daizens installed. My suspension mods are listed in my signature.

The switch from stock to Daizen sways was a significant handling improvement; right behind the Eibach / Bilstein combo with regards to magnitude of handling improvement vs. stock.

Words don't do a comparison like this justice due to the high degree of subjectivity. Therefore, I'll keep this brief with a before / after comparo. Note the car had Eibach, Bilstein, and 18's for suspension mods before and after:

Before: The car felt unstable when pressed into a corner because of the body lean. I never felt comfortable enough to reach the adhesion limits of the tires in the cloverleaf interchange en route to work.

After The car has a high degree of cornering stability as body roll has been significantly reduced (to nearly nil it would seem). The missing link in a well-balanced suspension I wanted for this car has been found. The stability of the car when pressed in a corner gives such a high degree of confidence it was quite easy to find the adhesion limits of the tires in the cloverleaf interchange this morning

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

Big congrats Tom - sounds like you've really been prepping for the Dragon this weekend.

tomtnc

As much as I am ashamed to admit, the GS was ignored like a bastard step child since May due to tyin' the knot with the little missus, building / moving into a new house, and the ensuing honey-do list

However, it is amazing how much 'tuning up' one can accomplish in only a couple of weeks when they expect to be in the 'presence of excellence' such as that found in the list of confirmed attendees for the Lexus Taming The Dragon

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

Well, I've done SQUAT for this meet. And my car's really dirty... and I don't know how I'm going to get it cleaned in time.

lexforlife

iTrader: (7)

hey tom

congrats on the daizens,, if you are running 18 stagg in the rear try adjusting the rear end link inward if you have not done so already .. it will help the rear end come around faster in a corner due to the wider contact patch of the rears


have fun with them


question though how do you feel the bilstein ride with the current springs you have , would you say its bone crushing stiff and which bilsteins do you have the sports or heavy duty

tomtnc

Thanks for the info. I'm starting to see the need to make that change already after less than a week.

Bilstein sport shocks. No way would I say the ride is bone crushing stiff although that is a very subjective description. Seat of the pants, I can't tell any difference in ride quality between a GS with the L-tuned shocks and springs and my car with Eibach / Bilstein.

RON430

If you have a GS4, the bilstein sports are just fine. The GS3 is another story.

PHML

iTrader: (33)

Ron -

Why is that? Please explain.

Pete

RON430

Posted it on a couple of other threads but to make a long story a little shorter, I have a 2k1 GS4 that I put the sports on very quickly due to the awful shocks that came on the car. They made a dramatic change in the handling of the car and were about ideal IMO, and my wife agrees. My wife got a 2k3 GS3 around the first of the year and I did the same thing. Well, the GS 3 did not like the sports at all. The ride is much worse with the sports and it developed some other, undesirable traits. I felt so bad for buggering up her car that I ordered a set of bilstein HDs (still like bilstein a lot) and had them put on after about three weeks. The HDs are a much better choice for the GS3, particularly if you have stock springs. The difference is unbelievable. At least I now have another set of sports in the garage if the GS4 ever needs another one.

If there is an up side to all this it is that the GS3 is much better balanced than the GS4, probably due to the weight and suspension calibration settings, very similar to a 530 vs 540 comparo. After having the HDs on it for a while, we still want to increase roll stiffness but will go a lot less agressive than the GS4. The sportivos are in the garage just waiting for a little time to put them on.

jmecbr900

Where should I set mine if I DON'T have staggered 18's? I have 18's, but same all the way around.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

just stay with the middle setup, that's what i would do

jmecbr900

Thanks. That's what Todd told me too when we installed it, but I thought maybe you guys that had them already knew something different. Thanks.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

well if you have staggered setup and the rear tires being quite wide, you can do more aggressive setup in the rear, but you will still need to make sure you know what you are doing, coz' if it gets loose, it will go tail spin very quickly. i have staggered setup but i still put it in middle position, coz' it's good for me for street driving already, plus i don't want my fiancee to do anything stupid

joeydingo

Man, if you've got a woman that drives hard enough to spin a GS, we all admire you!!!!!

jmecbr900

Just got back today from the Dragon.

The bars are awesome. My car tracked straight and far exceeded what the tires could hold on to. In the spring, I was all over the road. This weeked I was keeping up with the front runners (BMW's, NSX, and Porsche). It was totally more enjoyable, especially when you consider that the ride is basically stock otherwise. Just awesome.

I'm very satisfied.