Racecomp Tarmac 1 coilovers

[Saul_Good]

Finally installed these (was kind of a pita thanks to past ohio winters).  I got these with the 500/500 (9k/9k) springs and cusco camber plates.  They replaced my Megan Racing coilovers.  

All I can say is these things are 'on point'.  Even with the stiffer springs, they still ride 100x smoother than my megans did over bumps.  I took it to this road called Portuguese bend that has lots of tight turns with bumpy roads due to the constant land shifting, and these things handled it nicely.  I compare the comfort to that of my wife 07 Acura TL-S, even with the camber plates.  When I took the same roads on my MR coils it was bumpy and harsh, at some points scary, but not so with the RCE T1s.  

I can't wait to take these onto a real track and put it through the paces.  If anyone is considering coilovers and looking at the chinese/japanese brands, i'd give these a hard look.  They're basically revalved KW Variant 2s.

..... Now to start actually look at power adders.

[kreitz3]

Nice to have a positive review on a product.

Make it stop.  Make it handle.  Make it go!

[02rex]

What made you decide to want to go for more power?

[Saul_Good]

What made you decide to want to go for more power?

I'm not going to do it for awhile, but I've messed with my suspension enough and finally got the things I've really wanted and all I really need to do is get the alignment specs down.  We'll see though, that money is better spent on track time.

[DangBruhY]

They are about $1700, right?

[02rex]

I really wish I was down there to get a ride in the gt. It's gotta feel amazing with the lsd and the coilovers.

[Saul_Good]

Went to a small go kart track with these.  No alignment or fiddling with tire pressures or rebound settings (i was lazy).

Ended up running top 4 of 25 cars that nite for times.  The tops cars easily had 100+hp over  me and wider rubber all around.  I think they were shop cars due to the stickers...
The field consisted of S2Ks, a newer GT3, honda civics, evos, wrx/sti's, 240s, a GTO and so on.....

I ran a 47.8 sec run.  The faster cars were running 45-46 sec.  The track record is 44.3 by an Evo IX, owned by Robispec tuning (one of those tuner shops).

Here's a vid of the track (not me):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7s2bqwGVYw

[Saul_Good]

Did a trackday at streets of willow with these coilovers (vids to come) and had new tires as well (Federal 245/35/18).  I set the coilovers dampening to the 'track' settings per RCE's instructions and it was noticeably 'stiffer' unlike the MR coilovers I had.  Whenever I adjusted the MR coilovers i couldn't really tell if it was getting stiffer or not so i just assumed it did, but with the RCEs there is no doubt it's stiffer.

SOW is not a smooth track like Mid-O and putnam, but these coilovers handled the terrain very nice and predictable even while going over the berms *sp.  The braking was great especially with the 500/500 spring rates.  Not much dive under hard braking or squat while accelerating out of the turns.  The car is much easier to steer while going around corners and required less input from me as opposed to when i had the megans. 

Overall I was able to knock 3 seconds off my previous best time at this track and would have probably shaved an extra second if the track wasn't so congested that day which made me unable to get multiple open hotlaps in a row.  I'm very happy with this setup and look forward to besting my previous times at the other tracks and configurations.

[02rex]

that's awesome. Was 3 seconds an improvement with coilovers and lsd or just the coilovers?

[Saul_Good]

I'm not sure, im thinkin a combo of both.  I need to go back and try to get more open runs.  It was kind of windy that day and we had alot of headwind down the straight.  I'm sure I could squeak out another second if i got less traffic and maybe clean up some of my lines.  I'm definitely lacking in power though.  It's amazing how much power the other participants had.  Also had fuel starvation a couple times (at half tank too :O ) so im thinkin that slowed me down because after coming out of a turn into the straight the car would bog/die at 5k rpm when we know it can go up to 7k.  But still i think its still pretty good.  When i last checked I was somewhere in the top 20 of 75 drivers - I'll post it when the event coordinators release it online.  

I need to go back though.  I need to ask people how they take certain turns, their method maybe better than mine.  I'm going to keep this setup for awhile and focus more on my driving for now.

[02rex]

I think you have to get to a point where you stop modding and focus on learning to drive what you have. If you don't you just end up sinking loads of money into a car that you are constantly having to relearn how to drive.

btw  I still wish we would have gotten the chance to run a track day together.

[Saul_Good]

I think you have to get to a point where you stop modding and focus on learning to drive what you have. If you don't you just end up sinking loads of money into a car that you are constantly having to relearn how to drive.

btw  I still wish we would have gotten the chance to run a track day together.

Yups.  I had to change coilovers though.  The MRs were showing their wear (mostly from the Ohio winters, which lead to a couple difficult bolts to take out) and I was getting tired of the harsh DD'ability of them.  These coilovers are so dang soft and smooth when set to their 'street' settings its unbelieveable - I literally called RCE and asked if such a high spring rate was supposed to feel that soft.  The owner told me he personally assembled those and made sure it had the proper springs and said its because of the valving.  If i wanted it to be harsh just turn the dial stiffer, which i did and it really was stiffer.  

Looking back.  I think these would've been better to have during my autox days, because the MR valving sucked compared to these.  I remember how changing the dampner settings on your D-specs was so noticeable and wondered why mine wasn't like that.  Now I know.  


-- Come to LA we can go to Laguna Seca!!

[02rex]

I'll be in San Diego for a week in August, lets do it!!!