Hey guys,

I've spent the last few months lurking, absorbing and reading. Which is what I try and do every time before I make a move on my car. This board has an excellent "signal to noise" ratio when it comes to cold hard facts and solid technical insight. Thanks to everyone for keeping that standard alive.

That being said I've picked up the following parts from Sam this week:

- Koni 4/4's
- Strano Springs
- Strano Bars

Didn't go adjustable bar in the rear as I'm gonna run GSD3's at all four corners on the factory 17x9's.

I've still gotta pick up some better LCAs and possibly an adjustable panhard bar just to complete the setup. After that I'll dump my brake fluid and put something decent in there. I've already got stainless lines and some Hawk HPS pads which are good enough for now. I know they won't last as long as I'll need them too and might need to swap in a different style of pad should I ever want to do some long lapping days. I'm going to play with fabbing up some basic ducts to the fronts which should help with fade.

Last but not least, in the spring I'm going to see what I can do to get registered for some classes with the Solosprint guys near Toronto. It's one thing to have a great suspension on the street but I'd also like to learn how to actually use it on a track...

Sounds like you're off to a good start. The car will be a whole different beast once you get all of that installed and have a better alignment added. You're well on your way to fixing most of the issues with these cars, at least the stuff that irritates me (floaty feel, vague response to steering inputs, etc).

Good stuff Mat. Have fun. Look into some of the lapping days also. You can get lots of seat time with an instructor.

Let me know if I can help with anything advice.

Thanks guys. Will certainly look to do some lapping days and get seat time with an instructor. Gonna start slow and grow into the car.

I'm gonna look up some alignment specs on here and try and find a nice balanced street setup that doesn't work too bad at the odd lapping day if possible.

I've run -1.2 camber, 4.5 castor and 1/16" of toe out on my daily driver (and got roughly 30k out of front tires) and autocrossed with it. 0 toe is a bit more tire friendly, but that's not a bad target.

Was that with a third gen? I'll need my car to be realigned and I'm not sure where to set it. Do you think I'll be able to get a little more negative camber without completely killing the front tires (295's)?

I've actually run that alignment on my 3rd and 4th gens. My '89 Formula was set up that way and my 2002 Z28 was daily driven and autocrossed on that same alignment. It worked well on both cars for dual purpose use. You'll have to have the car lowered (either generation) to get near those camber numbers.

Do a quick search here, there is a thread floating around where everyone posted their alignment specs, 3rd and 4th gen.

I meant to mention that (and obviously forgot). It's a sticky in the suspension forum.

I'm reading it right now. Thanks for reminding me of it.

Nice. I'll do that. Gonna install the parts in April hopefully.

I've just picked up some Poly/Roto-Joint LCAs as well. I could have gone dual-roto but this car is still primarily a street car that I take to work every nice day in the summer.

Actually, you can go dual Roto-Joints, even in a street ONLY car.
They are as quiet/smooth as poly bushings (maybe even MORE so??), even on really bad roads.
This is one of the reasons UMI developed them for passenger cars (vs. only being used on off-road/rock crawling stuff previously).

That's good to know! I think I'll still get the articulation I need out of the Poly/Roto combo, but it's something to consider if I ever need to replace them etc.

I'm pretty excited to get these parts on the car and get out driving it. Heard a lot of good things!

I'm going to have to do tires this year at some point as well from the looks of things.

I'm trying to decide if I keep the WS6 17x9's and wrap new shoes on them or if I got to an 18" wheel so I could clear a CTS-V brake upgrade should I ever want to go that route...

So I've got all the parts on the car now!

Sam was a great help and spent a good amount of time on the phone with me going over setup tips and appropriate settings for what I'm looking for based on his experience. Thanks again for great customer service Sam!

I've got the Nitto NT05's sitting at a holding company for me to go cross border to pick them up this weekend (I'm from Canada) so that's also exciting!

I'm getting an alignment done on the car right now with the following specs:

-0.6 Camber

+4.5 Castor

0 Toe

Should be a good balanced setup and handle well but be kind to the tires (relatively). I can always go more aggressive if I think I need it.

As for how the car performs? On it's wear bar laden F1 GS D3's it still handles incredible. I can't wait to get a tire with more grip under the car. The GSD3s were great when new, but they're 5 seasons and thousands of miles old.

The ride is firm but responsive, not quite harsh unless I'm on some nasty ass roads, and then who cares as that's expected.

I'm also really looking forward to an auto-cross or lapping day I'm planning on signing up for in the near future.

I think you're going to want more negative camber... Just my guess. But that's still way better than stock.

Are the NT-05s the standard 275/40 17 size?

I really wish they made those in a 255/50 16.