Its been a quiet time over the winter but with summer around the corner I thought it about time I had some more work done on the S and make an update on here.
Having moved house over the winter period I had to find myself a new garage to help look after my car. I did some asking around and found the guys at TT roadsports were about 35 minutes from me. I made a few calls and a few emails later and I booked her in for an intermediate service with the addition of 4x new coil pack (for piece of mind) and to have some goodies added to try and get rid of the dam*ed understeer.
The list of shiny new bits:
Eibach anti roll bars
powerflex dogbone bush
Superpro consol bushes (W.A.L.K but the superpro version)
Superpro wishbone bushes.
Full Hunter alignment
Looks something like this when laid out
Front subframe off
New bar fitted
Consol bushes fitted
Dog bone bush fitted
Alignment sheet
All in all a very enjoyable day, TT Roadsports facilities are top notch as is the service and attention to detail.
So to the important stuff and a review of the kit fitted.
Straight out of the car park the steering had an increased weight around centre, there was an obvious increase in resistance/stiffness across the front axle as one wheel weighted on the camber change out at the shop exit as would be expected. On the straight away the increased weight and sensitivity around centre was a revelation, the vague, dull, numb, unresponsive feel of the standard setup in this state has all but gone, I wouldn't want any more than this in a road car, had there been a little toe out on the front wheels it would have been over sensitive and could make the car feel a little nervous. As bend radius tightens the weighting on the steering increases proportionally to input giving good feedback through the wheel, small imperfections and road surface can now be felt, a positive symptom of removing some compliance in the bushes.
Apart from the above improvement in feel the other main improvement comes in higher speed direction change (where lateral tyre loading isn’t anywhere above about 60%), again, the smallest input is now responded to immediately and it inspires confidence with the front feeling positive with no tendency to push. Linked with this another positive, the rear feels a lot lighter yet still planted, I have not had chance to push really hard yet but I could imagine being able to increase the yaw rate by trail braking and pivoting the rear of the car around, something never possible before.
However, the slower speed tighter radius turns where you really lean on the front corner/tyre there is little improvement at all, yes the car sits flatter but in out and out grip from the front i feel no improvement. I do know why this is and it was the very reason I was interested in the powerflex ball joints (for camber adjustment which I now which I had opted for). At these speeds the roll bars and bushes cannot really help, the tyre is simply rolled onto its outer edge, the only cure here is additional negative camber, it's a totally geometrically limited situation in the S3.
To sum up, it’s a great little handling upgrade, I would say 90% of owners would be very happy with the setup I now have. I just need that extra 10% and the ball joints would have gotten me somewhere close.
I never really thought of painting the fog grills, bit late for me to do them now but I like the idea. Don't suppose it would be a real problem to paint them, a lot of people plasti-dipping grills and the like on here.
