Who has lowered their 3?

[bbrich57]

oh yeah? you are gonna come all the way to burlington to install them?

Sounds like a very nice offer to me. Besides, N.Eng. is not that big. How long could it take to get from Maine to Vermont... like 2- 2-1/2 hours.
So... take him up on his offer. Buy him a real nice lunch (dinner may be necessary too. Still cheaper than having a pro do it, I'm sure) and give him some gas money. You'll have some fun and meet somebody you may not have met before. Sounds like a fun day to me!
Hey Derek!! If I get springs too, do you wanna come to Texas to help me install them??? (rlaugh)
Or, I could visit the family in Pa. and meet you half way. WhaddoUthink?

 

[pro00]

soko7, that is a GREAT pic!!!

 

[tsunami]

lol i have already met that tool of a m3 driver stopped by on my way back from visiting friends in new york... and its more like 4 hours from my house to burlington.. and i am only a half hour from new hampshire... New england is bigger then you think. (plus lack of a good e-w highway system makes traveling throughout it a pita!!)

my old man works outside of philly so that is at least concievable lol

and i do have the spring compressors as well.. i just paid the 50$ and kept em instead of returning them cause the gf wants to get rid of her suv sized wheel gap on the corolla one of these days.

 

[bbrich57]

soko7, that is a GREAT pic!!!

+1 She looks good.
'Course I have a thing for rally white 3's too.
That is a pretty radical drop. Are those the Sportlines?

 

[ZoomVT]

hai already met this kid. took him to a nice local brewery and at least they had a good burger.
anyway, new england is a lot bigger than people down in texas think. it looks small but we are pretty big put together. i weould say roughly the same size of texas.
anyway, yeah from maine to where im at is a hike. but i appreciate the offer.

 

[bbrich57]

i had already met this kid. took him to a nice local brewery and at least they had a good burger.
anyway, new england is a lot bigger than people down in texas think. it looks small but we are pretty big put together. i would say roughly the same size of texas.
anyway, yeah from maine to where im at is a hike. but i appreciate the offer.

I am originally from Pa... for the first 38 years of my life so I am not unfamiliar w/the N.E. But as Derek reminded me, highways and high speed travel are often at a premium there, so I can now see how it might be a longer trip from a time standpoint.
Still, hey he says he's willing and has another reason to visit your area. Why not? It's a nice offer.

 

[tsunami]

yeah wasn't the weather nasty that day iirc or something... thats why we took the corolla not the 3 studded tires on a 8 hour trip to upstate ny then from there to burlington and then to home would have drivin me insane.

 

[ZoomVT]

yeah actually a big snow storm hit us at the magic hat brewery and we were there after they closed. i almost lost control coming out of their driveway uphill. lol

 

[sok07]

soko7, that is a GREAT pic!!!

+1 She looks good.
'Course I have a thing for rally white 3's too.
That is a pretty radical drop. Are those the Sportlines?

Thanks. It's sitting on a modified Tein Basic coilover setup. It is modified up front w/ new springs to allow extra clearance for the wider rx8 wheels, and in the rear the upper spring mount has also been modifed to allow some extra adjustment for that nice level drop. The measured drop currently is -2.125" front / -1.875" rear.


Here's a couple more shots....

 

[bbrich57]

Yup!! That's a nice looking drop. But I would be afraid of road obsticles.
I can understand the rear mod, but why did the front springs need to be modified? I am not familiar w/a coil-over install on these 3's, but was thinking about it myself (after I have to sell ANOTHER 35 yr old guitar probably. )
I plan on staying w/the 17's, maybe 7-7.5"ers, so I guess no other mods should be necessary. I'm curious about why you had to do that to yours for the 8 wheels though.

 

[Kuro3]

out of curiosity, sok07, what kind of bulbc are you using for your foglights? Those things are bright as s***.

 

[sok07]

Yup!! That's a nice looking drop. But I would be afraid of road obsticles.
I can understand the rear mod, but why did the front springs need to be modified? I am not familiar w/a coil-over install on these 3's, but was thinking about it myself (after I have to sell ANOTHER 35 yr old guitar probably. )
I plan on staying w/the 17's, maybe 7-7.5"ers, so I guess no other mods should be necessary. I'm curious about why you had to do that to yours for the 8 wheels though.

That's the daily driven drop. I live in the SE US, so the roads here are pretty reasonable and the weather/winter isn't too harsh. As for the front modifications...with the 8" wide rx8 setup, I developed some rubbing issues between the tire and lower spring perch on the damper at drops of more than 1.8". The rx8 wheels have a 52mm offset, roughly equating to 6.047" of backspacing. On the otherhand the stock wheels are 6.5" w/ a 50mm offset, equating to about 5.2185" of backspacing. So doing quick arithmetic, I've lost about 0.82" worth of clearance between the strut/damper body and the inside edge of the wheel. So to make the rx8 setup work on tein coilovers w/ a drops more than 1.8" up front I purchased a 0.5" shorter spring of slightly higher spring rate than what was regularly supplied by tein. The dampers are also valved to match the new springs. Simplified....I just offseted the location of the adjustment collars a bit higher on the damper body for a given drop.

If you get a 7.5" wheel, look for a 48mm offset wheel and you should be perfect.

out of curiosity, sok07, what kind of bulbc are you using for your foglights? Those things are bright as s***.

That pic is a bit exaggerated when it comes to brightness. It was a night/evening shot taken with a very lengthy exposure. Note the brightness of the signal lamps and the street lamp in the background. The streetlamp is brighter than the foglights Anyhow, I don't call them "foglights" anymore they are my driving lights. They are retrofitted MDX low-beam projectors mounted in the stock foglight locations and are HID powered w/ a 4300k H11 bulb ... perfectly matching the stock 4300k HID low-beam setup. Like the stock low-beam projectors the retrofitted MDX projectors have a sharp cut-off, minimizing glare.

 

[ZoomVT]

damn thats hot man.
very ncie job on the drop and the lighting. i want to do that to mine.

 

[tlj 3]

this is mine skunk 2 springs

 

[tlj 3]

 

[ZoomVT]

nice man. i like your wheels.
what brans are they?
where did you get them?

 

[tlj 3]

They are rsl elite with machined face and lip and gumetal inserts. Got em brand new from ebay for 350 shipped. the only thing after about 2 months of having them the clear coat started to come off so i had to strip them down and paint them silver. If you decide to get a set you should put a couple more coats of clear on them as soon as you take them out the box. But yes i loved them alot i was very dissapionted when the clear started to come off.

 

[ZoomVT]

damn... $350 for a set? thats a very nice price... do you have some close ups on it?

 

[rabbit]

nice pics!

 

[jdmikey]

man those rx8 wheels look good on the 3's.