[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Ground Control



At 12:44 AM 9/8/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Who out there is running this setup? What do you think of it?


I have GC coilovers and camber plates.  Only complaint I have lies in the
upper spring hats they provide for use with their camber plates - if you
use a LOT of adjustment, the thrust bearing does not sit flat on the bottom
of the camber plate, and the thrust washer can wear the spring hat's
recessed hole, making it bigger, allowing the spring to walk around a bit.
It also puts aluminium shavings into the bearing - bad, and hard to get out
100%.  I replaced mine yesterday, actually.  GC's answer?  "That's too
much."  Well, no, it is not too much, it works well, actually, beyond the
inherent problems(I won't settle for less adjustment to keep the problems
from happening - I like the alignment I have, and I'll find a way to make
the hardware support the alignment, so to speak).  Their Honda kit uses the
same plate, but a different bearing carrier - it has a ball and socket
assembly type thing, which helps the upper spring hat/bearing assembly get
pressure distributed across the whole bearing, as opposed to just one side
of the bearing.  According to Jay, the Honda parts won't fit on the Rabbit.
 I took some, bolted them in, they fit fine.

Jay is a very knowledgable person, but he is VERY set in his ways - I am
using his plates in a manner which he does not agree with.  He does not
care what I do with them, but simply looks at my problem and says "of
course you're going to have problems, you're using them wrong."  I'd much
rather he help me figure out a way to make his products work than tell me
I'm doing it wrong - even if he thinks I am stupid, it'd be much easier to
deal with if he could at least try to come up with a solution beyond
"that's not right."  

If you do things exactly as he says, the stuff should not give you many
headaches.  Most of the racertypes around here do not like dealing with
him, do not like his products.  His camber plates are decent, but they are
simply cheap plates - there are MUCH better plates to be had, but AFAIK, to
do better, you'd have to have them made by a machinist.  His coilover
sleeves seem fine - a few people here cringed when I got mine, but I looked
at them and wondered how much better a Carrera or other brand(Koni, among
others) might work.  I could not see any significant improvement in the
other products, and his were the cheapest. I got his, and I've not had any
problems with the sleeves themselves.  

I cannot figure out for the life of me why he says his Honda stuff won't
work on the VW.  The bearing carrier I borrowed from a shop bolted right
in, did not hit anything.  Shrug.  Maybe I'm missing something, but it
seemed good to me.  I'm not entirely in love with his stuff, but I knew I
might not be when I bought it - my complaints are small, all things
considered, but if I were to do it again, I'd get with the local race car
machinist and make some - I bought the GC plates because they were cheap,
and since I had to replace the spring hats, I've spent _almost_ as much as
it would have cost to get some made by Precision Machine Works - live and
learn.  

Overall, I like GC.  I realize that my setup is not what he recommends, so
I don't really expect him to support it(if you buy a product designed for
something, then use it for something else, well, the manufacturer did not
say it'd work from the onset).  I would like it if he'd at least humor me
and help me try to figure it out(rather than telling the shop I deal with
for GC stuff that I'm not so smart, heck, it was partially their idea!:).
Shrug.  Works for me, but I won't buy his plates again.  I'm not going to
change these out on principle, but if they break/wear out, I'm getting some
made.

Morris is smart.  He understands a lot of this stuff far better than most
of us, but his philosophies are not the same as everyones.  For a cheap,
DSP legal camber plate, his are hard to beat, as you don't have to cut the
upper strut area to get a lot of adjustment, and the spring is virtually
touching the body, so short of going to a smaller diameter spring, it'd be
impossible to get more adjustment out of a different plate - the spring
itself determines the range of adjustment at this point.  Eurosport's "A1"
plate is known to bend, and their A2 plate requires cutting(although, with
a spacer, they might not), so they're not legal in DSP.  Getting them made
by a machine shop is not cheap, probably $400 vs $265.  Depends what you
want to do with them!  Good luck!


I.Mannix    
- --
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send email to scirocco-L-request@scirocco.org,
with your request (subscribe, unsubscribe) in the BODY of the message.

------------------------------