Ever’s car is finally getting lowered! If you have been following his build, you will know this has been a long time coming, and if you haven’t been following the build, let me get you up to speed. You see, Ever has an NSX and he uses it for HPDE events, but as you would imagine, there is quite a cringe factor for him on the track with it. He knew that one day the inevitable would happen and he was going to damage his NSX because he was always pushing the limits of it on the track. His solution to this would be to build a “crap car.” You know, a car that he could use daily, one that he could take to the track, and one that wouldn’t break the bank. To read the previous posts we’ve done on his car, and everything leading up to now, click the links below.
https://functiontheory.com/2019/12/bet-you-forgot-about-the-mrs-didnt-you/
And if you’re interested in reading up on his NSX you can click the link below.
https://functiontheory.com/2018/06/new-supercar-experimental/
Let’s begin! As many of you that own a Toyota MRS know, there isn’t much available when it comes to coilovers for those cars. With K-Sport, BC, and Megan being pretty much the only options that didn’t cost a fortune or weren’t complete garbage, Ever ended up taking a chance on Feal 441+ with Swift springs and valved specifically for the track. The neat features of the Feal suspension are that they are hand-built, they come with a shock dyno chart for each set of coilovers they make, all the replacement parts to repair broken pieces/parts of the coilover are available from Feal Suspension in Southern California, and lastly, if you need to get them rebuilt or revalved, that is also all done at the Feal Suspension headquarters in Southern California too. This is all great because, unlike “JDM” coilovers, parts are readily available and you don’t have to wait months to get them serviced.
In true Ever style, he has, of course, gone all out by getting pillow ball top hats and Swift springs. I kept trying to remind him that I only have Tein Flex Z’s on my 4-door, but of course, he has gone for the extreme. The plan for this build was that it wasn’t going to be crazy, that he would be able to drive his car to any HPDE event on the west coast, and that the car would still be able to be a daily.
Along with the Feal coilovers, Ever would also be installing Federal RS-Pro tires in a 205/50 on 15×8 wheels. This was also another rule that I had made up for us: we couldn’t run tires larger than a 205, and they couldn’t be less than 200 treadwear. The Cusco sway bar will be going on after he has done a few track days with the car, just so he can feel what it’s like without and then with.
Last Friday, as I was working on my Dad’s CRV project, Ever came home and told me he was going to head over to see our good friend Bobby to get his tires mounted. Mounting the tires quickly escalated into installing his coilovers and turned into an all-night project. With the NSX and our motorcycles taking up all the space in his garage, this meant we had to do it all on his angled driveway. This was a fantastic opportunity for us to evaluate how rigid his chassis was.
Because the MRS has a MacPherson strut at all four corners, it makes for extremely easy installation of the coilovers. Just unbolt the three 12mm nuts on top per side, then remove the two 17mm bolts that hold the shock to the spindle. There are also two 10mm bolts that hold the ABS wire and brake line to the shock.
Slide the new coilover into place, then reattach the nuts and bolts you just removed.
Take note of how much thread is showing on the shock. This ended up being almost higher than stock ride height as you’ll see below.
We also had the camber set to zero.
Now onto the rear. This is going to be almost the exact same process as the front except for the X3 nuts that hold the top of the strut to the chassis. On the front, they were 12mm nuts, but the rear is 14mm. Also, the rear sway bar end link bolts to the shock/coilover; to remove the bolt, you will need a 14mm as well.
Out with the old, and in with the new.
Again, take note of how much thread there is.
Now for the other side.
At this point I begin to worry about how far the wheels will “poke”
Side note: Ever has also relocated his battery to the front.
Well, that’s too high!
And that poke is way too much.
Round two! He lowers the front all the way. (You can see how all three lock rings are now touching. Remember from above how much thread was showing.)
That is looking much better, and you can see we also maxed out negative camber on the top hat to not only eliminate the poke, but more negative camber will lower the car more, too.
ehhh… still not low enough.
This time he opted to remove one of the three lock rings, now leaving only two
Now thats looking a lot better.
Now for the rear. Below is what it looked like when we first put them on.
now it looks like this.
Maxed out negative camber up front. (The rear doesn’t have camber adjustment in the top hat. It only has a slotted hole where the coilover bolts to the spindle. The front also has the slotted hole, along with the top camber plate.)
Now it’s looking good.
Don’t forget to tighten all the lug nuts.
Now fast forward a week. Ever’s been driving the car every day to work; the springs have had a chance to break in. Ever washed his dirty car, and we finally took some pictures of it in the daylight.
Ever’s overall impression of these so far is that they are a bit aggressive for street driving. I drove in it with him, and I would say that it’s not too bad, but you can definitely tell they are valved for the track. He has adjusted the damping to 9 clicks up from the softest in the front, and 6 clicks up from the softest in the rear. When we had originally put them on, we set them all to the softest setting, but it ended up being way too bouncy. His spring rates are 7k front and 9k rear; he admits that he should have just gone with the 5-6k front and 8k rear since the plan was to drive this car a lot on the street. However, the higher spring rates might end up benefiting him on the track; we will have to wait and see. The only thing he still wants to do is lower the rear a tad more and take out a little bit of the negative camber in the rear. Then it’s off to my garage for an alignment, and then track time!
As it stands, he is in love with the car and can now relate to why I love my four-door so much. It’s great to have a “crap” car, which isn’t built to be top-notch. Because the fun of having a car is being able to use it to its limits without fear of wrecking it, and it’s great to have nothing to prove so you can just enjoy driving.
Thanks so much for reading about Ever’s car. I know it doesn’t look like much, but we really enjoyed the build of the car thus far. For us, it’s extremely rewarding to see its transformation to what it is now, and the fact that so much soul was poured into the car already makes it that much more special. For now, his plan is to just get as much seat time as possible, and leave the car as is. Of course, it would be great if he could come across a great deal on a hardtop because they really make these cars look awesome. Unfortunately, a hardtop is at least 1500 bucks, and that translates into a lot of HPDE events. If you have any questions about the build, please don’t hesitate to reach out via email at Billy@functiontheory.com, Instagram @functiontheory, or just comment below. If you like what you see, please feel free to share; we need to help spread the word about functional cars by letting people know it’s okay if your car doesn’t look that good. As long as you’re using it!