Anyone have any new info on this?

 

I have been driving with this system for almost 1,000 miles now on my daily driver. I am so impressed with how smooth the 1,000 lbs. front springs, 750 lbs. rear springs and Koni race shocks are. Definitely smoother than the factory SRT6 cut springs that I had installed with the adjustable Koni sport shocks for the past two years. I don’t know how it is possible to have a smoother ride with the GC kit, while decreasing body roll by stiffer springs, but it is (maybe the race shocks?). This system has also just made the whole car feel more under control, it doesn’t snake when changing lanes over reflectors on the highway at high speeds. I have a lot of rough back roads on the daily commute and the springs I have are definitely not too stiff. Around corners on bumpy uneven terrain the car doesn’t hop or bounce around uncontrollably. I LOVE the adjustment, especially on the front, it is so easy. I no longer have to grit my teeth and squeeze the steering wheel around bumping corners or speed bumps or pot holes.

I called Donovan, who is by the way extremely helpful and nice, and discussed that I am still having rubbing of tires inside of the fenders with potholes and speed bumps but like the ride height low and do not want to raise the height, he recommended increasing the spring rating by 100 lbs. on each corner. The springs are available in 50 pound increments, and are available in shorter and taller heights by 1 inch increments. I currently have the front adjustment maxed out to the tallest height possible and am still barely rubbing under severe bumps and potholes with very little clearance over the top of the tire to the fender to begin with. I have the back spring adjustment at approximately 3/4 full height adjustment and have approximately 1 inch clearance over the tire to the top fender lip. I am running a 25” tall tire front and 26” tall tire in the back.

I was able to install the system and fine tune the ride height after about three adjustments (car down from jack stands and back up - 3 times) all within 6 hours with normal tools; shady tree mechanic style. Changing all 4 springs out will literally only take about an hour after the ground control system is installed. You don't have to remove any of the ground control brackets, spring perches, or spring jacks to remove and replace the springs. You don’t need a spring compressor or even remove the bolts from the control arm to take the springs out once the car is completely unweighted.

One additional bonus I didn't even think about was having different springs in my garage to use for different driving purposes. A daily driver set of springs at the specify right height with the alignment, soft rear springs for dragracing, maximum rigid springs for autocross. It is so easy to increase the negative camber and switch out springs for autocross it’s not even funny. Ground Control quality is superb with a well thought out system that provides an adjustable suspension system with modular springs that are easy to change out and readily available as well as extremely cheap, while the kit itself to begin with was extremely affordable and more than fair. In addition to this GC has great customer service and knowledge.

The factory spring pads and retaining sleeve are removed and not used for both front and back. The upper OEM damper rubbers (2 each per shock) are re-used with new dampers. I would recommend using the KMac front camber kit if you are a daily driver and make the tires last as long as possible. Just my 2 cents as a daily driver.


I wanted to post some pictures of the front; the rear has already been posted.


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the top spring perch bracket isn't pressed up into place here but you get the idea of how the front spring system sits.

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Great pictures. Any pictures of the car now that it is lower? On my old SLK i just did a spring swap to get mine lowered and was looking at options for lowering my crossfire. I dont like the huge gap my stock one has but then i dont have a huge amount of money to blow either.

 

It's not any lower than before, I kept just about the same ride height as the cut OEM springs I started out with. Outside looks the same, all the difference is driving and handling with no rubbing.


In my opinion these are also needed for the front camber


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and something like this for the rear sway bar and upper rear control arm adjustment for camber (GC sells the very nice curved one with rubber coated end links)


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This is pretty low and would get some rubbing unless using stiffer springs


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This height with no rubbing using medium stiffness springs


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Love the photos man! sharing one of them right now on SRT-6.com.
I have not yet installed my GC kit on Albino SRT-6 yet. Will do in 3 months time. I have full race kit and I am looking forward to do it. Also getting new rubber, 285/30/19 in rear. I wonder if I should take down the front profile a bit, to 225/35/18.. What rims and tire sizes do you have?

 

Front-
TSW Max 19"X8.5" et 43mm with 12mm hubcentric spacers for an effective 31mm offset, wrapped in 245/35ZR19.

Rear-
TSW Max 20"X10" et 40mm offset with 15mm hubcentric spacers for an effective 25mm offset, wrapped in 285/30ZR20.

 

thanks for info bud

 

Great pictures!! You did a great job on your car. Like how you even did the little fish gill things on the sides.

 

have put about 6K miles on the 1,000 lbs. fronts and 750 lbs. rears. Here is a pic after it has settled. The front is adjusted at the highest it will go, rear is about 1/2 way up. It rubs in front and back under really hard dips in the highway and pulling in and out of entry ways where the pavement dips. I still LOVE the system and have so much fun ripping through corners on my daily commute. I ordered 100 lbs. stiffer springs of the same 8" height as recommended by Donavin to reduce the rubbing since the front height was maxed out. Remember I am running a slightly taller wheel/tire set up. I installed the stiffer springs today (don't have a picture of the new height yet) and love the feel of the new springs and rubbing is gone (at least on local back roads) until I have a chance to check on my familiar daily drive in the 3-4 bad spots on the highway. Crap this kit is so easy to switch out springs.

1. remove rear only wheels, loosen inner 18mm bolt for the lower rear camber arm, remove and replace spring, reinstall camber arm bolt, adjust height if needed.
2. 17mm socket, loosen the lower adjustment bolt maximally, pull spring out and replace with new, tighten adjustment bolt.
3. test drive, measure, adjust if necessary.

Also found passenger side rear upper custom camber arm end links to be worn and have play. These are the MikeR arms with QA1 stainless end links too. These are noisy and squeaky but very stout and easy to adjust. I have about 46K miles on these now. I guess I get to call Donavin about some camber arms now!

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Nice stance, Jesse! I was wondering if you had considered just replacing the ends on the MikeR camber arms? Mine are worn too and I was hoping someone would report the same issue and maybe we can all help track down a part number for replacement?

 

I would like to get some rubber coated ones to keep them lubricated and the noise down but I'll have to admit that I won't be much help to track replacements down with my crazy work schedule. Thank you for raising the question, maybe someone out there has the answer.

 

The GC camber arms are not rubber coated on the heims. They have more or less a rubberized boot around them.

 

JesseJames,

Glad your enjoying the kit so far, I really appreciate the updates!

 

No problem Justin, I appreciate you and Tommy getting this project kicked off for us.

I have 500 miles on the 1100 # fronts and 850 # rear and am really loving the feel. It is not as stiff as I thought it would be, in a sense it is almost better all the way around. I am going to go ahead and get the full 1200 # fronts and 950 # rears too. I am still getting slight rubbing under really, really hard dips in the road at high speed and only under the rear fenders. I am really liking the adjustment and feel of this system from light to stiff so far. The koni race dampers seem to be valved just right for the 2 types of springs I have tried so far.

I'll try to get some pictures of the ride height this weekend and not use the wide angle lens.

I would like to see a rear adjustment system like the front to prevent me from having to take the wheels off, but that is just nit picking.

 

Your wish may just come true, I will be getting GC's new double adjustable shocks sometime in July...fully adjustable, similar to the fronts. They are currently in the prototype phase but moving along quickly

 

here are the pictures of the 1100# fronts maxed out on height adjustment with no rubbing, and the rear 850# height adjustment at 3/4" lowered with only slight slight rubbing under hard dips in the road, after about 1,000 miles after the install to let everything settle.

so hard to keep this thing clean with all the rain lately.

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And people were giving me **** for not buying the kit the day it came out. Being in the tech industry, things change and are updated nearly daily, so I was hoping that my procrastination would allow the to work out some bugs/add features, looks like I was right

 

The shocks they are developing are not going to be the standard shocks that come in the kit. I'm sure they will offered as an upgrade to the current kit. I'm sure they will be offered to people that have already bought the kit at a price that would be comparable to if you had bought the kit with them in the first place. In all reality once you set your compression on the current kit there is very little reason to mess with it. The 2 way adjustable are catered to people that track or autocross their car on a regular basis.

I hate to be the barer of bad news but the fact is, if everyone waits to buy kits there will be no incentive to upgrade or improve the kit, as there would be no demand to do so. It's simple supply and demand, if people don't buy the kit they will not be very motivated to make any improvements to an already great kit. It was hard enough to convince them to make the kit in the first place, I told them people would buy it if they made it. So far this hasn't been the case and quite frankly it's a little frustrating.

 

Sorry it has to be this way, and sorry it is frustrating to you, personally, but it was frustrating to us to be told of the kit for months and months, trickling out details, then releasing right before winter and wondering why they aren't selling. They should have kept a lid on it until it was tested and ready, in my humble opinion.

I will have this kit on my car one day, but not on anyone else's schedule and not when they are still making changes.

 

They are not making any changes with the actual kit, the changes they are making are with a shock they are currently developing for the BMW, fortunately for the crossfire crowd it will also fit the crossfire. This will be offered it as an optional upgrade, not a "change" in the actual kit. Any other changes to kit are based on input they get from people that have bought the kit and are using it. I understand the weather is preventing you for doing this but that being said the more people that buy the kit the more input they can get.

I'm sorry that letting the community know about this kit before it was actually released was frustrating for people. Would you have rather had no idea the kit was being developed?