The Silver Rocket got the crossmember and stiffening plate installed today and went for a drive. Little did I know the drive would test all aspects of the new front end performance..but I digress.:lol
The install was really pretty simple (from my view) the parts unbolt and bolt right in. About 30 to 40 minutes for 2 people using hand tools. A little more time for one person and maybe shave a little time with pneumatic tools. Easy enough, just be sure to tighten everything. The one big warning is that it is absolutely imperative that you get the front end alignment checked out one the install is complete since the 4 big bolts (2 each side) that locate the aft mount of the lower A-arms need to be removed thereby negating any previously done alignment work. This is only applicable to the crossmember upgrade and not the stiffening plate.
Initial test drive impressions:
First reaction is that the steering feels heavier (I'll discuss this in detail later). In general it felt like the frame was now stiff and the front suspension was doing the work instead of a mix of the two. Mine never really had a cowl shake issue so I can't say much about that but I expect this would have a positive impact since less of the bump in the road get transmitted to the body structure. The steering is much more definite and precise. Whereas any quick maneuver was met with a little delay as the rest of the SSR would follow the input, it is now an immediate change of direction.
The long drive:
Freeway onramp, full throttle acceleration, and cruising at freeway speeds was all fairly normal. The items that I did notice were that the tendency or the SSR to tramline on some of the freeway surface changes is reduced or eliminated. The need for small steering corrections related to road surface irregularities and or bumps has been all but eliminated (key point for later discussion). Managed to find a panic stop from ~75 down to ZERO (along with all the other traffic - smoking tires all around me - YIKES! :willy. SSR stopped really straight! No more little left and right kicks of the wheel to react to the road surface irregularities. Heart starts beating again.... Off the freeway and to my most hated bump in the world, there is just no good way to go through this thing without getting thrown around left and right. Slow, fast, straight through, at and angle - it just doesn't matter, it's still bad. This time, it was not nearly as bad as before not flat but 75% smoother than ever before! The one bump alone is worth the change. :thumbs
Afterthoughts:
The heavy steering thing had me thinking all the way home. How could the crossmember change affect the steering to such an extent? So I got to thinking about what I felt. In all of the miles drive I can feel a definite difference in that the frame now feels like a separate entity from the front suspension so it is no longer part of the suspension flexing and twisting. Some of the turn with bumps, I can feel the suspension working and the frame holding steady instead of adding more compliance to the suspension. The other think I thought about was the lack of minor steering corrections I had to make while driving. Seems that the change has made the SSR go even straighter even while to road may be uneven and/or bumpy. it finally occurred to me that the steering was not heavier but since there was no longer a never ending series of bump induced feedback through the steering requiring constant small corrections, it just naturally seemed that the steering was heavier even though this is not the case.
I need to get the alignment checked and then I need to find an opportunity to go back and autocross it to see how it acts when pushed to the limit. All in all, the changes are an A++++ in my book.
Special thanks to 2005SSR6Speed and Mike in AZ.
The install was really pretty simple (from my view) the parts unbolt and bolt right in. About 30 to 40 minutes for 2 people using hand tools. A little more time for one person and maybe shave a little time with pneumatic tools. Easy enough, just be sure to tighten everything. The one big warning is that it is absolutely imperative that you get the front end alignment checked out one the install is complete since the 4 big bolts (2 each side) that locate the aft mount of the lower A-arms need to be removed thereby negating any previously done alignment work. This is only applicable to the crossmember upgrade and not the stiffening plate.
Initial test drive impressions:
First reaction is that the steering feels heavier (I'll discuss this in detail later). In general it felt like the frame was now stiff and the front suspension was doing the work instead of a mix of the two. Mine never really had a cowl shake issue so I can't say much about that but I expect this would have a positive impact since less of the bump in the road get transmitted to the body structure. The steering is much more definite and precise. Whereas any quick maneuver was met with a little delay as the rest of the SSR would follow the input, it is now an immediate change of direction.
The long drive:
Freeway onramp, full throttle acceleration, and cruising at freeway speeds was all fairly normal. The items that I did notice were that the tendency or the SSR to tramline on some of the freeway surface changes is reduced or eliminated. The need for small steering corrections related to road surface irregularities and or bumps has been all but eliminated (key point for later discussion). Managed to find a panic stop from ~75 down to ZERO (along with all the other traffic - smoking tires all around me - YIKES! :willy. SSR stopped really straight! No more little left and right kicks of the wheel to react to the road surface irregularities. Heart starts beating again.... Off the freeway and to my most hated bump in the world, there is just no good way to go through this thing without getting thrown around left and right. Slow, fast, straight through, at and angle - it just doesn't matter, it's still bad. This time, it was not nearly as bad as before not flat but 75% smoother than ever before! The one bump alone is worth the change. :thumbs
Afterthoughts:
The heavy steering thing had me thinking all the way home. How could the crossmember change affect the steering to such an extent? So I got to thinking about what I felt. In all of the miles drive I can feel a definite difference in that the frame now feels like a separate entity from the front suspension so it is no longer part of the suspension flexing and twisting. Some of the turn with bumps, I can feel the suspension working and the frame holding steady instead of adding more compliance to the suspension. The other think I thought about was the lack of minor steering corrections I had to make while driving. Seems that the change has made the SSR go even straighter even while to road may be uneven and/or bumpy. it finally occurred to me that the steering was not heavier but since there was no longer a never ending series of bump induced feedback through the steering requiring constant small corrections, it just naturally seemed that the steering was heavier even though this is not the case.
I need to get the alignment checked and then I need to find an opportunity to go back and autocross it to see how it acts when pushed to the limit. All in all, the changes are an A++++ in my book.
Special thanks to 2005SSR6Speed and Mike in AZ.