Church

I advise to park further from trees/bushes. I noticed, statistically it reduces chance of bombing

Pity, that Penskes for ours cost so much, that people able to afford them (sponsored race teams aside) most probably are driving more expensive cars. Still .. in some alternate universe, galaxy far far away .. thread , P1, P2, P3 .. we can always win lottery, or stumble upon deal 75% off

I'd just find out what type is needed, but wouldn't buy spares. In case if some burn out, buy at some local fuel station ..

IIRC T&G play tracks in file creation order. So with some app those should be set to match real track numbers in growing order. I most often using artist>all tracks, or artist>particular album>all tracks. Folders names (if without Go) , or tags (if with Go) need some adjusting for all songs to go together as needed (eg. multi-cd albums should have same name, just track numbers 101..201..), or VA as artist name and real artist name in song title, if it's some soundtrack or other selection of different artists.

Many good used wheel sets, including forged ones, are being sold on Japan yahoo auctions. Due language barrier and who knows how and for how much organisable shipping i never shopped there directly, but i already have got two wheel sets (forged Taneisya 17", and semi-forged SSR 16" for winter) that russians had imported from Japan and then resold in Russia. I guess there might be some importer from japan firms that may do similar business for others too. Wasn't nengun or something like that one of them?

Lack of sound deadening - simply to keep car lighter and cheaper. While indeed it results in crappy sound and uninsulated roadnoise even compared to much cheaper cars then twins, but due that reasoning i understand choices of Toyota/Subaru to do so, and just like maurice above, am not too hasty with decisions to "fix" it. It will start with few insulation here and there .. then there some extra .. and probably will end in 50kg heavier car . Focal IS165TOY, while not ideal, seems good choice by price/performancy to fix very bad stock sound. While i hate stock audio, upgrading it is still somewhere in future. Simply because performance/handling upgrades or spending on track days are of higher priority in budget

Higher grip usually comes in hand with more rolling resistance. Certainly so vs stock primacies that have less of both. Some mpg drop is to be expected from that. You didn't mention wheel/tire width, that may up grip & rolling resistance too. Wheel diameter probably can be ignored in relation to mpg changes, unless new wheels are much heavier then stock and car is mostly driven in cities with frequent stop & go, going bigger wheels/lower tire sidewall usually reduces comfort/adds a bit to steering sharpness, not so much mpg. Also you didn't say if wheels & tires were the only changes. Biggest impact on mpg often comes from driver. For example louder exhaust for enjoyment sake may make right feet heavier to more often redline / drive longer in lower gears / floor accel & then brake again "to hear that sound, yo", instead of steady hypermiling/cruising at minimum non-lugging rpms.

And 8.5K redline <envy>

But no servicing of them locally. Latvia is a small country. And limited market/limited buyers. Mostly shops reselling stuff, not servicing/customising/etc. So more bonus points for products that are very cheap (like B6/Koni yellows/Tein Z&As, where more hassle-free instead of servicing seems simpler to buy replacement) or those very few that are worked on/with in very few specialised local shops. The one i mentioned sells KWs & Teins too. Not servicing/specialising on them though IIRC. Somehow thought of shipping something abroad for servicing/customising and meanwhile driving with retrofitted stock for month or two (if eg. product from US), if accounting both directions of shipment, and paying for that a lot, doesn't seem too attractive to me. And from what i've heard, high performance professional racing shocks have way less mileage prior servicing vs OEM style. For examply rally ones might need overhaul after 1K miles. Middle budget ones probably are somewhere in middle. Hence thinking along the lines of cheap or local. EEK. Somehow it all went astray / offtopic, sorry. I probably too easy lit up when hearing someone saying that practical/reasonable setups look ridiculous. "I can't. This is important. Someone is wrong on the internet" [tm]

Deacon: but custom made / built-to-order ones are of price range, where i find so far that money better spent on trackdays & burnt tires/fuel even with less capable suspension :). Also most probably in case of custom i'd go for BTO Ohlins, as shop i visit for suspension work, works a lot with them (they do prep lot of rally subarus/evos, in addition to drift bmw-s, crossroad raid SUVs, GT-Rs and such. Damn, it makes me so envious seeing shock & brake porn in way of custom Ohlins & AP Racing radi-cal brakes on those, when i bring my in to work on

What imho at least 3/4th of owners consist - ones that don't mod in any way car, driving 100% stock, and very probably even never visiting any online forum, not so much going to meets. Mods are limited to air refreshment tree at mirror, floor liners and cellphone mount. THAT'S majority. Quiet, unvocal, but majority. Here in LV there are not much twins around, about 20 registered. From those i know of and that from time to time visit some local and/or international car related online forums/sites, there are three, including me. Nicebiscuit: B6 are ones i'm considering most at this point. Another option seems KWs (while minimum drop is below stock, they supposedly have lot of shock travel) + spacers. And they also can be used with rubber top mounts too.

Extremely limited? Bad state public roads can be in big if not biggest part of world. Heck, i've seen even americans complain and post pothole ridden road pics from their big cities. You also never had to go over roadbump? Drive off steep driveway? Park over kerb? Go over deep snow/ice in unplown yard and hear ice scarping underside of bumper for 200m in row till getting to road? Car is rather low even stock. I don't want to change it's practicality/driveability from current 99% to 80%. I don't feel limited by stock center or gravity or amount of roll, even on track. But I know I WILL be limited by reduced ground clearance as to where/how i'll drive & park. When i waited (and long car queue behind me) for long time for opposite traffic to clear so that one "tuned"/lowered honda prelude before me could clear roadbump at angle, i understood that i'll NEVER want to lower any more then stock, which is marginally, but still acceptable for where/how i daily drive all year round, once i used to it's limits. If anything, i'd want even gain ground clearance vs stock, to enable gravel road rallying with less worry. Stock height looks bloody ridiculous? Not in my eyes To me rather people doing extreme drop/hellaflush/hellacamber look stupid, as they pay their own money to make car worse and undrivable for sake of arguable looks. Is this, what is not bloody ridiculous to you? I'm in opposite camp then

I'd get Zs or As right away .. if they had been of stock height and stock travel.

What i was saying, that you'll need extra parts if you'll consider going for even more drop then you initially mentioned (10-15mm), so i warned of that. If you'll go for > 1", like some do, then one needs lot of extra stuff, not just slap coilovers and drop as low as possible. But you should be fine, as unlike many considering drop, you really are modest with by how much :).

10-15mm, within 1" lowering, you should be fine. I'd advise against dropping over inch, due 1) you need then many more suspension parts upgrade, eg. diff riser, roll center adjustment and so on, 2) bumpstop free shock travel (and car height itself) isn't very high even stock, so going for extreme drop you'll greatily compromise daily driving practicality.

State your goals/expectations/planned use and of course budget. Though if you mentioned financing for As, i guess affordable budget is very low. Maybe some bilsteins B6 or koni yellows with stock springs would do better?

At least with stock shocks what allowed for me to over bad potholes in broken tarmac without much thinking were rubber topmounts i reverted to back from pillowball camplates. Hence for future upgrades i'll probably consider only options where stock (or group-n) rubber topmounts can be reused. KWs, RCE, Ohlins, B6, Konis. Pillowball camber plates are certainly not for local roads here in Latvia :/

Costs to add it in / complication of header construction with arguable need. Also making construction more complified not only can solve some problems/failure points, but add some new ones. Keep It Simple Stupid principle :). Most very first aftermarket headers for our hars had flexi or slip on joints, but many made later on - didn't, including headers from several top vendors. I guess by failure rate by statistics was too low to justify costs of adding them. This is no overengineered mercedess from middle of 20th century :).

rob: i'm curious, of what make is yours? Looks unfamiliar.

Ecutek is most often used by specialist tuning shops for our cars, OFT most often used "community/DIY". Instead of later one also Tactrix cable can be used for some savings at expense of reduced usage ease. Superchip .. from faq it seems at least being normal ecu flash, not piggyback chip, that's good. But still, as ist's far from leading ecu tuning solutions for our cars, most probably no "normal" tuning shops will be able to tune with it, you'll have to trust & stick with whatever expertise & experience these superchip guys have or haven't with our cars, it may also greatily limit which different aftermarket bolt-on parts / forced induction kits are supported or how well they are supported. I'd say - don't. Ecutek for shop tune, OFT for own tinkering with optimising OTS tunes.

What i AM worrying about, due still having stock NA power, to not have too much tire. Hence rather thinking if i should get 215/45 or 205/50, not 225. I'm sure, that even 205 width PS4 will have more grip then Primacies.

Lauren: it was sarcasm. My thing is price/performancy, which intakes certainly doesn't fit. But i have seen people choosing brakes & coilovers by color and i've seen people choosing some engine ugprades judging by their looks/bling.

Lauren, there is another "gain"/"reason". - They add bling under bonnet :D.

don: are you sure on PS4 narrow bit? At least actual thread patch width of PSS-es even of stock size was much wider. Noticed 225 being cheaper too. No clue, related to what. 215 were of very few sizes for PS4 being of non-XL extra load, imho price should be other way around.

.. or when backing out when parallel parking those last cm till next car's bumper w/o making contact. Even after i had already driven this car for few months, still had difficulties of estimating distance left by look through rear window. High trunk line, way above bonnet of most cars, didn't help either. When looking like it should be almost touching, there were still 30-40cm left. It was much easier to gauge distance left in hatchback i've driven before this. Well, camera solved problem. Now i can get even within 2cm to next car :).