MEDIEVAL-PRO DAMPER KIT INSTALLED ON INTEGRA:
Matt from Hondata helped out in test fitting. His car represents the most heavy car we will likely be subjecting this kit to. B-series swap, full turbo kit, full interior. Tires are 205-50-15, wheels are 15x6.5 +38 offset. NOTE! The Medieval-Pro kit was not adjusted at all when swapping from my car to Matt's. Finger gaps were slightly smaller than on my car due to weight increase, but no significant change is needed. We deduce a very comparable height range adjustment with this kit from CRX to Integra, which should make you teg people happy. BTW, Matt's brake lines bolted up fine to CRX Konis, so I expect the should bolt up to the Medieval-Pros as well.
BEFORE I OUTLINE DRIVING DYNAMICS, LET'S TAKE A BREAK:
A pair of turbo's 1gs! Pure bliss.
Matt, diligently soldiering though a rear damper swap.
HOME-STRETCH! DRIVING IMPRESSIONS
We are not indicating ride heights in our driving impressions at this time. What we can say is, of the heights tested, we never bottomed out, topped out, or hit the ground (with conscious driving on steep driveways and big speed bumps).
We are going to indicate the spring rate used for your information. I will assemble another matrix that will lay out our suggestion for spring rate application based on desired driving dynamics.
CRX with 25mm torsions in front and 4kg springs in the back. Stock front sway bar, no additional sway in the rear. OPM Panhard bar: This is the setup for me. I fell in love with my car all over again. On the nasty Socal freeways, which have expansion joints, holes, cracks, trash, etc the suspension was very comfortable. All bumps handled appropriately. Not any drama, no funny noises. We even went over that bridge in Long Beach that Nick Cage jumped the Mustang on in Gone In 60 Seconds. This car drives just as a mildly upgraded stock car should during regular driving. Taking long hard on ramps and off ramps with suspension fully loaded, the car felt balanced, very stable, and safe. Minimal roll. Hit a bump mid-corner fully loaded, the suspension takes it well without stepping out in the front or back. That "disconnected floaty feeling" I always felt in the past is now GONE. Tinkering with the dampening adjustment will cause it to appear or disappear, depending on how you want the car to ride. But this is the one thing that unsettle me the most when driving, and I think the cost of the suspension is worth this benefit alone! DON'T SELL YOUR FRONT MEDIEVAL-PROS WITHOUT TRYING THEM OUT FIRST! Need to make a mid-corner adjustment? Go ahead. play with the throttle or the steering to adjust your line and the car responds predictable. Not twitchy at all, but I could push the car harder than before with more confidence. Perfect for a street-sports driver like myself with a need for a smoother ride.
Nakai revealed to me he preferred a softer more comfortable ride. I agree with him after trying the 4 kgs for myself. Do not make the error in assuming "softer" to mean "soft" though. The car felt very balanced and very controllable. Nakai took the wheel with this setup and really pushed the car. On one offramp that had some camber in it, he was going with the car fully loaded in 3rd gear, getting in the boost and lifting to induce over steer. It took 3 stabs, but he did get the back to step out with 4s in the back. When it broke it was soft without drama and easy for him to correct. Really it was more of a 4-wheel slide for a moment than pure over steer. I was impressed with how smooth it felt though.
CRX with 25mm torsions in front and 5kg springs in back. Stock front sway bar, no additional sway in the rear. OPM Panhard bar:: I believe I was correct in recommending this as the "out of the box" spring rate. The ride is noticeably firmer than stock, but not too hard. It still takes bumps very well, and with the dampening adjusted all the way soft the ride is very close to the ride on the 4 kg springs with a slight edge to it. I feel like this setup will add that performance edge that many of you experienced drivers will want, and that firmness than some of you younger guys will want. Either way, I was planning on adding a rear sway bar, but now I am not sure sure I need one. This car feels so good right now. All I need is an LSD to cure some power-induced under steer!
Integra with 27mm torsions in front and 5kg springs in back. Suspension Techniques sways front and rear, stock panhard bar: The long and the short here is the Integra with 5s felt like my CRX with 4s. I am not experienced with this car, but my brief drive left me with a feeling of confidence and stability with a great deal of comfort on the normal street. I could push the car a little and work the tires a little (again, not wanting to over-drive a car I was not familiar with was not a good idea) and feel that balance that I felt before. The ITR swap in this car did not feel heavy or unnatural. The 27mm torsions handled the weight very well, and I was very impressed with the stability the Medieval-Pro dampers had. We did not even play with the front damper settings because it felt so good. My recollection is that the damper was adjusted in the middle somewhere in the front. Clearly these dampers will handle 27mm or greater 29mm bars without any problems. We did experience contact between the rear shocks and the spring seat adapters since this car has a stock panhard bar. The resulting bottoming out made the feel pretty bad at the limit, but the dampers still did a great job of handling the excessively unnatural rebound. However, this issue will be resolved in production with a new seat adapter. In the end, we know that the Medieval-Pro dampers are a great solution for AV1 drivers now as well, better than I expected to be honest. Matt even mentioned himself that those with Konis should definitely weight the Medieval-Pros against them before making decisions to sell!
So, that's it! Fingers tired. Tummy grumbling. I will leave it open to comment now. I have 24 hours ti=o finalize the kit before it is put into production!
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