Bean Bandits Levin 'Globetrotter'

[Bean]

Attended a car meet this weekend, plenty of food, nice weather and cars

[Bean]

got snaped as I passed a random photographer on the road. He found me later on facebook and sent me the pic

[jondee86]

Looks sharp

Is that with the Shockworks suspension front and back now ?

Cheers... jondee86

[pack]

DAIUM!

[banpei]

Very nice photo!
And finally we can see the face behind Bean Bandit.

[Bean]

(12-17-2014 10:02 PM)banpei Wrote:  Very nice photo!
And finally we can see the face behind Bean Bandit.

Haha, yeah unfortunately I never managed to meet you when I lived in Belgium.

(12-16-2014 10:51 PM)jondee86 Wrote:  Looks sharp

Is that with the Shockworks suspension front and back now ?

Cheers... jondee86

Yes it is. I still need to do a review, just haven't found the time to take some footage yet. Just received my Hero4 so will see if I can get the cameras mounted safely down there somehow and then do a write up.
So far I'm very pleased - fitting was spot on and the adjustment allows anything from comfortable to sporty/drift as they come with 6/4or5 kg springs. Most others are 8/6 and that's just too much for average roads.
I still need to tackle my bumpsteer a bit as it's about 2-4 inches right now depending on the height of pump. This is more due to my different lower arms than suspension though - or at least equally responsible.

[Bean]

Ok went ahead and did a write up - footage will follow:

It's been a while but finally found the time to collect my thoughts and write them down in a hopefully condensed matter

Facts first
Spring rates: 6kg front and 4kg rear (5kg rear available)
Dampers: 12 steps adjustable front (inverted monotube) and rear (combined compression and rebound)
Camber adjustable top mounts and spring independent height adjustment (bottom mounts)
New very beefy spindles included
Price AUS$1800 (without VAT/GST/btw/MwSt or whatever it's called in your country) not cheap but not expensive either for what you get

Product and Installation
The coilovers arrived well packaged and despite the fact the box wasn't handled gently by the local delivery agents nothing inside got damaged. The suspension itself is very sturdy, especially the new included spindles and everything is either anodized or treated in another way to keep things healthy for a long time. The top mounts use quality bearings as do the upper spring perches. This makes adjusting the height once installed a brise. On the rear space is a bit of a premium and as they are setup like stock with separate springs and dampers, the spring adjustment is a bit hard to get to but still possible even with the car jacked up on the sills.
Installing was very straight forward, the height adjustment allows almost stock height to pretty low - I haven't made any measurements but it's more than 50mm if I remember correctly. Depending how low you go the rear bumpstops need to be cut shorter.

Driving impressions
my previous setup were APEX springs (30mm lower) of unknown rates (even APEX couldn't/wouldn't tell me) with Tocico adjustable long stroke dampers (HTS 112). This was an acceptable setup overall but slightly too harsh (dampers set to full soft) on bad roads and too soft on track (unless you set the dampers to hard, which made the car jumpy over small bumps).

With the Shockworks set on full soft I'd be happy to drive even long distances as they are almost as comfy as an AE86 can be (I drive an LS460 as a daily so comfort is always relative - Mercedes E-Class taxis are rather harsh in comparison).

I didn't get the chance to try them out on a track as there aren't any here (apart from a Go-Kart one which I haven't been to yet) but did some spirited driving and the turn in and feedback is just phenomenal. I might need to mention here I run 205/50R15 Toyo R1R all round on 8" Rota Grid-Vs and wider lower arms up front and 25mm spacer on the rear. They handle bumps really well and I haven't had the feeling yet that the tires are losing contact with the ground going over bumps and potholes at any speed. After the holidays I'll play with my camera equipment and try to make a short clip of the front suspension at work - just need to find a good way to mount it all in a secure fashion and get enough light under there.

I could go on but this already looks like plenty of text so I'll stop here but am happy to answer any questions if I can.

[jondee86]

(12-22-2014 10:57 PM)Bean Bandit Wrote:  I didn't get the chance to try them out on a track as there aren't any
here ... but did some spirited driving and the turn in and feedback is just
phenomenal.

Sounds positive !! Did you crank up the damping for this "spirited driving"
or were the shocks still on full soft ? The roads here in NZ (even the main
highways) are generally of poor quality with uneven surfaces, repairs and
patches, bumps where underground services have been installed, manhole
covers above or below grade etc. Suspension that soaks up the bumps
is more or less mandatory for any car regularly road driven.

Cheers... jondee86

[Bean]

(12-23-2014 11:01 AM)jondee86 Wrote:  

(12-22-2014 10:57 PM)Bean Bandit Wrote:  I didn't get the chance to try them out on a track as there aren't any
here ... but did some spirited driving and the turn in and feedback is just
phenomenal.

Sounds positive !! Did you crank up the damping for this "spirited driving"
or were the shocks still on full soft ? The roads here in NZ (even the main
highways) are generally of poor quality with uneven surfaces, repairs and
patches, bumps where underground services have been installed, manhole
covers above or below grade etc. Suspension that soaks up the bumps
is more or less mandatory for any car regularly road driven.

Cheers... jondee86

So far I only went up to 7 out of 12 (1=soft) for same reasons - as the roads arent smooth. Normally I have them on 2 or 3 and this soaks up a lot - although on slow heavy bumps I still get clearance issues with my tires (on soft setting) but this has nothing to do with the suspension performance. I still need to play more with it and will when I take the footage. We had a few on and off rain days lately so not ideal for filming.

[jondee86]

(12-23-2014 02:26 PM)Bean Bandit Wrote:  Normally I have them on 2 or 3 and this soaks up a lot...

Driving in normal city traffic on these settings, how does the suspension
react to small (20-25mm high) square edged holes/bumps ? These are the
ones that send a short sharp shock into the car and make you wince when
you hit them. Like the manhole covers that you swerve to avoid if you see
them coming

Cheers... jondee86