Godspeed coilovers

[Gnarles2]

So I have had the coilovers installed for about a week so far and I want to give my initial impressions. I will be taking the car to New Jersey tomorrow evening and will have a chance to get a lot of drive time with them but my initial impressions are pretty good. Also, when I get back from my trip I do need to take the car to get aligned so I will add to this thread as things change.

So first off it is a night and day difference in terms of ride and handling with these coilovers compared to the factory parts as well as compared to the Eibach springs. The Eibach springs were actually quite good until the rear shocks went bad. If there was a higher quality shock available, I would probably have just replaced them as the Eibach springs felt great the first year they were installed. Anyway, the Godspeed coilovers are just in a different league altogether. There are a quite a bit of adjustments to them in regards to height, spring rates, camper and the damping itself and after a week I am still messing with them to get as close to perfection that I can. Tonight I am going to adjust the camber a bit as the settings that they are set with from the factory gives the front just a bit too much negative camber. It looks really nice the way it is but I want to see if making the front wheels have less camber will help with grip. The great thing about these is that I could change the settings daily depending on my mood or what type of driving I plan on doing. So on the top of each strut and shock there is a dial marked soft and hard. There are 16 settings that make the shocks and struts go from rock hard to firm and there is a noticeable difference between the settings. I currently have the rears at 14 and the front at 12. This would be really firm to most people but I enjoy how it makes the car feel as of now since I mainly drive on the highway when commuting to work. If I had to spend more time on the lumpy and bumpy city streets of Cleveland I would quickly make them softer or get a weekly appointment with a chiropractor.

So lets gets down to business... How it drives. If you want your Mirage to come alive and to see how it would feel if Mitsubishi cared to make a sports version then this is the best $630 dollars you can spend on your car. It went from feeling wallowy and heavy to taut and light feeling. It feels how a small lightweight car should feel. The steering is a lot more responsive and body roll is pretty much nonexistent at least with how mine are set. On the highway it feels extremely planted and secure and it really gives you a lot of confidence going into sharp turns. Off ramps have since become really fun and I am always on the lookout for a nice smooth curvy road although northeast Ohio is pretty sad when it comes to good driving roads. Being in Cleveland, our streets are pretty bad in terms of how they are kept up. As I have the coilovers set now, they can be quite punishing on these types of roads. You will feel every bump, patch, pebble and so on. For me, that is kind of refreshing since it is a new feeling in this car, but I can see myself after a few weeks softening them up a bit. As of now there are not any types of strange noises coming from the suspension when hitting bumps but there are a few more rattles coming form the interior on certain bumps but I expected that with all of the hard plastic in the car. Brake performance seems to be a bit better since there is not any nosedive with hard braking and it stays nice and flat with all tires firmly planted.

All in all I am really pleased with the coilovers so far. I am really excited to get on the highway tomorrow and see how they do on a 7 hour trip on the PA turnpike with lots of curves going up and downhill. I am also looking forward to getting an alignment as I am pretty sure some settings are a bit off. The alignment was a bit off with the old suspension parts so it is not something that these coilovers caused but I would like it to be as perfect as possible at least in the front since nothing can be done about the rear.

I am sure I missed a lot so if you have any questions for me, feel free to ask!