RS-R Suspension review

[AJI]

Hello all,

 

Just thought I'd give my impressions of the RS-R adjustable suspension that I had fitted a few months ago by Envy Performance.

 

 

Just to fill you all in - I have simply come from the stock UK-spec suspension after visitng the Nurburgring a number of times on it. The stock UK-suspension works fine upto a point. My pace around the track continually increased on each visit and on a 08:50 laptime area the stock suspension copes with no troubles.

 

My lap times gradually dropped to 08:40 area and the limitation of the stock setup became apparent. That being there was too much weight transfer taking place and the rear end was becoming a bit too lively.

This mostly happened during heavy braking over cambered bumps and trail braking into certain corners. And also just after the apex when you apply the power on corner exit.

But as mentioned already, the uk-suspension works just fine upto a certain point and works very well for a road only car.

 

After consulting with Gaz at Envy we looked at a few different options and decided on the RS-R suspension which comes with 36-setting bump and re-bound ... along with spring pre-load and ride height control.

I also had a 4-wheel alingment done before heading out to the N'Ring on my last visit. (This was done by RSE motorsport in North Wales and they gave me a slightly more agressive setting over the stock toyota settings - that being slightly more -ve front end camber but toe in and rear end similar to stock).

Ride height was also dropped by about 5mm from stock height.

 

1st off.... on the road. The RS-R suspension on a 'B' road is very bumpy indeed. Even after setting eveything to maximum soft and taking all the pre-load out of the springs. But this is something that I was half expecting to be honest.

On an 'A' road it is nice and solid and gives good feedback on what the car is doing. I have set the rebound dampering to be quite strong and left the bump dampering to be maximum soft for road use.

This means that the car absorbes bumps but then doesn't launch you off them as the spring returns to normal length.

On a motorway it is nice and smooth and any quick lane changes are done with ease.

 

Now onto the reason I fitted it. On the track... after only a few corners is it quickly realised that your road going Supra has turned into a track animal ! The car is much more stable and more trail braking can be applied without any drama.

 

After a few laps I decided to increase the bump setting to be a bit more stiff. This ironed out the front end and also made the rear more controllable around the bumpy Nurburgring. (You don't actually realise how bumpy it is until you are on some proper suspension).

 

After more laps of tweaking the bump settings throughout the weekend I was there, I found a point where any more bump stiffness just caused either understeer or rear end bouncing over the crests of the track.

 

So my final setting for a dry track was the follwoing:

Front - Bump = 22/36 Rebound = 36/36

Rear - Bump = 14/36 Rebound = 36/36

(Only minor spring pre-load was used by the way)

 

I would assume on a smooth track such as Silverstone that the bump stiffness settings would be much higher than that but as the N'Ring is quite bumpy I found the above to work the best.

 

 

So overall rating for this suspension is very good for track use. But slightly compromised for road use as it is very hard for 'b' road driving.

 

Best lap time of the weekend was 08:23.... an improvement of about 10 seconds from my previous best. (And that was with traffic).

 

 

 

Don't suppose anyone knows if there is a progressive spring option for this suspension ?? (This would make it usable on 'b' roads).

[SteveR]

As the best setting you found has the rebound sat to its maximum -even on the track- do you think that is an issue?

 

I'm aware of a few rough bits at the 'Ring but not that many like you say!

[AJI]

On a smoother track I'd say the rebound could be softened a bit. But the N'Ring is quite bumpy in places and found this setting to stop the rear end bouncing around on some of the corners.

Two corners in particular - Exit of both Big Karrusell and little Karrusell. On a softer rebound setting the rear end would take more time to 'settle down' as you get launched out of those corners. But there were a couple of others that also I'd consider very bumpy (for a track that is).

 

 

In the wet also I would imagine a much softer setting for both bound and rebound. But the track was dry each time I went out.

 

I'm back off out there in a couple of weeks time in my EVO6.... which has Tein Super Streets fitted, but they are only 1 way adjustable so less hassel to set up

[bignum]

Sounds like a pretty good setup, ive got some agx shocks with 4 settings, i tried a firmer/slower damper rate at the ring but it made the car understeer more, also what tyres were you using that weekend and well done with the 8,25 lap!!

[SteveR]

On a smoother track I'd say the rebound could be softened a bit. But the N'Ring is quite bumpy in places and found this setting to stop the rear end bouncing around on some of the corners.

It may be the beers I've just had, but I'm slightly confused now - is 36/36 as hard a rebound setting as you can have, or as soft as you can have?

 

I think maybe I need to go look up some details about suspension setup.

[AJI]

bignum - I was on Ealge F1 GS-D3's.

Its a strange thing getting the right suspension settings. I suppose that's why even the top F1 teams spend £1000's and £1000's on test days... and even then you heaar of drivers saying they didn't have the correct setting for the race day etc.

 

Steve - 36/36 on my suspension is max hard setting. Or max resistance for the spring to return to normal car weighted length.

[mikeyb10supra]

Thats a very interesting write up, I am considering some road/race suspension in the near future so this has given me something to think about. Out of interest, are you using any anti roll bars with this setup, and have any other components been changed, ie control arms, bushings etc

[Ian R]

I like my Cusco set up however when set stiff I do tend to take off a few times round the ring

[AJI]

mikey - no anti roll bars fitted to my car. I did some forum research before my recent upgrades and noticed that there was mention that anti-roll bars don't really do that much to the Supra.... due to the way the suspension arms/struts are setup and the loading that goes through them.

 

It may take a tenth of a second off a flat out laptime but a 10th is not worth me spending £100's. If I was competing in my Supra then yes definitely, but for the benefits of on the road and occasional track driving then I decided it wasn't worht it.

 

The RS-R suspension is that stiff anyhow that body roll is hardly noticable !!

 

Full mod list of my car is in my garage... see sig link below.

[Gaz Walker]

Great write up Aron, well done.

 

Gaz.

[Kevin Huntley]

Hi Aron, thanks for the feedback on the Kit. I have the RS-R race setup fitted to my Zed and it is absolutly fantastic. The car handles as if it is on rails and I can take bends far faster that before. The engineering of the RS-R kit is second to none and there is very little road noise or knocking coming from the kit which can't be said for most other setups on the market!

 

RS-R also do the street version of the kit which is probably a little more forgiving for those customers who are mainly interested in fast road use it is also a little cheaper too, and ofcourse we keep it in stock!

 

Both kits were developed with Orido and the race kit is actualy what is fitted to his own car.

 

Thanks

 

Kevin