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Hello fellow BS owners and enthusiasts! Just wanted to introduce myself to the small community here. I just picked up a bone stock black BS a few weeks ago and loving it thus far. I came from a modded ISF and not really tied to any one particular manufacturer, so I test drove/evaluated many cars before deciding on the BS. I'm still completely blown away by the driving experience and shocked at how much this car flies under the radar. I'd say 90% of people I talk to have no idea what it is. Some people stare with a dumbfounded look on their face. Do you guys have the same experience? It's very amusing!
As for mods, I'd like to preserve the essence of the car, so I'm not doing anything that can't be easily reversed. First step is a full wrap for paint protection, since the car didn't have a bra and I actually don't like black cars Next up are more aggressive and wider wheels/tires, and then I'm going to lower the ride height/get an alignment and call it a day.
It sounds like most of you are very knowledgable and have vast experience with other high performance cars as well, so looking forward to chatting with everyone.
I suppose one obvious question (And excuse me if this topic has been beaten to death) is that this engine is the same one that is prone to the head bolt issue. The car is obviously out of warranty and I'm rolling the dice, but I did a search specifically for the BS and didn't see anyone having this issue... Is it just a matter of small sample size + tendency for low mileage on this car?
2008 CLK63 Black Series; 1978 Toyota Land Cruiser; 2015 BMW R1200GSA; 2003 Porsche 996 Turbo (gone)
Welcome to the forum and a small (367 by MB count) band of owners. Not too knowledgeable on the head bolt issue, but several here, including JCART can spin you up...haven't heard of anyone here having the issue though. As for the ride height, not sure how low you want to go, but you can get add'l drop from the stock suspension...car originally came with the tools to make the adjustments. On the wrap, unless they're already chipped, cover the leading edges of hte rear fenders also. Finally, have fun with the new ride...I haven't looked back and for the first time in many years, I'm not looking at any other car.
If you do a quick search for head bolt in the CLK section, a thread about it will pop up. Don't think there was any rhyme or reason for any motors that had the issue.
If you lower the car you may sacrifice some ride comfort if you don't change your springs. JBrady and others spoke about it in the HK Motorsports thread for new lowered springs. Don't forget about alignment and camber adjustments either.
A few threads on wheel options, MORR, ADV.1, etc...
MOFLO - Interesting to see how much ride comfort would be sacrificed for a minor drop (i.e. 0.25 - 0.5in)? Not looking to slam the car by any means. I assumed that the factory coilovers should allow some range of tweaking without severely impacting the ride, unlike typical spring-only mods.
COOPERDB - Thanks for the thread regarding the head bolt, I already read it end-to-end and did my thorough research before I bought the car, again not seeing any BS owners in that party (Luckily).
1JDM911 - Yup, ClubLexus was my home, same SN. Was initially selling the IS-F to get the RC-F, and decided against it due to a multitude of factors... then looked at a range of options including P-cars and ended up with this beast.
As I'm looking at wheel options, I realize that there is no aftermarket wheel thread for this car where people post their set ups. I suppose the picture thread kinda does the job but the specs are missing. Would it be helpful to start a sticky where we can share offsets, tire sizes, amount the car is lowered, etc? I hope MBers are not part of the secret offset society. lol.
If you just lower the ride height without changing compression/rebound settings on the shocks, it will not affect ride quality. With the stock springs there is only a small amount of lowering with the limiters in place. I have after market springs on my car, lowered it much more than stock and have aggressive compression and rebound settings. It's pretty stiff and some might not like it ... it's also a litter harder to get in and out of driveways ... but I'm pretty used to having lowered cars. To give you an idea of ride height ... some pics of my car.
There is good selection of wheels now available for this car ... much better than 7 years ago when I bought my car ... but custom wheels, in my opinion, is still the way to go if you want perfect off sets.
Car is being wrapped as we speak so I'll post a pic when I get it back
SMP: That's the stance I'd want... guess that's beyond the limit on the stock coils, huh? Can you share details of the wheel/tire setup? PM would be fine too
Is anyone else running on stock coils but lowered to the limit? Wonder what that looks like. I actually really like the stockers but don't want to run spacers on them to push them out.
If you just lower the ride height without changing compression/rebound settings on the shocks, it will not affect ride quality. With the stock springs there is only a small amount of lowering with the limiters in place. I have after market springs on my car, lowered it much more than stock and have aggressive compression and rebound settings. It's pretty stiff and some might not like it ... it's also a litter harder to get in and out of driveways ... but I'm pretty used to having lowered cars. To give you an idea of ride height ... some pics of my car.
There is good selection of wheels now available for this car ... much better than 7 years ago when I bought my car ... but custom wheels, in my opinion, is still the way to go if you want perfect off sets.
Congrats on your new car!
Love the perfect stance on your BS. Looks great
Are you running H&R springs? Also, what are the specs on your HREs and tires?
Originally Posted by primecut
Is anyone else running on stock coils but lowered to the limit? Wonder what that looks like. I actually really like the stockers but don't want to run spacers on them to push them out.
I'm running stock springs and lowered to the limiters along with 10mm front and 12mm rear H&R spacers. Looks better than stock, but there's still a bit of wheel gap in the front. I'm considering 15mm/20mm spacers for a more flushed fender look. There's been no issues running spacers. You can remove the limiting ring to lower the car more, but not sure what best settings to use for rebound and compression. There are details in the owner's manual. There's also info to reset back to original factory settings.
I think aesthetic wise, SMP's lowered stance is spot on.
Got my car back a little while back, just wanted to share some pix from the vendor, don't have time to take my own yet Rolotech did an immaculate job on the wrap and went way above and beyond to make sure it's perfect. The color is metallic matte charcoal.
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I'd say 90% of people I talk to have no idea what it is. Some people stare with a dumbfounded look on their face. Do you guys have the same experience? It's very amusing!
Next up are more aggressive and wider wheels/tires, and then I'm going to lower the ride height/get an alignment and call it a day.
