As for the EMD spring, I just realized, I haven't had time to take a picture of the car with them. The overall look of the car is exactly how I wanted it. The only thing that now it has me wanting to finish the look, is more so spacers then new wheels with a more aggressive offset (really eyeing some VMR V801's in Anthriacite Metallic). I feel like once this is sorted out, I will post pictures as I don't see myself changing a single thing around the exterior of the car. It's nearly perfect.
I spent a lot of time doing research on springs, from VMR, H&R, Eibach, and I still felt these were the best on the market for the drop I wanted but also the overall that I wanted.
Now we get into the dicey part of the discussion.
I am going to start with saying the install was approximately 6 hrs including 1 hr cost for alignment. So I want to put that out there because I had someone do the install so around here you are looking around $100 /hr as shop rate, so let's make that a cool $600 before taxes.
Comfort wise, I found all modes are more stiffer. Race isn't bad for daily driving for a city that gets winter weather - along with the terrible roads. Normal is about where I thought Race was before the spring and RSB were installed. Comfort mode on the other hand is nice and soft, and the weekend of August 17th it will go through the 'mom test' as I am taking her on a long road trip. She loves her Chevy Impala - so this will be a stress test for sure. My fiance enjoys cars in general, and no complaints all weekend from her - even when I complained to see if she would go along with complaining about comfort. She also lives in Montreal, where the roads are terrible, so I am sure that could change if I drove around Montreal.
I had installed prior to the springs the EMD Rear Sway Bar, and I found the rear end became much more active in Race mode as one would expect and this is a good thing. It truly transformed the car, and if you weren't going for a look for your car, the RSB is all you need.
Performance, this is where some people will continue to read, but others will have already had their answers made.
In race mode, the rebound in the rear is simply too stiff. It can at times create some gasp for air moments, where you think you might lose the back end when pushed too hard and hitting the right dip in the road. The general handling improvements of the RSB and OEM springs, had me feeling more confident then the RSB and lowered springs. I don't feel like endlinks will solve this problem, but I will look into replacing them later this year and getting everything aligned properly. I look forward to reporting too back actually on this. The general stiffness of the springs + shocks makes race mode I am sure excellent on the track, but maybe not on the unpredictable streets.
I asked EMD what their suggestions were, and quick solution to see if it gets better is put the spacers in the rear. If this does solve the problem, a quick trim of the bump stops should fix the problem. I will give this a shot when I find a free weekend to get in there. I will report on this as well!!!
In normal mode, I haven't spent enough time, because I do truly still enjoy race mode even with the change in comfort, but I feel like I might just dial everything into Race (within individual mode) and leave DCC in Normal. When something interesting is about to happen on a weekend for say, flip it to Race and have a little bit of fun.
Putting this all together, and remembering the point about cost to install. If you are still reading this, you went through the performance section. If I had to choose springs again, I would have went straight to the MSS Kit. Everything that XLR8 have said in their posts, along with the feedback of the customers - I must say I lived it and somewhat regret my purchase. I felt like from what customers were explaining, the cheap fix would be to add a RSB, but that is not the case, this is something else that I am not sure how to explain neither.
$370 CDN springs + $600 labor = or $1000, with a potential of and additional $600 wasted to upgrade to MSS Kit
$650 CDN springs/RSB + $600+ labor (I installed the RSB myself) = or $1200, with a potential of and additional $600 wasted to upgrade to MSS Kit
$1500 CDN MSS adjustable sports + $600 labor = or $2100
I haven't driven the MSS kit, but I have a feeling next year I will be opting for it. It does feel like I pissed away $600 on the decision, so I am posting this to others looking at springs vs going with the MSS Kit. Give it a strong thought, beware about the performance side of things. This is my personal opinion as it stands now...however, if the solution from EMD works, I will surely update this review.
Added a few pictures with the lowering, please note there are spacers in the rear, its not too noticeable of a difference (especially being a black car), so I am going to just leave it, as long as no one mentions it to me, then I dwell on it lol. Also the front, where it looks like the wheel liner is sticking out, it appears to be an optical illusion. I noticed it, so I went to my car and it's fine. It might be just because of the angle / black on black on black that is making it looks odd.