Joey's Cooper Thread; Suspension Thoughts

[Keef]

You guys already have salt, wow. We may too now. Apparently we had a little snow storm this morning that actually covered the roads.

You're going to be amazed my these tires. Whether it's a dusting or 6 inches, you will lyao. Oh, but watch out for painted road lines when it's wet this winter. My Blizzaks would lock up almost immediately when braking moderately over cold, wet lines.

 

[Philly]

Oh and as usual excuse the dirty car, there hasn't been a clear enough day to actually wash it and I don't really fancy standing outside for 20 minutes when it's in the low 30's.

Apparently you at least have the intention to wash it... Most people in Michigan or Seattle don't really seem to have any desire to wash their car between October and April it seems.

And then there's me out there washing the car with three inches of snow on the ground and rain falling from the sky.

 

[Joey D]

Oakland County likes to use up all of their salt by the first of the year so they can complain they don't have any and don't have enough money to buy more. I think it's a ploy so they don't have to work as much to be honest. It just screws all of us over.

I'm already fairly impressed with the tires. They ride so much nicer in the cold weather because they aren't hard as a rock. The handling is something to be desired but whatever, it's winter and I'm not going anywhere fast. It sort of feels like I put really nice tires on a Buick, it's smooth but when I try to get aggressive in the turns it feels like mashed potatoes. They're decent on the freeway too, although at 75 they are extremely loud.

It was snowing on the way to work this morning and I had no traction issues, but it was only a light dusting on the road. Hopefully Wednesday morning we'll have some real snow on the ground.

Apparently you at least have the intention to wash it... Most people in Michigan or Seattle don't really seem to have any desire to wash their car between October and April it seems.

And then there's me out there washing the car with three inches of snow on the ground and rain falling from the sky.

I hate washing my car in the winter, the doors freeze shut, I get a bad case of hypothermia, and it gets dirty again just by driving from the car wash to my garage. I typically just spray the car off and call it good. Doing any more is pointless.

 

[YSSMAN]

Word is that the snow apocalypse is coming on Thursday... So you may get your chance full a full test by the weekend. They're calling for blizzards here, and I'm sure it will drift toward Detroit by the end of the day.

 

[Joey D]

Word is that the snow apocalypse is coming on Thursday... So you may get your chance full a full test by the weekend. They're calling for blizzards here, and I'm sure it will drift toward Detroit by the end of the day.

2-4" tomorrow night into Wednesday and an additional 1 or 2 by Thursday. Storm systems tend to be all tuckered out by the time they reach us here. They are calling for a lot of rain though, which translates into ice. You guys on the other side of the state are continuously being pounded by the weather it seems.

 

[TheBook]

Word is that the snow apocalypse is coming on Thursday... So you may get your chance full a full test by the weekend. They're calling for blizzards here, and I'm sure it will drift toward Detroit by the end of the day.

Not like you haven't already been raped by the weather.

Though we're supposed to get a pretty decent amount of snow this week, too. Suppose Joey and I are in the same boat, in which we both want to try out our new snow tires.

 

[Jim Prower]

Same here in Illinois...Tomorrow.

So, I'll be testing my new all-season tires then. Today, on the cold, wet roads, and with some snow on my home street, they didn't do too bad.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

I like the wheels in this pic. When did you get those? BTW great pic!

 

[Omnis]

Joey, I hope you got yourself a good thick layer of wax for the winter. Lol.

 

[Joey D]

I like the wheels in this pic. When did you get those? BTW great pic!

Thanks!

Got the rims over the summer, they are MB Wheels Mesh X's from Discount Tire. I'm pretty happy with them.

Joey, I hope you got yourself a good thick layer of wax for the winter. Lol.

Did it a couple weeks back when the weather was nice so I shouldn't have a problem.

 

[Joey D]

Winter Shenanigans

So yesterday I was with some buddies taking pictures when we decided to attempt some action shots in the snow. We found a snow covered lot in the back area of Stony Creek Metropark. As we were setting up the park's police showed up and asked what we were doing. We explained to him that we were planning on some low speed action shots. He seemed to be more concerned that we weren't shooting these for pay then we were actually doing something mildly stupid. We pointed out the a professional crew wouldn't have some guy laying in the back of a Neon with the deck lid held up with a roll of duct tape. He laughed, told us to be safe and have fun. Cool cop, glad some aren't complete wangs.

And to show I'm serious about our car rig:

Since the cop was generous enough to give us his good graces and since my car has traction control as well as stability control from hell, I didn't do anything crazy. Just some sweeping turns and what not.

 

[TheBook]

We pointed out the a professional crew wouldn't have some guy laying in the back of a Neon with the deck lid held up with a roll of duct tape.

This screams of epic amounts of win.

Nice shots, too. 👍

 

[Omnis]

Obligatory DK Mode:

 

[Philly]

Looks like fun, Joey!

The sliding one is pretty cool. 👍

 

[homeforsummer]

Agreed, the sliding one looks pretty good. Pity you didn't use slower shutter speeds, a few of the moving shots don't have much of an impression of movement.

 

[Joey D]

Thanks for the comments fellas. The only issue with using a slower shutter is that our rig was fairly redneck (as seen by the pictures). We tried some slower shutter shots but they were just blurry and over exposed, mainly do to the winter sun and that the Neon was on track ready coil overs. We are currently working on a proper rig that will mount in a minivan so expect more shots once that is complete.

 

[Keef]

How did the Generals treat you? I think I'm going to pass on WS60s this time because ExtremeWinterContacts in my size are $60 a set cheaper. The Generals are even less expensive. Do you feel unstoppable with them?

 

[Jim Prower]

Love your grin, Joey. Appears you're having fun! ;3

 

[Joey D]

How did the Generals treat you? I think I'm going to pass on WS60s this time because ExtremeWinterContacts in my size are $60 a set cheaper. The Generals are even less expensive. Do you feel unstoppable with them?

I got the Hankook Winter iPike W409's and they pretty awesome. They work decently well in the snow but they are awesome on the ice. I'm still waiting on a proper snow to test them out but we've had an inch or two on the road and I didn't have any problems. I did however have to drive 60 some miles on I-75 when it was a solid sheet of black ice, the tires never missed a beat and I was quite happy.

Love your grin, Joey. Appears you're having fun! ;3

It was more that I couldn't get over the sheer hilarity of my buddy laying in the back of a Neon, with coil overs trying to take my picture. But I was still enjoying what we were doing.

 

[Keef]

I got the Hankook Winter iPike W409's and they pretty awesome. They work decently well in the snow but they are awesome on the ice. I'm still waiting on a proper snow to test them out but we've had an inch or two on the road and I didn't have any problems. I did however have to drive 60 some miles on I-75 when it was a solid sheet of black ice, the tires never missed a beat and I was quite happy.

Hankook, not General. I should read more lol.

 

[Joey D]

LED City Lights

So I got my dLED city light bulbs from Hoën High Performance Lighting today and threw them in. They were sort of a pain because the little doors I had to open had so much salt and mud caked in there it made it difficult to open. So a job that should have taken 5 minutes took my a half hour. Anyways I'm pretty happy with the results and they do not throw a "bulb out" warning which is good.

Here is a before shot:

And an after shot:

A comparison showing the brightness, the dLED is on the passenger side and the halogen is on the driver's side:

All installed:

They colour match the HID's quite nicely:

 

[Keef]

Very interesting. Looking at your shenanigans pictures above it's clear how lame ass the stock lights were. You can hardly see them anyway. These look much brighter.

Also, how the hell many lights does that car have on the front? You've got driving lights, you've got headlights, you've got fog lights, and you've got FOG LIGHTS. And those in particular need to be yellowed out methinks.

 

[Joey D]

I got city lights, fog lights, parking lights, head lights and driving lights (the ones on the grill).

My driving lights have yellow bulbs in them but I need to put some yellow film on them to make the look a bit better. I just need to find the stuff.

The LED's are brighter but the colour is blue opposed to yellow so it's sort of hard to tell if they put out more lumens.

 

[Keef]

When do the city lights work? I've never even heard that term before. Do they stay on all the time?

 

[Joey D]

When do the city lights work? I've never even heard that term before. Do they stay on all the time?

They come on with the parking lights and regular lights. My headlights are on all the time so the city light stay on too. I've been told numerous times what they are for but I can never remember it.

 

[niky]

+1000. And in all seriousness, HELLA covers. The MINI is one of the few cars on the road that can probably pull those off.

They come on with the parking lights and regular lights. My headlights are on all the time so the city light stay on too. I've been told numerous times what they are for but I can never remember it.

Daytime Running Lights, aren't they? To increase your visibility to other motorists?

 

[Perfect Balance]

City lights are different than driving lights, they stay on when the normal lights come on, unlike driving lights, but I'm not sure what their purpose is.

 

[Joey D]

+1000. And in all seriousness, HELLA covers. The MINI is one of the few cars on the road that can probably pull those off.

I have covers for them but they are white and they don't match anything else. I'm going to attempt to paint them at some point.

Daytime Running Lights, aren't they? To increase your visibility to other motorists?

Maybe, but I have DRL disabled and when I do enable them it just puts the low beams on. I think they work like parking lights. I know Famine explained it to me recently but I can't find the post.

 

[Philly]

Looks good! I always thought the halogen fogs with HID lights looked goofy on the GTI. This seems to fix that up on your car a bit.

So those things are called city lights? Do they actually accomplish anything? I have a similar sort of thing that's a very light peach sort of color that comes on when I put my lights on. And then stays there when the parking lights are on (lights on, engine off). I always thought they were simply for looks...

 

[Joey D]

Their purpose? Well after checking the internet for a while this morning the best I came up with is that they work about the same as parking lights. Allow your car to be lit without having your normal lights on.

Wikipedia say this though:

Colloquial city light terminology for front position lamps derives from the practice, formerly adhered to in cities like Moscow, London and Paris, of driving at night in built-up areas using these low-intensity lights rather than headlamps. It is now illegal in many countries to drive a vehicle with parking lamps illuminated, unless the headlamps are also illuminated. The UK briefly required Dim-Dip lights, described below, in an attempt to optimize the level of light used at night in built-up areas.