Vivid Racing has a long relationship with JIC coilovers and our project cars. We install JIC on almost every project car for one reason… they work! Our list of cars using JIC include our EVO VIII, Pepsi RX7, Drift 240SX, Porsche 996C2, our 700HP Porsche 996TT, Subaru STI, and our new EVO X. But why do we choose JIC Coilovers?
First lets talk about the functionality of the JIC coilovers. These coilovers feature 15 way adjustable dampening. Many of the competitions coilovers only have 9 or 10 way adjustable. The single adjustment for rebound and compression offers the ability to fine tune the ride for your street or track use. Depending on your other components such as tires and sway bars, the dampening will allow you to dial in your handling to squat and react as you need to fit your driving style.
Next, the JIC coilovers use monotube dampers. A monotube damper is much more rigid and stronger then a standard twin tube that you will find in many cheaper systems. The damper is nitrogen gas filled and setup specifically according to the spring rates and vehicle dynamics. The monotube damper also is very fast reacting to the road surfaces. One of our customers who test drove a Porsche 996TT with JIC Cross coilovers was suprised at the outstanding ride and functionality of the JIC compared to his Moton setup in his Porsche Cup racecar.
One big advantage of the JIC is that they include front camber plates and rear pillow ball mounts. The front camber plates replace the factory rubber strut tops to offer a very responsive and rigid steering response. In addition for those that do like to track their car or have aggressive suspension setups, the camber plates can allow of up to 3 degrees of negative camber. The rear strut uses pillowball mounts which like the fronts, improve upon the rigidity with the solid monoball setup. All JIC coilovers feature incredible and very easy to adjust on the car ride height. You can usually set the ride height to be close to stock or a drop of around 3 inches. With our car and the 19 IForged wheels with Michelin PS2 tires, we were able to have the car sit nicely on top of the tires for that clean Euro tucked look.
Usually one disadvantage of coilovers is the harsh ride. Many times, coilovers even with the dampening set at the softest level will still ride more harsh then the stock suspension. Having driven many different cars on the street and track with JIC coilovers, I expected the same with the Audi A3. To my excitement and suprise, it was not! The car rode very smooth with no bounce or hard hits from the road surface. Even going over some train tracks the coilovers absorbed and performed well. In turns, the car stays much more flat and with the help of the Neuspeed rear sway bar, the car is really dialed.
Overall, the JIC Cross coilovers for our Project Audi A3 were a great package to add. As this car progresses further, the excitement to possibly take it to a track day will happen. Our next step is to complete the exterior with an aero kit from Rieger or Oettinger. Enjoy the pictures!
Full Gallery is located here (leave your comments please!) – https://www.vividracing.com/forums/gallery/browseimages.php?c=283
You can view the JIC Cross coilovers here on our site – https://www.vividracing.com/catalog/jic-cross-competition-coilovers-audi-a3-20t-0608-p-48242.html
It looks sooo much better