i opened my vibra package at the shop so i could see the pretty things before they were installed and hidden for good. droool...they are gorgeous and scream precision. the shop guys were all pretty impressed. one of the guys wanted to take them apart lol.
the stockers. ehhh
i put about 50 miles on the new mounts today. i'm not sure what phil was warning us about, but the competition mounts are not bad at all. i have a rattle here and there while the car is idling, and this verrry mild echoing resonance in the cabin when i get going in low rpm first gear from a stop. but apart from idle and low rpm instances, the noise and vibration is not to the level i was expecting. standing outside of the car while it's idling you can tell the motor is giving off a more pronounced noise...less muffled if that makes any sense. kind of how your motor might sound on a very cold start, but all the time.
these mounts definitely serve their purpose. i cannot WAIT to take these to the track. if any of you are familiar with VIR, there's a sharp right hander (the turn is called oaktree) which i have been around countless times and get denied 3rd-2nd often. i got less denial with the A/S SSK, but i'm willing to bet that the motor mounts may help in that area based on how precise and crisp the relationship between motor and gear feel now. i think that's the best way to describe it - crisp. i think the mounts got rid of some throttle slop as well. maybe this is just placebo or my car was just running fantastic on this 40 degree day, but the motor responds cleaner and more instantaneously to my throttle inputs than i last remember.
you do feel a lot more of the road with the mounts in. i love that it's more like a racecar, but it may not be the ideal mounts for those who regularly bluetooth or enjoy drives with a tall cup of coffee/tea. it makes imperfections in the road more dramatic, but that's in no way a deal breaker or deterrent to me.
cliffs: they're awesome town.