DEFCON Suspension Modification
"DEFCON1 > all other mods put together?...
...Post install Nirvana: (1) I thought my car handled well before, but I was so totally, hopelessly, cluelessly wrong. The adjectives which follow are in some cases counterintuitive to my expectations, but here they are: The car feels lighter, smoother, more supple, easier to handle, less twitchy, dead flat neutral (at least I was expecting/hoping for that), more solid but with less (!) vibration. (2) Is there some weird harmonic damping going on because the car just feels like it has a new resonant frequency that exactly complements and cancels some of the preinstall NVH? I don't know and I might be hallucinating, but if that's the case this is one strong placebo. (3) Yeah, I needed this more than I needed my StopTechs (which continue to amaze me every time I nudge the brakes)..."
"There are a huge number of mods that cost more and do quite a bit less. DEFCONs FTW!"
"I took the route of letting Mike put a set of DEFCON 1 arms together for me and ship them to me fully assembled. This is a higher cost option but well worth it IMHO. He has the tools and the knowledge to do it right. They showed up Wednesday evening and I replaced them and sent Mike back my arms on Thursday. I'm sure glad I went with the -1 instead of the others. The feel gets better as the speed increases. The car is now tight and very responsive with no increase whatsoever in NHV..."
"They are awesome addition. Far better steering response, definitely a worthwhile investment..."
"...DefCon 1 RULES. They allowed me to make single-motion turn-ins to the apex, and I had few secondary inputs unless I was just plain wrong as I learned the line. The SINGLE best mod I'd recommend for a 1st-shot suspension tuneup. In an older car (9/99 build-date), DefCon are simply magnificent!..."
"I have kept my front ARB standard and uprated the rear to 16mm (Golf 4 Motion). This was in order to reduce understeer a little which it did to some extent. You notice the rear of the car trying to dictate the roll of the body more when going over sudden changes in road camber angle.
I then did the DEFCON mod and noticed a great improvement in steering response - almost like a quick rack on a rally car - you could feel the front wheels turning rather than the previous soft vagueness. Well recommended!"
"...we headed off to one of our favorite roads to see if the DEFCONs were worthy of praise.
In a word (or two), “hell yeah!”. Steering feel was greatly improved and the turn-in response is much crisper, almost like someone changed the steering rack to one with a tighter ratio. Honestly, we were shocked. In fact, it was something we had to get a bit acclimated with, because previous steering inputs had to be reduced in order to compensate for the changes to the car’s responsiveness. Overall, we couldn’t be more pleased with the results."
"The change to handling is unreal!, that additional few millimetres closed off by the collars turn the TT into a point and click machine, cornering is a joy, the handling has become extremely balanced, changes in direction are sharp and positive.
I feel this is an excellent addition to the TT if you are after a simple and positive upgrade get them they are great."
"After the install I took the car for a spin and would have to agree with the testimonials....the car feels like it shed about 300 lbs in the front, and turn-ins feel much more responsive....more point and shoot....
If I could do all of this over again, I'd just send MCPi the money and deposit, receive the new arms with Defcons and new bushings already installed, do the arm swap, and send my old arms back to MCPi for the deposit. But that would have been too easy! :-)"
Publications: