How far south on Skyline have you gone? If you make it down past hwy that connects to downtown Saratoga there's a tight breakdown section to Bear Creek Rd that has back to back switchbacks to practice consecutive Apex S lines. Another one is Page Mill Road, but there's houses and random bikers to watch out for. Bear Creek is deep in the mountains for some un-interrupted practice.

I know a couple shops in the area depending on what work you might need done through friend referrals, but I'm more heavily invested in SoCal ever since moving down here in 2013.

Since you frequent skyline, focus on suspension components first. Control Arms, Full Whiteline bushings, sways, chassis bars, and maybe a cage [if you want to go that far]. Invest in a nice break setup, maybe a BBK if you start to feel fade going down hill, and then a nice sticky tire and light wheels.

As you do those mods in steps you'll get a better feel for controlling the car, and maintaining your speed through driving feel, and from there you can ramp up the horsepower knowing you have the means to handle it. I've put distance on Miatas with basic suspension mods, some with coilovers going up skyline in my Cruze. And it might as well be a truck in comparison when it comes to weight.

 

I'm not sure how far south I went, but we treated Alice's Restaurant (intersection of Skyline and La Honda) as the home base and made runs up and down hill from that area. I will take note of your recommendations, you are right to be careful when driving through the area. Roads seem narrower and more populated than the LA ones I am used to (ACH, Malibu, etc.).

Another thing I should add to my preliminary "review" of the car is that I am actually was satisfied with the automatic 7AT in manual mode. The paddles in the G37 sport package made shifting easier and I was actually satisfied with the shifting response. I feel like the manual mode has slow response during low-throttle daily driving applications, but during full throttle applications it bangs through the gears much quicker, especially the 3 to 4 shift, for some reason. Riding in my friend's stick shift FR-S, his car definitely felt more dramatic rowing through the gears, but I prefer the smoother shifting of an automatic for everyday comfort and driving in SF. Having lived in the Bay, I'm sure you understand...

I would like to know who your friend referrals are, regardless of what they specialize in. Daly City has a bunch of auto shops but I haven't found one to stay loyal to.

As far as your suspension recommendations - I have never considered upgrading the control arms and bushings, I always saw those as maintenance items rather than performance mod items. Will have to do some googling on that one, thanks for the suggestion. I have a Tanabe FTSB but it isn't noticeable on its own. Roll cage is not gonna happen . Brakes may happen down the line but only if I add power, the sport package brakes are sufficient even for the downhill sections.

Planning to combine a wheel + tire + coilover + camber arm upgrade when these stock tires wear out. That way the upgrade is more cohesive, rather than worrying about fitment, alignment, camber on multiple occasions. It will be a beautiful day when that day comes!! I may even stick to 18" wheels to avoid adding weight and also to avoid fitment issues.

What kind of Cruze is it? I have never seen a Cruze in a performance setting lol, but I believe you. During the drive, my friend and I caught up to what looked like a family car - a Lexus ES sedan. Expecting the driver to use a turnout to let us pass, we were very surprised when the driver took off. We never caught up!!

 

Most of them are small shops scattered throughout the South Bay that friends in a local car group refer based on what you need done.

Bushings are typically a maintenance item, however upgrading to a solid, or stronger poly bushing from Whiteline/etc. can help stiffen up the suspension play and help in the corners. As for Control Arms, you can typically get aftermarket options that are stronger than stock, as well as lighter using forged aluminum. They also typically give you adjustment options so that you have more control over your caster & camber to take full advantage of a corner balance.

Suspension/Aero mods include: Custom valved ISC N1 Coilovers [8K | 10K], Whiteline front & rear sway bars, Whiteline Control arm bushings [front], Ultra Racing Front upper strut tower, Rear upper strut tower, rear torsion, rear 2 pt, center 4 pt, front control arm 3 point [both sides], Crazy Engineering Splitter [chassis mount to oil drain], Skirts, Diffuser [Chassis mount to rear Z-link/sway bar], and Canards.

Cage is being built this year.

 

^ That is a very good looking Cruze. Wow. I did not know they could be a foundation for a build, it's the first I've ever seen.

 

A lot of people don't, but its understandable. In fact, the Cruze is originally Korean, manufactured and sold in 2008 as a 2009 model, before being sold in late 2010 as a 2011 model in the US. Its also competed in WTCC from 2010-2014 taking one year off in 2013, where it won the championship in 2010 and 2011, winning the most in it's class.



Its a slow eco car, but it has a fantastic chassis, and through two main tuners on the East coast, there are bolt on supporting mods to push 310whp reliably on stock internals with the 1.4T engine. A Weight stripped sonic was able to post a mid 12 second pass on the strip.

 

I've been reading up on aftermarket adjustable sway bar end links, knew nothing about them before today. I'm getting mixed opinions - some people say you should only get them once the OEM ones break, others say that running aftermarket sways on stock end links will compromise the handling of the vehicle as a whole, due to the sway bars being "preloaded" (still not clear on what that means), and hence an aftermarket end link should be included in any sway bar upgrade.

Any thoughts or experience, Rochester/Justin?

 

I've swung back and forth on pursuing the "upgrade" to aftermarket end-links, so my advice isn't necessarily advice, just an indecisive reasoning du jur. I'm only at 32K miles on my car, and all four swaybar endlinks are OEM. My car is lowered, and I have aftermarket Eibach swaybars.

The common brands for these parts are:

• Moog - inexpensive, sturdy, basically OEM, however they have zerk fittings and need to be re-greased periodically.
• SPC - moderately expensive, sturdy, but they don't make fronts.
• SPL - very expensive, and beautifully engineered... or so they look by design. I'm not an engineer.

I've also read numerous complaints about SPC and SPL end-links groaning and squeaking. There is no wrong answer. At the moment, I'm not upgrading or dealing with it until it becomes a pressing need.

 

Aftermarket end links only help with transfer of the sway bar to the control arm/strut that its mounted to. Its not always needed due to your setup, and usually only NEEDED in track environments, or heavy/frequent cornering where you're exhausting all avenues of rigidity. As long as your stock end links are squared up properly, and they're doing their job, there is no need for aftermarket.

 

I had the rear sway installed today! See OP for a pic.

The shop had to use a drill and widen the sway bar hole so that it could bolt onto the end link. Maybe the bar isn't the right part? I did get it on craigslist after all.

Impressions after having it installed. I had the shop install it on the middle hole (medium stiffness):
- Heavier steering at a stop/low speeds
- Quicker turn in and more responsive steering (felt more "darty" and sensitive)
- Increased NVH (this one surprised me)
- Significantly decreased body lean

The car feels different. It feels more planted but at the same time much more sensitive to my inputs (throttle, braking, and steering). I'm almost scared to drive it - it's like I have to re-learn the car again and get a feel for its new limits.

Hopefully I will come by a cheap front sway soon to complete the set, I feel like I need to get my suspension geometry in balance. In the meantime I plan to thoroughly enjoy this new upgrade

 

Finally got around to taking a proper pic of the car with my camera.

 

Installed eibach front sway bar yesterday after months of just having the rear sway bar.

Although just having the rears did help a lot in reducing body roll, it made the car dangerously tail happy. I feel like the car's traction control system was not able to compensate for the imbalance between front and rear, and found myself in hairy situations where the car would lose control and spin out.

Deciding my life was worth more, I installed a front eibach sway bar on the softer setting.

Some observations:
- Not much reduction in body lean compared to the rear bars only.
- More steering resistance from lock to lock.
- The car still tends towards oversteer on power, but the VDC can actually catch you before you spin out.
- More feel in the steering wheel going over bumps, rough roads, etc.

Still not QUITE where I want this car to be as far as handling, it's still not as communicative or confidence inspiring as my friend's GT86 or the E46 I used to have, but I'm slowly coming to accept that it will never get there haha.

 

After taking the car to autox, noticed that the power steeling fluid looked bubbly and old. Flushed in some Redline D6 ATF and now the steering feels "smoother" if that makes any sense. I think it was the first time it's been changed, at 43k miles. See old fluid below.