Latest update on the suspension work. The car is back on the road complete with an Adamesh stage 1 and 2 exhaust. Sounds awesome, maybe a little too loud but the same level as a current Mustang. Sounds like a V8 should and performance wise there is a noticeable improvement. It is much more responsive and gets off the line alot quicker, freer revving. The handling still feels not right, plenty of grip but it feels like its moving around on the tyres or the suspension. Its hard to describe, maybe its the shocks or the tyres.Having said that if I stick to the speed limit and don't try and drive it like a nibble sports car (like my RX8) its just fine. Really hard braking is interesting though - it wants to go straight ahead and its really hard to get it to turn. We're talking pushing the pedal through the floor and activating the ABS here though. The brakes are the massive 355mm with Brembo's so plenty of stopping power.

Took it in for it's WOF (Warrant of Fitness), an annual check that has to be done on all cars in NZ. It failed on "play at the front lower arm rear bushes". The bushes are about 1 year old and the car's only done approx 2,000km in that time. Weird that its only those bushes. I've had a look myself and the only way I can get "play" is to use a long lever wedged between the lower arm and subframe and pull hard. There's no "play" as such, its all compression of the bush. I've pulled the lower arms out and checked the bushes in question and there are no signs of wear. They're as good as the day they went in. I suspect that this is normal with the Powerflex bushes and if I used a long lever on any of the bushes I could induce "play". I know the mechanic that I took the car too for its WOF is very thorough and he doesn't like after market suspension bushes so perhaps he's looking for something that isn't there.

Has anyone else used the Powerflex bushes and experienced "play" like this? How does this compare to the standard factory rubber bushes? Thanks in advance for any advice or comments.

 

I haven't read your thread in its entirety, but its seems like you upgraded/ changed out a lot of different bushings. When I first purchased my XKR it was a pretty scary ride, I thought it was going to need a lot of suspension work but after buying a brand new set of tires ($520 off-brand) the cheapest I could find the ride was night and day and is no longer scary to drive. The tires that I replaced were like 4-5 year old Michelin's brand name $1,400 tires. Thats just my experience. I couldn't believe the difference.