The RS has clocked up a little over 17000 km so far and it has been great so far. Typical Maruti ease of ownership coupled with an eager, peppy engine that has so far handled all that it has been thrown at. The daily grind, inching traffic, highway cruising and a few trips to the hills, it's delivered on all of them. Sure, the couple of crucial upgrades have really helped in ironing out the few compromises that Maruti has made in the interests of cost and appealing to a wider audience. Yes, very rarely there are nostalgic memories of the mid range of the GT but those are few and far between.
Of the compromises that Maruti made, none bothered me so much as the handling. It was stiffer than then regular Baleno and was fine as long as you were smooth on the throttle and did not push it too much into corners. However get ready for some aggressive cornering and I found myself having to wait while the car settled on it's springs before plugging on. Not good. To me it seemed that the springs were still too soft. Hunting about for a solution and at the same time not willing to make a huge investment this early, I decided to give RogerAb buffers a try.
Got the buffers in quick time. Decided to tackle the front first as this was the end that was giving me the most problem. The buffers were easy to fit, requiring nothing more than jacking up the car. However their circumference was a bit too much, so that they overlapped. Cutting a bit off would solve this but I haven't gotten around to it. The problem is that when the lower end of the buffer overlaps the upper, it fouls with the fender lining.
However the results were very good. It really firmed up the front suspension such that the wheel felt much more planted. The floatly feeling at triple digits speeds was also sorted out to a huge extent. There was a bit more heft to the steering wheel and the car felt much more planted when cornering.
The rear buffers were a bit more difficult and it seemed that I would have to undo the shocks to get enough extension on the spring to push the buffers in. So decided to shelf it for now and see how much of the handling was sorted out with the front buffers. Good, but not enough. The rear was a bit too soft and there was considerable weight transfer during accelerating and braking. Braking more so as the rear seemed to stand up when hard on the brakes. Not an issue if you were smooth on the brakes, squeezing them slowly so as to ensure a more gradual shift. Took another couple of weeks while I freed up some time to install the rear buffers. I took the car out for a drive and instantly felt a world of difference. The front axle seemed even more planted and high speed composure is so much more. The stance of the car also seemed to change a bit and the rake felt a little bit less. So much so that I feel it is a shame that Maruti opened itself up to so much brick bats on high speed composure just because of a softer suspension. The weight or the lack of it rather does play a part but primarily because of the absense of a suspension tune that matches the character of the car.
Even better was the braking feel or rather the improvement of the braking performance. I had earlier experienced this on my GT when I used Koni sport shocks on the rear. I feel much more confident braking hard rather than having to baby the brake pedal to ensure that the braking is smooth. The car holds it line very well now with acceptable (to me) roll. The front end does not dip so much when pushed into a corner. The best part is that the ride has not become so much more stiff kneed especially at the back. At this point I am pretty satisfied with what I have been able to achieve with the RogerAb buffers.
The second change that made a big difference was the tyre pressures. Thanks to an incorrect fillup at an alignment shop I am now running with 32 PSI against the company prescribed 29 PSI. With 29 PSI there used to be quite a bit of road noise (a fact I came to realise after running with 32 PSI) along with a bad rubbery vibe on the brakes especially when braking and cornering together. The change in pressure lightened up the front end and helped to tighten everything up together in a very nice way. I am pretty satisfied at where the entire package is at now to the extent that I am in no hurry to invest more anytime soon.
A few other things that I looked into an discarded on the way:
1. H&R springs - The 30mm lowering was not something I was willing to ake a chance on given our roads.
2. Swift Type 1(2008) Rear Springs - these were too tall for the rear.
3. Swift Type 1(2008) Front Springs - cooling off in my garage as the current setup has me pretty happy.
I think if I add on to this it would be a set of dampers. However I cannot seem to find any options on the Koni or Bilstien sites.
A couple of point on the Swift springs though. They are considerably thicker and heavier than the Baleno's, a reminder of what an excellent handling package that version of the Swift was.