so. after lookin on the net for about an hour mindlessly. i've decided to enlist 7'clubs best and brightest(haha cant stop laughing..jk) to help out. ive looked as cusco,tanabe,megan,and tien sofar. but honestly their sites could be a little bet better designed. so i was just wondering what you guys would recommend for coilovers. my budget is approx 900-1200. but honestly if its above that idk. just want something for track use mostly,so the streetability of it really doesnt matter.

 

I hate to break it to you, but $900 per corner will barely get you a decent track setup, much less $900 for the entire car. If you want something that slightly better than stock then any of those you listed will be fine, but none of them are really quality high performance manufacturers.

 

Personally I bought a set of Godspeed Type RS coilovers last tax season, cost me under 700 with the ebay deals that were going on at the time. New @ www.godspeedproject.com you can find them for the fc starting at about 700 a set.

Sadly I cannot give you any insight as to how they ride or pictures of what my FC looks like with them installed as my project is still in the 'gather parts' phase and im short some bushings/mounts from disassebling the suspension and putting it back together with my new parts.

 

$1200 will get you a set of stances. Thats about the best you're going to do for the money(and have something that will last longer that 18months).

 

The cheapest race-level kits are the $1250 ISC Racing Bilstein setup and the Ground Control setup that usually runs around $1,000-1,300 depending on what kind of price you can find on the shocks. Then there is also the cost of professional corner-weighting, as well as some labor costs if you are not going to do the work yourself.
http://www.iscracing.net/2nd_gen_rx7.html
http://www.ground-control-store.com/...hp/II=41/CA=23

Article on coilovers for racing:
http://farnorthracing.com/autocross_secrets6.html

With such a tight budget I don't think that a dedicated race car is a very good idea. A good IT/EP track setup is usually around the $30-50K range, and then on top of that you need a truck and trailer, racing safety apparel, a few thousand dollars for racing school to get your license, as well as about $10K/year in expendables such as tires, brakes, entry fees, hotels, body damage, etc. Most of the people on this forum who use the cheapie Chinese coilovers just want to slam their car to the ground and make it look like they have a race car... nothing wrong with that, but it's not a race car.

Do you have an IRA yet?
http://mingsb.com/iraaccount/investi...o-begin-today/

 

I have a set of Tein Flex on my car and I love them, they are stiffer than stock ofcourse but are still comfortable enough for street driving. I can't say I have ever used them on a track but Tein is a very well know japanese suspension manufacture and I have seen racecars using their more expensive top of the line setups with success.

 

I got some HKS Hipermax II's off of ebay for 800 from Malaysia. The shipping was 130, and it only took UPS 3 days to get them here!

They arrived in immaculate condition! The ride is MUCH smoother than the Tein springs.

 

Everyone has a different definition of track car, so I think that may need to be defined first.

I feel that in reality, most people who think they want coilovers for handling purposes would really be satisfied with some upgraded shocks and springs.

 

For that money, don't get coil-overs. Or get a set of good condition used ones, preferably with a current dyno sheet. For corner weighing just make some friends with scales... ;-)

Riz.

 

I'm surprised no one said Silkroads...

 

For roughly that money why not have ISC put together a set of Bilstein's for you?

 

I agree.

Even assuming that quality parts are installed, that's only half the battle.
Every adjustment is a chance to get it wrong, the more adjustments, the worse it gets.
Out of all the possible permutations, only a very small window gets good results...a poorly set up Ohlins is just as bad as a poorly adjusted Godspeed.
Most folks haven't the telemetry to really see what the suspension is doing and must rely on driver input, a notoriously inaccurate source.

 

^^^Pretty much.

Just about anything is better than blown or worn out stock components (even "cheap" coilovers).

Coming from a fwd pos the stock FC suspension felt great at first even though I had blown stock struts....that didn't last long. I replaced that with with Ground Controls w/ tokico blues (got a great deal on the whole setup). They felt great for a while but as I started to push the car in autox and some parking lot antics I could tell it left much to be desired.

I priced replacement struts AGX's or Illuminas but ulitimately got a deal on some new Ksports for much less than the cost of the struts +camber plates+lowering strut tops I would have needed to upgrade the GC's. While far from "Race Spec" they were/are a definite improvement over the GC (w/ tokico blues at least-- I'm sure its a different story with the koni's but that's a lot more $$$ as well). They work just fine for my purposes, but I'm sure if I went to some real track days, upgraded my skills and got some sticky tires, I'd soon be looking for a "real track setup".

There's a big difference between a setup you can enjoy at the track and a setup that will make you competitive. In all honesty if it were the latter I don't think this is where you would be asking the question, so coilovers should suit your purposes just fine.

 

i agree with that, a full road race setup, and a nice street setup don't have to be the same thing...

although having done quite a few FC's suspensions, the SHOCK has the biggest impact on ride quality. good shocks, adjusted properly ride (and handle) better than stock even with 400lbs springs.

this is true also, the butt dyno needs to be calibrated. it doesn't help that we say things like the car turns over but it doesn't start either. i've done a lot of things with cars, but i've never flipped one turning the key in the ignition!

so part B is that one weekend at the track last year we were able to shave almost 2 seconds off of the lap time of the guy in the pitts next to us. he had all the bling bling suspension stuff on the car, but he never adjusted it.

we have tried everything on our car, and basically we know what adjustments do what on the suspension.

 

I remember seeing a thread a while ago that listed the Mazda Competition suspension components and that is what I would go for rather than coilovers. I tried looking for it but I can't for the life of me seem to find it.

 

It was a thread where someone asked about Cusco coilovers. Probably from a couple of weeks ago. I'd link you, but the phone isn't very user friendly if trying to search.

 

http://www.mazdamotorsports.com

K-STG2-91-RX71 is the part number they show, but you can ask by name

its in the $1200 range, but its camber plate/coilover/rear camber link/sway bars/springs/and koni shocks, its complete

 

K-STG2-91-RX71 is NLA. You need to piece the kit together manually

 

With that kind of budget, u better start small. 1300 not even 2k will get u a good set of coilovers.

Instead u should just use that money to go for a few driving school or autox and fix whatever is blown on ur car b4 u even bother looking for an upgrade.

Not to mention, if u dont know what u are doing, a set of coilovers with so many adjustments will just confuses u. My rx8 has ohlins and it took me a while to find a setting for street , one for autox, and need to test another setting on a track this year, see if i have the time.

Now my 7 has brand new stock shocks, simply because i wanna get the feel of the basic car before i move on, i originally bought stance al+ for it and i dont like it, not bad but just not my cup of tea.sold it and bought brand ne wshocks and springs and loads of other stuff instead.

Just keep in mind this car is over 20 years old lots of **** on it is already worn out, fix those first, think about other **** later

 

If you are still looking I have full suspension stuff off my FC race car. Koni struts frt and rear,solid bushings everywhere,springs,heim jointed rods,etc.How full blown do you want to go? Let me know.

 

depending on what your doing, i like megan, PBM, and teins for the fc chassis.

but then again, im probably not into what your into.. as far as everyone telling you good suspension is 2k, not necessarily true. they are talking for strict track cars only (because race car). hell i know a lot of miata guys that will buy good struts and put sleeve overs on them with good springs, and rather have that than some teins that are 1.2-1.8k, and it still be way cheaper in the end.. win/win

also learning to drive the **** outta the car really helps too =)

 

I got a set of HSD coilovers, now I am a big sceptic since I know what real coilovers feel like, but kids make u a pauper,there is a big difference in ride and quality. The ride is good for $1000 their is no brake line attachment in the front can't expect the world, I am getting them setup this week apparently it's 16 way adjustable.

Hybrid

 

I like Tein personally, I upgraded the suspension on my car for 500 dollars using KYB shocks with Tein lowering springs and it felt 100x different from my stocks, especially when I added my strut tower bars. If you're going for real competition suspension 800-1000 wont do it, but if you're looking for good stiff suspension that will let you have fun on track days win or lose, I would go with Tein (not because I have proof they're superior I am just being a fanboy).

Let us know which one you choose, and throw some pics up when you get it all installed!

 

id say, save your pennies, up your budget, and get something that isnt made in taiwan, rides well, and is streetable/trackable.
budget should be: ~2500 max, for that price, you can get pretty good stuff

Lloyd

 

Tein is definitely good for the money. I upgraded my suspension last year with Tokico blues and Tein lowering springs. Handles a million times better and looks great. Save your money if you want coilovers but you might just want to replace it with a decent set up first off. You need to see how it handles with decent suspension first before you get crazy with it.