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I've been looking around and it seems that a decent set of coilovers or even Koni/Bilstein inserts are no longer available for the FC. The only thing out there is a small smattering of low-end Taiwanese coilovers.
The only struts that are available are the Bilstein B6... does anybody know anything about these? They seem like pretty soft stock replacements rather than a performance setup.
Barring a custom setup, it seems like it is impossible to get motorsport quality damping on an FC RX7. A few years ago you could get Koni inserts combined with the ground control coilover kits that made for a pretty inexpensive setup for those of us without access to or know-how for custom fabrication.
Am I missing something? Seriously considering not getting an FC if I won't be able to find parts for it.
Yes, the problem of actual race quality parts drying up and then the design of the FC's actual suspension system is what really made me give up on my FC and part it.
RX-8 is the new FC in my opinion. Better suspension system and actual race spec parts still available with the base cost of the car and spare stock parts the same.
But I guess what chassis you choose depends on whether you have your heart set on a certain racing class or not.
Three problems:
1) Mazda is mostly focusing on the Miata in racing events now.
2) The non-racing public has focused on drifting, which does not require actual race-grade parts.
3) Even back in the 80's and 90's there were no race-grade coilover struts made for the RX-7. Your only option then (and now) was to fabricate them yourself or buy a fabricated strut tube and make your own struts with race-grade inserts (Koni, Bilstein, etc.).
I believe Charlie that runs Mazcare in Atlanta has Motons on one of the FC racecar's he has built.
If you want something for under $1800 or so that bolts right on, and is valved to the spring rates you are looking for check out Fortune 510s. They are Taiwan based hard mounting parts, but the cartridges are built by hand here in the USA with custom pistons and internals, good bearings, etc. I've been running them for about a year and a half. They aren't bad at all considering the cost.
You'd have to get Konis revalved for track spring rates if you are going to have a lot of power or a lot of tire. That turns Konis into an expensive endeavor for what you get.
Last edited by LargeOrangeFont; 03-12-16 at 01:16 PM.
There is some higher end stuff. Anze makes penske based coil overs for the fc.
I looked at those and was excited but the price for the FC setup with 7500 single adjustables is a lot. but prices for some of the other applications seemed really reasonable.
Last edited by LargeOrangeFont; 03-12-16 at 05:07 PM.
Thanks for the links and info... I'm glad to see Ground Control still has a Koni based coilover set on their website. At the same time I'm surprised because the Koni inserts don't seem to be available individually.
Why in gods name do you keep doing things like this to me
Is that the AWR roll center kit, or a custom one?
Any idea on how much that sway bar is? I'd love to get a bar with more rate and drop my spring rate in front a bit.
On the bright side, that guy is about an hour away from me with no traffic
Ha!
on the facebook post he said he had 25 hours into it.... so I'm sure it wouldn't be cheap to make another one. but most of the hard work has already been done, so I don't know.
on the facebook post he said he had 25 hours into it.... so I'm sure it wouldn't be cheap to make another one. but most of the hard work has already been done, so I don't know.
and yeah, that's an AWR roll center kit.
Yea I did see that notation about 25 hours.. If it could be done for several hundred bucks i'd probably be in.
I know I can construct a simpler splined speedway style bar for around that much
While you can sometimes find shock rebuilders that can work/substitute parts with the better rebuildable of those low end coilovers to get them valved right...
it is probably going to be cheaper and a better end product to start by using the motorsports grade components the builder is experienced working with and then they can supply the replacement parts as well.
Do you want to pay him $2,000 for the time it takes to figure out how to get a Cusco piston's shim stack to dyno the curve he is aiming for every time you change something on your suspension or $200 to assemble the stack for a curve using the components he already knows?
When OP says "suspension for racing", he means suspension that will be competitive in racing and serviceable enough to keep racing.
I really think the Ground Control Koni Coilovers would be ideal for my uses. Any kind of fabrication or even piecemeal assembly is pretty much beyond my capability/inclination at this point.
My interest in a "race" suspension is simply in the interest of putting good quality parts on the car. I look at the FC3S as a car with fundamental chassis and balance characteristics that make it very high performing platform, and would like to put parts on it that take full advantage of it's natural strengths. That and autocross.
So I'm pretty new at this. Does anybody have any comments on the Ground Control coilovers? It says they come with single adjustable Koni shocks, which I assume are better than anything else in that price range.
03-11-16 | 05:55 PM
