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Anyone Have Experience with Tein SuperDrift Coilovers?

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Old 03-17-06 | 01:04 PM
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Anyone Have Experience with Tein SuperDrift Coilovers?

Please post your experience with these coilovers.

I'd basically like to know if these are tolerable on the street and how they handle on the track. I don't really want them for drifting. I want something with really good track performance yet quite tolerable on the street as a daily driver.

The front and rear spring rates are 14/14 and I'd like to know how neutrally you got your car to handle with these, or if I would be better off with softer springs in the rear. Are these spring rates too high for the street? Should I consider custom spring rates from Tein with these coilovers, maybe 12/12 or 12/10? Should I consider Tein Flex instead?

Thanks,
Old 03-17-06 | 01:25 PM
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Do you want to wreck the drivability of the car just to optimize it for drifting? Unless you are a full time drifter, that would seem pretty dumb to me.

14/14 is just LUDICROUS. There is zero need for springs that stiff...unless you want the car to slide easily. This is just more JDM crap....

The Tein Flex spring rates are high, but at least they are balanced front and rear, and are a far better choice.

Do a search on spring rates, it's been covered in great detail within the last year.....search under Howard Coleman for example.
Old 03-17-06 | 05:43 PM
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Originally Posted by rynberg
Do you want to wreck the drivability of the car just to optimize it for drifting? Unless you are a full time drifter, that would seem pretty dumb to me.

14/14 is just LUDICROUS. There is zero need for springs that stiff...unless you want the car to slide easily. This is just more JDM crap....

The Tein Flex spring rates are high, but at least they are balanced front and rear, and are a far better choice.

Do a search on spring rates, it's been covered in great detail within the last year.....search under Howard Coleman for example.
No, I definitely don't want to wreck the drivability on the street, that's what this whole post is about. I want to be able to (and will) drive it regularly on the street.

I'm not actually looking for "drift" coilovers. I want coilovers for track days and autox, not necessarily drifting. The reason I was looking at the super drifts was because, at this price level, the other option are the Tein Flex and I am trying to find out if I can go a little stiffer than the Flex's and still have it be okay on the street. The SuperDrifts have a better height adjustment range and better damping. So as I mentioned perhaps the superdrifts with custom lower spring rates of 12/10 or 12/12 might be ideal.

I also think that 14/14 may be too high the for street. That's why I would like to know people's experience with these coilovers. Some say that you can soften the damping and be perfectly fine on the street.

Note that the full race coilovers from Tein (RE's and RA's) are 16/16 and 20/20. I imagine that Tein made them the same rate front and back for a reason. From what I understand, you can't compare spring rates directly to another car because of the suspension design differences. Full Tein race coilover springs for a 240sx, for instance, are only 10/8. Perhaps someone knowledgeable could enlighten me on this subject as well.

I've done research, but it basically all comes down to experience, which I don't have. I would like to hear from people that have these or similar coilovers and would like to hear what your thoughts are on the streetability, and what spring rates I should look at for both good track performance and tolerable ride on the street.
Old 03-17-06 | 05:53 PM
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tein springs will sag once installed and "broken in." so a 14kg spring will be around an 11. i am getting a set of tein super racing but it will be a purpose built car. to each his own i guess.
Old 03-17-06 | 06:07 PM
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Originally Posted by silverTRD
tein springs will sag once installed and "broken in." so a 14kg spring will be around an 11.
Are you serious? That sucks... is that common with most coilovers, or is it a problem with Tein? I don't know if I could trust coilovers that change spring rates over time in my race car.

I'm also considering Apexi EXV's, which are 12/12, so if you have experience with those, post up as well.
Old 03-17-06 | 07:18 PM
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I just read Howard Coleman's post about spring rates. Very informative. It should be a sticky or something.

Here is the link for anyone who want's it: https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...4&page=1&pp=15
Old 03-17-06 | 07:26 PM
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Glad you found it. Anything with equal or close to equal spring rates is going to balance the car towards oversteer. Anything over 6XX lb-in (12) is too hard up front unless it is on a dedicated race car with slicks on glass smooth tracks (with a driver qualified enough to take advantage!).

Most of the JDM coilovers have simply terrible spring rates for how 99% of FDs are used.
Old 03-17-06 | 09:54 PM
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Originally Posted by rynberg
Anything with equal or close to equal spring rates is going to balance the car towards oversteer.
That's one thing I wanted verification of... because the correct spring rates for the correct balance obviously depends on the car, and I didn't know if the FD needed equal spring rates front and rear to handle neutrally. I have never actually driven one, because I bought my car in a non-running state and I'm still working on it. So I didn't know if they tend towards oversteer or understeer stock. But that's why I was confused and couldn't figure out why some coilovers have softer springs in the back and some have equal springs front and rear. Figured maybe there was a logical reason behind the equal rate springs
Old 03-18-06 | 12:16 AM
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im not sure on the specifics but ive read somewhere that most coilovers sag. i know a guy that switched to swift springs on his teins super drifts
Old 03-28-06 | 08:53 AM
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The new tein mono flex is suppose to be more track oriented. Tein told me it will have different valving, spring rates and will be mono tube.
Old 03-29-06 | 05:31 PM
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Originally Posted by rx7will
The new tein mono flex is suppose to be more track oriented. Tein told me it will have different valving, spring rates and will be mono tube.
Interesting, when are those supposed to come out?

Now I'm looking into some Bilstein monotube digressive shocks with custom springs. I figure what they use in the real race cars is probably the best way to go.
Old 03-31-06 | 01:41 AM
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Originally Posted by silverTRD
tein springs will sag once installed and "broken in."
They DO sag a bit after installation, but after that I've never had a problem with the spring rates becoming out of whack.
Old 04-04-06 | 08:36 PM
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The new mono tube Flex is "scheduled" for June.
Old 04-04-06 | 09:31 PM
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Tanabe SEvens(Hard Driving Version) are coming in May. SPring rates are averaging F12-14 R10-12 spring rates amongst cars. They dont have the rates on the FD's yet..
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