hey guys, its come time for me to choose coilovers for my FD. ive heard some advice that buddy clubs are great, and ive heard that cusco are great. ive ridden in a FC with JIC's and thought it was very good, but everyone says the JICS for FD's arent very good (why?). some people were saying how Buddyclubs were exellent (does anyone have them or felt them?). also ive been looking at apexi's, but i dont know how any of them ride. ill be using them for track/canyon racing (ortega). im not too interested in drag, except that occasional anoying accord at a stop light =). im basicly only interested in them for the corners. can anyone give me some info & feedback? thanks much
russell

 

I have no experience with Buddy Clubs... but I've ridden in Cuscos(not sure which line it was), Teins (HA, and FLEX), and JICs (FLT-A2).

JICs felt the best, all were on an FD. They were all set for street type driving... and I just took a ride in it as a passenger. I did not play with adjustments or anything like that... this is just from feeling them. They were also on separate cars, so other issues could affect how they felt.

On an SW20 JIC also felt a lot better than Tein, on the same car. I personally think JIC has better build quality in comparison with Teins (but I've never installed Cuscos).

But anyway, I still went with Teins because they were cheaper, and adequate for what I do with my car. If I had the money FLT-A2s would be my choice though.

 

I would recomend 3 coilovers.

1. Re-Amemiya
2. Mazdaspeed
3. Tein

Im getting the Re-Amemiya coilovers and it will be great to get them on the car. They are fully adjustable.

 

1.) Overpriced
2.) Non-existant and poor build quality apparently
3.) Good price, not the highest quality

I would recommend (based on what I've researched/heard)

1.) Apex'i (apparently the most streetable high quality suspension)
2.) RS-R (new product, saw them at a drift show, looked good, might be worth checking out)
3.) Penske (The ultimate suspension, but again, price)


How much are you paying for those RE-Amemiyas btw?

 

Well if money is no object... Penske's are supposed to be bad ***.

Aragosta is my recomendation if you are looking for other suspension brands. Definitely good on the street, and always raved about by the people that have them. A fellow board member (far east) has them on his car, and he loves 'em.

BTW the RE-A's are probably rebadged like a few of their products. You might be able to save some cash if you know who makes them.

 

hmm tell me more about these Penske's....ultimate sounds good... =D

 

Well, from what I gather it will most likely be a custom setup, I don't beleive there's any "kit" for the FD...I might be wrong though. Do some research on Penske racing products and call up their vendors, I'm sure you'll find the info you need. Don't forget to let us know when you're done

 

What are you gonna be doing with your car ? Mostly street driving ? Then Tein HA is for you.
A lot of auto-x and spirited driving ? Then Apexi N1 and JIC FLT-A2 is for you. They're quite stiff though(at least the N1 is) so you may want to take a ride with an FD that has one.
Competition racing ? Then I guess the Penske or other custom kits. Beware though, they have to rebuild annually or so. Big $$$$.

 

I have some HKS performers and like them over the GAB's I had before... Just to put two brands out there that have not been mentioned....

GAB's were 8 Way struts on stock springs, HKS is a complete Coilover kit with ride height and dampening adjustments... supposedly 30 Way, I have yet to try them on the track but on the street with stock settings I feel I have a lot more controll of the car over stock R1 struts with stiff springs.... Very Harsh and almost too unforgiving, as to that the tire hobbeled after the hard impact....

 

I've had Mazdaspeed coilovers, and there were no issues with build quality.

I'm using tein flex now, and there are no issues with construction either. Sure, I guess you can say they're not the highest quality, you can pay more and get nicer ones, but for the price they're quite good.

 

i am running the N1 dampers...yes they ride a bit rough...but boy do they handle like no car i've ever been in or driven...

 

Well, the question for you is what do you REALLY plan on doing with the car? For a mainly street-driven car, there are tons of choices that will vary depending on what you consider as tolerable conditions. For any sort of real competition driving, the choices slim down real quick. But, these shocks are NOT for street driving and would most definitely be highly uncomfortable for most people.

Here's a short list on competition coilovers for the FD:

Penske
Advanced Design + GC coilover kit
Koni 28 series + coilover kit
Ohlin

There are a couple others that are even better .... but I figure $10-15K coilovers are out-of-the-question.

 

One of the RX7 mag' issues had a review. Someone mentioned it to me and I was going to buy it but never did. Not that I could read it, but I wanted to see what was the top rated ones. Maybe if someone has the issue they can list the top 5?

I think money has alot to do with choice for street. Before Buddy Club didn't have US distributor and JIC was the best for the price (HKS was $2k) but now that they are the same price I think the Buddy's are a better choice for $1500. Crap, I paid $1400 for my JIC SF1's! ...if you search hard enough you can even get HKS HD2's for that as well.

I'm not sure if you can compare Apexi, zeal, endless and Ohlins with those because of price ($2k or higher).

 

Forgot about Ohlins, allthough I'm not sure if they have a kit for the FD yet...

 

http://www.scuderiaciriani.com/rx7/suspension.html

 

Yeah, but all these need to be orginized by price otherwise the most expensive could be considered best.

Street:
$1000 - Tanabe sustec Pro, Tein HA's, etc (no pillow ball and loose travel when lowered)

street/track:
$1500 ($1800 sugested) - JIC FLA2, HKS HD2, Buddy Club (Racing not P1's), Tein RA's/RE's?. ...all include upper pillow ball and no travel loss when lowered.

track:
$2000 ($2400 sugested) - Apexi N1, Endless, HKS Pro ...etc.

Race-Pro:
$3000 ($3500 sugested) - Buddy Club P1, Arogosta, Penkse...

 

Mazdaspeed=Eibach

 

I don't have time to go in to great detail but I have been doing lots of research on coilovers and so far my choice is going to be endless function B6. I can get them for 1825. Rishie may be able to beat that price but don't hold your breath for a quote. The JIC brand was on my list but I heard their reputation in Japan isn't that good. I'd still buy them over Tein tho. As for BuddyClub I wasn't able to dig much up on those in relation to the FD. They seemed to be more popular for Mx-5 owners. HKS is nice but height adjustment isn't independent of stroke. Apexi is nice but the spring rates are super high. Also both HKS and Apexi have the same spring rate front to rear, which is not what the Rx-7 needs IMHO. Some of the others mentioned here are just too expensive.

 

want somthing better? if you know how to adjust a 2way setup...
look into moton club sports. http://www.motonsuspension.com/start.htm

you could also look and see what dynamic has http://www.dynamicsuspensions.com/dampers.htm
panoz says they are better then penskes. i dont know if they will have anything in your price range.

"Race-Pro:
$3000 ($3500 sugested) - Buddy Club P1, Arogosta, Penkse..."

penske for $3000!!!! where! i was quoted at $2700 a CORNER for a set of koni 28 series shocks for my FC. im sure the penskes are in the same park. with any good shock manufacture, they are going to ask you what springrates you need so they can valve the shock correctly. If they dont have a jig for your car, they might want to know how much travel and the fitted hight the shock is going to be at too.

because you have an FD, a car that doesnt have struts, thers a ton of manufacturers that make some really great stuff out there. Theres companys like JRZ, and SPAX that im sure you never heard of unless you race your car a lot. look around, find whats good and get the best you can buy. also learn how to tune them properly!

 

^ Sorry I guess at the Penske price but the Buddy's and Arogosta retail for $3k I was just trying to make a point and seperate them by price and class.

I thought the HKS hyperdamper II's could be adjusted without affecting loss of stroke travel? ...was I wrong?

The JIC's were a good package deal when they came out because even at $1800 they included the upper pillow ball mounts and HKS HD2's were like $2k. But now you can get either set for $1500 which in my opionion makes HKS a better deal. I don't like the spacer solution JIC came out with to prevent hood dents. It should have been recalled and parts replaced. Buddy Clubs can now also be purchased for $1500 and now they have a local distributor. Their spring rates are 10k/8k (same as HKS HD2's?) but if you have patience you can special order different rates. I wish I could test BC vs HKS but I don't have either. If i could swing the extra $300 ($1800) i'd get the Endless (aluminum housings) also.

http://www.first-inc.co.jp
http://www.aj-racing.com/BC-suspension.html
http://www.superhightechnology.com/

 

Oh, and how do you really compare them? Even if you did get to ride in cars with different brands, there will be different spring rates, different damper settings and different roads. Doesn't anybody have the RX7 magazine issue that compares the coilovers?

Moreover, another thing to consider is how long will they last before they need to be revalved and can it be done localy or even in the US?

 

The reason Penskes are good is that you can select from a variety of valves (digressive, linear, VDP, etc) and shims AND be able to tune your dampers to your specific needs. Further, the builder - www.ankenyracing.com - in North America has experience in building them on winning FDs (Tri-Point's multiple SCCA Solo2 winner). You can also rebuild them yourself if you knew how. Check out www.penskeshocks.com. Typically, the 8100's are used.

 

that buddy club stuff looks nice
is there some place i can get info on them for my FC? and how about a price? (for FC) i would like info on the racing P1 damper.

 

HedgeHog speaks the truth!!!!

If I may get on my soapbox for a moment I would say the far majority of the people who have "race" shocks (this includes everything mentioned here) have no idea if their car handles better or not. Handling comes from taking the car to the track and seeing what the stop watch says. Driving around town doesn't prove crap and if you think otherwise than you're fooling yourself. Why people spend $2000 on coilovers that spend their whole life on the street I can't say. I guess some people just MUST have the image to be cool. "Coilovers are cool. Yeah. I have no idea what the heck to do with them, but they sure are cool. You know why they're cool? Because they're expensive, and because Mazda didn't make them. That makes them cool. Yeah, that's the ticket."

First thing to do is have your goals in mind: Am I trying to improve the car, or do I just need another brand name to tell my friends about? Because anytime you bolt on a "performance" part is automatically makes the car better. Right?

If I wanted a serious competition RX-7 shock I would automatically rule out everyone who isn't actually building them for a specific vehicle. I would also rule out everyone that has no factory support on this continent. Factory support doesn't mean "dealer", it means people who build and modify the things for YOUR application. That leaves the list of people to talk to pretty short. Talk to Tripoint. Talk to Guy Ankeny. Talk to Penske. Talk to Motun. There are a few others. Unfortunately real competition coil overs are expensive. On the other hand, there are many expensive ones that are not real competition coilovers.

Again, these are my opinions. It's a free country, buy what you prefer and have a good time. I mean that. My apologies if anyone takes this personally, that's not my intention.

 

damonB is right. Dont get what you dont need. If you dont race your car, chances are your not going to need a 4 way adjustable damper. if you dont have a cage in your car, you prolly dont need anything of this caliber

Even though my car is pretty much a race car, (i do things like solo 1 style events and a whole bunch of Autox's) maybe some wheel to wheel later.
im starting to see more track miles then street miles.

i cant afford the big dog race shock though, i would like to have a 3 way setup from moton, but thats big cash. and they dont make the affordable club sports for my car.