+1, don't get the megan's or the buddy clubs. For best bang for the buck, the Stances are number one. The megans are built in taiwan, and may feel good the first few miles, but I can bet they wouldn't last very long. In the moment that you need a rebuild, Stgance carries new dampers. They don't rebuild, they just sell replacement parts, which really aren't that expensive. I've talked to Rishie at autornd about these, and he says, they are very comparable to the mid range brands, and are far better than the cheap brands (D2, Megan, etc...). In my opinion, get the Stances, throw on some swift springs and go to town. I myself am going the same route as Tyler. I'm going to save for some Zeal Function X Coilovers.

-Jeff

 

And why is it that you think that they need swift springs? Since you seem to think they're so superior, please elighten us as to why they are so great.

Having a company be able to do rebuilds and revalves is a big plus over just selling you a replacement in my books, because it'll allow you to be able to better tune the car's handling if you decide to change spring rates down the road, then you're not just stuck with the stock valving.

 

One, I agree with you about rebuilding dampers to your specs. What if you don't want to keep your valving the same? Two, this guy is looking for a cheaper coilover setup, and not many cheap coilovers offer rebuilding. Also, I believe swift would be a better replacement spring, let it be switching to the same rates or changing. I don't need to justify their superiority. RE Amemiya, Zeal, and many more Japan race teams, and as well as US D1 teams use them on their cars as replacement springs for their cars. If you don't think their what they say to be, ask Rishie at AutoRND what he thinks of them.

-Jeff

P.S. Not trying to argue, but those were my 2 cents. You are to your own opinion. I gave mine.

 

Well I wasn't just looking for an "Ooooh, aaaaaah, look, they use these in racing! They must be better!". What I want is why you think that one should throw away perfectly good springs, spend another several hundred dollars getting new springs and going through the work of changing them.

They may have some advantages, but I HIGHLY doubt that these will be apparent on a street car. Maybe if you're running into problems with coil bind then they'll help, but they'll be more suseptable to fatigue and permanent deformation if they're allowed to coil bind because of the higher stresses and strains in the wire due to it being thinner and with fewer coils. There's also other ways to combat coil bind. As for the unsprung weight, especially in an FD with it's high motion ratio suspension, it'll take a lot of reduced weight for it to be apparent. The spring is after all only 1/2 sprung weight, add that to the ~0.66 (IIRC) motion ratio and you get that to get the equivalent benefit of a 1lb reduction of weight at the wheel, you'll need the springs to be about 3lbs lighter. It'll be hardly noticable, especially on a street car with lots of squishy rubber bushings.

Save your money, leave the springs in there, the cost/benefit ratio is terrible.

 

Just to add, the replacement springs are $168 a pair. Megan coils are around $900, Buddy Club Racing Spec is around $1,100, Stance are around $1,100, and Stance with Swift springs are around $1,436.

 

The BC RSD's are only about $1100 without upper mounts, with them they're about $1400.

$168 for a pair of springs isn't that bad, but it'll still add $336 to the cost of a set of coilovers, and will add little to no performance. I maintain that it's not worth it unless you're running into coil bind and cannot solve the problem any other way, or if you're looking to getthe last little advantage suspension wise after maximising everything else. I'd certainly worry about fatigue with them.

 

Coilovers do offer alot if you get the right ones. My old JIC SF1's lost suspension travel when lowered and were not dampened correctly. Their support sucked. The only benefit they had was the free pillowball mounts included. With my new Buddy club's I can adjust dampening, has upper pillowball mounts and most importantly (if done correctly) you can lower the car and retain full travel length. Lowering springs will not do that. You also don't have to worry about choosing the wrong spring/damper combo with seperate lowering springs and replacement dampers. On my CRX H&R springs with Tokico adjustables worked very well but not with KYB adjustables, even when switching to softer Eibachs it could not handle the lower stance and was a terrible ride especially with only 4 settings, it couldn't be dialed in correctly.

 

Correction:
Buddy Club Racing Spec is about $1600 (I have these on my car)
Buddy Club N+ are about $1100
Apexi EXV are about $1100

 

www.sp-power.com

They've got the BC RSD w/o pillow ***** for $1130 for the FD, and w/ pillow ***** for the FD for $1480. That's the absolute cheapest place I've seen, most other places have prices more like $1600 for the RSD, and $1100 for the D1 (N+ is what they call the Honda/Acura ones, but they're the same coilovers).