Coilover Brands

[r_speedfreak_r]

Hey guys

Looking at putting coilovers on my car and i've noticed with the exception of tein (being a lil more) most coilover brands have the same features, claim to have the same abilities and are roughly the same price tag. How can you pick out the true high performing coilovers from the rest or are they all roughly going to give the same result.

If it helps my cars main application is street but i dont need coilovers for street. I need them to keep up and hopefully beat those damn evos' haha.

[GTR 400]

Hi there i dont know what car you have but mine is a R32 GTR and i just put ion a set of TEIN Mono flex and they are brilliant i have said before all my friends have been using Tein for street and track work and they are built well and reliable dont leak easily at all unless you mount a gutter or fly of the track at 120klms in grass and soil holes.

They run 7kg spring rate front and back and are comfortable but give your car rail handling OMG there good.

[scathing]

How can you pick out the true high performing coilovers from the rest or are they all roughly going to give the same result.

The one thing that coilover literature doesn't tell you, and what makes or breaks a coilover kit, is the performance of the dampers. They can crap on about how they're made (mono tube, inverted, whatever) but its the interplay between the spring and damper rates are what makes a car handle well in an initial impression (the construction and materials used will only really tell you how they'll last when hammered for a while).

The other thing is that suspension setup is very personal. Everyone's driving style is a little different, and so the feel you get from the car is also different. The only thing I can suggest is to try a couple of cars out with the parts you want, and see if you like it. That's what I did when I was shopping for coilovers for my car.

[salad]

The reason for most people listing all the features now is everyone is about getting as many features for as little money as possible. In the end, you just get a shit damper, which in my opinion is the heart of a suspension system.

Do your research first and try and find out as much about the damper as possible. As a general rule of thumb, I will avoid any coilover kit under $1600 (ISC, D2, G4, HSD, etc), but that's just my opinion, a lot of people are quite content to run them and are happy with them. I drove with one of those brands and thought they were absolutely shit.

Spend as much as practical on your shocks and it will be a good base to work off of.

Edited October 21, 2007 by salad

[Scooby]

there is a sticky in this forum titled Shock absorber 101 differences between a good one and a bad one. might help.

[r_speedfreak_r]

thanks guys. scathing and salad what did you guys end up choosing yourselves?

[salad]

I got the Bilsteins from Sydneykid's groupbuy, also have the "coilover conversion kit" with it.

[stasis]

I got the Bilsteins from Sydneykid's groupbuy, also have the "coilover conversion kit" with it.

oi Salad can you show us the "coilover conversion kit" is? WHere did you get it and how much? Im assuming that you are converting from Sk's blistein into a coilover? Effectiveness of it? Dollars saved?

Yudy

[lvlong]

oi Salad can you show us the "coilover conversion kit" is? WHere did you get it and how much? Im assuming that you are converting from Sk's blistein into a coilover? Effectiveness of it? Dollars saved?

Yudy

me really want to know as well !!! plssss

[salad]

Same as the kit discussed in this thread

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/t188741.html

Bilstein make the kit, and then you can use any rectangular coil you want. Like the others, I've used Eibachs

Got the kit from the groupbuy, it costs another $1000 or so ontop of the original shocks.

I'm very happy with the results, and recommend the setup to everyone.

I think you'd be hard pressed to find another "coilover" that will be as good for the same sort of money.

Edited October 21, 2007 by salad

[stasis]

sp wat ypu have done is you bought Sk's blistein and adjusted it according to the grove?! And you are using Eiback springs for it instead of whiteline? That was actually what i wanted to in the first place but it will set me back 2ks for it from Sk. Where did you get the Eiback springs form?

[salad]

What the coilover kit is, is a threaded sleave that sits on the circlip instead of a spring seat. Then there is a spring seat on the threaded sleave, so it is a threaded height adjustment.

I got the whole package from SK. I'm using Eibach coils instead of Whiteline because Whiteline dont make rectangular coils. At least not anymore anyway.