Racepace Tein Vs Others

[niZmO_Man]

Nice!

[Michael's R33]

Extend Motorsport do the same thing custom spring rates to suit your application heres mine cost me $1199 delivered got 12kg/7kg

[Trex]

I just installed MCA reds in the Evo, so glad I did. I was tossing up between Shockworks and MCA for months. Both offer great service and in house re-valving, replacement springs and parts are always on hand for very reasonable prices.

I went MCA in the end due to their time attack results, they definitely know their shit.

A few Stagea guys are using them. When I asked around and saw how many highly regarded people used them, and with not a single bad word from anyone I decided messaged josh.

With my current suspension and chassis mods josh came up with a few different setups for different types of racing and street use. When i explained how the car was handling and how i would like it to handle for the street he completely understood and explained why certain corners had the affect they did and what I needed to do to improve understeer and rear end instability.

I bought mca blues because they were only $50-$100 more expensive than the other brands, mca are australian owned and have exceptional communication skills and knowledge.

Very happy with the outcome!

[scotty nm35]

Extend Motorsport do the same thing custom spring rates to suit your application heres mine cost me $1199 delivered got 12kg/7kg

Custom spring rates any manufacturer will do, but custom valving to suit your application, cleaned and fresh high quality oils, pre-setup ready to drop in... Not many companies offering that.

[Blackkers]

The mca XRs are more comfortable than the Bc Brs I had in my 33. Can't imagine what the XCs would be like on the street

I like the included sheets for noobs who tend to over adjust and f**k up the whole set up! (me in a nutshell)

All my pictures come up sideways sorry fellas..

[Gts-t]

Ive had mca silver, mca gold, now mca blue and will be trying the new mca x-c in the future. All great shocks

I wouldnt be suprised if racepace sent the tiens to mca to be re done haha

[R31Nismoid]

Now I'm really excited about getting them!

You should be, they are not cheap but they do work.

I had them also for 2 years, they were in Snowman's old ones. I did around 20,000kms of street/hill runs and then other stuff I did like Mt Baw Baw Sprint/Rally (closed road) and all the motorkhana stuff, Thunderdome etc etc. Performed amazing, everywhere.

One point though is I opted for the softer spring rates in the rear (5kg vs 7kg/10kg) - the guys with just circuit in mind go harder... I found this made a massive difference for my use, bit more forgiveness was good.

I came from Nismo S-tune, so granted they were never going to be as good simply due to the S-tune being one level and RP Tein on another (which is also reflected in the price).

[GTR_JOEY]

Not to worried about the price ash, everyone I've spoken to loves them. They will be a massive improvement on my racing logic set I currently have.

I'll be going for a softer spring as well as my car is more road use and I want it to squat and hook up in a straight line

Are you saying the RP coil overs are better then the Nismo S tunes?

[Roy]

Ive had mca silver, mca gold, now mca blue and will be trying the new mca x-c in the future. All great shocks

I wouldnt be suprised if racepace sent the tiens to mca to be re done haha

I understand MCA run many internal components from the Bilstein catalogue. Can't see / haven't heard them touching Teins

[Blackkers]

for those who are interested in a very un-scientific summary of how the MCA XRs went at Wakefield today:

Huge improvement over the old miss match suspension that's for sure. I did 8 laps flat out and the coilovers didn't overheat or show signs of fatigue.

Only thing I would change for the track is slightly harder springs as Josh suggested (surprise surprise, he knows his shit). but 10/6 is a good compromise for street comfort; the mrs doesn't mind riding in the GTR now - apart from the noise!

also they respond to adjustments very predictably. I had some understeer which was easy to dial out by tightening up the rear shocks by one 'click'

They aren't the be all and end all but definitely very very good and especially for the price. I would do the same again. It's not likely to be worth the extra $650 for the Reds for someone who does 80% street

Lap times improved dramatically however I also changed brakes, tyres and boost level so I can't credit the 4 second improvement to the MCAs

[anon32]

Awesome review. Would have been good to see how much the suspension changes lap times

[fatz]

I went from shock works to tein Rp and they dropped 2 seconds a lap on a 60 second lap

[anon32]

Got to be happy with that

[Blackkers]

2 seconds on a 60 second lap is a huge improvement for just the coilover change fatz.

Today was awesome at Wakefield. No other Skylines there but a few Nissan fans came up to check out the car. I went from doing 2 fast sessions to chasing boost leaks, then 'fixing' it with Duct tape and Zip ties.

I dropped boost down to 10 psi so the joiner would hold together for a few more sessions. It began to rain which was perfect I practised 4WD drifting for the first time.

It would be very awesome to see more skylines there. I'll post in the NSW section with plenty of notice and hopefully a couple of RB's will join me out there next time!

Oh and an RX7 blew up and spewed oil over 1km of the track - given!

[MrStabby]

Only thing I would change for the track is slightly harder springs as Josh suggested (surprise surprise, he knows his shit). but 10/6 is a good compromise for street comfort; the mrs doesn't mind riding in the GTR now - apart from the noise!

also they respond to adjustments very predictably. I had some understeer which was easy to dial out by tightening up the rear shocks by one 'click'

I'd love to know the theory behind how those spring rates work. Given who suggested it to you and the fact that i've heard of it before I guess i must be missing something. I've gone 10/8 -> 8/6 -> 7/6 on my 32 GTR and quite like the current setup so will leave it at that. From what I understand 10/6 should be an understeer monster, and shock adjustments would only help on short corners or right at the beginning of sweepers. Didnt Nismo go to same rate front and back to try to dial out understeer?

Can anyone enlighten me?

[GTSBoy]

I guess it would depend on the relative size of the ARBs. If they were coupling the softer rear spring with a stiffer rear ARB, then they might obtain useful squat behaviour for drive without giving up too much roll stiffness. They'd need to use a lighter ARB on the front to try to keep the overall roll stiffness balance in the right area.

[anon32]

One thing I was really surprised about from Josh is he told me DO NOT change to bigger sway bars or harder bushes. That their suspension and setup is designed to be used without them.

This is a quote from his email to me

" regards to the bushes and other components, I actually suggest leaving the stock bushes in the car unless they are completely failed and fallen apart.. which is probably unlikely. But if they are, I'd suggest replacing them with new or second hand factory ones. The reason for this is because they do the job they are designed for very well, better than any aftermarket bush I know of other than a good quality spherical bearing. Keeping in mind that suspension arm bushes have to flex to do their job as that is how they pivot up and down, and poly bushes which is what most people replace them with are very stiff and often restrict the suspension arms ability to pivot, which is critical. Plus the less rubber they have, the less potential unwanted flex they will have, and to be honest there will be next to none. If you're looking for an area to improve in this way, I'd suggest solid mounting or at least adding 'pineapples' to the rear subframe mounts.

In regards to swaybars, my suggestion is to leave them stock. Factory bars work very well and larger ones often become too stiff when paired with some properly designed suspension.

Spring rate wise I'll give you some suggested options..

12kg front and 8kg rear is the normal full circuit setup.. 10kg and 6kg is a setup I've done a few times for people, and is as soft as I think you should go when considering taking the car on the track and wanting to do well.

Given that you can always change springs later, if ride comfort isn't something thats hugely crutial for you, I'd go with the 12/8 setup, as you'll probably be fairly surprised at how reasonable the ride is, and at least you can see what the performance is like too.. You can always go down to 10/6 later or something if you wish."

Really changes the way most people think I believe

He did suggest the only other thing would be front camber arms.

MRSTABBY this should change your thoughts on 10/6 being understeer if Josh recommend it I guess.

Edited May 29, 2015 by anon32

[Roy]

An off the shelf Bilstein with an 8k spring is a very different animal to a Koni Yellow with 8k spring.

Ie...the valving of the shock itself plays a HUGE part in how the car drives. How a spring feels and the grip a car has and ehete it is lacking in grip.

Its not just spring A plus roll bar X ...and the there is ride heights and wheel alignment.

[Blackkers]

Yeah I went 10/6 based on his suggestion of it being more streetable. I'm thinking 12/8 would actually be better overall though I want to set up the rest of the car before I make any other changes.

Only reason I still had some understeer with 10/6 is because I've got staggered wheels with slightly wider rears. The overall rolling diameter is within 1.9% so it hasn't upset the 4WD yet.

Don't be afraid to go 10/6 if you aren't going to do many track days per year. If you're there every month then 12/8 is probably the go; I do believe the difference would be quite noticeable

The hard thing about choosing a comfort/performance balance is that everyone has different standards for comfort!

[anon32]

The hard thing about choosing a comfort/performance balance is that everyone has different standards for comfort!

Exactly, just like one person's laggy is another's streetable