Coilovers, what to choose?

[Stepho1337]

I’m looking to get a new pair of coilovers for my r33 gtst, and I’m not sure what to get. I’m looking for the more budget friendly ones, and mainly for street use, but would be nice if they were able to do some amateur drifting/track aswell. Currently had my eyes on the Blitz ZZR’s, but also the Cusco Street Zero A’s and Tein Flex Z’s. Any recommendations? Maybe anyone got any experience with some of these? 

I’m currently on the Maxspeedingrods coilovers, so I don’t have a lot to compare with. Other than that, the car is properly built. The car is mainly used for fun when I feel like it, and is not my daily.

[Murray_Calavera]

If there is nothing wrong with your current coilovers, I would not roll the dice on a upgrade to one of the coilovers you've listed above. I strongly expect that you would not be able to tell the difference between the two. 

I'd suggest that you keep saving up the pennies and pick up something from MCA or Shockworks. 

[Kinkstaah]

Yep, I agree with the above. I was about to suggest BC's as they are absolutely the most tried and true budget option, but you already have....something, so unless that something fails, save up and follow the above advice when the time is right.

[MBS206]

After having a look at dyno testing ShockWorks did, going to the Cusco, there would be an epic amounts of difference, especially daily driving a car vs the MaxSpeedingRods coil overs.

From a bunch tested in the below video, ShockWorks found that even a 20 year old Cusco coilover still outperformed all the others tested, and also showed how epically shit the MaxSpeedingRods coil overs are!

 

https://youtu.be/smNWdkv2i7U?feature=shared

[ianp]

I had Cuscos on both of my 350Z's, brilliant piece of kit, loved them.

IMO suspension parts are one of the items not to cheap out on

[Kinkstaah]

17 hours ago, MBS206 said:

After having a look at dyno testing ShockWorks did, going to the Cusco, there would be an epic amounts of difference, especially daily driving a car vs the MaxSpeedingRods coil overs.

From a bunch tested in the below video, ShockWorks found that even a 20 year old Cusco coilover still outperformed all the others tested, and also showed how epically shit the MaxSpeedingRods coil overs are!

 

https://youtu.be/smNWdkv2i7U?feature=shared

This was super interesting! I wish it was a little 'better' a video as I spent a lot of time pausing to compare the dyno graphs with my own printouts which I previously had no reference to...

Happy with my Bilsteins now very much and their handling characteristics which were previously a bit weird to me now make a lot more sense.

[Stepho1337]

On 23/6/2024 at 2:43 AM, Murray_Calavera said:

If there is nothing wrong with your current coilovers, I would not roll the dice on a upgrade to one of the coilovers you've listed above. I strongly expect that you would not be able to tell the difference between the two. 

I'd suggest that you keep saving up the pennies and pick up something from MCA or Shockworks. 

Thanks for your opinion on this. I’m just so sceptical to the Maxspeedingrods, and don’t really want them on my car. Was thinking that maybe some quality brand would be an upgrade anyways. 

[Stepho1337]

About the Cusco’s from that youtube video, I guess those are some more expensive ones from back in the day. The cheaper ones noe do have twin tube dampers, at least as far as I can read, and I’d like to avoid that. I see that the Blitz ZZR are monotube like the more expensive ones, I was thinking that those might be a great deal, at least from reading the specs. At least compared to the Maxspeedingrods. I do live in Norway, and we have shitty roads here, so I probably don’t want the car to be to stiff.

[Kinkstaah]

It's not that it's stiff. If you think about it, the shocks with stiffer dampening will unsuprisingly.. be stiffer.

The issue with the Maxspeedingrods in the video is that they were progressive. So under small bumps they would be VERY compliant, then the bigger the bump is the harder the 'wall' you would hit. The shocksworks and the other digressive brands have different characteristics going by the shape of their shock curve.

[MBS206]

2 minutes ago, Kinkstaah said:

It's not that it's stiff. If you think about it, the shocks with stiffer dampening will unsuprisingly.. be stiffer.

The issue with the Maxspeedingrods in the video is that they were progressive. So under small bumps they would be VERY compliant, then the bigger the bump is the harder the 'wall' you would hit. The shocksworks and the other digressive brands have different characteristics going by the shape of their shock curve.

ShockWorks actually explain it really really well.

It had f**k all body handling capability.

And they took like 100mm of travel to build up the dampening you need on a fast action.

 

So it means hitting a huge bump in the road like a pot hole, the shock is doing basically until you've already fallen in. So basically, on a big hard bump, it does absolutely f**k all for a few inches, and then slaps you in the back with a sledge hammer.

 

Whereas for good control, and to absorb the bumps rather than being stupidly bumpy / bouncy, you want the really quick acting shocks so that they're able to control the spring immediately.

 

Basically, MaxSpeeding, terrible for track work, and useless on the road, especially if you have lots of bumpy roads!!!

[Kinkstaah]

Sorry yeah, by 'VERY COMPLIANT' I could also be referring to 'too compliant'. I wonder if all the springs were similar rates. Surely that'd have something to do with how appropriately damped they truly are.

[GTSBoy]

1 hour ago, Kinkstaah said:

I wonder if all the springs were similar rates.

The dampers with the higher rates would have to be coupled to springs with higher rates. Otherwise you just get massively overdamped suspension, which is no damn good either.

When I was a kid one of my coworkers had a 116 Alfetta GTV. He had Koni Ds in it wound to max. The Konis only adjust rebound. It had standard torsion bars. As he drove it would absorb bumps and get lower and lower and lower until it was essentially as compressed as it could be because the dampers were too much for the poor little bars to push back up against. Was funny as f**k to watch happen - no damn good to drive. I had the same dampers on mine, with stock bars, and only adjusted about 25%. They were great. Would compress and rebound exactly as you'd expect.

[TurboTapin]

I have HSD Dualtechs and would not recommend them. I always planned on replacing them and I've been more so bothered by their excessive stiffness recently. Their time is limited. On another note, I will have a fantastic set of HSD Dualtechs for sale soon 😂

[niZmO_Man]

Maxspeedingrods, yikes, please be careful and get them removed from your car ASAP.

[kevboost7]

So Moral of the story: MaxSpeedingRods are trash. Got it.

So which Coilovers should i get? If i'm mainly street driving?

[GTSBoy]

2 hours ago, kevboost7 said:

So which Coilovers should i get? If i'm mainly street driving?

Find whoever is the US equivalent of Shockworks. Or, just get them from Melbourne, Oz.

[niZmO_Man]

I think... in the US, Silvermax is the equivalent of BC Racing, i.e. cheap Taiwanese built suspension that gets turned for "local" conditions.

Back in the day in Australia, you could get MCA street for about $1300 and they were awesome. Don't know about now...

In saying that, my real world TEIN experience: I got some street basis z for my old Liberty (BR9), and they were awesome ($800-odd delivered from demon-tweeks in the UK). so Don't discount TEIN