What coilovers do you recommend

[OMONLA]

I've got 4 choices to go with:

 T3's complete kit

BC racing BR coilovers from JPN Garage.

Stance kit from Sakura Garage

and finally

CX Racing coilover kit.

 

 I know two of them are kits that have that requires cutting and welding, but my questions concern ride height & quality.

car will mainly be street driven.

 with some "light" track duties.

 

I  value & would appreciate you guys input.

[rturbo 930]

No Ground Control?

[seattlejester]

3 of them are cut and weld kits, technically even the TTT kit is a cut and weld kit but they do it for you. Unless you are referring to the camber tops

 

What are light track duties; 1 time a year, 1 time a month, 1 time every 10 years? If you need customized dampers after you go out, a ground control setup will be cheaper to get springs and swap dampers. Otherwise you are looking at swift springs and a Feal rebuild. 

 

What are you looking for in a the coilover? Are your struts rebuildable? Budget? Height desired? Can you cut and weld? Do you have someone who can do that for you reliably? These are all questions that you have to answer and should help illuminate your choice.

[OMONLA]

light track duties like perhaps once a year...my struts are rebuildable...budget willing to spend what each vendor is asking for from T3 to BC, Height; i want something i could really slam low....i won't be doing the welding. I'll have a shop do that for me.

also plan on being able to adjust the camber as well.

[seattlejester]

Just so you know slammed z's don't really handle with the control arms angled up your camber changes fairly drastically. And once you go that low you are probably going to have to start considering adjustable arms and such. Mentioning track performance for a car that gets driven on the street is probably misleading.

 

Does your budget include what a shop costs to do the task? Someone's recent quote for having them removed, welded, reinstalled, and setup was $1200 or so, that is on the high side, but not unreasonable, have you asked around?

 

BC has minimal camber adjustment, even with the 4 bolts if you go anywhere near low you aren't going to be able to hit neutral camber even maxed out. 

 

Stance and T3 have a fairly large range thanks to the larger adjustment window.

 

I like the T3 personally, it is more tried and true, and Gabe has been a pleasure to deal with he helped me generate a quote and gave his recommendations which were inline with a lot of things I had read on the forum. You can buy the kit pre built and just ship your struts back to him for credit towards adjustable arms.

 

I ended up going with BC's personally as I already had strut bars I didn't want to modify and I personally wanted a set with anti-droop characteristics. Fernando was a pleasure to deal with, the lead time wasn't bad either, Fernando recommended a little bit higher then I had seen recommended elsewhere, but both his cars look like they ride low so I imagine the extra spring rate keeps the wheels off the arches. In the end they came to a custom specification spring wise as I wanted a little more spring up front to deal with heavier engine and transmission while still staying below what I personally considered on the harsh side of things. 

 

Read up and see what appeals to you. CX racing I know very little about, I imagine similar to the BC setup. If so, the BC and the CX racing setups are a real pain to adjust camber wise, you have to drop the strut to do so unless you get a reinforced modified strut top that someone had designs of, at which point there would be minimal point to running the stock bolt pattern if you are welding anyway. You will have to modify the center hole if you add camber as the knob will get in the way.

 

Stance kit is adjusted from the bottom as it is an inverted shock so keep that in mind, it would be harder to dial in some more or less dampening easily. Benefit is the inverted shock is going to take lateral loads quite a bit better and their camber plates are nice because you drill a couple holes and you are done.

 

TTT is going to have the most adjustment, height, helper springs, spring rate, damper brand. If you don't plan on revisiting the setup to refine then this is a bit wasted though.

[OMONLA]

so which one would you ultimately go for?...with closest to the "total" package in terms of streetability...ride height and comfort.?

Edited September 26, 2016 by OMONLA

[RebekahsZ]

TTT

[OMONLA]

"RebEkahsZ", Thanks, that was my initial pick....i'm curious. Why did you go with a JTR header despite using a JCI swap kit?

i ask cos i know he sells headers too and they are cheaper.

[RebekahsZ]

For a stupid reason: they came in ceramic coating. Then I cut them up so the coating became irrelevant. The JCI headers are likely a better choice. But modify them for v-bands-V bands rock!

[OMONLA]

OK....Thats what i was going with....So its good to know...This is NOT the first time you have responded to my posts/threads(which i appreciate) so i'll have to tell you now that i'll be directing a few questions your way in the future. 

 Hope you don't mind.

I'll be going with brake kits from silvermine.

TTT'S coilovers also plan on getting the camber plates from them also.

Going back to the coilovers, should i get the kit and have my shop do the cutting and welding?

 Or just get their ready to bolt piece?

also what spring rate to i ask for?

[seattlejester]

I went with BC as my post stated for my own reasons as stated.

 

Talk to TTT. Gabe will have his recommendations, which you can find echoed in the forum, he will also make adjustments based on what you are running or plan to run. 

 

Talk to the shop you plan on using. These are suspension pieces so you want to make sure that they have either done it before or have the capability to do so. This does require some decent work if you want everything to line up, so unless you are confident be careful. Also keep in mind the down time involved. If you plan on pulling the suspension yourself having a completely assembled set to put back in right away will save you time over having to wait for a shop. 

 

Also some advice would be to get the replacement pieces for the wear parts while you are down there, ball joints, tie rod ends, tension arm bushing (G-machine or stock rubber, do not do poly here).