enj01

Well i hope no one tells me to search... because I did and i found some good info on KTS but not alot on MAX. Id like to hear some opinions on both products considering ill be ordering one of the 2 this week. Keep in mind these are budget coilovers and since i don't want to spend more then 1200 these 2 choices seem about right for me but feel free to suggest a different setup and msbe shed some light on the situation.

The KTS coilover can be found here: http://www.splparts.com/main3/main/default.htm

9kg/mm springs front and 7kg/mm springs rear,Steel monotube shocks, inverted front and 15 way adjustable

The MAX coilovers can be found here: http://www.gtfactory.jp/cms//e107_pl...oduct=10&cat=1

10kg/8kg spring rates with an aluminum housing an 10 way adjustable

My car is a 88 s4 vert and ill be doing a little track and occasional drifting so what do yall think? I also kinda like the fact that the MAX coilovers have a stiffer spring rate...

Black91n/a

They're awfully stiff, they're cheap and unproven.

IMHO untill I've seen a shock dyno and they've been durability proven through lots of high milage street use, then everything's crap.

Another option for that price range, KYB AGX, Koni Yellows or Tockico Illuminas combined with Ground Control coil over sleeves with a better rate of 400 lb/in front and 275 lb/in rear and add in some camber plates and you've got a better setup for a decent price.

Or you can save up a little more and get some Tein Flex (IIRC I've seen them for $1350), proven to be an excellent budget minded setup. I run them on the street and at the track, as do many others, and I'm very happy with them. Stance seems to be fairly good too, that'd probably be my second choice in that price rance.

Valkyrie

A 10/8 rate would only be suitabled for a dedicated track car...

Realistically 7/5 is about where you should draw the line for a street car.

enj01

black 91 na are you talking about both sets or coilovers or just the maxes?

aznpoopy

pbm has posted shock dynos here
https://www.rx7club.com/non-classifieds-violations-59/new-coilovers-fc-fd-660343/
too bad i don't really fully understand how to read them
someone else apparently does and stated that although they seem adequate for the job, they will be jarringly uncomfortable on the street.

kts i know by word of mouth only in the 240sx community.
if you are buying them from SPL, who i believe is the only one who sells them, the biggest benefit is AWESOME customer service, in addition to zero downtime turnover for shock replacement. there is no rebuild, you buy shocks at the cost of what others charge to rebuild. i've never had a ride in them unfortunately. i have heard zero complaints of them blowing early.

enj01

yeah lol i cant read shock dynos lol but ill find out how later on tomarrow night... and ride quality is not a problem to me

The 240 guys do have alot of good things to say about kts coilovers, only negative thing i heard about them is that their pretty stiff

aznpoopy

the biggest negative is that they don't go that low, which is very important to 240 owners (lol)

Black91n/a

Both, I've never really heard much about either and I believe they're both quite new to the market.

The shock dynos of the Max's aren't great, they're not terrible, but not great. The adjustment adjusts compression too much, which isn't desirable, they should be adjusted seperately, or the compression should stay constant with rebound adjustments. A little is bound to happen, there it's too much IMHO.

I really don't like their camber/caster plates though, again like rebound/compression adjusting, make them seperate or don't adjust caster at all.

enj01

yeah after some more research on other forums ive decided not to go with MAX but listen to this... (im gonna get bashed i know it) while looking into kts coilovers the megans were poping up alot, the track and the street series and one person even said their better then kts?
2 of my 240 buds,one with a s13 one with a s14 both had the streets and i think the revalving comming too soon ishue is true because the s13 is having some little froblems after 2-3 years but before that he had no problems.

What do yall think about megan? i heard their the same as Apexi N1 exV besides the valving.

Black91n/a

The only thing in common is the way they look, they are absolutely not the same thing, and Megan's aren't great either, so if KTS's are worse, then they're crap.

WadeMCarter

how set are you on coilovers? As someone mentioned earlier, a good shock, spring, camber kit, and coil over sleeves would be good for an autocross or drift car on the weekend, and a daily during the work week.

enj01

On my first car i had some tokico illuminas and megan racing springs and then i put k sports in and to me my struts and springs handled better then my k sports but to me the illuminas were just too soft even on 5

But yes i do agree with you that koni yellows with ground control's would be alot better for scca events and such

enj01

OMG looka at what i found.... i know this is a litle off topic but remember i brought up the megan coilovers yesterday... http://youtube.com/watch?v=UKfT6Pg7sds

After you watch that go to the site and you will see pics of that same 350z on the home page and in the events page

Red_Rabbit86

hey if you do go max repost how you felt they did i am leaning towards them

Black91n/a

So what? They have a bad driver that crashed, big deal, doesn't really say anything about the suspension.

Tires are the most important thing for a car's handling and performance, the next most important thing is dampers (shocks and struts), so don't cheap out, get something good. You'll be happier in the end when you don't need to do it over again because the cheap ones that you bought never worked quite right and died prematurely.

DC Dan at MAX USA

Funny thats still circulating the net. That crash video was at a drift event I organized under the name drift circuit at qualcomm stadium, what a day! That driver had a repeat performance at a drift buffet event too (in Megan's other company drift car) where he actually hit the fire truck that was on stand by. The same driver actually crashed both company cars. Fool megan once shame on him, fool them twice - shame on megan.

They are in fact stiff thats why we call them MAX competition coilovers. Compaired to most street spec coilovers the softest setting of the MAX c.o. is equal to the hardest setting on others. The damping range is the same as the 32 way coilovers but it just takes 10 clicks to cover the same range. If you like the control, response and feedback that an aggressive suspension can offer without being bouncy, or overpriced these are perfect for you. I thought enj01 was a shoe in when he wrote "My car is a 88 s4 vert and ill be doing a little track and occasional drifting so what do yall think? I also kinda like the fact that the MAX coilovers have a stiffer spring rate...".

They are in fact cheap in price, and I'll explain why. Unlike any other coilover company, when Parts Shop MAX decided to offer these goods for sale in the USA they opted for a direct sales structure. Other coilover companies always sell through middlemen. If we did that, the coilovers would be more expensive than other famous brands so please dont judge MAX on its price tag.

Martin with the black FC has been beating down the FC prototypes here in the USA long before the product release was ever announced, and I have been running MAX coilovers on my Nissan with regular track and street abuse long before Martin had his. I have been a vender on the Zilvia.net forum since May and that thread has almost 1000 posts & 30,000 views and numerous rave reviews from all MAX coilover customers. Not one bad review, not one blown shock.

The first replacement shock I ever sold was last week, due to a drunk driving accident. The customer bent his shock, subframe and arms - replaced the other stuff - hammered the shock shaft straight - drove on it for 2 weeks - and then came in to get it replaced with a new unit (that we stock) for $100. When I got his old shock out, I was amazed to find that it still had pressure inside!

Its too bad Martin our Mazda tech does not have a computer of his own, he could better explain the dynamics of the MAX coilovers versus numerous setups he has ran in the past on his 2 FC's.

I'd like to justify becoming an advertiser here, and make regular contributions to the Mazda community like wo do with the Nissan crowd but so far just a cold shoulder from everyone who posts here (who has not been to our shop).
So take it easy on the new guy eh?

Valkyrie

You should expect people to balk when you expect them to spend $1000+ on unproven hardware.

Once we get feedback from experienced drivers and shock dyno results, that's a different story...

aznpoopy

spl has been selling those coilovers for at least 2 or 3 years now. he is definitely not new to the market.

the rumor was they actually were apexi n1 exv's with a megan label on them instead. that old rumor has since been completely disproved. i've seen some of megan's "quality control" (specifically a suspension part on a 240sx that wasn't even welded together as a solid piece) and the poor support they've given to customers... just based on that alone i would never buy anything with a megan tag on it.

shock dyno was already posted
as for 'experienced drivers,' well that's just problematic, since most competition drivers wouldn't buy this stuff to begin with, and you'd rarely find them on a forum like this. the best you can hope for is an amateur autocrosser, drifter, or someone who's just gone through a shitload of coilovers.

TitaniumTT

Linky no worky??? I don't have access to that page? WTF???

Black91n/a

2-3 years is new to the market when compared to the established, respected competetors. Tein for instance has been around since 1995 (12 years), and others have been around for much longer. Koni's been making shocks since 1932. Shocks are voodoo and you learn by doing, so if they're on their first model chances are that it's not as good as another company's 3rd design.

I consider 10/8 to be too stiff for 99% of all FC owners, and is absolutely too stiff for street tires. I'm running 7/5 on my car and it's plenty stiff for track use with 225 wide R compound tires and is what the majority of FC road racers are using. A few are running up to about those rates, but not many. As you go stiffer the car is less and less able to deal with imperfections in the surface and you can have reduced grip over imperfect (real world) surfaces because the tires are bouncing and skipping over the bumps, rather than following the road. Hardly any roads and tracks are really smooth. The ride isn't too bad, but I wouldn't want to go much stiffer on the street or it'll be too harsh. Ideally you want to run as soft as you can while maintaining a decent suspension geometry and alignment.

Stiffer does not equal better.

IMHO that camber plate design is stupid and is probably my biggest criticism of the MAX coilovers and would make me rank them below the other more recent entries to the market like Megan, D2, KTS and so on. A racer or an engineer versed in chassis dynamics and so on wouldn't have made it that way.

TweakGames

iTrader: (3)

hhmmmmmmm I was thinking about going with the max after the snow season ... but this new information, and remembering that they are new, and dont like to talk about shock dynos (look on their websites forum), I think I will just get a trusted, slightly softer one.

Thank you, black91n/a

Obviously I will keep my mind open. Maybe Max will come out with a softer version, without the camber plate? We will have to see.

We would love for you to make some products, just rx7 owners LOVE numbers, love proof, and love companies that listen to us. Like stated above, I think that the few people on the forum that do run coil overs, think that your rates are VERY stiff. If you are looking to advertise to the drifting community I think you will be disapointed. Unlike the 240sx, rx7s are at drift events 1:30. (at least up here in the northwest) There were 2 of us at our last event and one wasnt even serious. ALSO I would have to think that the general rx7 community still has a negative look on drifting.

I do hope that you continue to work on your products for the FC, but I think you will have to rethink your game plan. We are NOT 240sx owners.

DC Dan at MAX USA

I dont expect anyone to take my word for it, after all what do I know I'm just the guy making a living off of this, BUT
If anyone is interested in what our customers have to say about us in they're own words read all about it here. http://www.zilvia.net/f/showthread.php?t=147583 as you can see the nissan crowd has an overwhelmingly warm reception of the Parts Shop MAX USA debut.

Although there is obviously plenty of crossover in parts application between drift and grip, these were shipped from the factory pre-packaged with competitive drifting specifications.

You can order our coilovers with any even number KG spring for no additional charge although we stock only 10/8 in the USA.

You can also change some camber independantly through the bottom bracket.

You can also order the suspension with the standard top plate however one of the longest running FC tuners and D1 drivers in Japan - Drift Samurai came up with the design as a simple solution to an old problem, and he has been running this for years. I have great respect the heritage of the sport as the Japanese have been doing it longer than anyone which is why I back this brand as the sole USA representative.

The other page that had the shock dyno's and much interesting conversation was removed because one of the moderators felt it was being used to sell parts, and noone on it was a paid advertiser. It was someone elses thread, I was just there to clarify facts. Dont ask about purchasing info or this one is likely to be removed as well.

Anyhow I am after all a nissan guy and I would love to learn much more about the RX7, so just remember that and take it easy you tech junkies!
A favorite quote of mine is "Relax, its just drifting."
I hope that you guys are open minded enough to also consider the Japanese know a little something about RX7's too and they're style may grow on you.

TweakGames

iTrader: (3)

Why wasn't this stated before? Is there anything else we should know?

enj01

I actually went with these coilovers after all.... Why may you ask?
1.Because everyone has a different opinion on every suspension setup
2. Found a lot more reviews from the nissan forums and there was not one bad review from anyone that ran them.
3. I want to be different
4. If i really dont like them for some reason i can always sell them
5. Looks at stance, everyone was worried about them and now people love em and their suppose to be the best entry level coilover

They will be here next week... also im am no suspension expert but ive ridden in a couple coilover setups and srping n strut setups and ill be shure to let you all know what i think of them

Power By MAX dont let me down

aznpoopy

right, obviously there have been people in the market for decades. the point is you grouped KTS in with PBM, who is truly a newcomer in that they just began selling their products in the US a few months ago. with KTS there are people (granted, in different cars) that have been daily driving and tracking their coilovers for a couple of years, so there is a small base of knowledge and experience. obviously its not koni, but you get the point.

KTS have been in operation since the early 90s in japan. they are simply not aggressively marketed in the US. i can't say much more about them than that, but its unfair to make assumptions about a company's' experience in creating shocks when only a limited number of japanese companies actually bother to market their products here. a newcomer to the market doesn't necessarily mean a newcomer to suspension. not that it matters, because my hunch is most of the sub $1500 japanese coilovers probably outsource their shock manufacturing to a handful of chinese manufacturers anyway.

tein arguably has the best exposure not because it makes the best products, but because it entered in the US both early (early 90s iirc) and aggressively. the company has actually been around (in japan) since the mid 80s.