What do you guys know about the Cusco Zero-2?
 

Anybody using them? Anybody have any feedback or experience with them?

I'm trying to figure out what suspension to throw on the GXL. Next will be rims. :icon_tup:

BTW: You can view the cuscos here -> Cusco Zero-2

What you wanna know about them? I have them, they are pretty sweet as far as I can tell with limited expierence in the field. They should be better then al the cheap stuff like K-Sport and D2 and such, and also better then what Tein and HKS offers for our cars. They use Showa inserts, which together with Koni and Ohlins are considered the best in the world. However they are pretty old model now, and the Zero-3 won't be available for the FC. :icon_tdow

Riz.

Thanks for the reply.

Are they worth the hefty price tag?

Holy crap, for that kind of money you can buy the entire Mazda Comp Stage II suspension kit!

Part number is K-STG2-91-RX71
http://www.mazdamotorsports.com/pdfs...Suspension.pdf

Wel yes, they are to me. Although I bough a good condition used kit. I would classify it as a Street - Track set, meaning it's not all out racing goodness. Downside is they can't be rebuild, so you will have to replace cartridges (L & R), making it expensive if you blow one. I'm also not sure how well they would match. Haven't had mine on a dyno either. For the money of a new set I would go to Intrax, Reiger, AST or Proflex and ask what they could build me. But those are all local Dutch companies, so you could see what is around where you live. Main reason for doing this: Getting exactly what I want, easy rebuild/revalve and support.

Out of those two I would go for Cusco...

Riz.

What makes the Cusco coilovers better than an entire kit of Koni coilovers with top of the line Eibach ERS springs, front and rear camber/caster plates, adjustable rear camber link, and front and rear Eibach anti-roll bars? :scratch:

Also, what kind of drugs are you using?

I may get blasted for saying this, but...

The Mazdaspeed parts don't have fancy colors. They also don't have the name cache that Cusco apparently does. And the more you spend, the better they are, right?

Hopefully, everyone realizes those comments were tongue in cheek. Those Cusco pieces are ridiculousy priced, though.

The mazda dealer can get these with that part number?

I just need something to replace the stock gxl suspension with something that's versatile and not cheap junk. I want something that will be fully adjustable and not a ruff ride. There's no point in cheaping out and buying something I won't be happy with and I don't want used.

Your local Mazda dealer may be able to order it, but you probably need to order it from their racing department, Mazdaspeed Motorsports Development. See this link for the details of their free program to get discounts on Mazda parts. Local SCCA autocross events count as "race results".
https://www.mazdamotorsports.com/wcs...rtsprogram.htm

There isn't much point in getting coilovers if you don't want a rough ride. A better alternative for a good street/autocross suspension is KYB AGX shocks with a nice set of street springs. Tokico Illumina is another alternative for decent street/autocross adjustable shocks, but you must remove the rear speaker grilles in order to adjust the rear shocks. Tire Rack usually has pretty good pricing on KYB AGX shocks, while Mazdatrix has a good selection of springs.
http://www.tirerack.com
http://www.mazdatrix.com/h4586-92.htm

I am not aware of anything that is truly "versatile" or "fully adjustable" by an average person.

Thanks a lot ^

I live in the Netherlands, Koni being a Dutch company is terible when it comes to racing oriented products over here. That's why all of the top Koni engineers start their own racing suspension companies, and that's why many of the top of the suspension brands are Dutch.

Showa is considered superior to your basic Koni shock by many. Showa is used by Cusco...

It depends on my mood...

Riz.

I think Ohlins, Showa and Koni are the finest products when it comes to shocks. Manufacturers selecting and using their (Ohlins, Showa & Koni) products the right way, will result in excelent coil-overs.

It's just that, just because I'm Dutch, doesn't mean I'm a Koni fanboi...

I think you are putting Cusco products on the same level as Tein, HKS, Silroad etc., when clearly they are well above that level.

Riz.

The biggest difference is that Cusco has full-length height adjustment threads that lets you lower the whole thing instead of just the perch, meaning you get to keep a full stroke range when the car is lowered heavily.

Ground Control-style kits with old-fashioned movable perches lower your available stroke when heavily lowered.

If I had to guess, Cusco is probably spending more money on R&D than Mazdaspeed is.

But personally I'd stick to their LSDs and get some more reasonable coilovers...

And make sure they're rebuildable. Period.

MazdaSpeed doesn't? That kinda sucks... I have seen MS units pop up Yahoo Auctions and always thought they had full-length height adjustment.

Yeah, if you spend alot of money, make sure they're not a use-till-breaks units, but can be serviced.

Riz.

Wait..what? Im willing to bet a paycheck that Mazda put way more money into research than Cusco. So they use a good strut, what kinda metal is the mounts, spring perch, threaded collar, top mount..... Mazda also designs and races endurance cars, touring cars, all kinds of other auto events as well, I'm sure some of that racing design experience seeped into the designing of there race parts.... PLUS I would put way more faith into a performance product made by the same company that makes the car, compared to the company who's income relies on a whole range of products making sales for a wide range of makes and models. Not saying that the cusco isn't a good product but if I could get more for the same price from the company that makes the car well..

That could very well be true. While I still believe it is a ridiculous price, perhaps the price level is too high for what most FC owners are seeking.

^this, it's hard to justify spending more for suspension than you did for the whole car or say a turbo swap even.

Understandable. Even though this fc isn't a normal beat up modded out $1k fc.

I've thought about the price of rims/suspension and it's a hefty price because I'm not looking to buy used or half decent stuff. Maybe I need to step up to a fd where the car would remain of value? I like my s4 though and think it'd be even better with some rims/suspension/rb exhaust on it.

So do I save the $5k I was gonna spend on rims/suspension and drop that into a fd? Cause I can save enough cash to have a fd by june. And June is when I normally pull the fc out anyways. Then I could have the fd done within a few months after that. :scratch:

Cusco is in the business is making suspension and racing products for dozens of brands.

Mazda is in the business of making cars.

Mazdaspeed is in the business is making parts for a single brand of cars.

It's economies of scale. It wouldn't make sense to spend as much money designing coilovers for say, four or five models as you would spend designing high-end coilovers for up to 100 models.

This is part of the reason why RE Amemiya coilovers cost 3-4K while Megan Racing kits costs about a quarter of that.

All Cusco does is design performance parts. If they DIDN'T spend more money on R&D on these parts than Mazdaspeed or TRD, or Nismo did, personally I think they shouldn't be charging top dollar for them.

It's your car, dude. In some ways you would be better of spending $10,000 or so making your car as good looking, faster, and more reliable than an FD than spending $15,000-$20,000 on a stock FD. When all said in done, an FD will almost always cost you more money.

Pretty much everything you can spend money on with a car can be justified by performance...

A set of coilovers will handle lightyears better than shocks and springs, bigger, wider wheels make a car better looking, more responsive (lower profile means stiffer sidewall), and gives it more grip. Plus, lighter wheels make the car handle better.

More grip means better braking and stability.

Which in leads to making braking mods worth while, since you can stop later and turn faster.


But if you don't already have bushings, a bucket seat, and good tires/wheels, coilovers is a gigantic waste of money. You MUST tighten up the squishy parts of the car before you go making the suspension two or three times as stiff as stock. Strut tower bars also help.

And at this point you'll need an LSD to really get the potential out of the tires and coilovers. And I don't mean a viscous diff, I mean an aftermarket clutch type. The difference is night and day.


If you know deep in your heart that you want to drive an FD at some point, then yeah, you should just save up for an FD.

This is assuming the car is in good enough condition that it's worth doing some restoration work on. Paint, turbo swaps, rebuilds, etc.

Dunno. Maybe. I haven't looked at JDM Mazdaspeed kits. The only reference to what's available in the US (the Mazda Performance catalog) shows pictures of adjustable perch type suspension kits.

If you got full-length adjustable threads with all those other parts, sway bars, etc for the same price as just Cusco coilovers, I'd say go for it.

not clear! i wouldn't argue that the QUALITY is fine, but is there a shock dyno? what's the valving like? we do not know what the valving is like on the cuscos, there is no way to know what they tested it on, and there is no way to revalve.


just a small detail, but Mazdaspeed in japan and Mazdaspeed in the US are completely different. the US suspension kit shares no parts with the Japanese suspension kits. the US one is US sourced except the Koni's and maybe the springs

If your talking the amount of money spent on all of their products compared to just what mazdaspeed invested for there rx7 suspension of course they spent more. That's not the point. Product to product, Mazda has for sure spent more on r&d for their part. They have also designed the car. The money into developing the original suspension, plus the money they spent to design the mazdaspeed suspension will for sure come out ahead of the one Cusco part.
Take anything that has aftermarket accessories and compare the prices to the same brand products. Xbox for example, Nyko is a company that sells nothing but extra controllers and such, your still gonna buy the Microsoft branded controller over the Nyko. You have to factor in part of the development of the product the accessory is for in the price to develop the accessory.




To the op. most cars loose value when you mod them. If you love your FC and can't ever see yourself selling it keep it.
But also consider some vehicles like the fd, if modded nicely and done well usually fetch higher prices than stock fd's.

bzzzzt.

That would be incorrect in reference to the Cusco shocks shown in the link above.

Those shocks have an adjustable perch, that is threaded a large section of the shock.

HOWEVER

The issue is.. the mounting point of the shock.. the bottom eye, and top mount are not able to be adjusted in relation to the spring.

What I am getting at... if the top of the shock is in the adjustable camber caster plate.. .and you lower the car.. by pushing on it.. weights.. going over a bump.. OR LOWERING THE PERCH... the shock piston is compressing.

As the piston inside compresses.. you have less and less travel left inside the shock.

That being said.. you could thread the entire body from top to bottom.. and once you start lowering the spring perch.. the travel available gets smaller and smaller.

What I see in the pic is a shock that mounts to the two suspension points.. top and bottom.. and your spring perch controls the height. Therefore if the shock's available travel shortens... you loose travel.

Now on a different track... you have only a certain amount of suspension travel available, WITHOUT a shock or spring. SO when the travel is expended you are bottomed out. So the amount of adjustability in the shock perch, was found to be perfectly fine for the FC by the team designing the mazdaspeed shock setup.

The biggest issue with all these shocks for the FC is the fact that under heavy track use.. they will ALL overheat. Until you go remote resevoir you are really only looking at street/autocross shocks. Possibly LIGHT track day use.

YOu will notice overheating the same as brake fade.... the car starts diving hard into corners under breaking, and begins to wallow out of corners, and bob around when doing heavy manuvering. (chicanes like on the back streight at Daytona)

I agree with Evil. Why waste your money.. get the mazdaspeed.. do some autocrosses and get a full kit.

I haven't replaced bushings or anything yet. The car is completely stock besides a navi unit inside. I just hate when I see cars modded out to the point they look disgusting to me. I think the right set of wheels and tires with a nice suspension is justifiable though with a nice exhaust to complement the rotary sound.. I have no plans to do a lsd besides the stock one that the gxl comes with though.

And the FD part - I think the fd is a very sexy car and would like to own one some day but that doesn't mean I don't love my fc. I would dump $6k in my fc no problem. I just haven't yet cause I can't ever decide what to buy. I'm no jdm master or a drifter or a hella flush guy. I'm just a guy who loves the car I searched for and bought.

Another thing is, is that I'm not cheap when it comes to buying stuff. I don't like cheap stuff or used stuff as I always felt that if you're gonna do/buy something, then it needs done right the 1st time or not at all.

So basically I guess I'm asking for help on what would be the best route to take if I want the best for my fc?