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Just picked up this set for about C$600 delivered from Japan. From Bathurst R. This is the set I currently have on my car and I am pretty pleased with them.
So now I have a spare set. As the spring shows, they absorb bumps pretty well, but will bottom quickly once the initial range of softness is exceeded.
So this weekend I met up with @suzukisteve and we swapped cars around and drove around town.
He has a SUPER clean '95 Montego blue, really solid car. The Fortune Auto 500's are VERY different from my suspension - felt solid and tight, but was never bouncy or harsh. Driving my car it's just so damn harsh.
Also had fun with NO damn traction on my car due to the Pensacola "cold" weather - about 40-50 degrees out and the cold tires and cold road didn't hook at all!
I was really pleased with the Fortune Auto setup. That's definitely a contender. It also proved to me that you can have coilovers that don't ride super harsh.
EBrown, Thanks for the input! I've toyed with doing stock suspension but the rear ride height especially is SO damn high it just kills me. I don't need my car dropped, but I want it even and looking good. If anything with my future setup I'll probably go higher than I am now for some more ground clearance.
Dale
Was he running the Swift spring upgrade or just the standard ones? Also what rates?
I am running the standard springs 10k front 8k rear. I have heard better things about the swift springs. I am hoping someone with them can chime in.
Mine isn't an apples to apples comparison, but for a while I tried the 11k/11k Ohlins springs that come on the DFV, then switched to 9k/8k Swift springs and they feel so much better. Of course, that could be more due to the spring rate change, who knows. But I feel it's worth a shot.
They do look nice, but...
Those are increasing-rate springs. You can see that because of the close coil spacing near the top. Once the the top coils coil-bind (use up the space between them), the rate will go up to ~double the initial rate, because ~1/2 of the coils will no longer be active. So to maintain a good unloaded ride, one has to assure that the top coils are not coil-bound in normal use (at normal load).
Also, in race cars w/o huge downforce, increasing rate is not usually a good thing because that causes the car to jack up when roll angle increases in a corner. That raises the ride height (also roll center) and geometric roll stiffness, which combined with the higher spring rate on the side with the more highly compressed suspension, usually causes a partial loss of grip. Since that is on the rear, it will likely create oversteer.
With the graduated springs I was pleased to find that the car rode over minor road surface variations with the same smooth absorption of my G6. But bottoming out would be more sudden on larger variations (potholes).
There was also much less front/rear rocking.
On the rare occasions I find myself up over 140km/hour (Porsches seem to have some magnetic force), on the freeway, I was pleased to find the car had hunkered down and was very stable. I have the 99 wing set at the least aggressive setting (for rearward visibility purposes). Perhaps the larger 99 spec front lip also plays a role.
The car remains very flat when taking twisty roads at mildly aggressive cruising speeds and I have yet to experience any excessive oversteer within my comfortable range of driving speed.
(Lighter 16" wheels and higher sidewall also help.)
I have heard better things about the swift springs. I am hoping someone with them can chime in.
While I find Swift springs marketing info interesting, I find it difficult to believe that someone will notice a difference between spring manufacturers at the same spring rate.
An 11k spring is an 11k spring. It will compress xx mm when you put 11k of force on it.
The winding of the spring or type of steel and more precise manufacturing is something I can appreciate but I just can't picture being able to actually feel the difference.
These are much more gradual increasing rate than the ones I commented on in my last post. The first coils to coil-bind will be the 2 at the very top, then progressing toward the bottom with increasing deflection. I think this is better than the abrupt rate increase in the new ones Redbul showed.
These are much more gradual increasing rate than the ones I commented on in my last post. The first coils to coil-bind will be the 2 at the very top, then progressing toward the bottom with increasing deflection. I think this is better than the abrupt rate increase in the new ones Redbul showed.
Good catch. I just noticed that the spring winding is different in the 2 pics. They might not both be S-Tech springs... I suspect the pic I quoted is not S-Tech given the pic in the link to Tein's site...
So talking with one of my good friends on this topic this weekend (Jimmy) he has the Tein Flex Z's on his car and described the setup as very nice, not harsh or bouncy. he said with the shocks turned to full soft he felt it was TOO soft.
I'll have to do a test drive in the near future on his setup for sure.
Just my 2 cents, I run the Fortune Auto 500 series and was a big difference to the stock setup I had prior. I ran the rears on the softest and was a bit too soft, but there is loads of adjustments for fine tuning. And they are reasonable in the price range of other popular brands Tein, Koni etc... Fortune's tech support is good as well, based on my experience with them.
Thanks! It's looking like there is more than one option. I definitely like a setup that can be fixed or rebuilt, I know they can do the work on the units in the US which is awesome.
Tein Flex Z's use a non-rebuildable shock but you can buy a new shock assembly and transfer the springs/collars/etc. over. The one nice thing with that is you can just order the part and swap it out when it gets in, you don't have to put the car on jack stands for however long it takes to get the shock back from being rebuilt.
Either way that's a key consideration, the cheapie Ebay Chinese-made shocks are disposable if they die. Also some of the super exotic JDM stuff likely isn't easily rebuildable - maybe if you lived in Japan and spoke Japanese.
So talking with one of my good friends on this topic this weekend (Jimmy) he has the Tein Flex Z's on his car and described the setup as very nice, not harsh or bouncy. he said with the shocks turned to full soft he felt it was TOO soft.
I'll have to do a test drive in the near future on his setup for sure.
Dale
Yep! Great out to the box coilover that doesn't break the bank!
Clunkiness in my rear suspension likely had a lot to do with this blown right rear shock. I am keen to see how the "new' struts ride.
Original plan was to replace the rear lower arms with some lower mileage spares. The spares were not good enough, being 25 years old. Mazda Canada is quoting $1400 to replace the arm with OEM, including new bushings. Bushings alone are about C$1000, plus shop time to insert, gets back to the full unit price.
Needless to say I am looking for alternatives.
Blown Showa is not recognizable. Cost proposition for rear bushings is prohibitive
So this weekend I met up with @suzukisteve and we swapped cars around and drove around town.
He has a SUPER clean '95 Montego blue, really solid car. The Fortune Auto 500's are VERY different from my suspension - felt solid and tight, but was never bouncy or harsh. Driving my car it's just so damn harsh.
Also had fun with NO damn traction on my car due to the Pensacola "cold" weather - about 40-50 degrees out and the cold tires and cold road didn't hook at all!
I was really pleased with the Fortune Auto setup. That's definitely a contender. It also proved to me that you can have coilovers that don't ride super harsh.
EBrown, Thanks for the input! I've toyed with doing stock suspension but the rear ride height especially is SO damn high it just kills me. I don't need my car dropped, but I want it even and looking good. If anything with my future setup I'll probably go higher than I am now for some more ground clearance.
Dale
Nice! What spring rate did he have on his 500s? I had to special request mine so that they didnt come 12s(or whatever) stock from the factory. I really enjoy the ride quality now.
Nice! What spring rate did he have on his 500s? I had to special request mine so that they didnt come 12s(or whatever) stock from the factory. I really enjoy the ride quality now.
Originally Posted by suzukisteve
I am running the standard springs 10k front 8k rear. I have heard better things about the swift springs. I am hoping someone with them can chime in.
I went with 8k Front and 6k rear based off of a few road racers feedback. Howard Coleman and the like. He had significant data and track time with these spring rates successfully.
I sometimes drive aggressive on the street and might frequent a track day in the future, but a far cry from an actual car dedicated to track days, so I went with the softer springs for comfort.
Clunkiness in my rear suspension likely had a lot to do with this blown right rear shock. I am keen to see how the "new' struts ride.
Original plan was to replace the rear lower arms with some lower mileage spares. The spares were not good enough, being 25 years old. Mazda Canada is quoting $1400 to replace the arm with OEM, including new bushings. Bushings alone are about C$1000, plus shop time to insert, gets back to the full unit price.
Needless to say I am looking for alternatives.
Blown Showa is not recognizable. Cost proposition for rear bushings is prohibitive
Huh? The rear pillow ***** aren't very pricey all things considered - full set is around $350 or so for 6 pillow ***** and the dust seals. They are VERY straight forward to do in your driveway with a cheap Harbor Freight ball joint press. You don't need a crazy press or a shop to do the job.
The other bushings in the rear end are quite hardy and rarely have problems. If you have clunking it's probably the pillow *****, VERY common problem.
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