FC3S Coilover Comparison
 

Ive got a few different sets of coilovers that im looking at purchasing for my 86 base model fc. here they are

BC Racing type BR
D2 Racing RS Spec
Ksport Control Pro
Megan Racing Track Series


if anyones had some experience with these id like some input. pretty much ride height, handling preferences, how responsive they are when sliding. and any other positives or negatives people have had with em

Nobody on here is a good enough driver to really tell the differences of handling on these.

with that said ive never ran any of them. I know guys with megans and they like them alot. I also know a dude who loves ksport. the only experience with ksport I have had wasnt a good one. the car felt all bouncy and shitty. but that couldve been a billion other things, ie setup, preload, damping, etc. AND they were their first version and I am sure they have improved since.

I run powered by max coilover now and I like them. I had some teins and they were alright too.

Make sure you get the dtss eliminators aswell as your car will still feel like a bag of flacid dicks without them.

Out of all those, I'd go with BC. Had a few sets and loved them.

Megan Tracks are pretty good

KSports are meh

Never ran D2, never heard anything that makes me want to.

i was looking around on drifting.com and have heard horror stories about kports(bending and too bouncy), havent heard too much of the megans. a few people were running on bc's and werent too 'eh' either way about em. ive run d2's on a couple of my old s13s and seemed to really like those though. lol

step one: stop looking on drifting.com

i've ran ksport gt pro, ksport slide kontrol and currently stance pro comp 2 ways.

GT Pros: springs are garbage. damping is ok on the shock.

Slide kontrol: stiff damping, shit springs. same as above. they go low though.

Stance Pro-Comp 2 way: amazing damping and adjustability. 2 ways are pricey. Springs are awesome(swifts). these seriously changed how my car felt a ton. more control and the damping was spot on. having the range of adjustments is so good too. they don't go as low in the rear due to the external reservoir.

You can always go for the Stance Pro Comp one ways. They go low, have swifts, are "cheaper" and super good damping. IMO one of the best single adjustable coilovers out there.

D2= Ksport

Haven't heard anything about BC yet.

Just my opinion:
(In order from best bang for the buck to worst)
1. Powered By Max
2. Stance(can be pricey)
3. Megan Track
4. BC, K Sport, D2

Mind you this is what I feel works best for drifting, other forms of competition will change the way these stack up. I have ridden on all of these at one point or another, except BC and D2, although I think all of those 3 use the same production facility. I personally have Stance XR w/ Swift Springs, it was the ideal option for me at the time since PBM was on back order.

Doesn't Jeremy Lowe run BCs?

Anyone here run Fortune Auto's?

All of those brands (and a few others) are made in one of two factories in Taiwan.

Buy what can be rebuilt in the US, revalved, and have it's rod length adjusted.

(which is probably none of those brands)

Well I know that I have talked to the folks at Stance about springs rate ranges for the valving their struts. They said I could send them in for re-valving, if needed based on the spring rates that I wanted to run.

What about FEAL suspension they can rebuild and revalve most of the lower end coilovers

Stance claims to be made in Japan yet don't seem to be sold here... They also don't provide any information on where there factory is.

Do they actually do rebuilds in the US or do they exchange cartridges?

Not sure, I did not ask them that specific question. My initial question was how far from the stock spring rates can I go before I would exceed the parameters of the stock valving. They gave me a +/-2K range from the factory supplied springs (9k/7K) and said that they could revalve them if I wanted to go beyond that range.

I run Teins, I believe those are rebuildable in the US.

I think so, and I think Kyle Mohan has em on his RX-8 too

I've heard only good about BC

I've been shopping for coils for like 2 years on and off (budget/plans keep changing) and have decided on pbm based on reviews, price, ability to service, and ride height options. My second choice would be stance w/ swift springs. There's a thread on here somewhere with a vendor selling Stance's for a pretty good price. But not as cheap as pbm's.

Revalving isn't just for changing spring rates.

A real competition shock would let you change low speed and high speed bump and rebound separately when you revalve them.

...of course you would have to actually know what that means...

From what I know. Stance and Megan can be revalved or rebuilt if needed. Feal suspension advertised this. BC can probably be rebuilt as well since I know that d2 can be revalved, and those I believe are made in the same factory in Taiwan if I'm not mistaken. Stance is also made in Taiwan. Where they're made doesn't matter much as long as there is good customer support and quality control, well except that we are exploiting those resources.

And pbm you can obviously just buy the dampener without having to rebuild if one blows.

It matters. They're being put together with cut-rate labor but are still being sold for about the same price as American-made coilover kits with American-made camber plates with with Koni or Bilstein inserts cost. Teins OTOH are overpriced because Japanese of the yen and because everything in Japan is overpriced. The same is true about all Japanese coilovers, really. Especially tuning shop originals.

I kind of suspected that Stance was made in Taiwan...

BTW, the D2s, BCs, XYZs, and K-Sports are basically the exact same design on the outside, at least.

Yes, being a automotive mechanical engineer I actually do know what you are talking about. But I didn't think were were talking about the hows and whys of designing or setting up high end 4-way adjustable remote mount reservoir competition shocks. I had simply thought that the comment was made to help clarify as to whether a specific manufacture/brand offer a revalving service or not and how that person might have known the fact.

But hey, I could always be wrong... :)

I wasn't talking about a four-way shock, I was talking about revalveable shocks in general. You give a decent shock builder the numbers and they should be able to get you those numbers and prove it with a shock dyno.

JICs have good rates. Stance xr, gr+pros, and pro comps are dope. I personally have always been more for stance coils than anything else - however psm is solid too.

Exactly.

Honestly, most "rebuilds" are not actual rebuilds. These companies just send you a new cartridge.

I owned JIC's once and blew like 5 of them. Sent 3 to get "rebuilt" and blew those in about 2 weeks. Apparently tein is rebuildable/revalvable in the US.

My Stance 2 ways are valved for my rates/weight/etc. They are super solid and can adjust rebound/damping separately. Of course, this comes with a higher price tag.

There are practically no good USA made alternatives. You can get the Koni/Bilstein insert method but you can't do shit to lower the car( at least low enough in my book). And you won't even be able to take advantage of the shocks since most people have no idea what their corner weights, spring rates, motion ratio, travel and other shit is that is needed to correctly valve a shock. Not to mention you'll spend a fortune getting them on the car.

Kazuya "Chunky" Bai runs Stance in D1GP. Kunihiko Teramachi runs them in D1SL.

I've been using tein's for quite awhile on both my FC's.. Flex and super drifts, they both been real good to me but they have there purposes!.. I also kept there spring rates the same from factory..