FD3S Suspention, daily driver and auto cross
 

So I did a search and for some reason didn't come up with much. If i still daily drive my FD and want to have some weekend fun doing auto X, what suspension set up do you guys recommend?

Unless you are serious about the autox, just run whatever is on it now.

It will still be fun.

Stock touring edition.

https://www.rx7club.com/suspension-w...-setup-723617/

only the first post or page needs to be read. if you want a dual purpose car, the setup outlined at the beginning is a great start.

Ah, good read. Having come off of Miatas, I knew Mazda had good suspention, but the FD seems likes its pretty much set up from the factory. From the sound of it all I need is Eibach Pro Kit and stock shocks. Glad I read this I probably would have spent to much on suspension that wouldn't really have helped.

I think the koni sport shocks are a nice step up from stock. I run mine full soft during the week, and notably stiffer for the autocross.

Had Koni's on my Supra. They weren't to bad

yeah its pretty good right out of the box, in fact you get most of the way there with an alignment

the pro kit springs are 6.9/4.9 kg/mm front and 5.1/4.0 kg/mm rear and 248mm long in the front and 262mm long in the rear

Are the Eibachs Linear or Progressive spring rates? I don't remember....

since they give two rates i'm going to say progressive.

For street/autox there is no substitute :)

Tein Flex Coilovers

At this time there is no reason to ever consider koni yellows, tokicos or any cheap shock spring combo when good coilovers can be found for 1500.

They are linear.

The Eibach's are ok performance wise. The down side to them is the look they provide the car. The Eibach's lower the front by a little over an inch, but basically nothing in the rear. It creates a fairly large rake which is the opposite of what most FD owners want for the look of their car.

I had them for a number of years and tracked them as well. Street comfort was good and track performance was decent. However, I would recommend the H&R Springs instead of the Eibach's. The H&R's are progressive but perform well at the track. I know several guys who used the H&R's with Koni's running r-comps. The H&R's also give the car a real aggressive stance which is nice as well.

If you have the cash, Fritz's suggestion is the best to go with. If you are even considering coilovers down the line, just save up now and do it rather than purchasing something now which you aren't going to keep in the long run.

Good to know. I H&R's on my Miata with KYB AGX'x

Just to toss in another choice......GROUND CONTROL. Adjustable height, springs available in different rates, and you choose the shocks. Good quality and IMO reasonably priced.
http://www.ground-control-store.com/...tion.php/II=42

what spring rates do the GC coils come with ?

in my experience i dont see a reason to stray away from ground control and a revalved shock for your spring rates until you think you need to spend 4k+ on your set up

From what I'm reading it sounds like you're right.

IIRC, 550/450 f/r

I really like my greddy s-types. People comment on how well it soaks up bumps all the time and they served me well at the dragon.

Depending on diameter, pretty much any rate you want F/R. You can customize depending on use. Available rates are on their site.

Get some adjustable coilover.

The Gc coil over conversion seems kinda ghetto, why spend 600 on that when you can get full coil overs for a few hundred more

because the GC stuff allows you to use a good shock, and that is the important part.

GC is probably THE MOST popular suspension found on track every weekend. spec miatas come to mind here.

fatcat motorsports has a package for autox/ street miatas with revalved bilsteins for $1500ish. ride quality is extremely good, even over expansion joints on the interstate that get bumpy.

i wish someone sold a similiar package for FD's as it is hard to beat this kind of custom set up vs. a mass produced coilover that offers good ride quality but sacrifices spring rates because their shocks wont handle the stiffer spring.

in my opinion on adjustable shocks, is only the high dollar ones offer the most reward for your fine tuning. anything else only offers 16 clicks between stiff and squishy.

This is what I'm currently running. And also my experience. Good performance that doesn't make your teeth rattle on the street.
Is GC the absolute BEST of you can get? No. But components are quality and a damn good value IMO for those (like me) who need the compromise. Ghetto? Nonsense. I've had them for years and they work. Have a friend with a serious single turbo FD that's tracked frequently who's been happy too.

With the Ground Control - Coilover Conversion kit, 93- Mazda RX7 coil over adapters you can't adjust pre load and ride height separately, with coil-overs you can.

I have Apexi coil overs on my car, soooo much better than stock or aftermarket spring/shock combos.

Uh, no. By your definition Penske, Moton, MCS, Ohlins, {insert other high-end, perfectly functional brands} coilovers are not "coilovers."

Coilovers describe the shock/spring configuration and not ride height adjustment mechanism. Coilovers can even have fixed ride height...

Excuse me "fully adjustable coil overs"... (being able to adjust both bound and reboud on the shock and the spring pre load and ride height indpendently)

Not saying they won't work, any thing mentioned in this thread is an up grade over stock. Trying to point out that its nice to have the other adjustments depending on what you are doing. Being able to adjust pre load and ride height seperatly is nice, especially when tire height changes and you want to change the ride height.

Here is why I don't like the GC stuff quoted from another forum member-"I'm already at single adjustable, but I did not like what appears to be a lack of height adjustment range with the GC conversion kit for my Konis, and more importantly, didn't like the fact that when the suspension is unloaded, the springs are loose. I bought a set of helper springs and adapters from True Choice to go with the 2.5" ERS springs in the GC kit, but they don't work well with the rubber gaskets on the GC pillow mounts at the top, and at the bottom, the adapter (between the helper and the main spring) interferes with and contacts the threaded sleeve."

I have put stuff like GC's on other cars( 240sx, WRx) and I found similar issues with the springs being fully unloaded(loose as I quoted above) when the car was in the air, thats where the word ghetto comes to play. Did this when I was an alignment tech. I was never as impressed as I was with an adjustable coilover which I have set up on a NSX, 350z and my FD.

Bump (or compression) and rebound. Sure. A two, three or four-way adjustable shock is nice, but there's nothing stopping you from running those with the GC coilover hardware.

Is your APEXi coilover kit able to adjust high speed compression, low speed compression, high speed rebound, and low speed rebound independently? I guess it's not fully adjustable after all...

Sure. But if you can adjust ride height by adjusting shock length then what you're really saying is that you haven't built the shock for maximum travel. Meaning, if you raise the car by lengthening the shock body but without increasing stroke -- you're not optimal.

If you ever see that much droop while driving you've got way bigger things to worry about. There're a tonne of ways to address that issue, none of which have anything to do with the GC coilover hardware... and they're also pretty much completely unnecessary unless you're out rallying the car and cycling through full droop where the spring gets loose.

Shrug. You're set with the opinion of the GC hardware being ghetto, that's your choice. I'm focused on what works, what's necessary, and what matters.

I think the Ground control sleeve style coilover is kind of jenky too.

The springs usually end up too short so every time you jack the car up you have to worry about seating the sping again (at least twice a day when you are racing.) I have do to deal with this with friends cars when working on them.

There is extra weight from the steel body shock and then the alum threaded body and worse heat dissipation.

Stock replacement shocks can't handle much increase in spring rate needed for performance driving anyways unless re-valved and they are usually twin tubes shocks so performance degrades quickly when driven hard. If re-valved you are into almost as much as quality coilovers.

Then you are allowing rubber bushings to do your initial damping unless you go in on the added expense of spherical bearing upper mounts, so there is added cost.

That said, a quality shock and GC style sleeve kit is less jenky than many cheap coilovers being sold.

One of the reasons I favor my FD over my FC is there is STILL quality parts available for the FD.

I went with Ohlins Road and Track.

They have separate height adjustment, they were developed specifically for the FD and come with set up instructions for height and damping. With their 11k spring rate and recommended damping they ride much softer on the street than my old stock springs and Super R dampers. Their aluminum bodies are light and shed heat well and the teflon coating offers good corrosion resistance so it remains easy to adjust the collars on the threads. You gain a noticeable traction as the specialized DFV valving keeps the tire on the ground over rough patches.

They are ~$2,800 but are as good a suspension as you can buy and daily drive on. The FD is worth it.

Ground controls are more than fine. I'd rather have a set of those and a decent set of bilsteins or konis than 95% of the coilovers most people run.

You don't need adjustable preload. why would you want any preload? to make you have even less droop travel? you'll want a set of tender springs on at least the rear anyway. you can get helpers for the front. no more loose spring issue. I have tenders and helpers on both the cars I race with ground control (or ground control like) coilovers. the spring has never popped out of place. my corolla lifts rear wheels and my rx7 lifts front wheels so that's saying something.

Read this artciel about dampers and springs:
Autocross to Win (DGs Autocross Secrets) - Buying Shocks

and just an FYI:
helper spring = almost zero rate springs designed to keep the main spring in place
tender spring = softer spring (~ 150 lbs/in) designed to aid in droop travel.

I have bilsteins on my auto-x/track FC and they're awesome. Corolla has double adjustable race konis that are also very good. both were super cheap and better than the $2000 JIC FLT-TAR coilovers I took off my FC.