gkmccready

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...

seandizzie

iTrader: (1)

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.

gkmccready

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.

BLUE TII

iTrader: (9)

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.

eage8

iTrader: (9)

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.