Hey folks,
I finally took a good look at the wheel wells when I did an oil change yesterday, and finally got an explaination for my strange tire wear and rough ride... seems my front springs are sagging pretty badly. I'm thinking if I'm replacing suspension parts, I might as well get the performance coilovers and sway bars that I've been considering since I got the car...

Question is, which coilovers should I be getting? For the most part, the car is a weekend warrior, but I plan on doing some auto x and maybe even drag wars when I get the other mods done. So I'm looking for something fairly comfortable, but adjustable for when I do take her to the track.

I've been looking hard at the Apex N1's, but wanted to hear what you guys were using before I shelled out that kind of money. Any horror stories or good recommendations for something else? Heck, any insight whatsoever would be good.

John Metcalfe
'93 Base VR

 

I have the Mazdaspeed coilovers.

You mentioned that comfort was important to you and the Mazdaspeeds have a very comfortable ride. This is mainly due to lower spring rates than any other coilovers I have seen (412F/287R). They ride way better than the stock touring suspension and provide a very dramatic increase in performance.

I leave mine set at 4 max all around because they allow too much movement on lower settings. Fortunately the 4 max setting seems to be perfect. Great street ride and very good performance on the track and autocross.

If your bias is more towards ultimate performance and a low ride height then you may want to investigate a stiffer and more adjustable setup (perhaps the N1's, M2's or JRZ's). The mazdaspeeds are the perfect weekend warrior setup for someone who does not want to give up comfort on the street or keep changing settings for street/track. Who is to say that a stiffer setup would really perform better on the track anyways?

 

LOL... considering how jarring the bad suspension is, I think anything new would be a marked improvement over what I have. Judging by the troubleshooting section in the service manual, it's been going bad since I got the car in May. Thanks for the info on the mazdaspeeds though... that's one of the other options I've been looking at, and definately cheaper... have any complaints about it though? I think my one concern is having to have it at the Max setting...

 

My only complaint about the mazdaspeeds would be the lack of stiffer settings beyond 4 (max). I have the front ride height set full up (which is still on the low side compared to stock) to avoid tire fender contact in hard turns. Therefore if you are planning to run a larger tire diamater than 235-40-17 you will probably need a front sway bar upgrade to keep the front tire away from the fender liner in hard turns.

I don't think the mazdaspeeds were designed to be a highly adjustable shock since they only have 4 settings and the first two are way too soft. I do, however, think mazdaspeed did a very good job of choosing the correct dampening and spring rates to give incredible track worthy performance while maintaining a very comfortable stretable ride. I drive street, track and autocross, all on setting 4. If I drag raced I might try setting 3 in the back to improve launching. Other than that I don't see any reason to change settings.

I'm not saying these are the best just that they are a great upgrade to the car with no real negatives. If I was a competitive racer and did not care about street comfort I would most likely get something else. If you get something else let me know what you think of it. I have not heard too many coilover reviews from other drivers.

 

I'll post on here with what I got, and probably will do a couple of updates as they break in. As it stands now, I think I'm sticking with the idea of the N1's...

Anybody using the HKS "Hiper Damper" coilovers?

 

Someone brought this company to mind...
www.ground-control.com

 

Actually, that's who I wound up ordering a set of Koni Yellow's from... Really good folks on the phone, we'll see if their service and product are good too... I'll let you guys know when they get here and if they really have taken care of the quality problems with their coilover kits.

 

I just got my HKS coilovers. Haven't installed yet but before purchasing I have ridden in FD's w/ the HKS, Tanabe, Mazdaspeed, and Apex. Personally I like the Apex system the best - the stiffest out of the bunch - but they are on backorder and won't show up until Apex decides to bring the next batch to the US. The HKS's came in second, then the Mazdaspeeds and lastly the Tanabe's. Here are the features that I noticed for each of these sets:

Apex - has the best build quality imo. The entire shock body is one piece with no welds. It has good height adjustment and good shock adjustment. It comes w/ Pillowball mounts which is pretty useful for a good suspension setup. Very stiff.

HKS - has pretty nice build quality as well but not quite as nice as the Apex units. It is the most adjustable out of the bunch. I was told 30 way adjustable shocks. From my tests (outside of car) I was able to adjust the rears 30 clicks and the fronts 35 clicks. The height is adjusted by a threaded plate so that is more or less infinitely adjustable. It may be more difficult to get both sides to be the exact same height because of this. It also comes w/ pillowball mounts and the shock body finish is superb. The ride is stiff but not jarring. In fact from what I can tell, it rides stiffer but smoother than a stock R1 suspension. All 4 shocks have independent oil valves so you can drain and refill the shock fluid should that ever be necessary or if you need the shocks revalved for stiffness.

Mazdaspeed - I'm not sure about the adjustability on these shocks. They do not come with pillowball mounts and the ride is quite mellow. Stiffer than stock R1 but smoother as well. I would consider these more of a street setup.

Tanabe - Two versions - one w/ pillow mounts and one w/out. If you're going to get these I highly recommend getting pillow mounts. It rids the shocks of any odd deflection that the stock rubber mounts induce when compressed. Ride is too soft for my tastes but being the cheapest of the bunch it does make a nice street setup and you will lower your car the right way (w/ shocks matching the behavior of the springs). Adjustability is limited - i believe 2 ride height settings and less than a dozen shock dampening adjustments.

I'm not too big of a fan of Ground Control shock -> coilover conversions. The few that I've seen and ridden in are noisey and I've actually seen 2 sets of them fall apart under stress. I understand quite a number of people are very happy with this setup so I may have only seen and experienced the worst case scenarios.

Hope this is somewhat helpful.

 

DMS makes awsome coilovers run them on my WRX and gettin a set for my RX7, also M2 carries them for RX7 you will not be disappointed fully adjustable.

 

Anyone running the GAB EVO coilovers? I was interested in buying GAB's because the stock style GAB adjustables are so good, but no one I know has the EVO coilovers from GAB, anyone got any info on this?

 

ERRGHHH!!!! Ok, due to the wonderful Houston weather of late, and UPS sending my coilovers cross country twice, I've finally gotten started on the install, and am now 1/4 of the way done... I know, not much, but I discovered that I didn't have a 17 mm socket soon after I got the first wheel off. Anyway, for all you guys that were concerned about fitment issues... No problem so far... course I started with the rear since that has the least to remove and re-attach, so we'll see about the front tomorrow.

The coil-overs themselves look absolutely great! Quality is good, and I don't think these are going to be falling apart on me. Although, I wish that GC had included new bump-stops, it kinda hurts to cut brand new ones apart (just the dust cover thing). Anyway, I'm taking pics as I go, and hopefully will have kind of a newbie How-to on-line soon. (litterally step by step kind of thing)

JM

 

what dhg11 said about Apex N1 is true.

Excellent quality.
Wide range of adjustability.
Super stiff, I can't stress this enough. The softest setting is still stiffer than R1 susp. Make sure you ride w/ someone who has it before you buy it. This is hard core coilover indeed.

 

*points at the post right before yours*
Yeah, decided that the N1 wasn't for me...