Whats better? for what purpose would poeple buy coilovers and for what reasons would poeple buy springs and shocks?

 

coilovers- Height adjustable, precise dampining adjustability, more expensive,

Shock W/custom springs- cheaper, adjustable dampining, not height adjustable

 

You'll get more road feel and better handling with coilovers as they eliminate the stock rubber upper mounts. Also most coilovers have narrower springs allowing more room for larger/wider wheels.

 

The main advantage is that coilovers are height adjustable, which allows you to corner-weight your car. With your car's weight being distributed evenly over each wheel, your handling greatly improves. Also, lots of shock/spring combos are too soft for how much they lower your car and allow rubbing. And of course, with coilovers you can adjust your camber (usually only in the front), which can help you maximize your contact patch. Most properly made coilovers turn out to be significantly lighter (~5lbs. per corner) than your stock shocks/ springs, and that's unsprung weight so it's even better.

 

It's only partially unsprung weight, as they're bolted to the chassis and to the control arms. I doubt that any coilovers are 5lbs lighter. Ground Control's Advance Design Aluminum and Titanium coilovers for the FC are only 3lbs lighter. I'd bet most coilovers are the same weight or heavier (Steel ones anyway, don't use Aluminum ones on the street, they're not durable enough).

 

This assumes the damping of the shocks provided are in fact adjustable. Many are not.

 

Coilovers have nothing to do with whether or not the camber is adjustable. That has to be built in or provided by a camber plate. The coilover itself has nothing to do with it.

 

Yeah, I didn't make that clear enough. I just said that because most every assembled coilover kit comes with camber plates attatched to the front assemblies.

 

For cars with Mac strut suspensions....the FD has a real suspension....

 

too bad 1/100 coilover owners actually bother to do this.

 

Coilovers are JDM enough as it is d00d, that addz enuff cornerings 2 ur car.

 

Is that english?

Most guys that get coilovers actually hurt the handling of the car because they do not get it properly set up with 4 corner scaling. Then again most people won't know the difference.

Andrew

 

Depends what kind of driving you're going to do. For mainly street driving applications, shock/springs should be fine. Unless you do a good deal of track driving, you won't really need coilovers.

 

he was being sarcastic...

 

I need to stop being sarcastic over the internet, you can't always tell I'm joking by the way i type things and it just tends to **** people off...

That said, most people are going to be just fine with a properly matched spring/shock combination for just about any kind of driving, as long as it's not on a racetrack (and even then I think they'd do alright). Integrated "coilovers" are for people who either have a lot of money that's burning a hole in their pocket (kinda my case, at least until last week), or for people who want to get the most from their suspension.

For me, I like feeling stable on the few smooth mountain roads near where I live, and my current setup is anything but. I also wanted to get coilovers for the shortened suspension travel to keep my car from bottoming out/rubbing. Also, coilovers are much simpler and safer(for dummies like me) to install than springs/shocks, because you don't need to get a spring compressor for the installation.

 

Snub,

Thanks for clearing it up. I wasn't pissed, your post just didn't makse sense. Sarcasm it hard to interpret over the Internet.

Andrew

 

i was about to purchase some coilovers this summer. i was very very close to doing it. but, i sat back and really thought about it:

- have i even begun to recognize all the limitations of the stock suspension at the track yet? nope.

- do i want to ignore the fact that most coilovers have about 4 times the stock spring rate, and that i do still drive the car often on the street? nope

- do i really want to spend all that money, including the time and money to get the car properly corner weighted, considering that i can get some good new shocks and springs for pretty cheap these days? well......no, not really.


so for now, i ended going with a set of KYB AGX shocks and Tanabe springs. this cost about half of what even some cheap coilovers would have. once i get tired of that, it's no big deal to sell them and go to coilovers once i am wanting to do that.

and the installation issue is not a big deal. you can rent spring compressors, but if you don't feel comfortable with that, get a shop to assemble the shock/spring for you, and then you can just take that and install it into the car. it won't cost much.

so, don't just get coilovers for the sake of getting them. have your reasons first.

 

Gimme a hug!

 

haha, well a lot of what i said i have seen you give the same advice, so you might be responsible in some way haha.
i can tell you one thing, a year or two ago i would not have been so smart about it!

the way i see it, i am just starting to see what the car can (and can't) do, and i still haven't gone racing nearly enough.
a good shock/spring combo is a nice progression that will push the car a little further, but not to any huge degree that i will have to relearn how to drive the car, or sacrifice street driveability.

and i can still get some money back if i decide to sell the shocks/springs in a year or two

 

does anyone know who has the stiffest spring rate out ther? Are they progresive?

 

Both the Tein HT and Tein N1 can come with 20kg/mm springs, which translates to something ridiculous like 1120lbs./inch. I think you'd actually have to be driving on glass to use those coilovers. Most integrated coilovers are sold with linear rate springs. Eibach is one of the only companies I know that uses progressive rate springs, and even their race springs are linear.

 

THANK YOU do you know who has the stiffest springs only. I cant afford coilovers.

 

^^^ for FC's I believe RS-R Race springs are the stiffest with spring rate of 335 lb front and 224 lb rear.

 

Thank you. but I went to ther site and I didn't find an aplication for FC. would I get the miata racing springs?

 

i think their discontinued?