FD Suspension Upgrade Recomendations
 

Hey guys,

Just got my FD dyno tuned and on the road and really need to upgrade the suspension with some coilovers now since its currently stock. The car will be used mostly for road (not a daily) and occasional track use. I've been looking at Tein Flex, Ohlins DFV's, and HSD Monopro but I'm really trying to stay as close to $1000 if at all possible. Just wanted to see if anyone had any recommendations. Thanks in advance.

For $1000 you can have a nice non-adjustable setup, like tokicos/bilsteins/konis and some decent springs.
At about $1500 you start to get into decent height adjustable systems like buy-up teins and stances, or better yet a used set of quality coilovers.
At about $2000 you can almost have a nice new set of ohlins entry level dfv's, which are probably nicer than anything for less.

There are some interesting quantums in the FS section right now, that would be a good option too.

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...overs-1109697/
https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...rings-1103160/
https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...overs-1103591/

There are a few interesting options from the FS section :)

I have Tein Flex and they are a HUGE improvement over my last Apexi setup as well as my buddy's Stance setup. The car is very compliant on the street and very confidence inspiring now. I was going to buy the Ohlins but a set of flex's popped up for 900new so I bought them. I dont think i'll be replacing unless I get more serious about track. My car used to skip about over bumps on the apexi's! not fun on the freeway.

I had the Tein Flex on my old FD and the Zeal Function B2's on my current. Night and day difference with the favor going to the Zeal setup.

Given your budget, this will work well: TEIN Flex Z (93+ RX-7)

I have a set on my NC Miata (the non-Z) and I just got a set for the FD. I love 'em on my Miata. They're definitely not as nice of dampers as something like Ohlins, but for the price and ease of maintenance, they're great.

After I had Ohlins on my FD I knew nothing else was going to cut it for me.

I bought used Ohlins for ~$1,200 or so for my $1,300 RX-8. They were in great shape!

The spherical bearing in the top hats moved freely when I put them in so I knew they wouldn't last forever and sure enough after 3 years and 25,000 miles or so they do make a clicky-clack over bumps.

I got the from RX7 Boutique- purerx7 on this forum.

Damn you guys are really twisting my arm and making want to shell out the extra to get the Ohlins! The ones I've found have 11Kg front & back spring rates. These seems a bit stiff IMO for road use. Yes I plan on doing some track days here and there but it'll probably be something like a 90/10 split for road/track use. I live in Northern California and some of the roads can be fairly rough but not absolutely terrible. There's a lot of patch work on the roads but not to bad when it comes to pot holes. If did do get the Ohlins do you guys think the 11Kg's will be sufficient or should I look at getting a set of springs with something more along the lines of 10Kg front/8Kg rear? Thanks again in advance.

Some people have discussed lowering the spring rates, but the consensus seems to be that they are sufficiently compliant for street use. It could be attributed to the DFV technology, which has different valving for high speed bump.

You should read this

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

And another budget option are ground control/koni's

I think the 11/11 set up would work great on an autox course and street set up, on the street only I went with 8/6 which is much more compliant and takes out a lot of the noise. the ride is much smoother both slow and high speeds. the car does lose some transition handling going with the softer rate springs.

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...overs-1111147/

If you hang around the FS section for any length of time, you can get a good deal on quality systems second hand and have them rebuilt for a worry-free budget setup.

One day soon...

I am not a fan of any coilover set up where the main spring is not in preload. sometimes when you hit bumps or a hole in the road the spring can clunk around causing damage (the spring can freely float), I had that with my old skunk2 set up on my prelude. I would much rather just run a lowering spring with stock shocks.

I am running swift sport springs on my rx8 with stock shocks and it rides very well, I wouldn't call it a great autox set up but it does well for street and track, its not optimal by any means but for the price it does really well.