I wish I could try before you buy lol.

thewird

well take it this way, none of the suspension (as far i as remember) was a not good kit.. they all have their prons and cons and always there will be something better than the one you have for one reason or another.

you might also start thinking of a price range and that will help you a lot on what to choose

If you get those 3 way penskes, servicability will be a piece of cake.

I think that is the best idea, and i may do similarly with the GT-R or the KW 2 or 3 way coilovers when funds allow.

ZEALs are made by Endless, so serviceability is also pretty easy...unlike the JIC FLTA2s I used to have on my Protege5.

http://endlessusa.com/main/

Here's something new. I noticed the Zeal "Function Katayama SPL" on the endless site which is supposedly made exclusively only for rx-7 and rx-8, and a miata. Anyone know what spring rates they run by default and if they have heard things about them?

thewird

Endless USA is fairly quick turnaround but their "tech" is an idiot. They set the separator piston height wrong when reassembling my rear shocks (leaving maybe an inch of travel), so I had to ship them back and they screwed it up AGAIN. They didn't even bother to do a simple test that could have caught the problem before sending them back to me. I shipped them back a third time so they could send them to Endless Japan, where they got it right and even included a dyno plot (just a low-resolution PV plot but at least it shows that they actually tested their work before shipping it out). All in all, I was without the shocks for over 2 months as a result of all the shipping time.

I find it incredible that Endless USA rebuilds/revalves shocks but doesn't even have a shock dyno. :scratch: HELLO?! They're not doing ANY testing of the shocks they service so who knows what the hell you're getting back?

I agree that multiple adjustments is more likely to do harm than good unless you know what you're doing.

Their is a very very small chance I will have a set of FEED coilovers for sale soon, msrp is something crazy like $3409 + s/h from japan. Spring rates are 18k front and back.
http://www.fujitaengineeringusa.com/fdtune2.html
Does not get too much better than this.

I finally decided on the coil-overs. I decided to go with what I wanted from the start which is a full race coil-over. I decided to get the RE-Amemiya DG-5's custom valved by RE to 18k front and 16k rear. This is what they use in their JGTC and D1 Drift cars and not the Quantum's apparently. After talking to them about spring rates and such, this is what they recommended.

I was originally considering something local like Penske but really, its not that local to me anyway so it would be the same effort to ship to Cali or to Japan.

Having good hopes for this setup, we will see once I receive it and spring comes.

thewird

Have fun drifting......:)

We'll see.

thewird

18k and 16k?!

Those seem like some ridiculously high spring rates, unless your putting them on a dedicated race car with significant aero downforce. I just went up to 650/500, on GAB/GC, and I can't see needing higher, even with 285 Hoosiers.

My car see's a lot of track time during the summer, if it performs better on the track, I can put up with it on the street.

thewird

Penskes, Motons, JRZ and the like can be serviced by shops anywhere in the world. You don't need to ship them back to Penske to get them revalved/rebuilt. You can even rebuild them yourself. The Japanese manufacturers don't generally encourage service of their shocks by anyone but themselves (and they don't provide the parts), so you have to ship them back for rebuilds.

After my Zeal rebuild debacle, I'll never buy another set of jap coilovers. I have a well-known shock service/dyno shop right around the corner from me.

Re-Amemiya said they would sell me a rebuild kit if I wanted to rebuild it locally.

thewird

at what price ?lol

Thank you. I told him the same thing. On the bright side, his ass is "wide load" coming through so I don't think he will have any issues :hahaha::hahaha:

Although I agree that these are too stiff... let's see how they perform on the track. We might be suprised. I get very tired of people talking second hand about products(obviously this doesn't apply to you guys that have actually tracked your car) on this forum. People read it and base opinions off of hearsay. I think that's how DigDug ended up with his Zeal's if I remember our conversation at VIR correctly and that is how I ended up with my Tein coilovers as well. If I had it to do all over again, I wouldn't get japanese coilovers either. There are plenty of shock dyno's around... go have your coilovers tested and see how they compare to the manufacturs specs. You might be suprised.

As long as they perform well on the track, I will be more then happy with my purchase. If they break my balls on the street, I will have to live with it. Now, if they don't perform well on the track, then I will be disappointed.

thewird

The more suspensions I try the more i'm interested in experimenting with Tripoint's setup using Koni race shocks - for an FD that sees lots of track time anyway. There really is no need for coilovers for a street driven car.

So have you guys every considered that different tracks have different surfaces?

Optimal what?

That's what adjustments are for :lol:

thewird

So are you gonna buy different springs for each track?

Anyways, I was just throwing that in because everyone was like...NO, THAT'S TOO STIFF! WAH WAH WAH. etc. when you gave no indication of what the intended usage was.

No, you can adjust the shocks to make them stiffer or softer depending on how you want them for a particular track. There should be enough adjustment in a shock to adjust for single setup car. There isn't that much of a difference between tracks unless your talking about wet vs dry.

thewird

good choice going with a coilover setup. you wont be disappointed.
my last street/track setup was a 12k/12k coilover setup and i loved it. with adjustable dampening you cant go wrong.

He's referring to what race teams do which is having various spring rates to interchange. I don't know many regular hobbiest track-goers who change out their springs per track like real racers do. That's no different that any other coilover that people would buy so I don't really see an issue there.

i.e. even messing with the dampers, your spring rate will stay constant.