Opinions on R1 shocks with Eibach Pro Kit
 

I recently went thru my basement and found some
Low mileage R1 struts I bought a while ago, to replace
my highmileage ones on my FD now.

Anyways.. My original plans were to use these newer Shocks
with some Eibach Prokit springs.
What do you guys think?? Worth doing??

Good??
Bad??

any opinions/experience would be appreciated.

Or should I just wait and save another 500-1500 for some
decent coil overs???? to dump into my Money pit.

I'll always insist coilovers are a waste of money on a street car. The only real weakness in the FD suspension is the soft stock springs and the Eibachs fix that. Recommended.

90% of the people with coilovers have no idea what to do with them anyway. They just screw around with the perches until the car looks about level and then they twist the knobs until the car shakes around to their liking when traveling over bumps.

I think you'll be pleased with the performance of the Eibach's on stock shocks.

Thanks guys..

For saving me some $$$$$$$$$

Springs with R1 shocks it is..

Can touring shocks hang with upgraded springs?

Something like the Eibach kit, yes.

Touring shocks are pretty soft in my opinion, and a stiffer spring isn't going to help matters. The stupid thing is all rx-7s for a given year use the same springs. Only the shocks are different. From my experiences with my cars, changing just the spring makes the car ride like ass. Inexpensive setups like tokicos with aftermarket springs ride crappy too. I'd go with something like the basic tein setup.

A "hard" suspension doesn't necessarily mean "good". The Eibachs on the stock Touring shocks work great. It does improve the handling quite noticeably without making everyday driving unbearable. While come coilover setups are very good, for the money the Eibach springs are well worth it for a street driven car.

Actually, Howard Coleman recommends the Eibach Springs with non-R shocks and he probably has the most suspension experience on the forum.

i'm running the same setup currently and am very happy with the setup. i use my car for just spirited drives on the weekend and until i get into some serious track or road courses my current setup is more than sufficient for street fun.

What about the racing beat springs? Any opinions on them? I purchased a set for my R1.

The problem people have with the RB springs is rubbing with larger aftermarket wheels. They are lower, but the spring rate isn't high enough to keep the car from "boucing down" onto the wheels. For the stock wheels, they would be just fine.

If the stock shocks can handle the eibach pro kit can't it handle rsr race springs too? Since eibach drop like 1" and the rsr are rated at .5" drop.

It's not the drop, it's the spring rate which is the key. The shocks should be valved to handle the selected spring rates. Eibach kits are designed to work with the stock shocks.

Definitely. I used low-mileage stock Showa R1 shocks with H&R springs to good effect. I think the new owner of my old FD still has them. The nonR Showas are too soft for aftermarket performance springs, but the Showa R1s have just the right amount of dampening. Bilstein HD shocks also work well with H&Rs/Eibachs. Good luck!

I had this setup before swapping the RBs out for H&Rs. The Showas with RB springs were rough-riding over bumps, but were very predictable for autocross. The RB spring rates were a bit soft, and caused rubbing up front under full compression though. Something to consider... Do a search. The rubbing issues with RB springs were well-documented in this forum.

When referencing Eibach, are you all referring to Pro Kit or Sportline springs?

Also, I think I read this, but want to confirm, there's no difference in springs b/w the FD models, only in shocks, correct?

What are some opinions on springs for the 7? Some people like more bar and lower spring rate, while others depend more on a high spring rate and not as much on the sway bars. I use my car for weekend fun, but it's main purpose is autoX/road racing, and I am building it as such. Any opinions? I'm a big fan of Koni shocks, ... just not settled on springs.

The Pro-Kit is the only one available for the FD.

I like both (relatively) stiff springs and large swaybar, but if i had a choice i think i'd go with more sway bar and less spring. If you get too stiff on the spring you can actually decrease your grip on uneven surfaces, while there is no real drawback to using as large a swaybar that you can find for your car (within reasonable parameters). I have PFS swaybar (which is pretty dang big) front and rear and it made the relatively soft PFS (pretty much just Eibach) springs feel like a very sporty package. If you're concerned about keeping a comfortable ride, spring rate has a direct effect on your ride quality, while swaybars have a much smaller (if any) effect.

Thanks for the help. Just to clarify, what's PFS stand for? BTW, I have the exact same car... well when they were stock they were the same.

This thread could not have come at a better time. I had the HKS coilover setup on the last 7 and really had considered going the cheaper route since I'm not a huge drag/track racer and really only do street driving and like the look of the HKS setup since it was adj. My only question for the guys running the Eibach stuff is how much of a drop did the car see after. When I put the HKS suspension on it came already setup for what they reccommend the height to be and it looked awesome out of the box and I never messed with them ever again. I'm afraid that with a set of Eibachs' the preset height may not be low enough for me and then I'm stuck. Does anybody have some pics of their cars with the stock strut and eibach setup and if so can you post some pics. One more question... I found a set of 5 way adj. Tokico struts for sale on ebay for $340 which seemed pretty resonable and I was wondering whether or not it was a good idea to upgrade my R-1 struts to those or would I be just wasting my money?

Thanks guys for your input!

Joe

PFS stands for Peter Farrell Supercars. He used to be a RX7 tuner, but is phasing out. A lot of people still have his stuff, and his intake system is reputed to be one of the best for our cars. I have PFS intake, IC, and full exhaust. Very good products.

As far as i know, the PFS springs are almost identical to Eibachs. You can go to my website to see what my car looked like with the PFS springs and Tokico 5 way adjustable shocks. (http://www.cardomain.com/id/efini7) If i recall correctly it dropped my car 1.5" front and 1.2" rear. I thought it was a great look.

Tokicos are good, but i've heard that a lot of people prefer Konis. There's a big difference in price, though, as the Koni yellows tend to be ~$130-140 apiece for the fronts and a bit over $100 for the rears. Since i do both track and street driving i went for a less expensive coilover (D2s), but for anything less than hardcore track events, the PFS were great. I even used them for a track school and was very pleased with their performance. I believe they still sell them at PFS and you can find them here: http://www.pfsupercars.com

Just one thing to think about if you get new springs and shocks... How much will it be to get both? Probably somewhere around $550-800. For that you can get a good coilover system that will give you any ride height you want and adjustable damper rates.

If all you care about is the look, then the Eibachs are not for you. They don't lower the car as much as coilovers will (or some other springs). If you want low springs without going with coilovers, look at Tein S-Tech or H&R springs.