Coilover questions

[midnightracer]

what are good coilovers on the course and why?

what are good coilovers for street and course?

which ones can be lowered to look cool then be adjusted for action on the course?

can someone tell me, from experience, how each perform on the street and on the course? &nbsp;<img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/nervous.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':nervous:'>

[adey]

While this has been covered many a time before, I'll give a basic run-down.

Most coilovers are going to be similar, but some are better than others.
the question of track/street will lie mostly in the spring rates.
a 6kg/mm front and 5kg/mm rear will be more street oriented but will perform pretty well on a track while an 8/6 will be more track oriented, and a 10/8 would be closer to track-only spring rates.

Zeal Function B6/S6, Apex'i N1 specV/Pro, HKS Hipermax-Pro,Toda Fightex and any Ohlins coilovers are probably the "very best" that you'll find, with JIC Magic FLT-A2, HKS Hipermax-II, and certain Teins (like type RA, type HT) coming in close behind.

JIC Magic FLT-2, Zeal function B2 (?), Tein Type-HE (discontinued) and certain other Teins are another "group" down, then you have others such as Apex'i World Sport, Tein Type-Flex and type-HA and cheaper coilovers are, IMO only really useful for their height-adjusting ability and will (mostly) &nbsp;be non-adjustable in terms of dampening.

What are YOU going to use these coilovers for? If you mean autox by "track", you probably don't want to run coilovers as they put you in a higher/faster class than I imagine you'd want to run with.

I have a set of JIC FLT-A2s on my S13 hatch, which doesn't see a whole lot of street driving, but doesn't see all that much track either. It sees a lot of hard driving, though.
I took it to the track (road race -- buttonwillow) for the first time on Saturday, and they performed wonderfully! I had no issues with body roll (or so it felt) thanks to the 8/6 f/r spring rates and stiff settings.

If you're only interested in having coilovers for the sake of height adjustability and don't care too much about dampening or a really tight car in the corners, you may consider going with the fake coilovers... i.e. springs on an adjustable sleeve.

[drift freaq]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">you may consider going with the fake coilovers... i.e. springs on an adjustable sleeve. </td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'>

eh adey, that is a coilover. fake is your opinion. I.E. Ground Controls are not fake coilovers . In fact a lot of people in SCCA racing use Ground Controls.
oh yeah you also put tein flex in a catagory of only ride height adjustable that was wrong too. they have damper adjustability.
If your going to give out suspension information be correct. Spreading misinformation is not a good thing.

[adey]

Okay, err, well if he's really looking for coilovers we may as well count the stock suspension! Which is a coilspring over shock design. <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/dozingoff.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':zzz:'> He's asking specifically about Coilovers that include shocks (it sounds! ) so I only really went into those.
Nor did I mean to strike a raw nerve if you're running the GC coilovers!
Also please notice the "mostly" before "have non-adjustable dampening". I realize that Flexes and HAs both have 16 clicks, but in terms of trackability, they're closer to Apex'i Worldsports, JIC SF-1 and SA-1 (the SA-1 also has adjustability, but it's not much of a track coilover).
What I meant to say was if you're looking to get something in this last 'set' of coilovers, you might consider going with a sleeved spring and (separate) shock combination rather than a 'coilover' suspension.

[DSC]

adey, are you sure the HE's are discontinued? &nbsp;I heard that tein just stopped importing them to the USA in order to push the new FLEX coilovers. &nbsp;So you can still get the HE's, just a special order...like tokico hts shocks would be.

[Dousan_PG]

yep! HE are only available in Japan! USA is special order. i have HEs..it is 8/6 spring rate.i dont like it. I am bumping rears up to 7 shortly. Too soft for me still. a 9/8 i think would be perfect..hmm.
anyways, adey explanations are fine. if you go to track sometimes might go like a 6/5 or somethng, if you go to track at least 3 times you might consider 8/6. full time track? 10/8!
its preference on how much you can take. i'mused to 8/6 now and i set them pretty stiff most of time so it just takes time.

i'd go with Apex, Zeal, or JIC before i'd go with Teins again.