Noob4life

Its not the quality of materials that determines ride quality, its design. Even low quality materials can be used in a quality design, resulting in good performance or ride quality, but subpar longevity. Ride quality and performance are on opposite ends of the spectrum, so its either/or. Some sets will be a compromise of both, but it will not excel in either (obviously). By design, I mean valving and what spring rates you have your dampers paired with.
Good ride quality is easily achieved with the use of lower spring rates and generally soft valving across the entire piston-speed range.
You will notice that most (if not all) of the top performing coilovers have either
A. dual-tube design, or
B. an external reservoir design,
both of which contribute to much more flexible damping options than what can be achieved with the more cost-efficient and common monotube damper design with no external reservoir. More flexible damping means you can have your very stiff low-speed damping for controlling body motion (pitch, roll, squat and dive - aka performance), while maintaining softer high speed damping (bumps, potholes, and other road irregularities - aka ride quality). Their cost is semi-justified by these additions, although that can be debated...

x838nwy

A friend of mine has a set of Hipermax coilovers for his Evo8 (non-MR, installed when he bought second hand) and found them to be waaay too harsh for street, no matter how is it tuned. Two weeks ago, he tried on a set of OEM MR dampers and springs and bought them there and then!!!

If you look at the spring rates on the sticky you will find that most coil-overs are quite substantially harder than stock.

Of you're happy with your dampers already, I'd suggest going with just lowering springs. Specially if just want it for looks and track the car rarely. Swift and kg/mm do them and also HKS Kansai Service do the lowering springs for the MR. These will take the car down by about an inch or so.

Tein S-Techs will take it down about 1.8" at the front and 1.4" at the rear while being a touch stiffer.

Evil_Rs

iTrader: (2)

Only Tanabe Coilover i would run in the new Sustec 7 or whatever it is.... suppose to be BA

also im personally a Zeal kinda guy, owned a set on my s2k and wow they are AMAZING

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (185)

there are good coilover at the lower end of the price scale - from a feature standpoint, you want:

1. dual height adjustment - the lower mounting bracket of the coilover is threaded so you can lower the car without preloading the spring. This maintains suspension travel.

2. dampening adjustment that actually does something. Don't be wowed by "16 way adjustable, 30 way adjustable, 5 way adjustable" - it only means something if there are meaningful differences between each of those clicks - if not, it just takes you more time to find settings you like.

erioshi

PIC Performance - I think you completely missed what I was trying to to say.

I agree that not all "budget" coilovers need to be poorly designed, but most seem to be. I have "hands on" experience with at least 5 different brands directly on Evos along with experience on other platforms as well. Obviosly I haven't tried everything but "You get what you pay for" seems to hold true in this segment. I also agree with your information on what the trade-offs could be - but my experience seems to show that damper based ride quality is the first corner being cut.

I didn't want to get into all the techie stuff becuase most of that isn't relevant in the context of the price points in this thread. For $2500 you're not going to find external resivors or dual tube dampers. While I have played with those toys as well (but all on real purpose built race cars - stuff that could never be street legal; think Swifts, Radicals, Stohr, etc.) I wasn't addressing that segment.

To get back to my original point: From what I have seen "hands on" in the Evo community, you generally get what you pay for in a coilover. In my experience the current crop of coilovers in the $1500 range doesn't have the overall ride quality and performance or factory support of the more expensive units.

Adam is dead on about the "adjustability" thing - 30 clicks are meaningless if you can't feel the difference. Or in some cases where the valving is just so poor that the settings have very little impact. My Zeals are 6 way adjustable - and have enough adjustability to be able to move from street to track very well. With my JICs I had to spend a full afternoon dialing them in and when they were dialed in, you could tell that not all the "clicks" were equal. Each damper needed a unique setting.

Adam - thanks again for those Zeals! Last time out I paced a new Ford GT for a few laps - he gapped me a bit on the straights, but I was much faster in the twisties. Every time we passed the start/finish I was about 30 feet off his back bumber. I wanted to play with him a bit more as I think I could have managed a pass, but he looped the GT into a berm while I was getting gas.. We have some video that I'll try to get up sometime.

x838nwy

guys,

there's more quality to be had for extra cash (going from 1500 to 2500), agreed. But the guy just wants it lower, with a ride similar to stock.

1500usd coilovers aren't all that bad. In my opinion suffucient for street driving without bending, leaking, siezing, cracking etc.

deadbeatrec

iTrader: (9)

y do u say that? what about the ones i posted? anyone else have anything to say about tunabe coliovers?

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (185)

I know no one who runs any of the Tanabe's on the Evo - the new ones have some neat features but are quite pricey - we'll ahve to wait and see if they are all that and a bucket of chicken

Noob4life

Erioshi:
Its too bad that, even for $1500, consumers cannot find a set of coilovers with satisfactory performance and ride quality. I had not realized that the Evo coilover market was so skewed towards the $2000 end of the price spectrum until I entered the market myself.
I'm convinced that good performance and good ride quality can be had in a coilover set for less than $1500. I know it because I have built them. I feel that the "you get what you pay for" principle doesn't hold as true as most people believe, when it comes to coilovers, and most other suspension components, and that it goes both ways.

ArcticHaze

I'm in this debate as well... I just got a IX MR and i need new coilovers for occasional weekend track use. Iits not my daily driver so I can live with the harsh ride on the street. Now which one do I buy? Leaning towars the Cusco Zero 2R or the Zeal Function XS. Any feedbacks on these two?

I cant afford the Function X its too expensive. or should I just wait and save up for them?

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (185)

both are excellent units and we have used both on several "dual purpose" cars. For ease of customer support in terms of localized rebuilds, custom valving, etc., I'd go with the Zeals.

fletch

iTrader: (4)

3. MR Bilstein ride quailty, lower spring rates that won't rattle my teeth ala "Ohlins" (how can a spring rated at two to three times higher than stock ride well?) 6&8k still seems awful high for street driving? 6-Real adjustments (clicks) see above.

4. ALL the features above for $1200 or less from a factory direct source (such as PIC)

So how about it.......?
I know I am a Dreamer....

fletch

iTrader: (4)

Almost forgot to ask Adam....Which coilovers at the lower end of the price scale have those features mentioned above??

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (185)

fletch - honestly I have yet to see a set that accomplished the desirable features at that price point. Without question, the most versatile units we have ever used are the Zeal's. Their adjustments are meaningful, and they can literally custom spec a set with user defined spring rates, valving, etc etc. They are expensive relative to their competition, but far less than the motorsports level stuff (Moton, Penske and the like, which tend to not be streetable units). Given their performance, both in street and track conditions, their versatility, and their US prescence, we feel they are a tremendous value.

As for spring rates, there is alot that goes into ride quality than just the spring rate - it needs to be matched to the damper valving (both compression and rebound valving), overal piston diameter, tires, tire pressure, wheels, rideheight, alignment settings. The worst thing you can do is company "X" coilover with rates of 5kg/5lg for example to a totally different set than has rates of 8 kg/8 kg.

On a purely personal note, I have not had good luck with lower priced units and either performance and/or longevity. For all the marketing hype I read about the R&D that went into the units, or about how they will stand the test of time, experience has taught me to go with what has proven itself. I realize that comes off as "elitist" to some, but believe me, it's not. I've fallen victim to it myself over the years - the lure of a cheap price is often too strong to resist. Over time, I've realized that waiting to get the right item out of the box is FAR les aggravating and far less expensive in the long run. This is the type of product where if you ask 10 people what their favorites are, you are likely to get 11 answers. But, if someone can deliver a low priced unit that performs well and lasts, they will have a winner.

I would be eager to try a set of the PIC, as well as some of the KW units on a local car and put them through the paces

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (185)

and handle like poo, and tend to prematurely wear the stock struts on rough roads