Hi... I've just spent a little under two hours searching the Forum and Google'ing spring rates, but can't quite seem to find what I'm after... What I'd like to know is: What spring rates are suggested to best suit Australian road conditions? I'm after recommendations for a Zed that is primarily a road car for cruising, as opposed to the track, and will be running Tein Flex shocks and 19" rims (8.5" front, 9.5" rear)... The Tein Flex come with a spring rate of 8.0kg front and 6.0kg rear... Is this too soft? Thanks for the advice all, Lil' Baz..... :zlove:
ive got tiens in mine im not sure what spring rate but its to hard , i suspect its more that 6 and 8 though . Usually on the i find on the road hard springs make cars feel fast soft springs make them go fast .
I'm using Sports Ryder springs not sure what rate but for street use they feel great, I've been in Zeds with coilovers and it was rough as hell.
Tanabe GF210 on mine, 3.8 front and rear if I recall correctly, comfortable for a to b duties, while being stuff enough to handle the corners superbly. A suitable amount of drop as well. Highly recommended and any more than 4kg would be beginning to become uncomfortable I reckon. The King Springs that came on my MR2 are higher than 4kg front and rear no doubt and I am beginning to hate them..
Mostly because Tein and all the other low grade stuff in that price range are crap; dampeners that are setup far too stiff for anything other than smooth race tracks. You'd be hard pressed to beat Koni or Bilstein Dampeners with some well matched Springs for comfort AND performance on both the track and street.
Short answer no, but it depends what sort of ride your after. If your just after a nice, smooth, 'tighter than stock' feeling then your better off with about 4/4 (front kg/rear kg). Most seem to find the sweet spot at 6/4 & is generally considered a good compromise between comfort & handling. I run 8/6 with my HKS Hipermax 2's & its great for my needs, cars not a daily anymore so comforts not as big a factor & handles fantastic only anything slightly resembling a twisty road (note other suspension items play a part too). The missus doesn't complain about the ride, just how low the car is. My previous HKS's were about 10/8, I daily'd for a while with these & eventually just got over them, too much of a comfort compromise. This is with melbourne roads though, if your road surfaces arent too bad it could be do-able. If as you say your primarily after something for cruising I'd be looking more at 6/4 giving your running 19's. I also wouldn't be bothering with flex but thats a whole other kettle of fish. cheers, tim
Koni's are actually quite firm, but Bilsteins are very nice. I took koni's out to run Bilsteins. Performance wise they were about the same, really good.
Awesomely helpful, Tim! Curious,though... Why do you say avoid Tein Flex? Cheers, Lil' Baz..... :zlove:
Dont get me wrong they're ok & I'm not saying avoid at all costs but personally I think they're pretty overpriced for what they are. The flex are a twin tube design (google this) which considering pretty much every other option on the market for the last 5 years (except superstreet) uses a monotube design makes it kind of hard to justify the price. You can import a good set of SPL, Powertrix, AMS from the states that are monotube coilovers with loads of adjustment & excellent reviews worldwide for a lot less than teins. Or import something from japan, plenty of new/used options & you'll get a lot higher spec coilover for your money. If your hearts set on tein try to get the monoflex.
Theres nothing wrong with teins . Its just that people try and be fancy and like lesser known brands . Tein are are very good quality shock and theres nothing wrong with tein flex , my brother has a set in his 350z and they drive great . What exactly makes a mono tube shock more advanced or better ? from my quick google it seems that the twin tube makes more sence for the street and would be dearer for them to produce anyway so its not like there cutting corners .
From a shock engineer "The shocks should be fade resistant enough to survive AT LEAST my dyno sweep. My dyno program (SPA BTP-2000 Dyno 6.1) ran 10 cycles at 3in/sec peak speed (I could go faster, but rarely did, as the interesting stuff is sub-3 in/sec) and then averaged the runs. Looking at the individual runs, they should be mostly on top of each other and with reasonable hysteresis. Each run getting progressively softer is a sure sign of fade. If I do a full rebound sweep and go back to the start as a confirmation, that value should be identical as when I started, within a couple of percent. Koni==good. Bilstein==good. Penske==good." Japanese==crap. He explains why here very good read if your into this sort of stuff. http://farnorthracing.com/autocross_secrets6.html I like this bit. "Let me make this as clear as I possibly can: THE ADJUSTERS ON YOUR SHOCKS ALMOST CERTAINLY DO NOT DO WHAT YOU THINK THEY DO. Unless you have something high-end, like a Penske, and you've taken the time to clock the adjuster window on the shock dyno, the knobs on your shocks cannot be trusted to work. Most shocks of the same model DO NOT match each other on the same adjuster setting, and each click DOES NOT make the same change in force. Most shocks make very large changes per click near the "full hard" setting and make very little to no change near the "full soft" setting. Despite this easily verifiable fact, the Cult of the Adjustable Shock certainly has its adherents."
Thats a little harsh about Japanese = crap thats one engineers view /opinion and testing My Teins work just fine .. (although been custom valved by fulcrum and track tested )
honestly sounds like someone talking shit to me theres many different japanese shocks and there not all the same and on ever set of teins ive had the dampning adjuster definitely worked exactly as it should .
From the HKS website: There's nothing wrong with higher spec teins (monoflex upwards) but the others charge a premium price for outdated technology because its painted green, you can get something else that will do a better job for less money. Also generally any of the well known euro brands of coilovers will leave japanese ones for dead, have a look at the motorsport section on skylines australia & see what people are running. cheers, tim
Probably be a bit harsh, I think he was just generalising from the vast majority that he put on the shock dyno that didn't perform. He has 4 American autocross championships up his sleeve so I'm not so sure that he is just talking shit.
can every one remember this guy is NOT after track car suspension he is after it for a street car . According to the tein site the twin tube is more suited to this and from my experience it would apear to be true . Of all the dirty old coil overs i see getting sold by far and away the tiens have least leaks and it makes sense why when you see the difference between twin and mono tube design . have a read http://www.tein.co.jp/e/special/ni_toryu/index.html They also point out that a car did get a class win on type flex at the nurburgring 24 so they cant be all that bad for racing .
I have a friend running these in his 180SX, and he absolutely loves them. Does anyone run these, know about them for Z32's or have an opinion on them? http://www.otomoto.com.au/HDSystems/hrseries.htm Cheers, Lil' Baz..... :zlove:
Never heard of them BUT I was thinking if you want a comfortable streeter you may want to rule out a pillowball type upper mount.......
You must balance your spring rate to the tire profile you are useing otherwise your car will skip, not ride over bumps which can make for an interesting drive.
This is all pretty consistent with what JP has told me regarding cheaper coilovers as well.... Better off (assuming you actually want to improve the way your car handles) buying a better engineered shock with less features than a poorly engineered coilover with supposedly 32 levels of adjustment etc
