There is a huge amount of bollocks about when talking shock absorbers , springs and so-on. Tuning suspension any further than for pure ride quality is a total black art and right up to F1 level, they dont get it right most of the time! Too much emphasis with regards to ride quality is placed on spring rates alone. See, as the spring rate rises, the comnpression dampening can (should) be reduced but the rebound dampening needs to be increased to compensate. (I wont touch on High speed V';s low speed dampening here. Thats a whole subject on its own and its a total black art to get really right). Heavier springs will "seem" to instantly give a harder ride if they are just bolted in with no dampening changes as the heavier spring aids the compression dampening function (resists wheel movement) and then and under damped rebound will allow the rear of the car to "boing" up. End result is an impressively hard ride, but perhaps compromised road holding. Not only does this kind of setup feel ugly to ride in but looks horrid from the outside. You end up with a car that is flighty and nervous and prone to sudden and violent loss of traction at either end and on a trck tends to use its tyres up very quickly due to insuficient "mechanical" or chassis grip being generated. It relies almost totally on tyre grip alone. You could get much the same ride quality by just upping the dampening rates in both bump and rebound alone and achieve much the same result. Reduce the compression dampening rate accordingly and increase rebound to compensate for harder speing rate will result in a fairly similar actual ride to the "softer" setup but somewhat tighter control on chassis movement and resistance to roll. Remember, the spring and rool bar rates also compliment/augment one another on individual corners so upping or lowering of swaybar rates messes with things further! To further complicate matters, lower the ride height and weight transfer reduces requiring lighter swaybars/springs/dampening settings to control....its fun isnt it!!!!! Rock hard and dead level is NOT necessarily good for traction. Bottom line for roadholding is to correctly match the dampening rates to the spring rates. NOT the other way around. This can only be achieved with any surety using a shock/spring dyno. There are fundamentla "resonant" frequencies of both the chassis AND the suspension components (seperately) to consider as well making the entire show a very tiresome and expensive exercise!!! You end up with a set of springs with matched shocks that should not be seperated, mixed and matched....phew! Shock adjustments on racecars at the higher end usually consist of very fine dampening adjustments, incremental at most or just swap out the entire spring/shock combination if a wholesale adjustement is required for differing track conditions. On a road car, most "adjustable" shocks just come with a simple adjuster knob on the top of the strut/shock which is usually for rebound adjustment only and this has the most effect on ride quality without sacrificing traction too much one way or other. You basically get what you get as far as roadholding is concerned. And cheaper is not necesarily worse! Higher end clobber will add compression dampening just to confuse the issue further and very few, if any dudes will have ther slightest idea on how to adjust both bump and rebound together to achieve anything more than either an (apparently) hard ride, a soft ride or something inbetween. Forget about traction....whats that? Factor in your suspension effects due to ride height, spring rate and roolbar tension and your head should be well and trully frazzled by now! Go higher end and you get both low AND high speed adjustment in both bump and rebound and use shit like this on a road car and you have just entered a whole new world of expensive headfark! Really high end clobber (Ohlins, Penske et-al) and the like are pretty much track specific clobber and are basically a woftam on the road other than for bragging rights at the local "chew 'n spew"!! You only get to exploit this kind of technology at speeds usually greatly in excess of what the vast majority of us will ever even dream about! Thats rarely, if EVER on a road. There you go. Its as clear as mud eh! For the vast majority of us, bolt on whatever you can easily afford and just enjoy whatever RIDE quality you get out of it because youll gain precious little before you have unloaded thousands into shock/spring combinations and then AT LEAST the same amount into extensive dyno testing!!!! Have fun me hearties! E
Asked Otomoto.com (http://www.otomoto.com.au/HDSystems/hrseries.htm) and they recommended a spring rate of 8kg front and 5kg rear... " [FONT="]I would keep the 8kg/mm fronts , but possibly fit 5kg/mm rear to improve the ride." Opinions? And someone who knows considerably more about this subject than I do, how do the HSD 'HR' coilovers compare to say, TEIN MonoFlex (Can't afford the HKS Hypers...) Cheers, Lil' Baz..... :zlove: [/FONT]
The 8/5 spring rates should be ok, I run 8/6 with my HKS's & they're quite livable around town & great on anything twisty, soak up the rough melbourne roads pretty good. The only issue you'll have is running 19" wheels as this will also hamper ride, might be able to get away with it if your not crazy low & using stock swaybars but if your hoping to go some whiteline swaybars as well then you might want to lean more towards say 6/5 or 6/4. Monoflex are meant to be pretty good, MikeZ32 raves about his though also had to go back to stock swaybars. Haven't heard much on HSD re: z32's, couple members have bought them so have a search on here & maybe check out skylinesaustralia too? They're another budget brand like BC, ISC, etc but could be a good value option, maybe just check if they're valved to suit the springs if you make changes. If your talking similar money though I'd go the monoflex. Not sure if your keen on importing but heres a few options for you. Tein MonoFlex pretty good value & look to be in great condition. Tein RA older model but meant to be top shelf, have a search on sau for info Greddy have a good rep on sau & come with electronic dampning adjustment (like tein edfc). Need new top bush though. Ohlins older but excellent quality Apexi N1's again good quality but with a little cosmetic wear around pillowball mount. The Greddy, Ohlin's & Apexi's are for R32 GTR's but will fit the z32 if you trim a little off the front pillowball mounts, I did this to my HKS's & happy to provide info if you go down this path. Sorry for providing more options, completely understand if you'd rather go new though. Fire away if you've got any other questions & happy shopping! cheers, Tim
GOOD INFO you left out RE TEINS which are top shelf circuit masters like RA but has seperate perch height adjustment as well need to trim Front pillowball mounts (R32) GTR R32 coilovers are compatible with Z32
Wow, lidz!!! Great info, thanks!!! There's so much food for thought... Have to make my decision soon, though... Need the shocks in before the Goulburn Nationals... Thanks to everyone who has helped to make this mechanical retard understand and learn something new! Lil' Baz..... :zlove:
Didn't forget the RE's but was only linking too, & hence discussing, sets that were currently available on yahoo auctions. If you really want fancy teins you need the RS with external reserviors, been out of production for a few years but the r34 gtr guys love them. They pay big dollars then get them revalved/respringed. Also did mention the R32 gtr compatibility, as I said I've done it to my HKS's & its an easy alteration. Just need to slightly reshape the inner edge of the front pillowball mounts, basically take them from round to oval shaped, took me 30min with a hacksaw Lil' Baz have you looked at some of the U.S. options? For a good budget coilover look at the SPL, Powertrix or maybe the AMS. Proper monotube coilovers for pretty cheap, all rebranded (eg. SPL = KTS) but the SPL & Powertrix have fantastic feedback over there, the AMS units havent been available as long but seem to get good reviews. Have a search on tt.net or 300zxclub for feedback. cheers, tim
