How low does the rest of the car sit with that kinda drop? One thing I kinda miss about having a stock height car is the ability to go over speed bumps and get in/out of annoying driveways and parking lots without scraping. One thing that also always wigged me out when I had coilovers on my last car was that I was always afraid they were gonna blow out sooner than normal when I hit rough road like railroad tracks and the such.

 

Tein's overpriced. I say that because you can get a better coliover setup for equal or lesser value. They make good products, but raising their prices had to of hurt them.

 

Oh wow, I just found a set of Ohlins...I'm surprised no one has mentioned those? Or do many people not give them a go?

 

If you use a full body adjustable coilover or if you use common sense with a spring only adjustable coilover, you're not going to blow them unless you drive through a mine field every day or something.

Full body adjustable coilovers can lower the car without affecting shock travel. You just turn the bracket up to shorten the whole shock body. Buddy club N+, Tein Flex, Zeal, etc. have this feature.

KWs are not full body adjustable. At the ride height I have it, they are still not at the lowest recommended setting, so there's plenty of shock travel left. The car is a touch higher than in this picture. Probably about 1/2'' higher all around. So just use common sense when lowering a car with non full body adjustable coilovers. Idiots will buy KWs and put the perches at the last thread to tuck half the rim without thinking or reading the manual that specifically says not to do so.



I'm sure some people would consider this "overlowered" as far as going to the track. Maybe they're right. It's still a street car. It still rides great. It still handles much better than stock. It's still fast around a track. If it didn't do everything I wanted it to do, I'd change it.


The Ohlins are awesome. But they're expensive. It all depends on your needs. I didn't really need all that. The KWs I bought have seperate rebound and compression settings and have very high quality dampers for comfort on the streets...but the car is awesome at the track.

 

That's a pretty good look....

My drifter friend says to just go with the Buddy Club N+'s...and my SCCA friend says if I'm not going to track competitively, then it really shouldn't matter...although he prefers that I leave everything alone, as it has proven to handle and perform better than many modified AP1s/AP2s.

I figured the Ohlins might be a bit overkill, but I thought people might've had a bit more input or suggestion for them. And I agree, it seems the Tein's are a bit on the overpriced side....I guess KWs would be a better choice at that kinda pricing. I'm really not used to such a huge aftermarket...with my previous car, I had all of 3 or 4 coilover setups to choose from, and it was easy to adjust to that.

 

Is your friend in the SCCA saying that stock S2000s perform better than modded S2000s or that stock S2000s do better in their class than modded S2000s?

Well modded has proven millions of times to do better than stock. But modding a car will move you up into another class where you may not be competitive anymore.

 

Great thread! I am thinking about which coilovers to get and the KWs seem the way to go. Here is a pic of my S that I took this morning. I want it to sit about 1" lower. I'm not going to track my car, so I also thought about just getting Tein S Techs on my OEM struts. Decisions, decisions....but I think I'll just man up and go the coilover route.

BTW I am not sure why everyone frowns on CAIs, I personally love my Injen RD CAI. I actually feel a difference in vtec (not much but noticeable), sound is awesome and it dresses up the engine bay nicely. But to each his own...

 

Most of the advice so far is based mainly on lowering the car and how it looks. That's fine: if all you want to do is lower the car, just get anything you think you will make you happy. Without any particular handling goals in mind, then all the advice is pretty anecdotal and subjective at best.

On the comment about Bilstiens: a spring being loose on a perch when there is no weight on them isn't a real-world problem, unless you do Dukes-Of-Hazzard style jumps on your commute. If you do, helper springs will solve the issue for very little money.

I'd fix that statement with : "anyone can make springs, but only a few companies can make springs at match their ratings". Get your springs tested if you are serious. Outside of the actual measured rate, there's not much difference between manufacturers. It's just a piece of steel.

If you are serious about handling, forgo any...ANY... advice on this forum and consult motorsports forums and read this:
http://farnorthracing.com/autocross_secrets5.html
http://farnorthracing.com/autocross_secrets6.html

This is great stuff even if you road racing and don't autocross. It destroys many of the myths you hear again and again.

Again, for hardparking, get any brand you think will impress people.

 

bky, cool link. I was hoping someone would end up posting something like that. Granted the pages aren't exactly documents backed by scientific merit with lab certified testing, it all seems to be logical expressions of suspension care.

 

I think that the link was a little overkill for the OP's useage purpose.

He's building a street car that's going to be fun to drive. Unless you're an engineer, all that you've read may be jibberish. You might interpret it wrongly. You might bench race so hard that you never get off the bench. I've seen this happen.

It's not rocket science to build a street car that handles better than stock...especially when you're starting with a stock S2000. Lower within reason. Go with a good brand with a good track record. Align and tune properly...and by experience...not bench racing. Everyone's car and driving style is different.

Go to the track and figure out what you like. Unless you're trying to break some track record, you don't need to work at NASA to have fun.

Also, the author doesn't mention SETUP as much as he mentions how much certain shocks rule and how much certain shocks suck. If you read the SCC magazine article on S2000 suspensions, you can see that a badly setup car with Motons will get crushed by even a stock CR.

Equipment means nothing unless you set it up right. I'm sure that the author knows that you can't set something up via the bench racing method.

Again, the OP is building a street car. As long as it doesn't ride like a skateboard and it handles better than stock to some degree, and he went with a quality company so his equipment will work well over a long period of time...he's won!

If he's building a race car that he wants to break records and win races with...he should start reading what that author says...and then just give his car over to someone who knows what the article is actually saying.

It's supposed to be a fun hobby...not a science project.

 

Actually, I am an ex-engineer, so I did understand the article rather well

The article made pretty good sense, it's been a while since I've read something like it. It's hard to retain fundamentals when you're in my line of work...

But B Serious is also absolutely correct in his statement. This will be a street car. It needs to handle the public streets as if it were a factory built vehicle. I would just like enhanced characteristics that fit my driving style a bit more. I'm sure I could adapt to the way the car handles as is, but like anyone else on this board, I wouldn't mind just a *little* more. Granted I'm guilty of dreaming of Tracy wide-body's and full turbo setups sitting on CE28N's....but that's all indeed still just a dream. I just want to increase whatever characteristics are feasibly upgradeable without getting into some serious national competitive racing levels.

 

I've raced S2000s on Motons (flat out amazing), Tein (OK), Buddy Club (set too low), Stance (OK), and a CR (impressive). My favorite was the Motons.

I've had extensive experience with Koni & Bilstein on my Miatas. The Bilstiens were non-adjustable, and I never wanted to adjust them. They just worked. The car rode softer on the street than stock but handled better. There was still a lot of roll while racing, but it stuck. Those are great shocks.

 

I'm an engineering student. So I can appreciate the article. However, I'll admit that I don't know exactly how to read a shock dyno plot. Neither do a lot of other engineers. It's a specialized thing. I mean I kinda get it...but there'd still be a lot of questions.

Plus, the guy seems to be on a rant. There are lots of real world cars running around with Japanese "garbage" that are fast around tracks. It seems like I see guys like him at tracks all the time. They're usually huge douches. Maybe I have him pegged wrong...but that's just the impression I get.

My point is just that you don't have to get into it at the level of the author or the article to have fun and go fast.

I have KWs on my car and I really like them. The ride is firmer than stock, but more controlled. "Comfort" is a complicated word. I guess it's less comfortable because it's stiffer...but more comfortable because there's less jiggle than the stock suspension. So...iduno where I'd end up describing the comfort level.

The handling is definately much better than stock. My friend has a stock S2000. My other friend has a S2000 on springs. My S2000 was stock when I bought it and it was on springs for a while. So I do have a few measuring sticks.

Again, tuning is more important to going fast than just equipment name. I'm sure there's cars out there that are running faster with Megan coilovers (or even lowering springs) than cars with Motons or Ohlins or whatever else just due to the setup.

 

Excellent point B Serious. Very well put. I certainly would enjoy a more stable ride, but I don't want to go too far stiff. I'm kinda getting caught between AMR's, or Buddy Club N+'s, just for the value (and I really haven't seen any complaints about them, but have heard quite a few good things.).

 

The KWs definately ride better than the Buddy clubs. The buddy clubs have a higher spring rate. The damping quality is good...but I doubt as good as KW's.

 

Now I have a friend that's trying to convince me to go with a company similar to KSports'....supposedly they've increased their quality of manufacturing and R&D? I dunno...he's having someone else test them this weekend. I'll see what he says.

 

meh. no thanks. He's probably talking about Omni power or something. All those suspensions seem to be very one dimensional. They work well on smooth surfaces.

 

I absolutely love my kw's best mod I have done to date.

 

Im contemplating kw's...just dont know if I should do v1s, 2s, or 3s. I know they're all pretty expensive but worth the money or so it seems from everyone that uses them.

 

Well worth the money and got mine on a group buy on s2ki.com which saved a chunk

 

Man you guys are making me want to just hold off until I can afford KW's...lol

 

It really depends on what you want to do with the car. Do you need double adjustable shocks for autox or track day suspension tuning? If not then you don't need the v3.

B-serious...the "utter crap" was in comparison to the .75" drop I have now. I do all my testing at a local Corvette club event that runs the same course every month on a very very tight road course (emergency vehicle training ground). It gives very good comparison for suspension changes. Running 2" was significantly slower than .75" for my driving style. It was actually pretty close to my stock suspension times on less sticky rubber. I did feel somewhat more confident, but that was just because the roll was reduced. I could tell the suspension was not getting a chance to work when it was that low.

Kwiky...Ohlins, Motons, and Penskys are definitely some of the best out there if your wallet is big enough.

 

So I'm pretty well fixed on getting KW V3's...but the more I've been getting involved with shopping around, the more I'm seeing there are a TON of suspension upgrades...from bracing, to ball joints, to bushings, to pillow mounts....seriously, there's no way anyone bought into all that stuff....did they??