i was wondering if any type r owners are useing the ground control extented top hats, or what you guys think about them. i have ground controls with koni yellows and was just wondering if they were worthing buying to help the suspension instead of upgrading to like tien basic system. thanks for your input.

 

You don't need extended top hats with Koni's. You only need them for japanese brands of struts or if you're trying to get some more clearance and don't mind banging the crap out of your strut towers and rubbing your wheels.

 

I have Koni's, GC 450/550, and GC extended TH's and it seems to do the job pretty well.

 

well thanks to both of you for your in put. i just have mine low enought so the tire and fender meet. i was just wondering if installing them would give me a little extra travel for potholes and like.

 

I have Koni/GC combo with stock top hats, no issues. Corner weighted properly I have about 1 inch between the tire and wheel well.

 

you need top hats in order to compensate for the lost shock rod travel if you preload the shock by lowering the car beyond stock, since you are pretty slammed to even with the fender, I would recommend it.


I run the top hats all the way around, I also have the car about an inch from the fender well, they keep the car from full compression and hitting the bump stops when running autocross or road courses.
They are a great investment and allow you to utilize the full travel available on your konis.

 

I personally dont have them but I have read that you can not run the stock ITR strut bar with out the Top hats hitting the bar. So you may need to purchase a strut tower bar that attaches to the bolts the top hats use like a spoom or carbing bar.
I may need to be corrected.....
But that is what has kept me from ordering them. : /
Didnt make since to drop my Mugen bars for some top hats.

 

I have the hats front and rear, run the stock strut bar, works fine.
order em...

 

Can anyone confirm this?

 

 

So it looks like its rubbing just a bit against the top mounts.

 

yes, it does touch, it has rubbed off the anodizing right under the strut mount.. Those have been on 3 years, many events. They are billet, so i dont think I will ever have an issue.

 

They really make a difference on the street over bumps. They add somwehere around .75" of extra compression travel at the wheel. That means a bump has to be almost an inch taller to make the same impact on the bump-stops. I certainly like them on my Civic that's lowered almost 3". I only have one pair on the front end w/ Koni shocks.

BTW: There is another way to get more travel with Koni or OEM shocks without buying these hats. Simply remove the brake-line bracket form the front shock bodies and reinstall. It's tricky, but all you have to do is get the shocks to sit lower in the damper forks. You will need to loosly thread the damper-fork pinch bolt in at the dent in the shock body first. Then jack up the LCA until it pushes the fork up to the bumps that the brake-line bracket rests against. This will give you bit more compression travel without worrying about the srut tower bar...

You will need to double zip-tie your brake hoses though so the hose doesn't directly touch any suspension components...

 

I am running GC's (275F/300R for street) with first-gen Koni Yellows modified by Koni for top-adjustable and a different valving/damping curve.

I ran this setup without the extended tophats for a while, and decided to (after a couple of bump-stop incidents) to run the extended tophats in the front only. I have not had any probelms since.

PS - I never hit bumpstops on my 450F/500R springs, only my softer street setup with shocks 1/4 turn from full soft. This was with 1/2" of gap between rubber and fender lip.