Suspension & Brakes Theory, alignment, spring rates....

Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

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Old Sep 30, 2011 | 02:00 PM
  #1  
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Default Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

HOLY SH*T!
HOLY SH*T!
HOLY SH*T!
HOLY SH*T!
HOLY SH*T!

Completely surpassed my expectations. I went with custom spring rates (500front, 400rear) and extended tophats on all four corners and there is nearly no body roll whatsoever. Confidence at high speed through corners is 100% improved over the garbage KYB AGX and off the shelf rates with my old GC kit.

I was able to lower the car about half an inch more which was impossible with my old setup due to rubbing because of the soft springs and shitty AGX dampers, but now the setup is tight and I have nearly no rubbing at all.

Some pussies might call the ride harsh, but to me it's perfection. I can feel everything through the wheel and with the hugely improved steering response dodging potholes is fun as hell. Oh my god I can't believe how awesome this thing rides. If anyone is considering getting a new suspension setup you'd be dumb to not consider this setup. I've had Tein, KW, and HKS coilovers on previous cars and nothing even came close to comparing to how great the Koni/GC setup rides.

This is after about 50 miles of driving on highway, back roads and city streets. I'll update in a week or so once everything really settles in and I have more time to enjoy it. I feel like it's a brand new car and I want to drive everywhere now.
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Old Sep 30, 2011 | 08:33 PM
  #2  
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

Originally Posted by red4d16
HOLY SH*T!
HOLY SH*T!
HOLY SH*T!
HOLY SH*T!
HOLY SH*T!

Some pussies might call the ride harsh, but to me it's perfection. \.
I like this. lol

Glad you like it.
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Old Oct 1, 2011 | 04:01 AM
  #3  
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

What springs do you have?
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Old Oct 1, 2011 | 04:07 AM
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

Originally Posted by red4d16
I went with custom spring rates (500front, 400rear) and extended tophats on all four corners
Did you bother to read the post?
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Old Oct 1, 2011 | 07:29 AM
  #5  
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

Something else I forgot to mention was during the install I was a bit freaked out because after installing the front I lowered the car and there was a little less than an inch of shock travel before hitting bump stops. I was thinking to myself...f*ck...this isn't right. I called Ground Control and the rep said that with higher spring rates and a car as low as mine, it's not uncommon to see an inch of shock travel and I wouldn't have any issues.

He recommended I cut the bump stops included with the GC tophats down a notch. I did that and I haven't noticed the car hitting the bump stops at all. No bouncing or anything. Just rock solid around the corners. I set the dampers to full stiff and backed them off about 3/4 turn, however I may move them a quarter turn closer to full stiff.
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Old Oct 1, 2011 | 03:11 PM
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

Nice, cant wait to get my set.
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Old Oct 4, 2011 | 07:18 AM
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

Glad you really enjoy the setup. I love mine.

As for bump-stops, you cannot really tell how the suspension will react to "contacting" the bump-stops until an actual road test. A bump stop is extremely progressive in it's spring rate and not just a "dead-end". You could make contact with them all the time and not even notice because your not compressing it enough to get really stiff.

The more you cut a bump-stop, the stiffer it becomes and the quicker it's spring-rate will rise as it's compressed. I'm not saying you messed anything up, I'm just throwing this info out there to help people understand.

I once read a really nifty article on how you can actually tune over/under-steer with bump-stops. It was pretty interesting stuff. The major point they were trying to get across was that they should actually be treated as "spring-helpers" rather than bump-stops.
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Old Oct 7, 2011 | 04:04 PM
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

when you ordered your susp did it come with new bump stops or no cuz i ordered the full set aswell 3 months ago
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Old Oct 7, 2011 | 04:57 PM
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

The GC top-hats come with new bump stops just like my Avatar.
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Old Oct 7, 2011 | 07:23 PM
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

Yea the GC bump stops are definitely progressive, removing one of the rings wasn't an issue I know they would still perform as usual. Given my high spring rate I don't think bottoming out is going to be an issue, at least with street tires.

And yes the bump stops only come with the top hats, which are optional.
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Old Oct 7, 2011 | 09:15 PM
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

wow im so ****in retarded haha i just noticed that **** thanks dude
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Old Oct 10, 2011 | 12:51 AM
  #12  
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

I love mine
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Old Oct 11, 2011 | 09:23 AM
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

Glad to see this because I was just questioning myself on whether this setup would be well worth the money or if i should just buck up now and buy a set of amr coilovers, thanks for the info!
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Old Oct 11, 2011 | 10:13 AM
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

i would go with AMR still
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Old Oct 11, 2011 | 10:50 AM
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

such a simple set up... this is on my list once I'm done polishing my rims.. thanks for posting this up!
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Old Oct 11, 2011 | 11:08 AM
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

Originally Posted by 00IntegrAllmotoR
i would go with AMR still
For many people AMR might be overkill. Both are great products.
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Old Oct 11, 2011 | 04:02 PM
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

Yeah the way i see it is that amr is the same as koni/gc its just that the amr is fined tuned to be specifically for your car. so basically its $400 more for a fine tuning setup. in racing its worth it but for a daily drivers and weekend track runs you can use the $400 you save and put it towards a swaybar setup.
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Old Oct 12, 2011 | 11:48 PM
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

how much did this cost you total? just wondering because i'm considering this setup once i have some cash.
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Old Oct 13, 2011 | 12:16 AM
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

For those who re-used their OEM top hats along with the bump-stops; do you have to trim/cut the bump-stops (the brown object on step 9) at the beginning of installation or did you wait until you test drive before you cut, if at all? If you do/did, how much did you cut? Thanks.
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Old Oct 13, 2011 | 01:51 AM
  #20  
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

On any suspension installation you should generally trim the bump stop. Typically in half, keeping the bigger half.
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Old Oct 13, 2011 | 07:48 AM
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

Originally Posted by EGSedan908
how much did this cost you total? just wondering because i'm considering this setup once i have some cash.
The whole setup was around 1200 shipped, just under 600 for the GC kit, four tophats, and custom springs, and just under 600 for the koni yellows.

Originally Posted by bunga28
For those who re-used their OEM top hats along with the bump-stops; do you have to trim/cut the bump-stops (the brown object on step 9) at the beginning of installation or did you wait until you test drive before you cut, if at all? If you do/did, how much did you cut? Thanks.
One of the documents included with the GC kit recommends you trim the OEM bumpstops. Given that there is very little shock travel at my height, I'm pretty low, you'd HAVE to cut the OEM bumpstops or else they'd be covering the whole shock rod and you'd hit them right away on small bumps. The OEM ones are much taller than the ones with the GC tophats and I still had to cut the GC ones.
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Old Oct 13, 2011 | 10:45 AM
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

For the koni/Gc set up Th Motorsports t
Has a badass special go to the marketplace under suspension and look for it it's a great deal
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Old Oct 13, 2011 | 02:09 PM
  #23  
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

Originally Posted by 921lsturbo
For the koni/Gc set up Th Motorsports t
Has a badass special go to the marketplace under suspension and look for it it's a great deal
Thanks for those who answered. So half-way trim it is! I just ordered the Koni/GC w/o the tophats along with the 22mm Progress sway bar from THMotorsports via Nick. It seems to be that the company/Nick gives you a decent deal.
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Old Nov 10, 2011 | 02:02 PM
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

I do my best
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Old Nov 11, 2011 | 08:31 AM
  #25  
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Default Re: Ground Control + Koni Yellow Review

Originally Posted by 00IntegrAllmotoR
i would go with AMR still
Any reasoning behind this?
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