After putting 140K miles on a 97 del Sol as my DD, I put the car into retirement as a tuner project. About 40K miles earlier, I'd swapped into the car a B18C motor, ITR tranny and 5-lug conversion. So, the new project kicked off with having a race machine shop do cams, pistons, rods, valves, flow the head, injectors, fuel rail and a chipped OBD1 ECU. It was just about the works except staying NA and streetable. Car also got a color change and custom interior.

I wasn't paying close attention when the shop guy and I discussed suspension. He got the idea I planned to track the car which I used to do with a Z06. But I'd never consider putting this baby on the track alongside the typical yahoo's that show up there. Anyway, Tein coilovers went on the car, 10K front and 7K rear. Fast forward, the shop guy got fired and I was basically on my own to work through a punch list. One thing on that list was the suspension, which was way too stiff for my choppy rural roads. I backed off the preload to only 6mm and went through a range of damping settings, still too stiff.

So, I recently replaced the springs with Tein 8K front and 5K rear - the photo is the front, the black mounted spring is the10K and the green one is the 8K replacement. With low preload, the ride is still not as comfortable as OEM but it's an improvement I can live with. Replacing the springs myself has been a chore because the different spring rate changes the ride height so that has to be adjusted.

Moral of this story is, if you're thinking of switching to coilovers, research that project thoroughly.



PPG Hot Wheels Paint

JDM ITR Motor

Tein Control Master Flex