I'm building my car for autoX ( hope to do some track days in the future)
I'm asking you guys, cuz most of the integra forum uses drop springs and stock shocks

Basically I want something under $2,000
Serviceable here in the United states
Adjustable lower bracket, to drop car without affecting stroke
Must kick ***

Here is wut info I have so far
1) Buddy Club racing spec damper, 46mm piston ( not sure about rebuildable in US)
2) Tein RS, comp and rebound separately adj (do these have lower adj brackets?), reserve oil tank
3) Zeal S6, 42mm piston, 6way adj, rebuildable in US
4) JIC FLTA2, 15way adj, rebuildable in US
5) Advance Design coilovers, rebuildable in US, separate rebound and comp controls, ( non adjustable lower bracket??)
6) Zeal superfunction, 45mm piston, 6way adj, serviceable in US.
7) Tein RE, 16way adj, serviceable in US,

I know there are more choices out there that I haven't checked out yet, any other suggestions to further confuse me?
Any personal experience, good or bad, personal reccomendations.
I wanna buy the right coilovers the first time around.


[Modified by Dan GSR, 12:57 AM 3/12/2003]

 

Let me be the first to say: Koni Yellows.

Rather than an adjustable lower bracket, you can have the shaft shortened to regain stroke on a lowered car. Truechoice sells their Phase IV kit, with re-valved, shortened, double-adjustable Konis, and your choice of springs, for $1,995.00. I'd guess that Ground Control could put together something similar. No problem getting service.

 

K.I.S.S.

i for one know i wouldn't have a clue on how to adjust d/a dampers. and it would suck to have so much shaft travel that the uca hits the inner shock tower. (the limiting factor on my car now that i have the shortened koni's)

buy some koni yellows. buy some gc sleeves. get your spring rates right. use money saved to go to evolution school. 2-3 years later have koni's shortened, revalved and made double adjustable. or sell them to the next up-and-coming racer and then buy the buddy club/jic/zeal, whatever.

nate

 

just some feedback:

1) Buddy Club - don't think they're servicable in the US

3)Zeal - nice shocks with limited adjustability
5) Advance Design - does not have independent height and preload adjustments. I have a set and that's the only thing I could ask for. - they're double adjustable also
6) Zeal superfunction - not servicable in the US. They are the only model that is not. I bought a set used and sold them as soon as I found this out. (at least this is what Endless USA told me)
7) Tein - I don't see a reason to buy Tein over Zeal/AD/BC

In the $2000 price range you have a large number of choices. Many US companies can build whatever you want. There's always the Koni route. The upside is just about anyone can service them.

One thing you might want to check is rebuild cost. Paying $100 per corner vs $50 per corner starts to add up after a while. I believe (but am not positive) that Zeal's are close to $100 each. Advance-Design is $50 each. Others are probably somewhere in-between. Anyway, good luck with the research.

 

Thats the thing, I don't want to buy off the self Koni Yellows

Why spend couple hundered to get them, and sell them or revalve them, seem like a waste of money, if I'm going to go to full coilover setup eventually.

I want to save money buy only buying suspension once.

 

Is this a positive or negative comment about Tein ??

 

If you have $2000 to spend, don't get Koni Yellows. They are a great shock (I run them) but why spend $2000 to dress them up to be a racing shock?

For the under $2000 range, I would go with Advance Design. I would also look into JIC. Warren runs them, but I have not seen them in person.

 

Neither really... just a personal preference I guess. I owned a set of HA's, but I have no experience with any of their other models.

 

and wuts your opionon on the HA's ?
performance?
build quality?

 

I was happy with them at the time. 16-way adjustable is a little misleading though. The bottom couple of rebound settings are too soft, and the top half is too stiff. I guess that doesn't matter as long as the correct setting is in there somewhere (which it is).

The rusting issue is a little overblown. I kept anti-seize on the threads and when I cleaned it off to sell them there was no rust. Some people will make an argument that you shouldn't have to do something like that to keep them from rusting... and maybe they've got a point. I'd only consider buying aluminum bodied shocks now. Mainly from a weight standpoint, but you also don't have to worry about your long-term purchase rusting away.

I, like so many people, bought them because of the name. I'm sure I would have been just as happy with some Koni's and GC sleeves.

 

I've run the stock ITR setup, Truechoice revalved Konis on 400/600 and 600/900, and now I am on JIC race valved FLTA2's. I actually paid less for my JIC's than I did my TC setup, and I'm MUCH happier with them. They can handle the spring rates that I want, and are servicable in the states (California).

Once you go to independent preload and height adjustable coilovers, I can assure you that you will NOT want to go back.

Warren

 

How much are the JIC's and who sells/rebuilds them. I seeing a catalogue at one ponit in life, but I can't remember where.

 

Warren, what spring rate you running?

 

I have been running Zeal Function B6s for a year and a half now. I have changed springs on them as well as having them revalved (not due to wear). Never once have I had a problem with them and they have always performed well. As mentioned earlier they are $100 a corner to revalve and the wait time is about 2 weeks.

Everyone seems to be mislead on the adjustment *****. Some have 16 levels where as some have 3. Quite honestly no matter what shock you go with you only really have about 3 settings that you use. On the zeals I have 6 adjustment levels but personally I have only 3 settings that I use regularly.

 

The GC/Koni setup is good for a budget racer, but if you truly want to do the suspension correctly, there are better choices out there.

And for $2000, I'd certainly recommend that you stay away from the GC/Koni setup. Get something with a larger piston that has already started out life as a "racing" setup and not a modified street shock (like the Koni).

For under $2000, I'd recommend the BuddyClubs through Dave @ R&D Motorsports. The JICs are good to, and to me they look like the twin sister of the BuddyClubs.

Even if you go Zeal or Tein, both of those are good choices as long as you stay away from the "lower" models (Tein SS, Zeal B2, etc).

Not to knock on the Koni, but they've been the only affordable and good quality setup in North America during the last 20 years. Their revalved shocks are perfect for stock class autox cars and lightweight ST/SP cars, but with the influx of the quality Japanese suspension now at affordable prices, it's just a wiser choice to go with the JDM stuff.

Personally, I think Koni needs to produce a different type of shock that's already valved for stiffer springs and lower cars (and includes a larger piston diameter) to keep up. Look no further than the range of shocks that KYB makes in Japan. I'd love to see someone start carrying this lineup.

http://www.kybclub.com
or go directly to it if you can't read JDM:
http://www.kybclub.com/html/Migis.html

 

Over 1000 in the rear. Less in the front... And a big rear bar from Saner.

Warren

 

Rebuilds can be done directly @ JIC-Magic in California. Here's a dealer list: http://www.jic-magic.com/dealers/Dealers.htm

Warren

 

a friend of mine just gor a set of jic's and they are pritty....from a distance. up close i didnt realy like what i saw. the welds werent that great and there was already some corossion. but other than that they looked badass and im sure they will do the job and outperform my set-up.
-spenc...who wants buddyclub coilovers ssoooo bad

 

yes them JIC's were nasty....quality control is slipping i guess

 

Sounds like he has the SF-1, not the FLT-A2.

Warren

 

aaah. FLT-A2's are what i like to see. much better

 

In reading all the post on this thread, everyone talks about the revalved Koni Sports. This is the 'gold standard' if you will. The shock that everyone compares theirs to. Proven design & quality. For me, I would rather go with something that I know has been developed & tested, both in the lab & the track. I don't have the time or budget to mess around with things that might work. In addition, if you plan on running IT (correct me if I am wrong), you still need to run a sleeved shock, not a true threaded body shock, to be rules compliant.

 

Even then you can have the threads machined off, and a sleeve fitted to the shock.

Either way, your money is better spent on a buddy club/JIC/Zeal/Etc setup than a Revalved street shock setup.

RJ - who runs koni/GC because he doesnt have $2000 to spend on such a setup

 

You are correct. I might be going out on a limb, but that is probably the very reason Koni Yellows become so popular (in racing). Again I don't want to bash Koni products, I think they are great, but if the IT rules allowed threaded body shocks, I think most people would be spending the $2000 on light racing shocks and not putting all that money into transformaing a heavy street shock into a racing shock. Rules are rules. One reason I have Konis, wven though I don't think I will be running in ITS anytime soon (if ever).

 

Koni has plenty of true race dampers, large piston surface, light weight..... well beyond Sport Yellows all you have to do is pay for them.