I have an 05 MR with Bilsteins. I am currently going to be autocrossing in the STU class and was wondering if it makes sense to upgrade to Megan Coilover? I know the bilstein are good and I didn't want to get rid of a good setup for an ok one that is more adjustable.

What are your thoughts?

 

no thoughts?

 

Personally, the answer is it depends on your experience. Coil-overs can be a big help, when properly setup, dampened, and sprung. I personally think the setup you have would be competitve, but as you said, lacks some adjust ability.

I would probably look at a good set of springs, and a rear swaybar, before going to coil-overs, however, that is just me. I did all of that, before going to my Flexs and it took me quite a while to exceed what the stock suspension could do. (and I have a GSR, not an MR).

 

Have you tracked your car with the OEM suspension? If not do that first and then find out where you want to make improvements

 

There's lots of thoughts, but also lots of threads discussing this already.
That's why you're not getting a flood of responses.

I had the Bilsteins on my MR and loved them, but they weren't firm enough for me, especially on the track. A week ago I got the Megans and they seem great so far, almost any coilover will help your handling and response. The OEM Bilsteins are great for daily driving and will handle well on just about any road due to the extended travel, which is where they regain grip that's lost by excessive weight transfer (translating into body roll). All 4 wheels remain stuck. This gives you grip. However, with coilovers you'll have a much rougher ride (doesn't bother me, but some people are really put off by teh bumps). That's the main drawback, but to benefit, you'll will have much better response and much quicker weight transfer with much less body roll.

Another benefit of many coilovers is that because the system can be adjusted much stiffer, you will retain camber in a hard turn better than stock. With excessive body roll you will go into positive camber, which means you're rolling the tire over on it's outer corner.

You'll notice the biggest gains with how quick the car will respond. You can also add a rear swaybar to adjust the amount of available traction in the rear to help tune over/understeer.

The adjustable camber plates are cool to have, but unless you're able to align your toe after every camber tweak you'll probably just set it, have it aligned, and forget it like most people do. The only problem with setting it and forgetting it...Is a good daily-driver alignment is quite a bit different than a good auto-x alignment.

The damper valving adjustment range is pretty substantial so you can crank them up to firm for sharper handling or tuning balance, but dial them down to soft for the ride home. They're still nowhere near the comfort of the OEM Bilsteins, but that's what you get when you want something firmer.

To sum it up, Yes the Megans will benefit. They may not make you faster, that's up to driver skill. But they will make the car feel and respond better when driven aggressively, and sometimes that's all it takes to actually be faster.

do some more searches, there's tons of opinions on these coilovers.

 

+1

Rather then jump into the world of stiff/bouncy suspensions and adjustability, ease yourself into it like the above posted.

Nothing wrong with a good spring on your Bilsteins. You always see a well driven stock (or springs only) EVO pass coilovered EVO's on the track or set faster times at an auto-x.


- Andrew

 

i wanna add something facetious... the autocross guys are pretty cheap sometimes, they won't blame your for megan coilovers.

the roadrace guys might... hahah.

 

that's a good point, the key words are "well driven." Often times people upgrade the car thinking it will make them faster, but it doesn't. Learning good technique is crucial to being fast. Coilovers are a misnomer, They won't necessarily make the car faster, but they can drastically improve feel, and also help the car do what it's supposed to do more efficiently.

I believe I found the limits of the stock suspension fairly quickly. I didn't want to do just springs because of the risk of damaging the shocks, and the lack of adjustability. Selling the Bilsteins paid for most of my coilover cost, so I only paid a couple hundred out of pocket. That was cheaper than springs. For me, coilovers were the next logical step as I can make adjustments where they're needed, and I understand how those adjustments make the car behave.

I initially thought you were just asking what people thought about the coilovers. Think about what exactly you're trying to accomplish and then make an educated decision. You may only need to improve your skills set to get the results you want. If you just want the car to feel different, coilovers will sure do the trick. A master in a slow car can be mind-bogglingly fast, an itiot in a fast car is still unsurprisingly slow.

 

 

i'm a road race guy...
hehe
i think they're built extremely well, especially for the price...