you made a good point in questioning whether "upgrading" to coilovers will actually improve or hurt performance and ride for you. only you can really decide, but the stock suspension is pretty good for what you will be doing.

adding a thicker rear stabilizer bar will reduce body roll the most, and increase oversteer, which almost everyone likes, as evos tend to understeer a bit. this will be beneficial when you're "trying to stay going 60 in the turn that says 35" as you said.

you may want to start there: stock springs and struts with an upgraded rear bar, and see how you like it. from there you can always still add coilovers.

regarding coilovers:
the tein flex have pretty high spring rates, which may be higher than what is ideal for drag in an evo. some people also say that the spring and damping rates are mismatched on them as well.

for daily drivng and drag, high springs rates are not what you need. you can stay pretty soft, and the most common rates on budget coilovers are as high as you will need to go for that kind of use.

you will probably be happy with Megan Street, Helix, Stance, BC, etc. or other affordable coilovers with moderate spring rates and adjustable damping.

 

I've got to agree with this. A rear swaybar makes a huge difference at limits on the street/ road-track. But if you're talking drag racing, it's not going to make ANY difference at all. If you're just looking for a lowerl COG, just do springs and save some coin.


Yeps. Tein's are pretty harsh on the street. I'd never call them comfortable or an improved ride. I'm unsure what the springrates are, but they've gotta be up there. (higher is stiffer) Perhaps if they were dialed in by a prof it'd be different, I can't comment on that.

 

tein flex spring rates are 12 and 10k. pretty high for street, especially for a car that comes with like 3,4k stock, and especially paired with a damper that is notoriously soft in relation.

if you do get springs only, get swift, espelir or tanabe ones that are better matched for the stock struts.

for the record, i am in the process of switching back to stock suspension with a progress rear bar that i bought from summit racing for $108.

 

if your going to do it do it right the first time. or dont do it at all.

I went with the Tanabe Pro 7's with TEAS.

 

 

Perhaps, you should go to a local EVO meet and try some of the cars with CO.
In my opinion, what matters the most for CO is how you set it up and use it for your likings.....

I have TEIN Flex and I can tell you that it handles much better than stock MR bilsteins.. My EVO is a daily driver and handles the PA state roads very well. If I adjust dampening/rebounds to stiffest setting, these are very very stiff while rebounds are controled.... I have set mine @ -9 clicks from stiffest and height is only droped about an inch on the front and 5/8 inch for the rear in comparison to stock... If you ever come down to the EVO/SUBARU shootout in E-town this year.... I will let you drive my car.... I occasionally do drag racing as well and these TEIN Flex works very well to flatten the car!!!!

Good luck in your search..

 

My suggestion is either do alot of your own research or talk to SKILLED suspension people such as RRE or Robi or various of the other vendors here. Most people here are going to reccomend what they have whether or not they even know if its really good. But for casual driving springs such as Espelir or Swift and a good rear swaybar may be plenty while mainting a good ride quality. As far as Teins go they are decent, there are much better setups for the evo for equivalent prices. I hope that helps some.