need your input on coilovers!
Your proposed argument is circular, thus pointless.
I would bet that all race teams tweak suspension every year if not every race. I bet you have changed your setup before and will change it again for something you perceive is better. Therefore, the setup is never optimized and could never be recommended. Using your logic you are no longer allowed to recommend suspension setups because everything you have chosen is not the best.
I would bet that all race teams tweak suspension every year if not every race. I bet you have changed your setup before and will change it again for something you perceive is better. Therefore, the setup is never optimized and could never be recommended. Using your logic you are no longer allowed to recommend suspension setups because everything you have chosen is not the best.
The reality is that setups will be matched by factors that are not determined by the car itself such as driving style and driving abilities. Thus any decision regarding what is the best setup will be partially based on subjectivity or partially based on what a particular driver can achieve because of their driving abilities.
Your proposed argument is circular, thus pointless.
I would bet that all race teams tweak suspension every year if not every race. I bet you have changed your setup before and will change it again for something you perceive is better. Therefore, the setup is never optimized and could never be recommended. Using your logic you are no longer allowed to recommend suspension setups because everything you have chosen is not the best.
The reality is that setups will be matched by factors that are not determined by the car itself such as driving style and driving abilities. Thus any decision regarding what is the best setup will be partially based on subjectivity or partially based on what a particular driver can achieve because of their driving abilities.
For $1100, as the OP has stated are his limits, does he get the best setup? NO, but he can get something that is better than stock and if it lasts 2-3 years or 30-40K miles then great. I have heard guys that rebuild struts on a regular basis because they are wear items and if you drive hard they will wear. Hell, if you drive hard you will spend $1200/year on tires alone.
Anyway, once again I will say people are smart enough to make up their own minds.
For the record I don't think the Megan Street setup is the best, but it is working for me so far.
I would bet that all race teams tweak suspension every year if not every race. I bet you have changed your setup before and will change it again for something you perceive is better. Therefore, the setup is never optimized and could never be recommended. Using your logic you are no longer allowed to recommend suspension setups because everything you have chosen is not the best.
The reality is that setups will be matched by factors that are not determined by the car itself such as driving style and driving abilities. Thus any decision regarding what is the best setup will be partially based on subjectivity or partially based on what a particular driver can achieve because of their driving abilities.
For $1100, as the OP has stated are his limits, does he get the best setup? NO, but he can get something that is better than stock and if it lasts 2-3 years or 30-40K miles then great. I have heard guys that rebuild struts on a regular basis because they are wear items and if you drive hard they will wear. Hell, if you drive hard you will spend $1200/year on tires alone.
Anyway, once again I will say people are smart enough to make up their own minds.
For the record I don't think the Megan Street setup is the best, but it is working for me so far.1. If you're looking for coilvoers in the 1000$ price range, you very likely have little to 0 track experience.
2. If you're lacking track experience you're most likely not experienced enough to tell toe from camber and you think ride hight is something that looks cool.
3. If coilovers have 40 damping adjustments they gotta be great right?
4. Spring rates? 8k/5k ofc, the evo is front heavy.
5. Ofcourse coilovers are better than springs... DOOH?! Everybody knows that.
While the cruel reality is different from that. A set of good coilovers that are set up poorly are worse than stock (even worse than the KYB's), while a set of bad coilovers is bad always, but it can get only worse if you don't set up what you work with.
Summary: cheap coilovers suck. it's been proven so many times on so many forums. Smike has done whole essays about it, GTWORX has been screaming about it for the past years, robispec has been telling about it for ages... Yet ... YOU - the experienced street handler - can tell that they perform better on the street for the price than a set of springs.
Bilsteins, springs, swaybars. To anyone who doesn't have track experience. ALWAYS a better idea than coilovers. The fact that there's no adjustability apart from getting a proper alignment (possibly swaybars) makes you faster because you're not thinking that you should change your setup for faster time but instead you're focusing on your driving alone as you know that it's the only thing that's going to improve your lap that day.
*disclaimer: this is not a personal attack at the OP or any single member, but a general observation I've made in the Evo community that has been driving me crazy. Please keep that in mind as you read..
It's been said time & again - what you pay for is what you get. So true. You pay for an Evo, you know what that gets you... What I noticed when I first came into the Evo community was that when it came time to modifying their cars, so many owners CHEAP OUT mainly on suspension, tires, & wheels.
"It's out of my budget.." Really? How was the Evo within your budget to begin with? Keeping things in perspective, is a $2-3K suspension kit rediculous compared to the $29-$40+K your Evo cost you? After 18+ years Mitsubishi has spent tweaking the Evolution, do people actually think an $800 set of coilovers will out-do what Mitsubishi has been able to accomplish with all their R&D? The herculian effort that went into fine tuning the balance between the shocks springs, sway bars, brakes, chassis, etc.. your cheap coils just totally screwed up the formula! It might look good sitting still, but a short drive in it would land a well deserved smack on the head by Ryugo Nakao! If someone wants to drive a dumped car without much concern for the negative impact their setup will have on the cars handling, why buy a car that handles so amazingly as the Evo does just to screw it up? On the flip side, yes, it might look 'cool' to have proper coilovers on your car, but on a DD - waste of money...even if you do an occasional HPDE/track day/autoX. You will probably reach your own limits before you reach the cars limits. On top of that, buying street/track coilovers will ALWAYS have compromises on both ends of the spectrum. The question is, is that acceptable for you? Logically speaking, whatever makes most sense is the best choice, right? If a car is driven majority of the time on the street, it makes most sense to tune the vehicle accordingly.. I know, I know...the sceptics will say that at the end of the day, it's your car & your money. To the rest of us, it's entertainment what people do to their cars...
To wrap up, I'm not trying to hate or even discredit the 'cheap' coilover companies (they're just that - CHEAP!) Just stating an observation for people to keep their expectations real. You want a slammed, "hella-flush", super-stretched tire look on your Evo, you got yourself a show car that compromised it's ability to intrude on performance figures of cars that cost twice as much! If you want to raise the bar further from where Mitsubishi left off, you gotta pay if you wanna play! 
It's been said time & again - what you pay for is what you get. So true. You pay for an Evo, you know what that gets you... What I noticed when I first came into the Evo community was that when it came time to modifying their cars, so many owners CHEAP OUT mainly on suspension, tires, & wheels.
"It's out of my budget.." Really? How was the Evo within your budget to begin with? Keeping things in perspective, is a $2-3K suspension kit rediculous compared to the $29-$40+K your Evo cost you? After 18+ years Mitsubishi has spent tweaking the Evolution, do people actually think an $800 set of coilovers will out-do what Mitsubishi has been able to accomplish with all their R&D? The herculian effort that went into fine tuning the balance between the shocks springs, sway bars, brakes, chassis, etc.. your cheap coils just totally screwed up the formula! It might look good sitting still, but a short drive in it would land a well deserved smack on the head by Ryugo Nakao! If someone wants to drive a dumped car without much concern for the negative impact their setup will have on the cars handling, why buy a car that handles so amazingly as the Evo does just to screw it up? On the flip side, yes, it might look 'cool' to have proper coilovers on your car, but on a DD - waste of money...even if you do an occasional HPDE/track day/autoX. You will probably reach your own limits before you reach the cars limits. On top of that, buying street/track coilovers will ALWAYS have compromises on both ends of the spectrum. The question is, is that acceptable for you? Logically speaking, whatever makes most sense is the best choice, right? If a car is driven majority of the time on the street, it makes most sense to tune the vehicle accordingly.. I know, I know...the sceptics will say that at the end of the day, it's your car & your money. To the rest of us, it's entertainment what people do to their cars...
To wrap up, I'm not trying to hate or even discredit the 'cheap' coilover companies (they're just that - CHEAP!) Just stating an observation for people to keep their expectations real. You want a slammed, "hella-flush", super-stretched tire look on your Evo, you got yourself a show car that compromised it's ability to intrude on performance figures of cars that cost twice as much! If you want to raise the bar further from where Mitsubishi left off, you gotta pay if you wanna play!
Actually the ones I like more are the people buying Volk 18x10 wheels for 3k and then putting Federal/Sumitomo/Nexen or similar quality 255/35/18 tires on them and calling themselves aggressive. (Also dropped on megan coilovers and running hawk hp pads)
While on the other hand what the majority of people with experience recommend otherwise. Why?
1. If you're looking for coilvoers in the 1000$ price range, you very likely have little to 0 track experience.
2. If you're lacking track experience you're most likely not experienced enough to tell toe from camber and you think ride hight is something that looks cool.
3. If coilovers have 40 damping adjustments they gotta be great right?
4. Spring rates? 8k/5k ofc, the evo is front heavy.
5. Ofcourse coilovers are better than springs... DOOH?! Everybody knows that.
While the cruel reality is different from that. A set of good coilovers that are set up poorly are worse than stock (even worse than the KYB's), while a set of bad coilovers is bad always, but it can get only worse if you don't set up what you work with.
Summary: cheap coilovers suck. it's been proven so many times on so many forums. Smike has done whole essays about it, GTWORX has been screaming about it for the past years, robispec has been telling about it for ages... Yet ... YOU - the experienced street handler - can tell that they perform better on the street for the price than a set of springs.
Bilsteins, springs, swaybars. To anyone who doesn't have track experience. ALWAYS a better idea than coilovers. The fact that there's no adjustability apart from getting a proper alignment (possibly swaybars) makes you faster because you're not thinking that you should change your setup for faster time but instead you're focusing on your driving alone as you know that it's the only thing that's going to improve your lap that day.
1. If you're looking for coilvoers in the 1000$ price range, you very likely have little to 0 track experience.
2. If you're lacking track experience you're most likely not experienced enough to tell toe from camber and you think ride hight is something that looks cool.
3. If coilovers have 40 damping adjustments they gotta be great right?
4. Spring rates? 8k/5k ofc, the evo is front heavy.
5. Ofcourse coilovers are better than springs... DOOH?! Everybody knows that.
While the cruel reality is different from that. A set of good coilovers that are set up poorly are worse than stock (even worse than the KYB's), while a set of bad coilovers is bad always, but it can get only worse if you don't set up what you work with.
Summary: cheap coilovers suck. it's been proven so many times on so many forums. Smike has done whole essays about it, GTWORX has been screaming about it for the past years, robispec has been telling about it for ages... Yet ... YOU - the experienced street handler - can tell that they perform better on the street for the price than a set of springs.
Bilsteins, springs, swaybars. To anyone who doesn't have track experience. ALWAYS a better idea than coilovers. The fact that there's no adjustability apart from getting a proper alignment (possibly swaybars) makes you faster because you're not thinking that you should change your setup for faster time but instead you're focusing on your driving alone as you know that it's the only thing that's going to improve your lap that day.
*disclaimer: this is not a personal attack at the OP or any single member, but a general observation I've made in the Evo community that has been driving me crazy. Please keep that in mind as you read..
It's been said time & again - what you pay for is what you get. So true. You pay for an Evo, you know what that gets you... What I noticed when I first came into the Evo community was that when it came time to modifying their cars, so many owners CHEAP OUT mainly on suspension, tires, & wheels.
"It's out of my budget.." Really? How was the Evo within your budget to begin with? Keeping things in perspective, is a $2-3K suspension kit rediculous compared to the $29-$40+K your Evo cost you? After 18+ years Mitsubishi has spent tweaking the Evolution, do people actually think an $800 set of coilovers will out-do what Mitsubishi has been able to accomplish with all their R&D? The herculian effort that went into fine tuning the balance between the shocks springs, sway bars, brakes, chassis, etc.. your cheap coils just totally screwed up the formula! It might look good sitting still, but a short drive in it would land a well deserved smack on the head by Ryugo Nakao! If someone wants to drive a dumped car without much concern for the negative impact their setup will have on the cars handling, why buy a car that handles so amazingly as the Evo does just to screw it up? On the flip side, yes, it might look 'cool' to have proper coilovers on your car, but on a DD - waste of money...even if you do an occasional HPDE/track day/autoX. You will probably reach your own limits before you reach the cars limits. On top of that, buying street/track coilovers will ALWAYS have compromises on both ends of the spectrum. The question is, is that acceptable for you? Logically speaking, whatever makes most sense is the best choice, right? If a car is driven majority of the time on the street, it makes most sense to tune the vehicle accordingly.. I know, I know...the sceptics will say that at the end of the day, it's your car & your money. To the rest of us, it's entertainment what people do to their cars... To wrap up, I'm not trying to hate or even discredit the 'cheap' coilover companies (they're just that - CHEAP!) Just stating an observation for people to keep their expectations real. You want a slammed, "hella-flush", super-stretched tire look on your Evo, you got yourself a show car that compromised it's ability to intrude on performance figures of cars that cost twice as much! If you want to raise the bar further from where Mitsubishi left off, you gotta pay if you wanna play!
It's been said time & again - what you pay for is what you get. So true. You pay for an Evo, you know what that gets you... What I noticed when I first came into the Evo community was that when it came time to modifying their cars, so many owners CHEAP OUT mainly on suspension, tires, & wheels.
"It's out of my budget.." Really? How was the Evo within your budget to begin with? Keeping things in perspective, is a $2-3K suspension kit rediculous compared to the $29-$40+K your Evo cost you? After 18+ years Mitsubishi has spent tweaking the Evolution, do people actually think an $800 set of coilovers will out-do what Mitsubishi has been able to accomplish with all their R&D? The herculian effort that went into fine tuning the balance between the shocks springs, sway bars, brakes, chassis, etc.. your cheap coils just totally screwed up the formula! It might look good sitting still, but a short drive in it would land a well deserved smack on the head by Ryugo Nakao! If someone wants to drive a dumped car without much concern for the negative impact their setup will have on the cars handling, why buy a car that handles so amazingly as the Evo does just to screw it up? On the flip side, yes, it might look 'cool' to have proper coilovers on your car, but on a DD - waste of money...even if you do an occasional HPDE/track day/autoX. You will probably reach your own limits before you reach the cars limits. On top of that, buying street/track coilovers will ALWAYS have compromises on both ends of the spectrum. The question is, is that acceptable for you? Logically speaking, whatever makes most sense is the best choice, right? If a car is driven majority of the time on the street, it makes most sense to tune the vehicle accordingly.. I know, I know...the sceptics will say that at the end of the day, it's your car & your money. To the rest of us, it's entertainment what people do to their cars...
To wrap up, I'm not trying to hate or even discredit the 'cheap' coilover companies (they're just that - CHEAP!) Just stating an observation for people to keep their expectations real. You want a slammed, "hella-flush", super-stretched tire look on your Evo, you got yourself a show car that compromised it's ability to intrude on performance figures of cars that cost twice as much! If you want to raise the bar further from where Mitsubishi left off, you gotta pay if you wanna play! 
*sigh* This thread comes up every single week and I don't know if I can look at them anymore.
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 9,002
Likes: 12
From: somewhere testing various tires, brakes, and suspensions.
Someone want to create a suspension worthy sticky? I am also tired of seeing these threads week after week. I think some educational thread is in order.
Can be a compilation of other threads important parts: rates, motion ratio, stages to take, etc.
Can be a compilation of other threads important parts: rates, motion ratio, stages to take, etc.
Stickies are great for intelligent people who do research. Look at the thread from the other day, simply asking "What are the best pads and rotors?" What the hell is that? These are the people who split their calipers in half trying to install pads because they won't do any research on their own on the most basic of tasks. I poured over threads from the inception of EvoM, bookmarked and gathered tons of info before I did even a simple gauge install. It went smoothly because of it.
Maybe I should just stick to Motorsports because even this section is getting to be ridiculous. There's a lot of incredible information on here if people took the time to find it.
Maybe I should just stick to Motorsports because even this section is getting to be ridiculous. There's a lot of incredible information on here if people took the time to find it.
Thread Starter
Newbie
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 24
Likes: 1
From: American Canyon CA
i appreciate you guys taking your time to express your opinions. im not looking to super dump my evo nor am i feeling (i actually lol'd at this) - 2. If you're lacking track experience you're most likely not experienced enough to tell toe from camber and you think ride hight is something that looks cool.
3. If coilovers have 40 damping adjustments they gotta be great right?
i know toe, camber, caster ect. i am in school for mechanics. i was just looking for opinions on what would be suitable for the time being as far as coils go and thos are the 2 i found about my price range. this car isnt heavily tracked nor do i super beat on it as my dd. just occasionally a cruise through hills or rare track day. (ive only done 2 in the year and a half ive owned my evo)
3. If coilovers have 40 damping adjustments they gotta be great right?
i know toe, camber, caster ect. i am in school for mechanics. i was just looking for opinions on what would be suitable for the time being as far as coils go and thos are the 2 i found about my price range. this car isnt heavily tracked nor do i super beat on it as my dd. just occasionally a cruise through hills or rare track day. (ive only done 2 in the year and a half ive owned my evo)
i appreciate you guys taking your time to express your opinions. im not looking to super dump my evo nor am i feeling (i actually lol'd at this) - 2. If you're lacking track experience you're most likely not experienced enough to tell toe from camber and you think ride hight is something that looks cool.
3. If coilovers have 40 damping adjustments they gotta be great right?
i know toe, camber, caster ect. i am in school for mechanics. i was just looking for opinions on what would be suitable for the time being as far as coils go and thos are the 2 i found about my price range. this car isnt heavily tracked nor do i super beat on it as my dd. just occasionally a cruise through hills or rare track day. (ive only done 2 in the year and a half ive owned my evo)
3. If coilovers have 40 damping adjustments they gotta be great right?
i know toe, camber, caster ect. i am in school for mechanics. i was just looking for opinions on what would be suitable for the time being as far as coils go and thos are the 2 i found about my price range. this car isnt heavily tracked nor do i super beat on it as my dd. just occasionally a cruise through hills or rare track day. (ive only done 2 in the year and a half ive owned my evo)
Thread Starter
Newbie
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 24
Likes: 1
From: American Canyon CA
again thanks for all your time, Daniel
Summary: cheap coilovers suck. it's been proven so many times on so many forums. Smike has done whole essays about it, GTWORX has been screaming about it for the past years, robispec has been telling about it for ages... Yet ... YOU - the experienced street handler - can tell that they perform better on the street for the price than a set of springs.
Megan Tracks 12k/10k
I found these to be a good entry level coil-over for those, like me, that want to get out there in the local auto-cross or HPDE events. These preformed very well for me and I had much praise from my instructors (some of whom are Porsche GT3 drivers – not only the car but the GT series) to how the car felt and reacted on the track. They had tons of adjustability and adaptability for racing.
Downsides: very stiff – can led to internal bleeding, irritability, and nagability (girlfriends, wives, family members, pets…). Michigan winters are very harsh, with lots of snow and road salt. I didn’t want to expose the car to the elements and I did have a winter car for a few seasons.
I found these to be a good entry level coil-over for those, like me, that want to get out there in the local auto-cross or HPDE events. These preformed very well for me and I had much praise from my instructors (some of whom are Porsche GT3 drivers – not only the car but the GT series) to how the car felt and reacted on the track. They had tons of adjustability and adaptability for racing.
Downsides: very stiff – can led to internal bleeding, irritability, and nagability (girlfriends, wives, family members, pets…). Michigan winters are very harsh, with lots of snow and road salt. I didn’t want to expose the car to the elements and I did have a winter car for a few seasons.
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...er-review.html
Not just Megan; it was an example. Give your coilovers a year or two and see how they perform, or you can search here for numerous examples. Hell, I'm willing to bet the adjustment on each strut doesn't correlate positively with its mate. This said, if you'd searched, you likely wouldn't have bought them in the first place.
Read here and make up your own mind. You can find other similar threads on Honda and Nissan forums. I also talked to some folks running them.
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...er-review.html
If you have facts describing how they are badly made, badly designed, unreliable and cheaply constructed then please post.
I kind of held my tongue and not really said much in this thread. However after all the posts that "you really don't need coilovers" and "coilovers in the $1000 range are garbage" I feel that I need to interject.
Now while these statements are mostly true, you also have to understand that they are not ALWAYS true. Yes if you buy a set of coilovers and just slap them on a car (and that goes for any set of coilovers from $300 to $3000) you more then likely will degrade your suspension systems capabilities. Having the knowledge to correctly select what suspension you need for your particular requirements and then setting it up correctly or having someone setting up correctly is extremely imperative.
There are many questionable brands of coilovers (even many Japanese makes) that are just garbage. It just so happens that most of these coilovers are under the $1500 mark. So what many people like to do is assume that ALL coilovers under a certain price range are just inferior and are a huge downgrade from the OEM setup. This is where many people are wrong.....
So many people are convinced that if you do not have a $3k plus suspension setup or if you do not have double / triple or quadruple way coilovers then you're just wasting your time. When in reality many of these people track the cars 2-3 times a year and drive the cars on the street at 6/10ths.
If you are in that group of people or you just want to increase the capabilities of your car YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BUY 2/3/4 Way coilovers and $3000-$8000 coilovers.
It is true if you car is primarily a track dedicated car or you are racing in a very competitive environment and you need to extract every last bit out of your car you should be the person investing in the big dollar suspension. However most people do not fit into this category. They may want to romanticize that they will eventually get to that level, but 9 out of 10 times that is not what the average Joe Shmoe Evo owner will ever reach.
At the end of the day an $8000 coilover system will be VASTLY superior to lets say our entry level 500 series coilover in every way possible way. But you need to seriously and honestly pose the question to yourself. Do you really need this over the top suspension for you requirements?? If the answer is yes then the logical choice is clear and vice versa.
A Design Exercise:
Furthermore our Time Attack cars were used a design exercise to see how far we can push the boundries of an entry level coilover. Initially both of our Time Attack cars (Modified and Street Tire) ran our entry level coilovers. Our modified car even clenched a few podiums with our entry level coilovers. Beating out cars with much more sophisticated suspension systems and teams with larger budgets. Fast forward to 2010 and we further refined the chassis and power of our modified car. It was clearly evident that our entry level coilovers were no longer cut out for the task and we upgraded to our double adjustable system.
However our Street Time Attack car has seen some of the fiercest competition of the time attack series yet. We are competing with many teams that have larger budgets, lighter more powerful cars and lastly mega dollar suspension systems.
Despite all of that we have podiumed at every event and are in contention for the East Coast 2010 championships.
At the end of the day we all have to understand that running the mega dollar sophisticated suspension systems are not always necessary. Are they better then the >$1500 systems? Hell yes but most of us drive street cars afterall
Cheers,
Terry
Now while these statements are mostly true, you also have to understand that they are not ALWAYS true. Yes if you buy a set of coilovers and just slap them on a car (and that goes for any set of coilovers from $300 to $3000) you more then likely will degrade your suspension systems capabilities. Having the knowledge to correctly select what suspension you need for your particular requirements and then setting it up correctly or having someone setting up correctly is extremely imperative.
There are many questionable brands of coilovers (even many Japanese makes) that are just garbage. It just so happens that most of these coilovers are under the $1500 mark. So what many people like to do is assume that ALL coilovers under a certain price range are just inferior and are a huge downgrade from the OEM setup. This is where many people are wrong.....
So many people are convinced that if you do not have a $3k plus suspension setup or if you do not have double / triple or quadruple way coilovers then you're just wasting your time. When in reality many of these people track the cars 2-3 times a year and drive the cars on the street at 6/10ths.
If you are in that group of people or you just want to increase the capabilities of your car YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BUY 2/3/4 Way coilovers and $3000-$8000 coilovers.
It is true if you car is primarily a track dedicated car or you are racing in a very competitive environment and you need to extract every last bit out of your car you should be the person investing in the big dollar suspension. However most people do not fit into this category. They may want to romanticize that they will eventually get to that level, but 9 out of 10 times that is not what the average Joe Shmoe Evo owner will ever reach.
At the end of the day an $8000 coilover system will be VASTLY superior to lets say our entry level 500 series coilover in every way possible way. But you need to seriously and honestly pose the question to yourself. Do you really need this over the top suspension for you requirements?? If the answer is yes then the logical choice is clear and vice versa.
A Design Exercise:
Furthermore our Time Attack cars were used a design exercise to see how far we can push the boundries of an entry level coilover. Initially both of our Time Attack cars (Modified and Street Tire) ran our entry level coilovers. Our modified car even clenched a few podiums with our entry level coilovers. Beating out cars with much more sophisticated suspension systems and teams with larger budgets. Fast forward to 2010 and we further refined the chassis and power of our modified car. It was clearly evident that our entry level coilovers were no longer cut out for the task and we upgraded to our double adjustable system.
However our Street Time Attack car has seen some of the fiercest competition of the time attack series yet. We are competing with many teams that have larger budgets, lighter more powerful cars and lastly mega dollar suspension systems.
Despite all of that we have podiumed at every event and are in contention for the East Coast 2010 championships.
At the end of the day we all have to understand that running the mega dollar sophisticated suspension systems are not always necessary. Are they better then the >$1500 systems? Hell yes but most of us drive street cars afterall
Cheers,
Terry
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 9,002
Likes: 12
From: somewhere testing various tires, brakes, and suspensions.
Originally Posted by SmikeEvo
Megan Tracks 12k/10k
EDIT/UPDATE: Well after writing this, and the lack of people reading past the first post. I recant the statement below. The Swift/Bilstein and GTWorx/Bilstein combinations are superior to the Megan products in every way. They are matched for the struts, better quality product, and have better tolerances (aka dampening is well known). After seeing the Megan product apart, finding out they have no information on their valving, total lack of revavling, and that the shock cartridge is the same as the one for a Subaru - I no longer recommend anything below a properly setup KW3 for coilovers. And my first recommendation is for one of the above spring/strut combinations. (Sponsorship aside, I am here to help people get their cars setup right the first time. Not waste their money. I would not represent the people I do if I felt otherwise).
Downsides: very stiff – can led to internal bleeding, irritability, and nagability (girlfriends, wives, family members, pets…). Michigan winters are very harsh, with lots of snow and road salt. I didn’t want to expose the car to the elements and I did have a winter car for a few seasons. No information on their valving, total lack of revavling, and that the shock cartridge is the same as the one for a Subaru.
EDIT/UPDATE: Well after writing this, and the lack of people reading past the first post. I recant the statement below. The Swift/Bilstein and GTWorx/Bilstein combinations are superior to the Megan products in every way. They are matched for the struts, better quality product, and have better tolerances (aka dampening is well known). After seeing the Megan product apart, finding out they have no information on their valving, total lack of revavling, and that the shock cartridge is the same as the one for a Subaru - I no longer recommend anything below a properly setup KW3 for coilovers. And my first recommendation is for one of the above spring/strut combinations. (Sponsorship aside, I am here to help people get their cars setup right the first time. Not waste their money. I would not represent the people I do if I felt otherwise).
Downsides: very stiff – can led to internal bleeding, irritability, and nagability (girlfriends, wives, family members, pets…). Michigan winters are very harsh, with lots of snow and road salt. I didn’t want to expose the car to the elements and I did have a winter car for a few seasons. No information on their valving, total lack of revavling, and that the shock cartridge is the same as the one for a Subaru.
- Spring rates - now they have adjusted them some for the street model. But the tracks are still incorrectly sprung (and that is based of the known motion ratio on the Evo).
- Their 32-click adjustments, after dealing with Bilstein/KW/Ohlins - call and ask Megan for a shock dyno plotting with the dampening settings...you wont get one. Thats a problem. I can call the above manufactures and get solid information. Because they design and build them. Not copy and guess.
- Part number on replacement cartridge matches a completely different car. A thread 1-1.5 years ago showed and confirmed the part number to the Evo replacement cartridge to be the same as the Subaru Legacy/STi. How can the valving be the same for 3 different cars?
Bottom line - its your car. You want to ignore all the information and development that people/shops/companies have done. Your call and good luck with that.