So after looking around at different options and coming to the conclusion I will probably never track my car and coilovers weren't really needed, I opted for the new Swift Spec R springs for the EVO X.

First off big thanks to Chris at MAP. Great company and person to deal with. I have bought a few things from them and its always been an easy transaction.

So the springs arrived Saturday, and first impressions was that they aren't really a true linear spring. They have the progressive style coils at the bottom.

Box they arrived in -


Fronts, compared to Stock -


Rears, compared to Stock -


Now I took 3 pics on each side for before and afters, so everyone can see the ride height change.

Before - Drivers side




Before - Passenger side




After - Drivers Side (These photos are taken in the same place with about 50 miles on the springs, so they have settled in for the most part)




After - Passenger side




Now for my review -

Background - I have driven on many different suspension set ups over the years. I have road/track raced and rallied cars. Overall these springs are nice. They ride very similiar to stock springs on the straights, and do tighten up in the bends so the car has less body roll in the corner. I did encounter some bounce when driving on back roads that I never had with the stock springs, It may just be that my stock struts have 38k miles on them so they are worn or the valving is not as well matched as it could be. I'm also not a fan of progressive springs, to me they feel a little sloppy and these ride like a cross between linear and progressive, and do not feel like a 5+ kg spring. I was expecting a much firmer ride.

**update** So I went out to the garage tonight and just with the car sitting for 24 hours after the 50 miles it has settled more. The bottom coils are now flat against each other and according to my tape measure the car has dropped another 1/4 of an inch. I have not driven it to see if anything feels different.


However, I love the height, I love the fact that I didn't feel like I was going to bottom out and hit the bump stops, I love the fact that the braking has evened out and the nose doesn't dip down as much when you are hard on them. Same for the take off, the car sits flat.

Overall I give them a 7/10. Chris gave me a great deal so I'm happy. I don't think I would be happy had I paid $400 for them (if thats what they end up selling for) I don't think they would be anything great on the track, while they are an improvement, they won't do the job on their own. These springs are my only suspension upgrade. If I added sways, endlinks, and bushings, I'm sure they would be excellent.....maybe I'll do that in the future

They did drop the car 1.5 inches in the front and just over 1 inch in the back and the car looks even. They where very simple to install, I did it on my own in just over 2 hours. I do have an impact gun so it made disasembling the struts a quick and painless job. I had to use spring compressors on the back 2, but the fronts were very easy.

 

These aren't progressive springs. They are a step-linnear spring. In other words a linnear spring. the progressive portion of the spring is strictly there to take up slack in the shock, because a shorter spring in the stock struts will make the spring play around in the shock itself when the wheel is not loaded.

And also that is the exact reason why these springs are so well made, they are made to feel relatively stock. The rough feeling you get from driving on coilovers are simply cheap linnear coilover spring is exactly what Swift is trying to take out. In fact even the Swift coilover springs feel soft like this compared to an Eibach or Hiperco spring, but when put onto a spring dyno they are sure enough the exact rate that they are claimed to be.
http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=778203
This has a little bit of info.
If you were looking for the coilover feel then your bought the wrong product.

 

Good to know.

 

do you know how much ground clearance you get now ?

 

looks better
now you need some wheels

-anthony

 

i installed mine today! im lovin' it ! i'll post some pics up later

 

With the Aero kit I dont get much, maybe 4 inches. My low profile jack doesn't fit under the cars sideskirts anymore well not enough to reach the jack points.

 

hmm about 4 inch , that should give a non-front lip car about 5-6inch

still deciding whether should i get this and sell my swift sport , or just hang onto those sports

 

I thought the Spec R's were a Teal Blue Color?

 

Good info. If I were to get springs, I'd consider these. We get quite a bit of snow and the city doesn't do it's job fast enough so every inch counts. I shall see how people do in the snow with these! Also, I think these would kill my rally armors.

 

we dont get that much snow! hahah but i can agree the city does little to clear it quickly, but its because of the little snow they dont have a lot of resources to get rid of it... go out east and its cleared much better. hopefully my mud flaps being closer to the ground they will do a better job of keeping crap off the side of my car... we shall see

 

drop looks nice

 

hmmm spec r's are a teal color . and the box says sport srings I think these arean't spec-r's.

 

I do know the color has changed. I believe the teal was first run of springs. Others have said same. I guess just depends on new or old production run.

 

Correct. Swift SpecRs are now black in color.