Wanted to post some pics and some first thoughts on my new suspension. I ordered the new Zzyzx EM Sport system after considering many other systems and offerings. There are a ton of great options out there but in the end I chose this for the level of customization that was offered out of the box as well as the bullet proof design and construction to go with features not available anywhere else.

These are a direct descendant of the Zzyzx full race system and will hopefully give me a great percentage of the performance of the big boys at a fraction of the cost.

Steve has been great to work with on everything from which features make the most sense for me as well as choice of springs and has also been great to help with thoughts on how the system will be set up as well as how to tune it once it's on the car. In short I feel blessed as I'm not just working with a highly skilled suspension tuner, I'm working directly with the manufacturer which is something special in my book.

As there were only two sets of these made for Evos in the first run of this system I will be trying to document everything as fully as possible as I know many people are highly interested in this system and Steve is looking to get lots of feedback in order to make this a truly world class system at a mid level price. At this point I think he is well on his way.

I did not take any pictures of the box that the system came packed in but it was as the rest of Steves work, solid. The box was taped up like Fort Knox and filled with just the right number of foam peanuts. Everything was in perfect shape and unharmed with everything as it should be.

As I pulled parts out of the box I was struck with the quality of finish and construction. Everything is beefy and solid with small details really telling the story of how much thought and effort has gone into their design.

First off, I ordered the double adjustable front, single adjustable rears with Swift Springs that are 8k fronts and 9k rear. I was going to add tenders but thought I would see how they work in this format before adding another expense. I also went with the Tein front camber plates and rear pillow ***** which is the same system that the other Evo owner with these will be running as well.



This is the system as it sits right now. I have not tied up all the loose ends as of yet but wanted to get the springs on and see how things looked. As you can see, they look good!

Some points of interest. All of the nobs, everything turnable or adjustable has a nice fine grip on it. No sharp edges and everything is finished more like a nice watch than what you would expect from a coilover system at this price point.



Here you can see the finish on the bottom adjuster. I must say that this was a nice detail and much easier to deal with than what I have seen on many other systems costing a lot more. You can reach right in there and adjust on feel without needing to jack the car up to get some little tool up in there to adjust something. The knobs on the top are every bit as well finished and just as functional.

You can also see the very well marked camber bolt which gives a TON of adjustment. One person who got this system for his STI was able to get almost 8 degrees of negative camber from his plates and these bolts. In short its dear blessed overkill and will allow me to run max camber on my plates and do all adjustments at the bolt which should show some nice geometrical advantage (which Steve has pointed out and it seems to make some sense).

Please note the purdy blue finish. This is a "proprietary" finish that I would feel wrong to talk about but would let Steve say what he feels is fair. I had some issues about going with a steel damper as DMS had some big problems with their 40s. I was not keen on spending money on something only to have it rust away after 2 years. For that very reason I fell short on early interest in this system. After coming across some updates I noted that Steve had similar concern about rust and corrosion resistance which got us talking about his plans to avoid this pitfall. As I said above, I don't feel ok with saying how Steve set my fears at ease in great detail but I will say that he put a great deal of thought as well as a lot of effort in special treatment of the moly bodies of these dampers which should leave them in very good shape long after the rest of my car has seen better days.

Speaking of chromoly, its light. I like light. I do not have weights on the stock dampers yet but I do have weights on these... bet you wanna know what the numbers are too, don't ya?!

13.5lbs each for the full front WITH camber plates and 11.75lbs for the full rear with pillow *****! Not sure about the rest of you but I'll take it. I know Steve likes to keep things as light as possible and he is very very proud of his full competition system and rightly so. With that said he is very proud of these and seems to be quietly waiting to see just how much performance people will be able to wring out of these compared to his own competition system. Early reports from competitive Auto-X and seat of the pants evaluation seem to indicate good things.



This picture lets you see some of the brilliance of Steves work. Note the rounded threads that let the adjusters turn easily without binding or cutting up your fingers as well as the groves cut in them that click as you turn the perch with each turn giving you exactly 1/10th of an inch of change in height. In short you have the ability to make exact changes of 0.05 inches with one half turns that lock in place thanks to this detail. (I know you can not see the vertical groove in this pic but it is visible in the first picture.)

Also note the large top bearing mount that will keep things smooth and quiet as well as the custom cut bump stops. Please also note that Swift springs are dead sexy!



Glamor shot... had to be done.

I hope to have these on the car and out on the road soon. I have lots of other stuff going on with the car right now so it will not be instant nor will I be able to give perfect feedback but I do think that documenting this all will be helpful. Please feel free to ask questions or post up thoughts as I will be happy to give what feedback I can and know Steve will be thankful for the feedback as well as he is obviously dedicated to producing a great product.

 

I assume the pictures do no show them fully extended (droop). How do you lock the lower spring perches?

Nice thick ear flanges Steve.

Dave

 

Magic.

The lower perch has a spring loaded ball detent that locks into a vertical groove on the strut body. Alternatively, there are set screws if you are worried about it moving (which is wont).

This is an exceptionally high quality setup. I've never seen anything comparable for less than $4k.

d

 

I've been trying to get ahold of Steve to get my hands on one from their next production run.. these things look beautiful.

 

They perform even better. If steve doesn't respond to your email, just emailing him. He will.

I think demand just went through the roof. He's just one guy.

d

 

Pretty cool. Good luck with them, let us know what you think.

Have you had experience with other brands as a point of reference?

 

Damnit! I can't afford mine until next year...

 

Please note... These are not at all at full droop. Not even close.

I just literally tossed them together and left them basicly as short as possible so I could get the frame as full as possible with Zzyzx hawtness. If I took pics of them at full install height they would be much taller and not fit in the frame quite as well... In short, it was for looks and not reality. I will take more pics of the install process with pics of the fronts and rears at full height.

First off, happy as heck that donor is here in the thread as he is the other Evo with this system at this point. He is also using these and posting KILLER numbers right out of the box in Auto-X. I also think he may admit that he is not quite dialed in as of yet which makes his raw numbers that much more impressive.

My focus will be much more on street and open track performance but I hope that together, our feedback and input will cover a great variety of possible uses and conditions that this system may encounter.

On my Evo I currently have a set of Bils off an MR. They have served me well and I would have most likely kept them if I was sane. I DO NOT have experience with other system on my Evo nor do I have experience in other Evos with other high performance systems. For that reason once I get these on I am going to be happy to let others get some seat and maybe even a little wheel time so they get an idea of whats going on as long as they are willing to provide thoughtful feedback in this thread. I know there is an HPDE in April at Mid Ohio with many Evo owners to be in attendance so maybe we can let some folks get a look there?

As for hands on experience with other systems on other cars, I have seen held, used and abused everything from PSS9s, HotBits, DMS, Shine Racing, Koni as well as the rather high dollar Proflex system thats on the RallyVW Golf TDI right now that we have taken a season second overall with, won a championship on and set two records at Pikes Peak with. I would put the thought and construction of this system up against ANY of those and think that the detail in features and ease of tunning actually go beyond any system I have seen.

In short I am 100% blown away at this point by just how dang crafty Steve is and just how stinking slick this system is. Good news is that it's only going to get better and as donour says, they drive better than they look.

Color me geeked!

 

On the Evo? I have tried ohlins, megans, teins, and JICs. These are awesome. The Koni 8611 is just an awesome damper for the price.

There's no quantitative thing that get my message across. You have to drive the car to understand. The springrates are the same, but the car is more stable. The ride is firm, but supple and comfortable. It's a great setup.

d

 

To the OP would you mind letting me know what you payed? I would be looking at a similiar setup but singe adjustable front and rear.

 

Well, I have the Double adjustable fronts and single rear, sorta wish I had the double rear but I can always swap them out later and upgrade, its one of the great strengths of this system that we have yet to discuss!

 

As someone that ran on Zzzyx last year and got to experience Steve's commitment to win, these coilovers represent so much more value than you can imagine.

I'm confident the new EM series will offer the performance that national championships demand. Add in the exceptional personal support and this is still a quality product at TWICE the price.

Zzyzx Motorsports

Donour, very happy to see you jumped on this great opportunity.

Brian Peters

 

It's good to see all of you guys jumping on the ZZYZX band-wagon. I'm getting ready to start my 3rd season on the competition coilovers and still to this day have no complaints. Steve is great to work with as you guys all probably already know.

If any of you are worried or wondering about reliability... the set we ran at nationals last year that had over 60k on them (car took 3rd overall).

 

Steve sold you short... he said that he had a set run well at nationals that only had 50k miles on them!

I was next to my house yesterday swapping brake pads with a friend when a guy he knew came past in a little honda. Nice little car that he had done some work too. He was talking about all the suspension stuff he had just done to the car and I just so happened to have the Zzyzx front strut sitting in the trunk.

I took it out and handed it to him and he looked over it thoughtfully for a few moments and said simply... "this thing is SEX".

Congrats Steve... we just opened up the Honda market to you as well!

 

May someone please PM me "Steve's" contact info? I'm interested.