Coilover question?
 

So far I've been looking around at different coilover setups that are available, and i guess I need some feedback from people with more suspension experience than me. Which to purchase?

There's lots of options, and i'm lost.

Megan Racing seems to be inexpensive, and appears to have lots of features, but i'm not sure about spring rates. seems like 12kg front and rear is a ton of spring.

There's multiple offerings from tein

HKS

Apexi

... i'm looking for something that's going to be liveable on the street, but will be excellent for autocross & lapping.

I'm currently on stock R1 suspension.

from what i gather, the only decent and cheap coilover is Stance
megan and apexi are crap, HKS and tein are not as cheap

As recommended by howard Coleman on the other forum, find something with spring rates close to 8/6. He tracks and streets his car and finds this to be the perfect compromise.

More important than spring rates are the dampers (shocks). You can change spring rates if they're not perfect, but if the dampers aren't very good, it'll never handle all that well.

Look into Ground Control coilover conversion. You supply the dampers, and add the adjustable sleeves/collars and upper springs seats, with whatever spring rates you want, in Eibach 2.5" racing springs.
The nice thing about this setup, almost any off the shelf strut can be used, and replacements aren't any higher than a stock-replacement unit. Plus, 2.5" ERS springs can be bought new for ~$60 each, so changing rates isn't too painful. The springs can even be found used, but the selection isn't quite as good.

off the shelf struts are not valved for 8/6 springs (or anything near that high)
any drop in shock must be revalved if you want it to handle properly.
after buying all the components, and revalving the shocks, it will probably be cheaper and easier to just have bought a complete coilover setup.

another advantage to coilovers is you get height adjustment on the shock body, instead of just the coilover sleeve. as you lower a car with the sleeve, you lose shock travel (no bueno).

i just checked out the offerings from tein and stance. All the spring rates are WAY above 8/6. most are 12/12 or 10/8. The others from Tein are 14/14 or 20/20 for their track suspensions. That's seems a little ridiculous. Is the only way to get something in a lower range to buy springs, and get dampers revalved?

10/8 is on the higher edge of what Howard said was acceptable/comfortable on the street. Zeals are coin but are noted as quality (Endless brand btw) and they have rates softer than 10/8. A lot of the heavier GT Cars (Supras, etc) enjoy Silk Road coilovers.

You can specify what spring rates you want when you order. Stances usually come with 9/7 rates, I opted for the 8/6 rates instead.

I assume they then revalve the dampers to match?

Typically if you're within +-1 kg (some will say 2) its considered alright to use them as is.

edited for being a retard

Hahaha, i love coilover threads. Its always people who have never had them that chime in with their two cents and scare off people from getting them.

When buying coilovers, real coilovers that is, not that ground control make believe crap, you can specify what spring rates you would like and they will valve everything and put on the springs you want.

Anyone that says x/x spring rate is bad for the street is dumb. You can fully adjust the dampening to whatever comfort level you want. I myself have 12/10.5k springs on my coilovers, and when I drive on the street every day I put it on the softest setting, which is very nice and rides smooth. When I go to the track, I adjust it up more to whatever setting I need for whatever track im at.

I have D2 coilovers, which are very nice and cheaply priced. I can get them for any FC or FD for 900 shipped. Same with Ksport too.

It's always people without winter always seem to chime in about how really stiff springs can be fine on the street. That may be true where you are, since I'd bet your roads are in MUCH better condition than the crap that lots of us have to drive on.

I don't know of any coilover that lets you specify a spring rate other than their standard rates without some extra cost, and very few will revalve them to suit and it will always be at an extra cost. If you're talking about really high end stuff that they build to suit, that won't be the case, but that's not exactly in the realm of what 99% of people will be considering.

I agree and disagree at the same time. When talking C/O's then yes, adjusting the shock body up and down and keeping the travel the same is a VERY nice thing. However, if you are going with a matched, revalved Koni or Bilstien with a hieght adjustable sleeve put together by a shop that REALLY knows their stuff, than loosing a bit of shock travel isn't going to be that bad of a thing. The key is to find a shop with the experience to do it properly. I can only think of two in the US

Not always. Generally when you order a set of C/O's the dampers are designed to be used with springs within one, sometimes two weight adjustments. So if you ordered an 8/6 (as I did with my FC) you can go 7/5 or 9/6 without worrying about revalving. Personally I'm running a 7/5 now and I'm happy on the street. Hopefully next year I'll see some more track time and actually be able to experiment a little more.

Depends, when I ordered my Stances through Rishie I called Stance and talked to them for quite some time about thier product. They tossed in a set of 7/5 to try with my 8/6's. This was also in thier infant stage so I'm sure that's changed slightly.

The roads in the NE REALLY suck. My city especially is under alot of construction right now and there are roads that litterally raise my blood pressure when I drive down them in my LIFTED JEEP! There are some that I won't even take my FC down but some dumb fuck in city planning decided to do construction on both the roads leaving the penisula that I live on. Can't escape it anywhere in the NE. Even the highways are all pretty nasty. So yeah, when trying to balance plush street driving with a good track suspension, you need to lean one way or the other.