How harsh are GC's?

[crash27578]

I'm looking at a set of Ground Control coilovers that a friend of mine bought about 2 years ago and never installed. He told me he would take $200 for them which is a sweet deal but I found out that the fronts are a 450 spring rate!!!! I was just wondering how harsh are these gonna actually be with a good adjustable strut set way soft? I don't want a caddy ride so don't even start flaming me for that. I do like a good stiff ride but I don't want a ebay special ride quality if you get what I mean. I've had a few friends get the ebay coilovers and they were so rough it felt like there was no suspesion give at all.

 

[Black95TSIawd]

get good shocks and it will ride smooth as ever.

 

[forcefed4]

I love mine! Get them and some good shocks, you won't look back...

 

[crash27578]

Thanks guys. That's what I was wanting to hear. I didn't want to pass the deal up. Even if I don't like'em (which I highly dought) I can always sell them for what I have in them and still use the shocks.

 

[No_Skillz]

GC's aren't some cheap e-bay company that sells BS. Besides, they use Eibach springs which you can switch for different spring rates.

 

[jtmcinder]

Harshness is mostly a function of the damping (shocks). The other factors are the springs, motion ratios, and corner weights. Since the nose of your car weighs more than 900# and the motion ratio is only .73 or so, what you've really got is 4:1 ratio of corner weight to wheel rate, which is something a Koni can handle very easily without harshness.

Until you get to super-stiff springs, the ride of a car with Konis depends on the rear springs, not the front. If the person selling you the kit got the default rates, then the rears will be 300# and that's no problem at all. Where most people start to have a nasty ride with the GC/Koni setup is when the rears get to 400# or so.

Just do it.

- Jtoby

 

[crash27578]

GC's aren't some cheap e-bay company that sells BS. Besides, they use Eibach springs which you can switch for different spring rates.

I know there an Eibach spring but my point was I don't have any experiance with coil-overs besides the ebay ones. Theres not really many dsm's where I live. Probly only about 3 or 4 turbos and most of them are about stock so it's hard to get hands on feedback.

 

[crash27578]

Harshness is mostly a function of the damping (shocks). The other factors are the springs, motion ratios, and corner weights. Since the nose of your car weighs more than 900# and the motion ratio is only .73 or so, what you've really got is 4:1 ratio of corner weight to wheel rate, which is something a Koni can handle very easily without harshness.

Until you get to super-stiff springs, the ride of a car with Konis depends on the rear springs, not the front. If the person selling you the kit got the default rates, then the rears will be 300# and that's no problem at all. Where most people start to have a nasty ride with the GC/Koni setup is when the rears get to 400# or so.

Just do it.

- Jtoby

This helps so much. Thank you......

 

[underradar92]

Don't forget the point about Koni's. AGX's Illumina's and the like, will not be as sweet, don't cheap out on the struts!

 

[jtmcinder]

+1

Forget about Asian single-adjustable shocks. They up the compression with the rebound. By the time you have enough of the latter to be responsive, you're skittering.

One other after-thought: if you get the GC upper plates, throw out the little black bushings that come with them. They will bend your shock shafts. Either run urethanes or bag the GC plates and get RRE spherical plates.

If this is a used system, ask if GC plates with little black bushings were used. Budget for new shocks if the answer is yes. Even if the shaft isn't bent, the inner tube could be scored.

- Jtoby