1g suspension solutions

[tstkl]

I completely understand where your coming from luda, and what your saying makes a LOT of sense. But, I find what works best for me, is to buy something with all the gadgets and gizmos possible, and let my curiousity take its corse. I tend to learn better when I can say, hey, I wonder what this does,... twist twist, wrench wrench, and then drive on it. I'd rather spend the time behind the wheel learning first hand than reading about others experiences with their set up. I have yet to find one person who thinks the same way I do about things. (maybe I'm just ####ing crazy, who knows)

That wrx drove up edwin's driveway a little and the tire traveled maybe 1 inch down before it came off the ground and he was three wheelin. That was funny. All I know is I need something significantly stiffer than the stock set up, as that allows for more body roll than a fat kid on top of a hill.

The gc/koni set up would probably work for me as well, but pricing that out, I find the konis run around 650-700, while the gc's run north of 300. Thats at least a 1000 right there. At that point I would rather buy something like the tein ss which is designed to go together, and offers more adjustability. Then I look at that and say,... if I run out of adjustability with the tein, what are my options? sell it used (and most likely, I won't get much for it, since 1g owners are cheap when it comes to suspension, lets face it, and everyone is skeptical about buying used shocks.) and get the jic or hotbits. Thats going to hurt the wallet much more than if I just stick my neck out from the get go and slap down the extra 600+ for the jic's.


on a side note, not that this matters much at all, I would just rather not have a purple suspension, anyone know if the 1g jic's from rre come in that black/red color scheme? That looks soooo much better, even though the wheel will hide it pretty well either way. I know thats the kind of question someone asks who "shouldn't be using this kind of product", but if you buy a ferrari, wouldn't you want to be able to pick the color? Same thing, if I have an option in color and its the same product, why not. If they only come in purple, whatever I'll still get them anyways.

 

[unlmtdndeavor]

get the purple man...and yes...im gonna say it..."jdm bling"

 

[Ludachris]

I completely understand where your coming from luda, and what your saying makes a LOT of sense. But, I find what works best for me, is to buy something with all the gadgets and gizmos possible, and let my curiousity take its corse. I tend to learn better when I can say, hey, I wonder what this does,... twist twist, wrench wrench, and then drive on it. I'd rather spend the time behind the wheel learning first hand than reading about others experiences with their set up. I have yet to find one person who thinks the same way I do about things. (maybe I'm just ####ing crazy, who knows)

That wrx drove up edwin's driveway a little and the tire traveled maybe 1 inch down before it came off the ground and he was three wheelin. That was funny. All I know is I need something significantly stiffer than the stock set up, as that allows for more body roll than a fat kid on top of a hill.

The gc/koni set up would probably work for me as well, but pricing that out, I find the konis run around 650-700, while the gc's run north of 300. Thats at least a 1000 right there. At that point I would rather buy something like the tein ss which is designed to go together, and offers more adjustability. Then I look at that and say,... if I run out of adjustability with the tein, what are my options? sell it used (and most likely, I won't get much for it, since 1g owners are cheap when it comes to suspension, lets face it, and everyone is skeptical about buying used shocks.) and get the jic or hotbits. Thats going to hurt the wallet much more than if I just stick my neck out from the get go and slap down the extra 600+ for the jic's.


on a side note, not that this matters much at all, I would just rather not have a purple suspension, anyone know if the 1g jic's from rre come in that black/red color scheme? That looks soooo much better, even though the wheel will hide it pretty well either way. I know thats the kind of question someone asks who "shouldn't be using this kind of product", but if you buy a ferrari, wouldn't you want to be able to pick the color? Same thing, if I have an option in color and its the same product, why not. If they only come in purple, whatever I'll still get them anyways.

Between Tein and GC/Koni, I'd probably lean towards the Koni/GC. I've found that Tein is more of a street coilover than it is a race coilover - at least the cheaper ones are. Ask anyone who road races their DSM. The Koni/GC combo actually performs better than some full coilovers - though people seem to think that all full coilovers are better than shock/perch kits because of adjustability. You really need to talk to some serious suspension gurus who road race/autox before you buy. If you're really serious about getting the best performance go talk to Greg Collier here on the site or other people who hang out in the Road Race Tech forum. I believe he has John Mueller from RRE setup is suspension - he's another good guy to talk to.

Personally, if I was going to go full coilover I'd only go with the JIC and maybe Hotbits. So yeah, you're looking at about $1k for Koni/GC and then you jump up to about $1600-$2k for JIC or Hotbits. The nice thing about the Koni/GC kit is that you can buy it in pieces if you're on a budget. That's what I had to do. Yes, you'll get more shock adjustability with full coilovers, but part of suspension tuning means swapping out springs for different rates - something you can do with GC for much less. I don't know how much you'll be messing with shock adjustments until you've got a ton of track experience anyway.

 

[tstkl]

well, Im not exactly in the money right now, so I'll have plenty of time to research this kind of stuff and talk to different people. I know if you buy from rre, you get to pick the spring rates you want for something like $50

Price for the full kit is $1900. We can give you the spring rates that we judge best for your application, based on our experience with many different cars, we provide different spring rate than what JIC USA typically ships. Or if you think you know better, we'll give you what ever available spring rate you ask for. For the $1850 price you get the parts straight out of the box from JIC. For an additional $100 we will pre-adjust and set up the suspension to our own settings to best fit your needs and usage. You will still need to do a little fine tuning but this will save you a day's work in getting them set up. Alternate spring rates are available for $80 each later on, or for additional springs at the time of purchase.

 

[Ludachris]

The first spring rate you choose in the beginning isn't always the right choice you might end up changing later. Find out how much springs will cost later. When you really get serious, you'll be corner-weighting your car and the spring rates will change again.

Have fun with the research. It's a blast and you'll learn a lot. I'm trying to save up to order some new springs for my GC kit now. Haven't decided on what rates to go for just yet, as I'm doing some research too, but it'll much stiffer than what I have now. To all those buying GC coilovers that are going to track your car, be sure to custom order your spring rates - I don't think it will cost extra if you buy directly from Ground Control. The default kit comes with softer springs than you'd probably want for racing.

 

[kronus]

Just chiming in. I purchased the GC/AGX combo about 2 months ago. LOVE IT. Custom ordered through Ground Control, no extra charges for personalized spring rates. I'm running 375f/325/r. A little stiff, but I can deal. Now the one thing I'm thinking is that I might've wanted to run a different strut.

Now, it's been said that running AGX in the rears are ok, but that the fronts will blow out in no time. Funny thing is, I think I blew out my rears and not my fronts. My fronts are constantly riding on the bump stops, so I guess they have a good amount of blow out protection right now. But the rears. Wow. I could lower them a whole lot, but I leveled them out with the fronts. They're both sitting with about 1.25" of gap between the tires and fenders.

And I think I recently blew out the rears. All four stockers were blown before the upgrade, so you'd think I'd know what a blown strut feels/sounds like. And I think I hear the sound from the rears, but I really can't tell by feeling it.

So if you're going with GC's, I'd definitely recommend looking into Koni's. I wish I'd bit the bullet and just purchased them. Because now I'm looking at a whole lotta money that I don't have to upgrade again.

 

[Ludachris]

Just chiming in. I purchased the GC/AGX combo about 2 months ago. LOVE IT. Custom ordered through Ground Control, no extra charges for personalized spring rates. I'm running 375f/325/r. A little stiff, but I can deal. Now the one thing I'm thinking is that I might've wanted to run a different strut.

Now, it's been said that running AGX in the rears are ok, but that the fronts will blow out in no time. Funny thing is, I think I blew out my rears and not my fronts. My fronts are constantly riding on the bump stops, so I guess they have a good amount of blow out protection right now. But the rears. Wow. I could lower them a whole lot, but I leveled them out with the fronts. They're both sitting with about 1.25" of gap between the tires and fenders.

And I think I recently blew out the rears. All four stockers were blown before the upgrade, so you'd think I'd know what a blown strut feels/sounds like. And I think I hear the sound from the rears, but I really can't tell by feeling it.

So if you're going with GC's, I'd definitely recommend looking into Koni's. I wish I'd bit the bullet and just purchased them. Because now I'm looking at a whole lotta money that I don't have to upgrade again.

Welcome to the club - I went AGX before I went Koni. I wish I didn't waste the money. You should see about contacting KYB and finding out if you can get a replacement set. I've heard of people getting replacements through a warranty but never tried it myself. At least then you could sell them and take less of a hit when you buy the Konis.

 

[kronus]

Haha, thanks for the formal welcome. But I have a question for you. What sounds did your AGX's make when they blew? Maybe a loose rattley sound over bumps? I was thinking they might be dead, but if I roll my windows down before entering my garage, I can hear the 'psst' sound of the front struts compressing, as well as the rears. So maybe something's just working it's way loose? :shrug:

 

[tstkl]

the last sentence of the quote I posted says, its 80 for replacement springs.

 

[Eagle 5]

I'm running 500 front/ 400 rear springs rates with my koni/ gc kit. Stiff, ya. but they work well. Not sure if they are too stiff though. I have thought about calling up RRE and asking what they recommend running as a setup since I have a spool and no center diff. I know they won the SCC challenge road course with the 2g and it had a welded diff, so I know its possible to make a car with a spool handle well. Probably a differnet type of driving and I know a spool is not the best for road racing or autocross, probably the worst thing but I believe one can work with it. Plus I also drag race my car so the spool stays. Just want to find a way to make the car sitll handle fairly well. I'm not looking for the best handling and best drag setup. Something that is decent for both, or that would require a few changes to go one from setup to another such as camber/ toe adjustments.

But regardless. When you order your GC's yu can ask for whatever spring rates you want. Should still be the same price.

 

[Ludachris]

Haha, thanks for the formal welcome. But I have a question for you. What sounds did your AGX's make when they blew? Maybe a loose rattley sound over bumps? I was thinking they might be dead, but if I roll my windows down before entering my garage, I can hear the 'psst' sound of the front struts compressing, as well as the rears. So maybe something's just working it's way loose? :shrug:

I didn't really hear them as much as I felt them. I was getting seasick before long with the "boat" feel.

 

[kronus]

I didn't really hear them as much as I felt them. I was getting seasick before long with the "boat" feel.

Well, I haven't really noticed a loss in performance. On smooth winding road, they still grip like mad. But I've been avoiding bumps. Since they hurt my butt, and because of that noise. Is there any way to physically inspect them while on the car to tell if they're blown?

Oh, one more question. Did your ride soften up a bit when you moved to Koni's?

 

[tstkl]

I didn't really hear them as much as I felt them. I was getting seasick before long with the "boat" feel.

all four of my old shocks were completely blown and what I noticed was the magic carpet ride. No dampeners means the car stays perfectly leve the whole time and the wheels move like crazy. After I got my gr-2s in I was like, DAMN, what a stiff ride...

then I got used to it like 10 minutes later

 

[Ludachris]

Well, I haven't really noticed a loss in performance. On smooth winding road, they still grip like mad. But I've been avoiding bumps. Since they hurt my butt, and because of that noise. Is there any way to physically inspect them while on the car to tell if they're blown?

Oh, one more question. Did your ride soften up a bit when you moved to Koni's?

I would think that inspecting them on the car would be tough with the springs in the way, preventing you from being able to compress them.

The ride didn't necessarily soften up with the Konis but it did become more stable over bumps and at the track. You might want to make sure your car isn't too low. If you're riding on your bumpstops that would tell me you've lowered it too much.