Fortune auto vs Megan racing
 

Okay guys, so I need help deciding on which coilovers to buy. I'm stuck between the fortune auto prime or the Megan Racing with adjustable camber top hats.

Please only comment if you own the specified coilovers. No rumors please. Don't talk trash if you haven't owned them.

It's going on a daily driver that will have only a couple of sprites driving sessions a month. Not many curvy roads here in Oklahoma. So mainly for a daily. Budget is 1k.

uh, this is gonna be good.


But, Fortune auto...

If you're just going between those two, Fortune Auto would be my bet. Megan is straight trash. Stiffer does not automatically mean better. You're pretty much just asking which colors do we like better, because they honestly aren't that much different from each other lol.

If it's just for a DD with occasional spirited driving, why do you even need camber plates? Not like you need to be dialing in any ridiculous camber settings, unless you're trying to be hellaflush yo. At which point, buy whatever cause the car won't handle very well regardless.

My suggestion given your budget:

ST coilovers (basically KW V1 coilovers with preset damping). They're still ride height adjustable, and they're basically KWs, meaning the quality and ride is much better than that of those other shit systems. Better yet, you can get them brand new for around $850. Spend another $250 on top of that for some camber bolts up front and some LCAs on the rear, and you'll have upgraded suspension with alignment adjustability on all 4 corners that doesn't ride like ass, and will come in just over your $1,000 mark.


Otherwise, you'll spend $1,000 on garbage that wont even be aligned and the car will drive like garbage.

^^ What he said.

or

Tein Flex Z.


Megans I wouldn't touch. The F.A.'s are lower down the list for the cost (I'd do Feals over FAs). More research sir.

How are Fortune Autos just as bad as Megan Coils?

Between the two, Fortune Auto are your best bet. Though the ST Coils are a good choice as well. Not as "race oriented" as the Fortune Auto, but are made by KW and are one of the best for the money.

the answer is never megan. why you wouldnt consider the tien flex z or ST for your goals is beyond me. Unless you just want to be slammed then I would even say BC

I have driven on the FA 500 but not their Prime brand so no real input there

I was looking at the tein flex z but heard from reviews that they blow out quick. And I'm just thinking about dropping it 1.5-2" at most. Can't really go too low cause the roads are pretty trash. I want the camber plates because I've learned in the past that 0 toe and 0 camber takes out less $$ out of my pocket in the long run on tires.

Fortune Auto uses Megan parts. My understanding is that they are Megan parts with American quality control, they've got some good word of mouth out there but I haven't seen independent dyno tests on the dampers for them to earn my favor, there's other routes I would take in the sub $2k realm.

You don't need camber plates to achieve that on this car, lowering and coilovers will keep you under -1 degrees camber up front if all else is stock and you will still be in factory spec and you can get close to zero with camber bolts. Lowering the rear is where you'll see camber gain that you'll need to correct, most commonly done with a lower control arm although that may also be achieved with a camber bolt as well.

The Flex Z has been out for less than a year. Where'd you see that someone blew them out?

0 camber also sucks for grip, but it sounds like you've already made up your mind and just want someone to confirm your choices for you.

I'm running megan track series and they are great. No issues. Have used them in the past on an s13, and a wrx, and an e36. Never had any issues.

Exactly. I never said they're just as bad. I said "They aren't that much different from each other", and the above statement is exactly why I said it. When it comes to a lot of those sub 1k coilovers, you're really just choosing between names/colors lol.

If I was going to spend about $1,000 on coilovers for a car that's just going to be daily driven and see no track time, I'd go with ST without a doubt. Or maybe even just springs. If all that one is worried about is how low they go, then just get BC max lows and LCAs like everybody else, because it seems to work fine for those goals.

While they're at it, they can post pics of their vape setup.

ST? Haven't heard of those.

They are made by KW. Good stuff. Comfy DD coilover for under $1k

ST vs Fortune Auto vs Tein Flex Z?

ST, Bilstein B14, Flex Z

0-0 camber and toe also makes for terrible handling when lowered 1.5-2 inches but carry on

used kw v3? Seriously I wouldn't touch any of the 2 you asked about with a 10 foot pole. Suspension is literally one of the 3 most important things on your car, why would you cheap out on that? aside from rubber, it's the only thing keeping you on the road so one would think you wouldn't want to skimp out on that aspect but wtv you seem to already have made your mind (like others have said and you just want someone to confirm what you have made up in your mind). Unfortunately for you, most people in this section actually know a thing or two abnout suspension and will not suggest that you install crap coilovers on your car (that's why everyone is recommending other products).


Anyways you want them in pink(megan), blue(cusco?), green(tein), red(godspeed),black(Bc). They most likely come from the same factgory anyways.

Seriously? Since when is spending $1k on suspension cheaping out? Since when is megan racing trash? Also, since when the fuck is TEIN garbage? TEIN was and still is one of the most respected suspension brands out there. It's a damn daily, not a everyday track car.

ST.


best bang for your buck.

Megan has always been trash. Tien in the 90s sucked too. The Flex Z are legit though. Non bouncy comfort costs money. Pretty much anything else not mentioned under $1k would be outperformed by good springs (RCE, Swift, Eibach Prokit) especially considering our struts are pretty good stock

There are suspension systems that literally cost 10k plus. Of course, that's entirely overkill, especially for somebody like yourself with your goals for the car.

You have to understand that for $1,000, you're buying an ENTRY LEVEL coil over system. So you have to expect to get what you pay for. It's like buying a car. You can't buy a CLA Mercedes, which is the entry level car that costs 32k, and expect to get the same luxury as you would in a $100,000 S class. It just doesn't work that way.

So when you spend the minimum on coilovers, expect to get the minimum in terms of R&D and quality. It's just the way it works.

From the sounds of your responses, you sound pretty set on what you want. Best of luck.

Ken Gushi is a well established diver and knows his stuff. I'd listen to him; even if he's sponsored by KW, which is ST, and he might have a bit of a bias lol.

Yes. Megan has never exactly been a name associated with "quality". Back in the early 00s, people in the 240 community would cross shop between Megan, Circuit Sports, and EBay suspension arms. They've always been considered a lesser-than part.

That doesn't mean they're going to spontaneously combust or anything.mhowever, don't buy them and expect to have some godsend handling in your vehicle- even though people really believe they substantially improve the handling of their cars.

And yes again. TEIN really was considered to be a subpar company back in the day. Their basic/entry level stuff was trash, but their high end stuff was good. From the sounds of things lately, it seems as though TEIN has stepped it up a bit, especially on their lower level stuff.

OP: for your car, based on the info and budget you've given, I think mt of us here will recommend ST. You really can't beat them for the money. Even a good spring would be an improvement over stock and a lot of the coilovers systems in that sub $1,000 price range.

Please remember: STIFFER DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY MEAN BETTER HANDLING!

I was just at the Tein Factory in Yokohama less than a month ago and they definitely make stuff in house. I'm not sure all models but they were building flex z's when i was there.

haha I may have a bit of a bias but all bias-ness aside, I seriously think ST coilovers are great for what they cost.

I personally have KW V3 on my street car and ST on my dad's FRS. For a budget of <1000, I'd go for ST all day.

But Tein Flex Z is not bad either.

"Tein" is a brand. They make dampers from $500 to $14,000. To say their top end dampers is the same as their bottom end dampers is just wrong.

I would just go with Godspeed.

1/ You've been told (heard) or you have read? People are more likely to post bad reviews than good. That is, they are more likely to complain about about a bad experience. For this to be meaningful you would have to know the conditions under which the dampers failed and also the total number of dampers sold. If there were 10 bad reports for 15 dampers sold then they are crap. If 2 million were sold then they are reliable.
2/ You are giving conflicting goals. You have "trash" roads but are wanting to drop 1.5". Suspension needs travel to work, especially at your budget.

Mike from CSG rates the Flex Z. His opinion is worth taking note of.
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81829

A thing to keep in mind is that many of these entry level coilover companys all source their dampeners from the same taiwanese manufacturer. In the end, it is all very similar in terms of performance. Megan, ksport, bc, godspeed, fortune, stance many of these similar companies source from the same or similar venues. The difference in price is when it comes to purchasing a fully assembled Megan piece from Taiwan, or a "assembled" in US with maybe or maybe not a dyno quality check state side, like Fortune claims. If you go fortune, I wouldn't do prime, at least do the 500s. Stance is another worthy option to look up on, as they're an inverted mono strut (if thats the proper term). Either way, you spend 700-800 on trash, 1k on longer lasting performance, or 6k-10k on racing application performance. I've owned ksport in the late 00's, stance supers a few years ago, fortune 510's, and have riden in Megan streets and tracks. Megan was by far the worst, they're the coilovers you put on to tow your car to not damage your nicer dampers. Swift coils are a worthy option to consider, as they may safe you from a shitty damper; with a proper revalve.

Lots of good brands mentioned here. While I'm sure megans won't randomly explode there really is no reason not to go with a more respected brand. I've been hearing nothing but good things about the Teins. But honestly if you aren't going to track ir need variable height adjustment I'd just get springs. It'll save you like 800$ and will give you a drop. Also, you need some camber. From the factory they already have life -1 up front

tein flex z, great coilover for dd
same price as st, but includes camber plates

You'll only get about .5-.6 degs of camber adjustment out of a camber bolt in the rear. It works, it just has a limited range.

ST is probably the best adjustable coilover setup for our cars that cost under 1k.

entry-level Tein coilovers were useless back in the day other than for people that just wanted to put a tein sticker on their car so they feel better about themselves than buying some janky ebay part. their high-end coilovers were pretty solid though which is probably how they maintained their legitimacy as a suspension company over the past years. recently theyve gotten smart and stepped up their entry-level game though with the new flex z. cheap price point while tested and manufactured and QC'd in japan.

good luck.

I've had Megans on my other car before and I will tell you that you might as well just weld in solid steel rods in for your suspension. They are so overly stiff its ridiculous. Also the paint/coating chipped off of all of the springs and they just rusted away.

Swapped them for KW V1's and it is 1000x better. So for your budget (as everyone else has said) ST is the way to go.

Youll be surprised at what youll learn when you actually learn whats inside of the suspension. Youll see why some are better than others, why some people reccomend that company over this one because of the R&D they put into these systems.

holy cow this forum is TOXIC with bad advice. who moderates this?

The moderators listed at the bottom of the subforum main page?

Maybe it would be more helpful if you showed what you believe to be incorrect and provide insight of your own to further the conversation instead of just vaguely blast whats been said

What I "believe" is irrelevant because there are a TON of regular posters on this forum with more experience and data that could chime in., so my 2 cents is not the most helpful.

Therefore .. the best thing I could say to the OP is "WHOA. Halt. Take most of these posts with a grain of salt and search for people or posts with good data or actual experience"

Just one idiot with a poor install, bad alignment, or no frame of reference for how "good" suspension feels can completely ruin another person's opinion of a product by sharing their story.

THIS. This thread isn't toxic at all and all advice has been reasonable

Captain Snooze is pulling all the weight in here. The rest is just :bonk:

Why cuz he suggested Teins? He wasn't even the first one to do it and he didn't say anything different than half the other posters. Plenty of good info here with good reasons to back them up