Swift Spec R Review
 

Hello all:
I just installed some Swift Spec R springs in my BRZ. I decided on them because the spring rates are right where I want them as a compromise between driving 500 miles a week and wanting a good track ride for 10-12 track events a year, and I wanted to stay under a 1000 budget. So far I'm on track. I got a Strano front sway-bar for Christmas and I have a WRX rear sway-bar.

Specs:
BRZ ZC6 13+ 4T909R
Front: 4.4 kg/mm 245 lb/in drop: -28mm 1.1 in
Rear: 5.3 kg/mm 296 lb/in drop: -25mm 1.0 in

Install:
Install was easy. It took 2.5 hours and I have the flu... Dumb, I know, but I had to get it done. A spring compressor is needed to remove the stock springs from the struts and shocks; however, it's not needed to install the springs. I cut the bump stops in half.

Ride:
I love the ride. The stock shocks and struts really are great. These stiff springs ride great on them, but have their limits. I can only imagine what an upgrade will do. Nice and firm on the street. Kind of under rebounded for the stiff springs at speed. Around town they're great. The ride is just like stock.
I'm still undecided between koni and bilstein, but the Cusco's look great too, but I can't find any reviews on them.
Hopes this helps someone as I couldn't find a single thread on them.

Pictures to come.

Really nice 1. Thx for sharing.

Interested to see this going forward once you upgrade struts. I mainly autox, but am going back and forth on Swift SPec R vs. RCE Tarmacs when I install my Konis (I am currently on RCE Yellow).

And just FYI, you don't need a spring compressor to do the install.
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32414

Tarmacs are more understeer biased than the Swift Spec R's, so it really depends on what kind of handling balance you're after. Both are great springs that will work well, just pick by personal preference.

I went with Swift Sport because I wanted spring rates friendlier to the stock shocks for now, but didn't want to drastically change the handling balance. For autox, the quicker front end response from the RCE springs (yellows or tarmacs) might give you better times.

Nice to see someone else running them. I'm waiting for the spring to install mine with Bilstein B8 struts.

I also went with the Spec R's due to the spring rate and the nice 1 inch drop you get. Tarmacs are great too, but 20mm looks stock!

Part of my decision was due to the 1" drop; it looks perfect. I wanted the tarmacs, but I had read that they tend to favor understeer, and I want the car more neutral. With the WRX rear sway-bar and the stock one in the tool shed, I still have the option to play around with rear end balance if it's more biased to oversteer than I prefer.

Cusco makes shock/strut replacements?? I did not know this; sounds very interesting.

Links or pics?


Nice ride height btw.. love that slight rake.

I couldn't find them on the Cusco website, but here they are at Rally Sport Direct:

Cusco Front Touring-A Shock Absorbers

Cusco Rear Touring-A Shock Absorbers

I would love to see a comparison between these, Koni Yellows, and Bilstein B8's with the Swift Spec R springs.

FR-Sport has them as well. I found a Cusco USA Blog post about them, yesterday, but of course now I can't find them...

Front: http://www.frsport.com/Cusco-965-65T..._p_281898.html
Rear: http://www.frsport.com/Cusco-965-65T..._p_281899.html

$935 for front & rear

Woah!

Very nice.


As for most jdm products (albeit high quality and nicely made/engineered), the only thing I would be worried about is stateside service/repair, warranty and customer support. Which, Bilstein has in the US for sure. Idk about Cusco though. Anyone know?

But, def cool indeed :)

That adjustability is def nice though. A big advantage over the B8/B6.


Can't wait for future reviews of this, especially with different damper settings.

They do; the class leader in Stock at 86CUP uses them

Servicing is available, although at the price of the OE replacement dampers, rebuilding would cost nearly as much as a new set.

Good to know. I can't find any info on them, not even reviews from other applications. I wonder how they compair to the Koni struts and shocks.
I'm shocked (pun intended) Tokico deosn't have shocks and struts for the 86 yet. I'm so used to running illumina's in the Rx7 World.

Makes sense. I am currently on yellows and understeered pretty bad until I dialed in a bunch of camber (over -2 in front). I am new to suspension tuning so will be interesting to go froward and see what I can do with Koni's and maybe swaybars eventually

Ya I know ..I had Tokicos and kgmm springs on my s13 back in the day. Cheapy shocks..but the only thing I could afford at the time.

I notice the specs of the Cusco replacement dampers state:
"140% sti*ffer than factory OEM dampening rate (when set at max hard)"

- Anyone know if "140% stiffer than oem" can handle the Swift Spec-R or Tarmac springs?

- Also, anyone know if Bilstein B6/B8 dampers are more than, or less than, "140% stiffer than oem"?

I'll be adding them to the website soon as the testing has been quite sufficient on them. :)

I've always been a fan of Swift springs and I think the Spec Rs for this car are great. I personally wouldn't run them on stock shocks as the rear especially is a bit underdamped (as it would be with RCE Tarmacs). But with Koni or Bilstein its a great combo. Haven't tried the Cusco's but it's good to see another option.

Yes our RCE springs like a little bit of camber if you're tracking/autocrossing. When it's all dialed in it's the best of all worlds...tons of response, great balance, and the ability to put power down easily. The Swifts are just another great option with a very slight difference in balance.

- Andy

Do you have a preference between Koni & Bilstein for the tarmacs? If so, why?

I am running the Spec Rs on Koni yellows. I am still playing with the adjustments on the Konis to find the best handling on the track, but I have been very impressed with the setup. The set up is certainly more firm than stock, but it does not beat you up. It handles small bumps very well but can be jarring when you hit a large bump. This set up responds much faster to inputs on the track than the stock suspension and has noticeably less roll.


It is more than comfortable enough for a daily driver although my wife is not as enthusiastic about it as I am. However, she wasn't super excited about the stock suspension either so take that with a grain of salt. Unfortunately I have never tracked a car with a good coilover suspension, so I cannot compare it to that, however I have had a lot of success on the track against more expensive/powerful cars with this set up. I would be hard pressed to believe a cheap coilover set would be competitive with the Konis and Spec Rs.

I'm sure we'd all love to hear a comparison from you (or, anyone) of the Cuscos vs the Konis & Bilsteins.

And, which handles the stiff Tarmacs & Spec-Rs the best :)

The Konis work pretty well and since they're adjustable you can get them mostly dialed in. IMO the Bilsteins are the better shock internally, its just that the valving they come with isn't perfect. For me its close but I lean a little towards the Bilsteins. Custom valved Bilsteins would be the shit. But that's another 450 on top of the shocks (but you could start with the B6 shocks).

- Andy

Hmmm..maybe someone (an frs/suspension/track shop, distributer, etc.) should work with Bilstein and make some special-edition B8s matched to the stiffer Spec-R & Tarmac springs.

Kinda like how CSG has their custom Tein SRC, you/RCE have custom KW, Mann has custom AST, Moto has custom RSR, Works has custom Ohlins, etc., etc.

Wouldn't that be a hot-as-sht seller? ...especially since lots of people buy lowering springs and also either can't afford premium $2-3k+ coilovers or would rather get a nice spring/shock setup rather than get cheap/generic coilovers.

Personally, they are all similar. Koni has some level of adjustment over the Bilstein. Cusco has 40-clicks to them (kind of overkill IMHO), but the entire range is noticeable. Keep in mind, they are all high quality OE replacement dampers. :thumbsup:

Tarmacs and Spec-Rs are definitely good springs. Tarmacs are non-staggered and Spec-Rs are staggered. I prefer the latter, but some people don't like the qualities of staggered setups.

We have our own preferences on setups which happens to fight with the generalization, but after one taste of our setups, most people convert.

That is good to know.

Excited to read in-depth reviews about these in the future.

We actually do offer custom valved Bilsteins with a matched set of springs...for Impreza. :)

It's a seriously awesome set-up that's better than most coilovers but unfortunately we just have not been able to bring it to market for BRZ and FRS. Part of the reason is Bilstein already offering their own sport shock.

My concern with the Cusco shocks is no warranty and servicing them in the US. Bilstein and Koni both have excellent (lifetime) warranties and can be rebuilt or custom valved relatively inexpensively. Both are proven options that you'll see a lot of at the track or autox.

We're flexible on spring rates...at lower to medium spring rates we often prefer even rates but some of our very firm track oriented set-ups have firmer rear springs. We've been at this for a long time and understand when either is appropriate and how these cars behave with firmer vs softer set-ups.

- Andy (RCE total racecar guy for over 10 years)

Will the Impreza ones fit an 86, hehe :)

Sux to hear you aren't able to bring those custom-valved Bilsteins to market :(

H'm well I'd love to be a guinea pig on the Cusco's, but I don't have the funds, and by that price point I should have just gone with the Tein Street Flex :/

The rears are abviously the same as the WRX, but I wonder how similar the fronts are to any other cars.

On the First Gen Rx7, we run the 1st gen MR2 Rear strut because it is shorter and stiffer than what's offered for drop in in the FB. This allows you to run a lower and higher spring at no additional cost. My street setup was 300/200 and track was 700/500 on illuminas. I put over 40k miles on this etup and it was damn great. Apples/oranges, I know, but I'd like to have a similar option. Not a lot of guys ran Koni struts/shocks because of the reliability issues when compaired to the illuminas.

Unfortunately it's a different spring perch design up front. :(

- Andy

Inserts #problemsolved ;)

Well, it's tough to do inserts of an inverted strut onto a non-inverted OEM strut! ;)

Custom valve some Bilstein B6 and you win the fixed perch strut competition IMO.

- Andy

The hard part would be tuning, or testing, or figuring out, what the optimal valving specs should be for Spec-R/Tarmac springs though, right?

Or, at least, for me and most of us, we wouldn't know where to even start, nor what to even tell Bilstein if we want to have it valved perfectly to match those springs (majority of us aren't race car suspension engineers, lol). I'm sure you/RCE can though ;)

If you told Bilstein to re-valve a set of B8's to match Spec-R/Tarmac springs, would it turn out good or perfect? Or, would it be better for a good suspension maker (such as yourself, RCE), to tell them specific valving specs?

If the latter, would you(RCE), be able to help us, or give Bilstein, specific valving specs that would be optimal for the Spec-R/Tarmac springs? ie: perfectly matched valving/springs.

Re-valving Bilstein sounds very realistic, given their affordable valving/rebuild prices, as stated by RCE. It would only be $420 to revalve a set of non-adj dampers.

http://www.bilsteinus.com/products/s...rvice/service/

This would be a badass set-up, that would most likely blow cheapy/entry coilovers outta the water. And affordable too.

We have actually done a lot of the homework already...

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...5c&oe=5556305D

It can be better than cheap/entry level coilovers but it's not exactly readily available and does cost some cash. If you're serious about going this route let me know when the time comes and we can work something out.

Anyway, we're getting off-topic here.

- Andy

Most definitely!

This goes out to others that may be interested in 'custom-valved Bilsteins matched to Spec-R's/Tarmac's' as well. :)

Andy,

You say B6, and M23 keeps saying B8. :iono:

Which is better for the Swift Spec R or Tarmac springs on our cars?

Looks to me like he is saying that if you are going to just buy and install the struts without revalving, you should use the B8. If you are going to have them revalved, you should start with the less expensive B6.

nm

- Andy

I hate to sound stupid, but what inserts?