Upgrading Suspsension (not another Coilover question!?)
 

Hello persons and those of you who identify as other

I come to you for a bit of a specific question, and asking for a solution that has an easy answer, but I wanted to get your input/

I have a (now) Illegally modified STX FRS

I have to read into the ruleset for the updated BRZ tS classing.
But of similar mods

Currently my suspension set up was an off the shelf combo and widely regarded as a good solid first step or intro suspension.
Koni Adjustable Yellows and Swift Spec-R lowering springs
Now the swift springs are supposed to be within the tolerance of the max advised lowering for the Koni ( <1.1 inch) But with my weight and I think with the daily use and excessive use. I am bottoming out the suspension and not once in awhile like earlier this year. Like over the smallest of bumps.

I have narrowed the noise down to the driver front and it stands to reason that is the issue (im 240 lbs down from 260 but still large)

Anyways, with that issue, I am also running into another I figured I wouldnt for a good deal longer. I am in need of a firmer coil and something close to either a 6k/6k or a 6k/7k split
Am still on the fence about that, the wing does alot for stability but I lost rotation.


So the question is to you. keeping inmind E5 pay living in California. What sort of coilover should I upgrade to?
I already talked with Mike at CSG and a few other shops. The consensus is that your average brands BC (which has hype marketing in the subaru world, good job for their branding department) Feal, Fortune Auto, and even KW use standard off the shelf bits, whether-from Thailand or otherwise.

On the opposite spectrum I cannot in good conscious buy a set of Motons or something in the upper echelones of motorsports ( lord knows I want to..)

Right now what I would like, since this car is still very much "Street" minded, someything that competes in auto-x and takes me to HPDE ( i have no plans for actual racing or time attack, aint got the money for that lifestyle) And can be rebuildable.
Ideally I'd love to have ride height adjustability ( I hate sitting as low as I am on the swifts..) and camber adjustment

I dont need them though, per se. and Honestly im not sure I need dampening adjustment, more often than not an unskilled person can really throw off the balance of the car with improper adjustments.


Currently my Suspension set up is:
Whiteline 22mm Front Sway bar. Set full stiff
Whiteline 16mm rear sway bar. Set Middle
Whiteline Endlinks ( switching to SPL)
Cusco under brace ( k member to chassis)
Cusco arm bars for engine bay
Sti Strut Tower bar
Whiteline Rear control arm brace
Whiteline Camber bolts

Front Camber: -2.25 * ( stock top hats whiteline camber bolts only)
Rear Camber: -2.0 rear ( cusco rear could dial in 3.25 from what the guy said)
Front Total Toe: 1/16 out
Rear Total Toe: 1/16 in
Front Caster Matched: 8 Degrees (again stock top hats)
Endlinks reset with no preload at full rest. and draw stiffeners also reduced preload to neutral at rest.

I am playing a mixed back between alignment and sway bar settings based on how the car feels and right now I am self imposing myself on running a 200tw on 225's ( most of the crowd down here is on 245' 71r's)
I am doing this to learn the balance of the car and rotate with the chassis not with the tires.

For all pretensive purposed this car is an E85 tuned stock engine car. So not really big into the power arena.


Your advice would be appreciated.
hell Ive even considered the sach's dampers on custom spring rate that doesnt lower the car

Just for fun, have you contemplated replacing just that strut to see if it is blowing by a seal? Could be a cheap fix! I would not expect the Koni struts to be bottoming out with those springs when you're only 240. Maybe after 35,000 miles

the driver front knocks the most, but all of them do. its more evident over speed bumps if you take it soft no knocking, a little faster itll knock

Have you gone through and tightened all bolts on the tophats/other hardware? Swaybar endlinks? Not saying the Koni struts can't be dead, but these are all cheap and easy checks to make before damning your currently $1,000 setup.

I have. few days before my last autox I tightened down Everything I had touched under the car. sway bar mounts, endlinks, top hat bolts, shock tower to knuckle bolts and then I added a swath of paint pen to eat to check for loosening. and the only thing that loosened was the front endlinks, I had thought originally they where the endlinks, but then I noticed i couldnt adjust my front dampers looser or firmer. Now I have SPL endlinks to replace the whiteline ones. ( i love em to bit but whiteline uses a softer metal for their bolts and i feel under the stresses of autox they just... go limp)

https://propartsusa.com/collections/...-brz-toyota-86

Another option is bothering OS Giken/Mann Engineering for their setup, single adjustable ASTs are around the same budget but I don't think comes with camber plates so more expensive in the long run.

949 Racing is working on a set of Xidas which should be pretty good, but again pricier than the proparts setup and likely not available until the end of the year/beginning of next year at the earliest.

KW V3/RCE T2s will be the most comfortable around $2k but not everyone loves the twin tube.

Most stuff is geared towards track, they'll probably do just fine for autox but IMHO copying a successful autox setup will make everything much less frustrating than mix and matching a bunch of stuff. Switching to track setup should be pretty minor in this car unless you start getting wild with the toe which is pretty uncommon from the people I've talked to.

MCS is the hot autox shock these days, I think the Motons have fallen out of favor since they got bought.

I agree. I scoped the STX build thread

I was the only one on Koni's

Alot had done MCS it looked like.
I have a local here who wants to sell me the AST5100 used, and I might have em rebuilt if i can get em for a good enough deal.

I dont really want to wait for the xida, the real hook to all this is Im eligible for any sort of points for the years since I missed out on too many races. so In theory I could take the koni and swifts off and put back my stock suspension and take my time shopping for the new stuff while pocketing whatever I can for the set up.

The RCE T-2 seemed good, their person recommended a look at the outgoing SS-1's
a spring rate of 340 ish I believe is around 6k so that's fine.

And if I am being bluntly honest. I probably get to about 10 auto-x a year and maybe MAYBE 3 track events yearly. (this year i have yet to go.... for work obligations)

CSG has their shocks they make, RCE makes their own shocks, Atlanta Speed Company is good at helping people get custom ordered Fortune's.

One of them should have something you will be able to use.