In Love With My RSR Black-i Coilovers!
 

I wanted to wait a few weeks before writing a review of my new suspension setup to be sure I could cover as much info as possible for you guys. A picture is worth a thousand words so I was sure to take quite a few close ups of the suspension and even the packaging they arrived in. When I was shopping around for suspension, I found it hard to find any detailed pictures of RSR's new setup for the FRS/BRZ.

Please note, RSR has two variants of coilovers available for our vehicle, the Sport-i and the Black-i. The Sport-i is more tailored for those planning on visiting the track often. Black-i is for those wanting an extreme drop without sacrificing ride comfort. I chose the Black-i variant and have lowered my car 2.25" front and rear and still have plenty of adjustment left if I wanted to go lower.

The Black-i coilovers are at a price point of $1899. Let me tell you this, I am the cheapest person you will ever meet, I don't buy something unless I do a ton of research on it first in order to justify my purchase. Since I am so cheap, this is my 3rd suspension setup on this car and it will be my last because they are perfect! I started off with just lowering springs, Eibach Sportlines to be exact. Those felt terribly stiff and didn't drop as low as I wanted. Then I decided to go with Megan Street Series coilovers, needless to say quality was extremely subpar compared to the rest of the aftermarket products I have installed on my vehicle. I tell you all this for one reason, I've learned my lesson, do it right the first time and you will actually end up saving money.

Let's move on to the pictures, I'll try to write a brief summary for each.

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^ Right off the bat I was extremely impressed with the packaging that my Black-i suspension arrived in. I have bought a ton of parts for my car, and not one thing has ever been packaged this nicely. The box itself was thicker than usual cardboard and each coilover was separated by the thickest cardboard I have ever seen. To top it off, they were each individually wrapped with a ton of bubble wrap. The FedEx/UPS truck can go through a tornado and your coilovers would most likely still be in perfect condition!

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^ When RSR says they have the most comfortable riding coilovers on the market, they are not lying. Here is a photo to help explain how they achieve such an amazing ride. As you can see, rather than using hard pillow ball mounts like the majority of coilovers use, the RSRs use bushing mounts. These rubber bushing mounts also hold a ring of bearings to help isolate noise as the strut rotates during your drive.

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^ Since they do not use pillow ball mounts, there are no camber plates. You can however add or subtract 1 degree of camber by rotating the mounting plate. This did worry me at first because my previous setup provided camber plates that I could fine tune. I decided to leave the camber the way it was set out of the box and was happy to find that it actually corrected my front camber and now it sits perfectly, even when dropped 2.25"

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^ I am a big fan of Swift springs, I picked up a set to install on my Megan Street Series coilovers but never got around to having the time. Since I had them laying around, I decided to compare them to the springs used on my RSR coilovers. For those who don't know, Swift springs are known for providing extra travel due to their design of using less coils per spring. I was surprised to find that the RSR spring and the Swift spring were pretty much identical, they both utilized the same amount of coils. The only difference I could find was the color and branding listed on them. This alone can save you $400 in comparison to other coilovers which would improve by a Swift spring upgrade.

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^ The travel of the suspension is not jeopardized by the ride height you choose. Out of the box the spring comes preloaded to RSR's spec, so the collar at the bottom of the spring is not touched during install. The collar closest to the strut mount is raised or lowered to achieve the desired height. In this photo you can also see that they utilize a rubber seat at the bottom of the spring to ensure there are no noises during driving.

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^ The rear shocks provide 24 levels of adjustment, the front shocks provide 36 levels of adjustment. A left turn for softer, a right turn for harder. As stated in the instructions, RSR recommends starting with the damper settings at full hard and to work your way back down to the desired softness. I have each level set exactly half way and it feels perfect, just enough feedback from the road and a comfortable ride.

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^ I could not believe the level of quality on every aspect of these coilovers, you definitely get what you pay for. The brackets are laser cut and hand welded. According to their website, the entire setup is hand assembled and they only utilize vehicle specific valving. Everything is heavy duty, from the thickness of the brackets, the threads, the welds, and the collars.

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^ Install was a breeze, the instructions were clear and concise. There were no spelling or grammar errors and the illustrations were well put together. They even include replacement sway bar end links that are a bit shorter than the stock ones. As you can see in the photo, although I am already lowered 2.25", I still have some adjustment left to go lower if need be.

Overall I am very happy with my purchase of these coilovers. The ride is amazing in comparison to my previous suspension setups. I have also ridden in many other cars with different setups here in the Orlando 86 crew and still prefer mine. With a spring rate of 7k front and rear, the car still maintains the balance felt from factory. I have attached the instructions in pdf form to this post. If you have any questions feel free to ask. The rest of the photos can be found in my online album here.

You can purchase directly from RSR on their website here: http://rs-r.myshopify.com/collection...r-s-subaru-brz

Here's the latest pic of my car as it sits with the RSR coilovers. Follow me on instagram for more @peteralfonso

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Looks awesome! great write up as well!

Very nice. We recently got some in house and really like the quality. :-)

You have the setup i want, except i want 9.5 upfront for the concavity. I wonder if these coilovers will work with that setup, since i remember reading some where that you need more than 1 degree camber upfront so it won't rub with 9.5" 57extremes. I think you're even running the 04-07 brembos that i want lol.

RSR were designed to spin top hat one way is no camber other is -1.5 degrees. That plus some lpc, or WL camber bolts could get you to two. With that wide of wheel you will need at least -2 upfront.

Looks great. How does it handle at that height? Wheel specs?

So the front coils could get up to -1.5 deg? Adding camber bolts will get me more neg camber? Im worried because Im running 9.5" front.

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Have u ever ridden any kw setup cars? How do they compare to these?

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I really appreciate these types of reviews. It's human nature to rave about something you have, but most of have not tried anything else. When someone has tried several setups in their own car, it's speaks much more loudly when they say their latest setup is good / bad / etc.

Correct yes. It's the orientation of the plate on rsr that changes from 0 a (-)1.5 then you use a camber bolt to get abit more.

I've directly compared the (I) version of these to kwv3 prior to purchasing kws. I personally felt over the harsher bumps the kws simply handled them better even at default rates, the rsr were at full soft btw to compare. Since then I've changed kws from default and it's even better now. The package per dollar on the rsr is good though can't take that away from them.

i really don't see the point of "Lowering" oriented coilovers that lack top hats for some proper front camber

Pillowball can be a pain in a street car.

These can get 1.5 camber. Which is ideal for the street. Add some camber bolts for track day for $50, to get 2.5deg.