Fortune auto 500 coilovers vs. RCE Yellow springs + KONI Yellow shocks
 

I have $1200 to spend on suspension but I can't decide what to get. I'm currently limited to spending $1200 max on suspension and narrowed it down to fortune autos or RCE yellow springs + KONI yellow shocks+ other suspension components (sway bars, strut bar). Which has better quality dampers, better quality overall, and more reliable? I go to all my local autocross events and track events so I wanna be more competitive. I don't care about ride quality at all. Feel free to add any other suggestions that you've had experience with that's within my budget. Thanks in advance for your feedback!!

Make it more competitive, go to all events you can, not caring about DD comfort ..

Imho best would be to spend that money on HPDE instructors / even more seat time.
My 2nd choice would be - to save more, to get something of higher end 1st time, not replace sometime later on, as "you get what you pay for". Koni-s and RCE yellows are fine choice, better then stock and all that .. but from your description it sounded like you might wish notch or two above that. And however weird it may not seem .. with higher end you get comfortable dampening (thinking of like Tein RS-R, RCE 3-way clubsports and alikes, something from JRZ), that you were willing to give up, even on much stiffer springs :)

I've gotten to know the limits of the car pretty well by now. And I've never had coilovers before so I thought I'd get an entry level set to learn how to properly set everything up before I get a really nice set like ohlins or RS*Rs. I also plan on getting brake pads and other things which is why my budget is a little low.

I vote coilovers because aside from the adjustability features, it allows you to run a wider wheel/tire in the future if you want to do that.

As has been noted above.

Spend the money on track time and instruction. That will help improve the nut behind the wheel and that's invaluable.

After that, since you are looking for a performance setup, I would look at the Konis + RCE setup as that is a significantly higher quality than the FA units. The FA units are great for the stance crowd or if you need a particular ride height to eliminate your wheel gap for the car show on Sunday. You may also want to look at the Bilstein P14s We specced these units out for the Wheel to Wheel Spec86 Cup Road Race Series due to their high quality combined with great quality control.

Hope this helps.

-mike

If you're set on buying parts and not instruction/track time, I'd always go Koni yellow and RCE yellow over cheap coilovers. That's why I have them on my car. :) The Koni/RCE setup will give you a comfy fine like stock and the ability to stiffen up the rebound quite a bit for more aggressive handling. I've tracked my car and autox my car and I love the Koni/RCE setup. Or save up for some 2 way adjustable Ohlins coilovers with lower spring rates, but that may take a while to save up for as you pay for quality.

Feel free to check out my build thread to see what I have on my car if you'd like.

I am spending money on track days though. I just want a nicer suspension setup with adjustable dampening. I was gonna get the RCE springs and the KONIs a couple days ago but then I read this article about KONIs blowing up. Can anyone elaborate if this is a common issue or just user error

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38834

FT86speedfactory uses the fortune autos on their racecar and they seem to love them. I'll probably just take the risk and get the RCE AND KONIs

There is no risk, the probability of a strut blowing on you is highly unlikely. The RCE+Koni's are a quality setup for someone not looking to spend more than $3500.

Id like to second that. Ft86speedfactory uses fa over the rce koni setup for track i thought fa 500 was a good coilover setup? Im in the market as well. Bc or fa not trying to thread jack

From what I've researched, BC Racing coilovers are made by Megan racing, which is a horrible brand. They're only good for slamming cars. It seems like the fortune autos and the ST Coilovers are the only good quality low low budget coilovers

A few MISINFORMATION floating around in this thread....


1- Konis don't "blow up" randomly. There have probably sold 100s of 1000s of Konis in the past 20+ years with very little failure rate. Additionally Konis carry a lifetime warranty. If you buy them from and have them installed by a reputable shop (like ours) they will do a swap out on the spot in the event of a failure and then when the insert is replaced by Koni they take it back into inventory. Additionally in the past 14 years that we've been installing Konis in subies for road racing and street use, we've seen a few (like less than 10) fail in probably literally 1000+ sets installed using a mixture of eibach prokits, RCE, h and r springs.

2- FA parts are made in the same factory as the BC and Meagens. While FAs site says "made in the usa" they are merely "Assembled (strut body and springs and mounting hardware)" here in the USA.

There is no shortcut for parts in the suspension business. You get what you pay for. This goes for the setup and configuration time as well. Don't expect to pay less than $500 to have your coilovers setup and aligned and expect the setup to be very good...

-mike

It's too bad the front struts for the twins come with a welded spring perch, otherwise they could easily be converted into adjustable coilovers like many other applications.

So megan street coilovers instead of bc or fa? I dont plan on tracking or slamming pm me so i dnt thread jack lol

If you're not slamming it or tracking it, you're better off with just springs, or springs/shocks.

Cheap coilovers are going to ride worse and perform worse than a good shock/spring combo.