Best coilovers for daily driving/durability
 

Next mod I'm looking at are coilovers.
Just wondering which would be best, preferably under $1,000 or a little over.
I daily drive my frs, I usually just go tracking once a month, but haven't in a while. Just looking for the best all around coilovers for that price range!
Thank you

You only have two real choices. Suspension techniques aka ST or tein flex z. I would go with the flex z as it has adjustable dampers and camber plates. But camber plates ride a little louder/firmer than the stock front top hats that the st's use.

I second that. You can also throw the Bilstein B14 system in the mix for slightly over the $1k mark if you don't mind using the OEM top hats.

Tein, RSR have good daily driver coilover ;D

ST's are hard to beat for the price on daily driven cars. but if you're going to really track the car once a month, i would get something stiffer with adjustable dampers.

IMO OEM.

CSG has some closeout Tein Street Flex that might fit the bill too :)

Did you know that OEM suspension are coilovers?

+1 on Bilstein. I put them on my car and love the way it feels; the ride is stiff but not harsh.

To be up front, I have Bilsteins on my 914 and had them on my old Boxster, so I may be a bit biased

I daily drive my FR-S all year. It's my only car and I drive it through beautiful summer weather (on 235/45 r17 dunlop ZII) and through ugly NJ winters full of ice snow and salt (on Pirelli sottozero 3). I would like to be able to keep almost stock ride height with maybe a moderate drop to give me plenty of suspension travel for the less than ideal road conditions but I would like to find something that would also be able to pair well with the dunlop ZII in summer on a decent road surface. I think the stock suspension is getting a bit overpowered by them. any advice??

What's the difference between the Street Flex being discontinued, and the Flex Z? More specifically, is the Street Flex a superior setup in terms of dampers valving, spring rate, etc. for road and track? Feel free to throw some links our way.

The Street Flex is 1k higher in spring rate all around, and is rebuildable. It's slightly more aggressive than the Flex Z.

It's not a product that I normallyr ecommend; at the normal selling price it was "just another coilover". At the closeout price, it's an exceptional deal.

When they're gone, they're gone.

http://counterspacegarage.com/tein-s...x-brz-frs.html

Damn you @CSGMike, thanks for the clarification. The wife doesn't question my purchases because she knows I'm reasonable, but I'm still gonna bring some screenshots of your posts to the table. More so to justify my own guilt. I see ramen noodle lunch and dinner in my future. :bellyroll:

Tein

tein

BUY BC'S OR POWERED BY MAX, i will say you wont be happier with any other coil but these for that price range

Great price on those Street Flex, Mike. That price should make the choice a no-brainer for OP.

Any substantiation to that claim?

....lol BC coilovers...

2nd, 3rd and 4th on Street Flex. it feels aggressive but not too harsh on street.

Find a local meet near your house. Attend the meet. Ask some friendly locals what suspension they are "on" and ask for a ride( not a drive as most wont let you) but a ride.

Make sure they take a road with real world bumps. Exit ramps and on ramps tend to be smooth. Smooth surfaces are NOT a challenge, bumpy surfaces are.

Want to know which set up you will actually want to "live with" beyond the "happy to have these on my car after I spent a grand stage" is over ?
Ride on bumpy surfaces,.... as for most ( including California ) thats what you live with on the daily drive/commute and thats where you will formulate your real opinion of the shocks you want.

* Also ask owner if they are adjusted soft or firm etc.

Thats my .02 worth.

Myles Williams
RCE

Wonderful advise .. pitty that won't work in some smaller countries where such cars are still rarity and not much of a local communities around them. But then again there are lot of other things/vendors/shops/services too that are only there in bigger countries and i'm missing locally. Regarding particularly coilovers the best i can do when doing choice is to find people with clue (like RCE/CSG guys) that i may trust and read their reviews/advises :). No option of trying it out in other cars, and i highly doubt that trying 'similar brand/model' in other car models will tell well enough how it will do in these ..

To some extent though, going for a ride in a BMW 3 series (for example) with Bilstein PSS10 will give you a little bit of an idea of what your car would be like with Bilstein PSS10. Definitely not exactly the same, but yes a similar "feel" as Bilstein for example has a pretty consistent tuning philosophy. It's better than nothing!

Some of us can hop in a car and guess the brand of shock on a car just from a ride along. ;)

- Andrew

If you're looking for something close to stock...you might as well go with springs and save the extra bucks on something else. I don't see the point in spending around $1k on coilovers if you're only lowering it about an 1". I'm getting my RCE yellows installed tmr just to close the wheel gap a bit. Planning to stick a front lip and side skirts too so that'll lose another inch of road clearance as well.

That's what i thought when i first modded my car. I went with swift springs for a 1" drop and the stock shocks. after driving around for a while, i was dissatisfied with the rear end 'wallow' and bounce when i hit dips in a curve. i swapped them out to tein flex Zs and they made a huge difference. the car now feels way more planted and stable yet the ride is softer (when i choose it to be). small bumps are absorbed much better which translates to less bounce and road noise.

the adjustable ride quality is also a plus. i have different settings for LA street, freeway and canyon driving - something i couldn't do on just lowering springs.

if you just want it lowered for looks, springs are fine. but if you also want to retain ride quality and performance, then i'd go with coilovers. if i knew what i know now, i'd have gone with coilovers from the start and skipped the lowering springs.

I have RCE T2, even in the track settings, I feel it rides very close to stock. When I am sad and have long periods of time between track days, I will back them off 2-3 clicks and the ride is superb.

I found this surprisingly funny