[Corey]

Originally Posted by Random_Art

Okay, so you don't like my choice in coilovers, what would you recommend? keep in mind this is a car that most likely no one on this forum has driven yet, so has no idea how it handles in real life let alone modified. Different brands seem to work best for different vehicles, right now we don't know which brands work the best for this particular car. There may end up being some no name brand appear out of left field and produce a part that blows the "better" brands out of the water. Some of the brand stuff that's on that list is there with this concept in mind, and is bound to change as the aftermarket kicks into gear for the FR-S. Some of the brands are also there because I've used them in the past and had good experiences with them.

Half the fun of modifying cars and being part of a community like this is seeing what other people come up with. I doubt everyone here has the same goals for the car, and that's a good thing. Some people are bound to end up using parts that other people wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, either through brand loyalty or they had a bad experience with the offending brand.

I think what it really boils down to is a whole lot of trial and error and experimentation to explore possibilities to achieve the desired results. Most of this experimentation would be spread out over a lot of different people, rather than just one. For me, I was looking at the Teins because (in theory) they have decent adjustability for a reasonable price. Do I have prior experience with Tein's? No. The only set of Coilover's I've ever had in the past was a set from Ground Control that I had on my Celica. But I'm not afraid to experiment with something I've never used before.

I think trial and error is a pretty poor way to achieve desired results. There are objective ways to measure the performance of coilovers, or more specifically of springs and dampers. Unfortunately virtually every Japanese brand, including Tein, doesn't perform very well when examined objectively. If for you as a customer the most important things are, as you stated, adjustability and price then I guess Tein may not be a bad choice but are those things really more important to you than a comfortable ride that will still outperform the Teins in a track setting? Is lowering the car more important than retaining ideal suspension geometries? Are a lot of knobs to turn more important than having ideal valving without adjustability?

I'm not saying this to pick on you but the truth is you can't have everything and coilovers like the Tein SS give you a lot of bells and whistles at the cost of a basic quality product. They are severely over damped, they often have inconsistent spring rates, and they give you a bunch of adjustment knobs that are nowhere near linear and sometimes do nothing at all. Rather than taking a dart board approach and trying a lot of inferior products that people (who typically have no real knowledge of how to objectively measure the product) recommend, it would perhaps be a better idea to determine what you will use the car for and thus what you are looking for by making a specific modication. Only then can you pick a product that will meet your needs beyond the one to buy shiny parts. Hint: look for things like consistency between dampers and digressive damping instead of damping and ride height adjustability.

This link should point you in the right direction: http://farnorthracing.com/autocross_secrets6.html