Quote:
Originally Posted by Ubersuber
I realize I was thread jacking a tiny bit but I have a point.
Unless you really want or need to lower your BRZ/FRS then swapping in a set of B6 Bilsteins is something you should try before you decide to go any further. I'll go so far as to say that the car should come with this specification of damper from the factory and I suspect the 2015 will, rumoured to now be equipped with Sachs dampers another top name in the industry.
The fact that the B6 also works with stiffer, shorter springs means you lose nothing by fitting them before changing the springs, except for the labour of dismantling and reassembling each factory strut or coilover. If you know you want a lower car or stiffer springs then by all means buy the coilover kit you want and save that small labour charge.
For high speed driving on regular roads the stock springs seem pretty much perfect. The valving of a shock is pretty much constant over the stroke of the unit. The variation in shock rate (the clever bit) over sharp bumps is more a factor of the rate of change in stroke, i.e. the speed of the suspension rise and fall, and that control is independent of the start position of the shock. The stock shocks work fine over the large amplitude deflections and in steady state cornering. Bilsteins earn their keep over sharp bumps and during quick transitions which the stock dampers do not handle well at all.
I'm not a big fan of the roll oversteer you can provoke in rapid and sharp transitions but I think fitting the shorter bump stops to the rear dampers and using the stock length springs will reduce that unfortunate tendency. No doubt the engineers wanted to allow for low powered drifting by fitting long and fairly stiff rear bump stops, for fast driving that characteristic is a nuisance especially in the wet and pretty much hopeless on snow or ice. It'll be interesting to see whether my cutting the rear bump stops and fitting Bilsteins will improve the snow and ice handling by keeping a firmer hold on the road and changing the point in roll where the bump stops increase the spring rate quite rapidly.
I note that TRD lowering springs come with a shorter bump stop, as you might expect. They say they are progressive rate springs which also reduces the desirability of long bump stops. I'm interested to find out if these are available as separate parts and if so intend to try them on my stock rear spring units, provided they are not too short. They should be 1/2 to 1 inch shorter than stock which is about the additional travel of the rear damper I'm looking for to allow more body roll before the bump stop engages. Anyone adding a lot of bhp to their BRZ should consider reducing rear roll stiffness (relative to the front, i.e. increase front roll bar size) to ensure the power can be put down on exit.
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Again, I'm sure that's a perfectly fine setup for many applications but I think we probably have two pretty different goals for the car. I run 245 ZIIs and am focused on autox more than anything. I just don't think the stock springs would cut it for what I need, even if they may be perfectly suited for spirited road driving. I'm glad that they work for what you're doing though and you're right that people need to look at what they need honestly before purchasing something.