[Racecomp Engineering]

We don't sell tein, bc, godspeed, or hks. I'll start with that.

Tein and HKS are of at least reasonable quality, ranging to pretty good stuff for the higher end Teins. I don't know nor do I care who makes Godspeed or HKS, but they're not the same thing. Bor Chuan does manufacture a lot of coilover brands but they're not all the same. Some of it is garbage.

It really doesn't matter if anyone put Godspeeds on an M4. It doesn't mean they're any better than the OEM BMW shocks. Even OEM Subaru shocks are better than the shocks in some aftermarket coilovers. Also doesn't really matter that they're well known in the Honda community. Lots of things are really well known in the BRZ community, and some of it is garbage.

The most important part of a coilover is what's inside. Camber plates, shiny colors, number of adjustment clicks advertised, even the spring rates...these are less important than the actual valving of the damper. And this is the part that's hardest to see or advertise.

Dampers are more complicated than just "stiff" and "soft". It's the hardest part to get right and it's why the really good stuff is more expensive. You can spend 10 grand on shocks without springs or camber plates if you like (though you probably shouldn't).

Many of the low end brands don't always use valving specific to the car. I've seen the same shock labeled for 3 completely different cars. This is for a brand that is well known and made by BC. It's...not ideal.

The adjustable damping feature doesn't matter too much if you're adjustment range is from crappy and soft to crappy and stiff.

So how do you know what's good and what's garbage? That's a good question. We can't all be shock nerds reading shock dyno plots for fun, but learning a little bit goes a long way. I've been doing this for 15 or so years and I'm still learning new things. Do some reading (with a skeptical eye, because not everything you read is true) and figure out your goals. Talk to the pros, maybe more than one. This community is fortunate to have a couple of good suspension tuners with plenty of experience with this platform. We are just one of them. Get your suspension parts from a suspension tuner that knows what they're doing.

I also think what opens a lot of people's eyes is ridealongs in GOOD cars so you have a point of reference. It's good that you're skeptical of the value and price point of these, but take that a little further and be skeptical of some of the gossipy so and so said X is good because Y community likes them and they're actually made by Z company. What matters most is suspension travel, valving, and aftersale support. The rest is details....still important but not the most important.

Get your suspension parts from a suspension tuner, or at least get suspension parts specifically designed for this car.

- Andrew