Quote:
Originally Posted by No Limit Motorsport
This part is my opinion, so take it for what it is.
As far as them not being motorsports level coilovers that would be open to interpretation, but you will find these brands of coilovers on lower level cars that win the racing series's throughout Asia. Are they AST/Ohins/Moton/JRZ/KW Clubsport? No, but they can perform really well if setup properly. They can be a cheap weapon for the guy who drives on the street 95% of the time and likes to do HPDE's, time trials, and time attack a few times a year. In my opinion the KW V3's are to soft for motorsports use (but make excellent street coilovers).
I used to hate on the Taiwan coilovers too, but they really have come a long way over the past 5 years.
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I think that is fair. A couple clarifications I would make -
referring to high quality dampers as "race" dampers is a bit of a misnomer. Just because the valving has a high degree of precision and control just means they work well - doesn't mean they are a "race" damper. KW v3s are a great example. And so are the soon to be released AST 4150 (disclaimer: I've tested these, and may appear biased) I have set track records on junk dampers before - it can be done, but probably isn't advised.
The Taiwanese companies you refer to may have come a long way in the last couple years but my concerns are as follows:
1. Common parts bin: several cars share the same damper, with a different screw on mounts. People call this "preload adustment", but a properly designed damper doesn't need this - period. Its marketing fluff to cover an economies of scale decision. The problem with this is that while it might FIT, it doesn't work optimally for every chassis. suspension stroke, valving, etc are dependant on the wheel rates, etc unique to each chassis.
2. marketing features - not real world adjustment: many of the dampers mentioned and I have driven have lots of adjustment knobs...that do basically nothing. I've seen this on track, as well as on the shock dyno.
3. quality control or consistancy - I have admittedly not tested dampers or their springs in about 3 years. But when I did test the aforementioned manufactures, you couldn't get multiple shocks to produce the same damping curve, and the springs they used did not actually reliably measure to the spring rate they were labeled for. When all 4 corners act differently, it is impossible to set a car up optimally.
So. I'm not suggesting everyone needs to go out and spend $2-4k on dampers. But I am suggesting that the cost of these "cheap" kits is not a good value for performance. If you aren't going to compete in your car, you don't need threaded bodies to corner balance your car. If I had $1k to spend on a set up, I'd buy a high quality spring (hyperco, Swift, KW, or maybe the ones being made specifically for this car, etc) and I would get a quality set of dampers like a bilstein when they are released. You won't have any of the fancy adjustment knobs (which I would argue don't actually change the shape of a damping curve like they should), and you wouldn't have ride height adjust-ability, but how often are you messing with that anyway?
You'd spend less money, and you would have a better performing car.
everybody's got 2 cents. Sorry for giving you more than that.