Review: Pro Street Coilovers from Speed By Design

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by spdbydesignchris

These would be suited more for drag racing than track racing, if you really wanted to expand their use.


They are quite soft and designed to absorb road imperfections, with a smooth compliant ride.


For max cornering ability on a track, I wouldn't recommend these.

I love when vendors are honest about their products.

SBD does have a TON of drag racing experience...

[spdbydesignchris]

Originally Posted by CSG Mike

I love when vendors are honest about their products.

SBD does have a TON of drag racing experience...

I appreciate the compliment. There's no point in selling a customer a mis-matched product for their needs.


I'll be completely open here and tell you that when we first started working on this project, I wanted a "Cadillac" quality ride.


I wanted soft and plush, something I would want to daily drive and not come home feeling back pain from every bump in the road.


From there, we worked on spring rates and valving to meet that goal.


This car rides like a luxury car now, and you'd be amazed at the before and after....coming from stock suspension.


However, when going soft, you compromise cornering to an extent, while gaining excellent straight line traction.


These would serve great for weekend drag strip visits, where the car will squat and go.


A stiffer suspension that is more track focused would simply spin the tires from the initial shock of the launch, resulting in poor 60 ft times.


I hope this explains the design goals for this suspension and more closely targets the ideal customer for this product.

[BRZPDX]

great review, I must of missed it some where, but how much can you adjust the ride height in these?

So this is more street oriented, but will this still be an improvement from the stock set up regarding auto-x/track? Or Sportlines stock shocks? I think I want best of both worlds, and have trouble finding coils that can be comfortable yet perform well in track/auto-x situations. I'm here to have fun, and not here to break the world record times at various tracks.

[Carlitoz3]

Very good review!
Honestly if I had won it wouldn't have been this detailed with pictures

I just have a few questions about aftermarket coils:
- Will I have a clicking sound when making turns in the future?
- Some people end up with their steering wheel not lined up when installing coils. Why is that?
- Not the best with cars, 1-10, how difficult is it to put on coil? 10 being hard.

[ericmpena]

Originally Posted by Carlitoz3

Very good review!
Honestly if I had won it wouldn't have been this detailed with pictures

I just have a few questions about aftermarket coils:
- Will I have a clicking sound when making turns in the future?
- Some people end up with their steering wheel not lined up when installing coils. Why is that?
- Not the best with cars, 1-10, how difficult is it to put on coil? 10 being hard.

- I don't have a clicking sound when making turns.
- Maybe they needed an alignment? lol
- Mechanic said they're easier to install than springs.

[sshole]

Originally Posted by Carlitoz3

Very good review!
Honestly if I had won it wouldn't have been this detailed with pictures

I just have a few questions about aftermarket coils:
- Will I have a clicking sound when making turns in the future?
Only if something is installed incorrectly or if something is broken.

- Some people end up with their steering wheel not lined up when installing coils. Why is that?
Some people are dumb and don't get an alignment after messing around with their suspension. It's irresponsible to think you can slap on coilovers and have your alignment be spot on. Take it to your local alignment shop and have them bring it in to either OEM spec or whatever you want it to be at and request that they center the steering wheel.

- Not the best with cars, 1-10, how difficult is it to put on coil? 10 being hard.
Much easier than springs because you don't have to disassemble your OEM stuff. Just remove the OEM stuff and install the new stuff. It's like 7 fasteners per front corner and 3 fasteners per rear corner. If you can turn a wrench, you can install coilovers.

Setting them up, however, will take some time, as @ericmpena has pointed out.

Hope I can shed some light on your questions.

[spdbydesignchris]

You could literally sit the tire on the fender liners, as you can drop them well over 2".....however, these are designed to be soft and squat, so you will have more travel with these over a track focused coilover.


My recommendation is allow at minimum 3/4" clearance all the way around, to allow these to compress over bumps, etc.

[protpibe]

So general consensus is that these do in fact ride better than lowering springs?

I have 1" Hotchkis springs and my gf still hates the way it rides

[spdbydesignchris]

FAR better than any lowering spring!

[ericmpena]

Originally Posted by protpibe

So general consensus is that these do in fact ride better than lowering springs?

I have 1" Hotchkis springs and my gf still hates the way it rides

I was in the same boat as you. You should've seen my gf trying to put on makeup while I was driving with those Sportlines. lol.

Now the ride is much, much, much smoother. Like I've said, if you want to lower your car without sacrificing the ride quality, this is the way to go!

[protpibe]

Okay I'm interested.

[SkAsphalt]

Originally Posted by protpibe

Okay I'm interested.

haha me too! Dang girlfriends, making us spend our money
@spdbydesignchris could you PM me with pricing for these? Do they come with top hats or do we need to purchase others?

[spdbydesignchris]

Come will pillow ball mounts.


They are $1199/set and I have 2-3 sets left instock.


Chris

[Luis_GT]

Seriously considering this kit... I want something that gives a nice plushy ride... but deep down I want to track the car, but probably won't track it more than 4 times a year...