Fortune Auto Dreadnaught Pro Gen5 - anyone tried it on the track with feedbacks?

[DarkSunrise]

Originally Posted by finch1750

Im with you. I have learned a ton on this forum. While I can see it rubbing some people the wrong way (and even me sometimes) I think CSG understands that. They may lose customers, I just hope it isnt too many. I kbnow I appreciate all the info they provide along with RCE even if half of it is way over my head. Lol

Agree. CSG may come across harsh sometimes, but I appreciate that they're no-nonsense when it comes to track/performance parts. For the most part, they're just looking for evidence, much in the way that a scientist or engineer might. I can't say they're completely completely unbiased, but who is really.

[CSG David]

Originally Posted by fooddude

Reading two vendors argue/debate is like watching parents fight lol

FA500/510 vs the new Tein Mono Sport?

I thought you purchased FA500 already?

[glamcem]

Originally Posted by RehabJeff86

Thank you CSG Mike, DSG Jason, and glamcem for all valuable advise and discussion. Finding a right set of suspension is a painstaking process and I feel like lots of guess work in place and I can only base on the company's reputation, wish I have the luxury to drive all different set up to make a decision, but dialing in process is also extremely crucial - i can have a set of 10k suspension but not able to dial in right and it will drive like poop...

I agreed with Jason@DSG, I don't want to not-stop changing setting between track to track or track to street or street to track ... hahah say that fast 10x ..... hopefully i can dial in to a magic setting and just leave it there.

Im not considering competition/racing, this is mainly for enjoying frequent HPDE/Tracking experience say like 10-15x per year.... but once again thanks for all the valuable inputs!!

I have to say though, when it comes to suspension I am in no position to give an advice to anyone since I am fairly new and learning too so please listen to other people on here as they can better assist you, I am just sharing what I found after careful research,

btw, have you ever considered FA 500? Since it sounds like you and I share the same goals and see same amount of track time ..When I was speaking over the phone with a customer support from Fortune Auto, I mentioned that I am really interested in 510 but he mentioned that 500 series or Dreadnaught might better suit to my needs since Dreadnaught was out of my league (spent too much on other mods) and I wanted to keep it below $2k I picked 500s, maybe you might wanna give them a call and discuss your goals with them .. After my phone conversation I figured 500 series with 9k/9k Swift upgrade (as well as radial bearing and extension upgrades) might work for me, we'll see

[RehabJeff86]

Originally Posted by glamcem

I have to say though, when it comes to suspension I am in no position to give an advice to anyone since I am fairly new and learning too so please listen to other people on here as they can better assist you, I am just sharing what I found after careful research,

btw, have you ever considered FA 500? Since it sounds like you and I share the same goals and see same amount of track time ..When I was speaking over the phone with a customer support from Fortune Auto, I mentioned that I am really interested in 510 but he mentioned that 500 series or Dreadnaught might better suit to my needs since Dreadnaught was out of my league (spent too much on other mods) and I wanted to keep it below $2k I picked 500s, maybe you might wanna give them a call and discuss your goals with them .. After my phone conversation I figured 500 series with 9k/9k Swift upgrade (as well as radial bearing and extension upgrades) might work for me, we'll see

Ya I hv emailed Chris at FA regarding education about their valving process compare with JRZ and Ohlins, so far he inly replied back with recommended spring rates for me, i think if i was going for FA Dreadnaught 2 way is more suitable for my need.

Pls pls share with us your experience with FA500 after your track event!! TIA


Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkfQ

[Jason@DSG]

Originally Posted by ddeflyer

As a very technically oriented person looking to upgrade the suspension on my car, I really do like seeing quantified numbers on these components. Although very harsh, this back and forth is enlightening regarding some of the more advanced information worth knowing regarding packages. Would it be possible to have such information posted (as in actual data not synthetic graphs of theoretical values (the step size on your first graph makes me wary of it and the CSG guys have pointed out some other questionable bits too))?

Agreed! @RehabJeff86 ---> Fortune Auto will be building me an FRS/BRZ Dreadnought 2-way Coilover (the one you're asking about) with a 12K Swift Spring and getting me a full dyno graph. I'm really to happy to see their continued support and getting the info people are asking for.

In no way am I claiming this will be better (or worse) than any other brands out there but I will have an actual graph for this platform with the setup the OP is asking for. It'll take a couple days to build and get testing done, I'll post it up as soon as I have it.

Also, for real word "data" a set of Fortune Auto Dreadnought 2-ways were what won the 1-Lap of America (in its class) for 2013 in a BRZ/FRS (That's 10 tracks in 10 days with 4000 miles of driving between tracks). I'm certain it was a lot of supporting mods and the most important driver mod, but Fortune Auto has had major success in racing. Recently an Evo9 running the FA Dreadnought 2-way and took 4 seconds off his lap time from his previous year when he was running a different 2-way setup with no other mod changes, just changing to the FA 2-way. An EvoX with an FA 500 setup with Swift's broke the record for the Enthusiast Class at Global Time Attack. There's the infamous Fortune Auto FWD Civic which ran the Global Time Attack Unlimited 510 series broke numerous records. While I know Global Time Attack doesn't test suspension to it's max potential, it's a decent gauge and the OP is going to be using it more for a Time Attack application anyway.

All in all, why I wanted to shed some light on FA is because this was what the OP was asking in his original question. I'll gladly go over any other coilovers with him as I talk to him regularly but they're a great company that has excellent product support/testing while providing a hand-built customizable product at a reasonable price.

[glamcem]

Originally Posted by Jason@DSG

Also, for real word "data" a set of Fortune Auto Dreadnought 2-ways were what won the 1-Lap of America (in its class) for 2013 in a BRZ/FRS (That's 10 tracks in 10 days with 4000 miles of driving between tracks). I'm certain it was a lot of supporting mods and the most important driver mod, but Fortune Auto has had major success in racing. Recently an Evo9 running the FA Dreadnought 2-way and took 4 seconds off his lap time from his previous year when he was running a different 2-way setup with no other mod changes, just changing to the FA 2-way. An EvoX with an FA 500 setup with Swift's broke the record for the Enthusiast Class at Global Time Attack. There's the infamous Fortune Auto FWD Civic which ran the Global Time Attack Unlimited 510 series broke numerous records. While I know Global Time Attack doesn't test suspension to it's max potential, it's a decent gauge and the OP is going to be using it more for a Time Attack application anyway.

Exactly, although I am one of those who want to see scientific evidence that supports the claims on certain topics, I should say one of the common misconceptions is "quantifiable data always translate to better real world performance" (turbo and dyno graphs might be a good example of this) where many people can see huge gains and tq under the curve and can easily say it performs better than other alternatives real world experience is completely different .. opposite is also possible, Ram air intakes for domestic V8s for instance, can we quantify its effects on the dyno? nope, does it give performance benefits? heck yeah, there are people who can cut down their 1/4 mile times by .10s only with the addition of the ram air intakes...there are so many other factors that determine the real world performance and many of the time those are not quantifiable, confidence level, responsiveness ..etc..

However, being a race winner in multiple platforms should be a good determining factor of the quality of the product since it's proven by results rather than graphs/dyno results, IMHO

[glamcem]

Originally Posted by RehabJeff86

Ya I hv emailed Chris at FA regarding education about their valving process compare with JRZ and Ohlins, so far he inly replied back with recommended spring rates for me, i think if i was going for FA Dreadnaught 2 way is more suitable for my need.

Pls pls share with us your experience with FA500 after your track event!! TIA


Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkfQ

I sure will I was too busy adding other parts so I haven't finished installing the coilovers yet but I am hoping to finish the install today..I will also provide new track videos in my build thread as I previously did

[simpleisbest]

Originally Posted by Jason@DSG

Agreed! @RehabJeff86 ---> Fortune Auto will be building me an FRS/BRZ Dreadnought 2-way Coilover (the one you're asking about) with a 12K Swift Spring and getting me a full dyno graph. I'm really to happy to see their continued support and getting the info people are asking for.

It'll take a couple days to build and get testing done, I'll post it up as soon as I have it.

This is a step in the positive and the type of actions that most racers and competitive enthusiast want to see.

While Jeremy is a good driver, the 2013 One Lap results are not a good example, as the other cars in class (3 cars total) had obvious mechanical issues (just look at the results!).
Can't comment on the level of competition for the various GTA classes, though.

What is kind of telling is the 2013 One Lap wet skid pad results:
https://www.onelapofamerica.com/even...=63&eventId=32

The FA equipped FT86 placed last in its class (total placement 58th out of 62 participants) with 0.620g vs the class winning set up 0.711g.

Aside from suspension set up, not quite sure how much tire selection influenced the results.

[FT-86 SpeedFactory]

Originally Posted by simpleisbest

What is kind of telling is the 2013 One Lap wet skid pad results:
https://www.onelapofamerica.com/even...=63&eventId=32

The FA equipped FT86 placed last in its class with 0.620g vs the class winning set up 0.711g.

What it is telling of is the TIRE there and honestly my lack of never ever doing a skid pad before in my life. It's actually not an easy thing to do by any means. I even sucked it up in the dry skid pad. Anyone who has ever been on an RS3 knows that if it rains you should just leave the car in the garage.

As far as One Lap goes some of the field had mechanical issues for an event or two, but that's part of the race (reliability). They also got killed at some of the events by an NA FRS with 178WHP. Both cars in our class should never ever had a single issue with beating us at every event if piloted by equal drivers. Everyone has their skill set on One Lap and that is what makes it such a fun and unique event. ( BMW 1M and Boosted Miata vs. NA FRS )

I think we have the only FRS / BRZ on the 2-Way Fortunes and for that fact I believe the only vendor actually using them on this actual platform. We still use them and still compete at events on them. We may not always be fastest but we like going to new tracks, meeting new people, and learning about the car every time we go out.

As far as the actual suspension goes. I love it. Rides great on the street (rarely driven that way), and does a superb job on track. I'm no Lewis Hamilton so for me they work and they work well.

-Jeremy

[fooddude]

@glamcem: Beauties!

I wonder why FA chose that super ugly color? It's not that it's ugly really; more like, it's too darn close to Tein, that it makes it look cheap, copy-cat'ish and knockoff'y/generic. Especially since Tein's marketing and signature color is that super famous Tein green. It's kinda like starting a brake company in the USA and painting their calipers and pads the exact same baby blue color/shade as PMu.

I know it's just a color, and perhaps branding and marketing too...and I am def not trying to knock on FA products (especially since their 500/510 is actually on my very small list of narrowed down top decisions for my future coilover set)... I just wanted to help them in a marketing/branding viewpoint:

Please change your brand's signature color, and OTS standard color, of green to something else not overly used... NOT green (tein), not blue (cusco, jrz), not yellow (bilstein, ohlins, koni), etc....

I know it's just a color, and many coilovers also have the same silver, black and reds ..but when it's a "unique" and odd/weird (but cool) color like green, electric blue or baby blue, it kinda kills it mentally and appearance wise. Kinda like biting.

I suggest FA makes this burnt orange color their standard/OTS signature color for 500s, 510s, Dreadnoughts, etc. Pros: no one is really using it and/or is famous for the color, and they already seem to have it

[D K]

Is it possible to get specific, 3rd party dyn sheets?

[puma]

Originally Posted by CSG David

There is a much larger backstory to that than what is publicly discussed.

more details?

[xwd]

Originally Posted by puma

more details?

I have sat with Lex at their shop and discussed it, there isn't really that much to it, lots of Internet rumors of course. The long history of Koni, JRZ, Moton, etc. is a little more interesting.

[CSG David]

Originally Posted by dwx

I have sat with Lex at their shop and discussed it, there isn't really that much to it, lots of Internet rumors of course. The long history of Koni, JRZ, Moton, etc. is a little more interesting.

Mostly interests that kind of got out of line and stupid politics that came from it.

How are your MCS? Lex wants us to test their stuff so we are in discussion to test their recommended setup and go from there. The setup so far seems interesting and we're not quite convinced yet. When we have a set to test, a better assessment can be made and proper valving can be developed.