ST or B14's?

[Racecomp Engineering]

Originally Posted by Firestorm_86

Can I read that, for my intentions, as:
soft = good for suckyass poorly maintained Atlanta in-town roads?
soft = bad for track days and overall pure performance?

I should add, if so, would that make it preferable to the Bilstein's then? Or still Bilsteins over the ST?

Well...sort of. A better damper is good at all of the above (with proper spring rates and travel that is realistic). For this comparison I think the in-town comfort would be very close, and then a slight edge to Bilsteins for pure performance. Just a bit.

- Andy

[Racecomp Engineering]

Originally Posted by Food

IMO...not really a tough call or difficult decision.

I would pick B14 easily for the better internals, stainless steel bodies for DD durability, better quality in general, easily re-valvable at Bilstein for cheap.

If later on you want to swap out the prog spring, it's only a couple hundred bux for a set of nice linear Swift/Hyperco springs. And you can also re-valve if you want to go well beyond the stiffness of the stock B14 damping with the new springs. That would be a nice B14 set.

Hyperco springs are around $50-80ea and Bilstein revalve is less than $100 per shock...just to give you an idea of how cheap it would be for future customization and rebuilds

The SS bodies is a big deal, especially where I live. STs would not hold up for as long.

Ease of rebuilds/customization is also a nice plus.

- Andy

[Firestorm_86]

Originally Posted by Racecomp Engineering

The SS bodies is a big deal, especially where I live. STs would not hold up for as long.

Ease of rebuilds/customization is also a nice plus.

- Andy

That's cool. Thanks!

I had figured re-valving would be a big cost. I don't think it's something I would need to do. But I guess it is worth considering the long term goal. Why not just drop the money now on a set, rather than tearing about the B14's and rebuilding/upgrading... You guys aren't making this any easier to save money. Ha.

SS is nice for the piece of mind down here. We don't salt nearly as much as the north. But there's a good 2-3 weeks of salt and leftover salt residue.

[Food]

@Racecomp Engineering: You're prolly the only ones that can, knows how to make and is interested in making...the upper spring perch washer thingies though, so we can convert the B14/B16 to use the straight(non tapered) standard linear springs of our choice

Maybe this would be a great little product for you to offer/make? "B14/B16 linear conversion upper perch kit"

[Racecomp Engineering]

Originally Posted by Food

@Racecomp Engineering: You're prolly the only ones that can, knows how to make and is interested in making...the upper spring perch washer thingies though, so we can convert the B14/B16 to use the straight(non tapered) standard linear springs of our choice

Maybe this would be a great little product for you to offer/make? "B14/B16 linear conversion upper perch kit"

I've thought about it and priced it out. It ain't all that cheap when you add in spring separators, helpers, etc., but would be pretty cool. I'll see what the boss man thinks but I'm not sure the demand is there. We'll keep it in mind though.

- Andy

[Food]

The next question would be.... How much spring rate can the B14 OTS/standard valving handle well without custom re-valving. Hmmmm..

I wonder if the OTS/standard B14 valving can handle 6k or maybe even 7k.

[BRZPDX]

I'm stuck in this dilemma too.. raceseng camber plate + b14 or STs. so if I were to ride -1.6 in height, will that compromise comfort/performance significantly?

[cdrazic93]

Don't mean to thread jack but.. @Racecomp Engineering have you guys read any reviews or had experience with the ST XTA's?

[rs999]

RCE yellows on your stock shocks?

There are reviews on here for just the yellows in the BRZ Lite kits and apparently they do very well on the street and autox.

[Racecomp Engineering]

Originally Posted by cdrazic93

Don't mean to thread jack but.. @Racecomp Engineering have you guys read any reviews or had experience with the ST XTA's?

I have not. I know they are 1 way damping adjustable with a pillowball mount up front and that's it.

- Andy

[cdrazic93]

Im very curious to see what those will shock dyno at, if anything im thinking it would be like a zinc coated version of the KW V2, only sold under ST suspension.

Edit; emailed ST and asked for shock dyno's (I didn't know whether they would have given them to me or not) and they said that information was proprietary :/

[Firestorm_86]

Originally Posted by Racecomp Engineering

I have not. I know they are 1 way damping adjustable with a pillowball mount up front and that's it.

- Andy

Andy,

Do the RCE coilovers use OEM tophats? I know it's not ideal for performance, but for my uses it'll be DD with mountain runs in the weekends.

[Racecomp Engineering]

Originally Posted by Firestorm_86

Andy,

Do the RCE coilovers use OEM tophats? I know it's not ideal for performance, but for my uses it'll be DD with mountain runs in the weekends.

Camber plates are an option with RCE coilovers. They work well with OEM topmounts and you can get a good amount of camber because the lower mounts are slotted. That's usually the way to go for a mostly DD car since it's slightly better in terms of NVH than with camber plates.

- Andy