Tein Flex A

[asdf]

Curious to hear your thoughts on the set up/ride feel for daily/street driving!

[wootwoot]

Keep us updated!

[DeaconRoc]

Picking her up in about an hour so will post some initial thoughts later.

[DeaconRoc]

I've driven about 350 miles now with the Flex A's on. From when I picked my car up stock I had stock suspension for about 3 months, ast/Mann engineering 25mm lowering springs on stock shocks for about 20 months, meister r gt1's for about 2 months and Meister r Zetea s's for about 3 weeks. I can't remember exactly how stock rode if I'm honest but I'd be amazed if it was better than the flex a's. I have them set 8 from full stiff front and rear at the moment - the tein recommended settings. They are firm but ride much better than any of the other set ups I've tried. They really seem to take the edge of bumps and road imperfections very, very well. I'm going to try softening them 2 more clicks each front and rear as the roads are very bad where I live and I think this will make a perfect daily set up. I'm sprinting my car next in July so will try them just a click or 2 from full stiff for that.

These are just some initial impressions - I'll post up more thoughts when I've driven them more.

Overall, I'm very impressed.

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by DeaconRoc

I've driven about 350 miles now with the Flex A's on. From when I picked my car up stock I had stock suspension for about 3 months, ast/Mann engineering 25mm lowering springs on stock shocks for about 20 months, meister r gt1's for about 2 months and Meister r Zetea s's for about 3 weeks. I can't remember exactly how stock rode if I'm honest but I'd be amazed if it was better than the flex a's. I have them set 8 from full stiff front and rear at the moment - the tein recommended settings. They are firm but ride much better than any of the other set ups I've tried. They really seem to take the edge of bumps and road imperfections very, very well. I'm going to try softening them 2 more clicks each front and rear as the roads are very bad where I live and I think this will make a perfect daily set up. I'm sprinting my car next in July so will try them just a click or 2 from full stiff for that.

These are just some initial impressions - I'll post up more thoughts when I've driven them more.

Overall, I'm very impressed.

That is the sign of a well matched spring and damper combo to the platform.

This is Tein's third generation of damper for this car already; I don't believe any other manufacturer has dedicated that much R&D.

[DeaconRoc]

Grabbed a quick couple of pictures tonight to show how it's sitting now a bit clearer:-





Turns out when they'd been fitted the dealer had set only one damper to 8 from full stiff - the rest were full stiff!

Anyway, I set them all to 10 clicks from full stiff and gave it a try. If anything I would say they are too soft at 10 clicks from full stiff - very comfy but a bit wallowy. Even with the wallowing though they handle very well. I tried a particularly bumpy back road I have near me and the speed I could carry was amazing - they soaked the bumps up amazingly well.

I've set them to 8 from full stiff all round now to try but I'm thinking probably 6 from full stiff is likely to be the daily usage sweet spot.

The only concern I have, which I've seen echoed in the flex Z thread, is that they may be too soft for track use even at full stiff.

[DeaconRoc]

Just a quick update on the flex a's. I met up with two friends Will and Keithos last night. Keith had a tuned GT86 and will has a stock BRZ. Keith gave me a ride in his car with hsd coilovers on dropped about 30mm which are very, very firm and let you feel every imperfection on the road but pretty much eliminate body roll so give quite a nice track biased ride. Will's car is still on standard suspension and his thoughts agreed with what I'd thought may be the case; the flex a's actually ride better than oem and that's with it dropped 50mm.

I really can't fault the flex a's at all - riding better than oem, dropped 50mm and set half way from full stiff. I'm on track next month so I'll add some thoughts on how they cope there and whether the excellent street ride is at the cost of on track performance or not.

[unlimited86]

Message Tein about the coilovers and said that they were pushed back to October or early November on the release date. x_x

[DeaconRoc]

Originally Posted by unlimited86

Message Tein about the coilovers and said that they were pushed back to October or early November on the release date. x_x

I'll wait to give a final judgement until I've run them on track but at the moment my thoughts are they are definitely worth the wait!

[DeaconRoc]

Quick update on the flex a's. One word will do. Awesome.

I've driven them on a variety of road surfaces, speeds and conditions now and I honestly cannot fault them at all. They ride better than stock and soak bumps and road imperfections up superbly.

I've also had chance to try them on track now and again they were faultless. I stiffened them to 2 clicks from fully stiff rather than the 9 clicks from fully stiff I have been running for normal road use. In combination with the tyres and arb's I've had fitted since the last time I went I knocked 2.5 seconds off my previous best time.

While I was at the track I needed fuel and a friend with a stock BRZ came with me (dampers still set 2 from fully stiff) - he said he was amazed by how well they rode.

Everyone I spoke to at the track commented on how flat my car was cornering and the driving experience was night and day. The car really is a very well sorted car on track now.

I did raise the suspension 10 mm and so the alignment needs to be reset so I'm quite sure there is a chunk more time to find when that's been done.

Quick video of my warm up lap (only video I have sadly as I left the camera running while the car was parked and the battery died.

And a picture from on track:-

[DeaconRoc]

Another update now I've run these for a good few months and a few sprints.

I improved on the 2.5 seconds and got to joint top of the class in the sprint I do - with the new suspension set up I found 3.3 seconds in total. In terms of how much is tyres, etc I have no idea - I set my best time the last time I sprinted when I would say my tyres were a little past their best.

Few more thoughts on the Flex A's generally then. Firstly for road use I really don't think they can be faulted - several owners I've taken out have said how good the ride quality is - including those on stock suspension who've said it rides better than stock (and this is with a 50mm drop remember!)

I'd be very interested to try them back to back against a set of the flex z's and see how much difference the hydraulic bump stop makes.

On track I think they're very good - my only concern would be that for hardcore track use they could do with being a little stiffer. However, if hardcore track use is the plan I don't think these would be what would be being considering anyway - I'd love to try the SRC's now though!

I think you can tell that tein are on their third generation of development for this platform and have got to grips with, and are able to work around, some of its deficiencies. Most other suspension for the 86/brz/frs is just a first generation product.

For the cost I really do struggle to see why anyone would consider pretty much anything else at this price point!

[DeaconRoc]

Here are a few videos from the last sprint I did from a few different angles - hopefully give some idea of how the flex a's handle on track.

[nomad]

Thanks for the review and videos. Like the bumper cam video, car sounds awesome. I have placed an order on ft86speedfactory, can't wait to get them.

[Trettiosjuan]

Cross posting a bit http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...&postcount=301 even though I'm most interested in the A's, discussion is in the Z.

TL; DR: Would love to see factory recommendations from the installation manual for preload. Thanks.