Lowering Springs vs. Coilovers for a 1 in. drop?

[Racecomp Engineering]

Originally Posted by grumpysnapper

There is no doubt a pile of rubbish out there that should be avoided like the plague, and I dont think anyone here would be arguing for lesser quality, or knob twidling for the sake of knob twidling by anyone except the knowledgable.

Not so much on here thankfully, but my goodness it happens all the time on facebook and youtube.

facebook is the woooorst.

- Andrew

[ZDan]

Originally Posted by grumpysnapper

OEM on our cars are always going to be a compromise, as they have to cater to those who love the act of driving, but also to those who couldn't care less.

Have to again point out that aftermarket dampers are always going to be designed/built to a slightly different set of compromises. For sure there's low-end garbage, but even at ~$3kish reputable brands, they're only going to invest so much time and effort into developing product specifically for the FT86, and it's going to be aimed at as broad a population of modders as possible (street-only, street/track, track-only). And again with the idea being to offer something acceptable to this broad range at the minimum cost.

[churchx]

Originally Posted by ZDan

..And again with the idea being to offer something acceptable to this broad range at the minimum cost.

Unless it's one-off BTO kit, like grumpysnapper's rally specced custom Ohlins one i can only drool over

[gen3v8]

Originally Posted by ZDan

That was a function of the camber plates... The unexpected additional front lowering due to those wasn't the problem, it was the combination of that *and* reduced front bump travel that forced me to seek solutions. Friend with machine shop access did them for me for free, I bought him a few packs of nice beerz...

For someone who just wants to drop the car a bit (<1") and won't go beyond camber bolts and/or offset upper mounts, I'd suggest RCE lowering springs before full coilovers. For a bit more lowering (just over 1"), Swift springs with Bilstiens. Actually I'd recommend the Bilsteins to anyone with a PP/Sachs car, lowered or not!

If I were doing it all over again, I would go coilovers. When I started out with this car it was going to be my daily, with LS3 FD being the track car. Pretty quickly it turned out the BRZ was my daily *and* my track car... With the need for >3 front camber, coilovers that come with camber plates is gonna be the way to go. My setup (-1.25" on Swift Spec-R springs, Raceseng camber plates, Bilstein B8s) is very much a street/track compromise. Last year I added Eibach sways to get some more roll stiffness. Honestly I think I'd be better off with Good coilovers with stiffer springs/damping and stock sways, which would be the same on classification points...

I should add my 1st set of coil overs were Bilstein B16 ps10 on stock hats with camber bolts on a 2013 Wrx hatch.
2nd sst ,MCA, I checked who`s built 100`s of custom sets for the 86 platform with good performance and reviews. The car is not too bad on the street(firmer than stock) and firmed up to mca`s setting is good on the track. I have not played with the recommended settings and have improved my pb by 1.2xx secs. My instructor took 1cec off his best time in the car and was quite excited about the grip. I`m 0.8 secs behind him now.