Bagging my FR-S

[TheKraken]

So I'm gonna start by making a statement of saying my car will never be tracked and will be my daily driver show car.

Now to the nuts and bolts.. I'm looking to get a full setup on bagging my FR-S and need some help on where to look for best prices and best setups to get. The reason for me getting bags is where I live it's the smartest option due to the adjustable ride height whenever I need. I live in the country on a short gravel road that if I was on coilovers I would have bottoming out issues and scraping all the time. With my stock ride height it's perfect but I want to be able to pull into a car show and slam it on demand.

So biggest questions being what brands to look for? What setups are people running? What places are best to get a full kit from for best prices? Any advice from guys running bags already?


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[churchx]

I explored options of higher ground clearance/more shock travel preferably at reasonable budget.
* To get both travel/clearance many suggested higher travel shocks, eg. KW V1 or V3 (or RCE Tarmacs based on them) + spacers (as with stock preload / minimum drop they were 10mm lower then stock IIRC, despite longer travel).
* There is also TRD Rally suspension, +10mm height. I have two things against it - yet to see anyone buying it & reviewing, and i heard saying that one gets what one pays for, and they are relatively cheap, hopefully not at expense of quality.
* For just extra ground clearance w/o changing shock travel one can use spacers, or slightly higher sidewall tires (don't go overboard, as that will hurt acceleration & at some point may rub).
* Then there are "real" rally custom made/custom valved coilovers by several shocks vendors .. but as they cost $5-15K, they probably are out of budget of most. Most capable and best fit for a job though.

At some point i thought of air suspension bags or cups too, but imho these cons make them not best choice:
1) they are expensive. For that price one can get higher class "normal" coilovers with better handling/comfort.
2) they add weight and rob trunk volume with all that compressor/compressed air tank set.
3) when you change ride height, you change alignment. It's ok for temporary clearing of some obstacle or drop park, but not so good for longer driving, worsening handling & grip/increasing tire wear be it at whichever "other" mode car is not aligned at. With car aligned at stock height and doing worse on risen height, or vice versa, aligned if rised, and underperforming when returned to stock height.
4) bad roads .. i'd prefer something of extra proven reliability/strength with less complicated construction. If you go for air suspension no matter what, imho worth going for air cups not bags, as if they blow, you'll just return to reasonable height with still working coilovers below air cups, not completely dropping ride. Air cups system will cost as much though, as full air bags suspension.

P.S.
For rally use car may benefit of some more prepping. For example mudflaps (planning to try rokblockz. there are few things i didn't like in rally armor ones). IIRC Layle made some aluminium protection pans for underside of car (underside panels, front pan, rear pan, diff protector), might get expensive to ship over due size/weight though, so maybe custom local made will be better option. I'd also change to 16" wheels with higher sidewall profile tires for gravel / winter ice&snow use. I wouldn't get camber plates for rough roads. Imho pillow ball mounts don't do well with that rough of use, at least comfort wise, when/if shocks suddenly get bottomed out. At most get stock-alike but stronger group N rubber mounts. (not com c whiteline ones, while they provide extra neg. camber, bearings in them frequently fail in our cars).
With most options but maybe TRD rally suspension or even better - custom real rally suspension options i'd still be careful with full go rallying with high speeds/high jumps and so on. Rally suspension is not just of longer travel/higher height/better fit valving .. they usually also are accordingly strengthened. "Normal" street or track coilovers imho were not designed with such abuse in mind.
I sometimes slightly envy way broader aftermarket offerings of rallyish coilovers at different price levels for more common at rallying scene cars like wrx/sti/evos. Our cars are more used on track then rally, hence aftermarket vendors mostly target that. For other things too .. my collegue got CF engine/bumper protection pan for 350e for his WRX, i was cited at same place 1400e. Due it being first and one-off, with making forms just for mine with no sharing those costs with very few other toyobaru owners here, most of which don't think of rally/gravel use.

[TheKraken]

How long does it take and what's the process behind changing the ride height of coilovers? Say during the week I want stock height but come weekend for a car show I wanna drop it 2" would this be achievable with coilovers?


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[churchx]

Originally Posted by TheKraken

How long does it take and what's the process behind changing the ride height of coilovers? Say during the week I want stock height but come weekend for a car show I wanna drop it 2" would this be achievable with coilovers?

If via adjustable height coilovers - not long. But more then advisable to do alignment after that, as both camber & toe will change too. And due that .. i'd stick to same height all the time.

[ChanceK]

I have the P3 Airlift system on my FR-S. I love it. It rides smooth, looks good, and handles nicely. I got my kit from Bagriders.com and I got my kit on sale for $3050 shipped. Heres some pictures of it
If you get a 5 gallon tank, there are holes perfect to mount it upside down in the trunk.

[TheKraken]

Your ride looks sick man! That's what I'm wanting mine to look like as far as stance goes. I'm trying to get it stanced a bit so I can go to stancewars and import alliance and not look goofy as hell being stock height


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[churchx]

Trunk itself is small in ours which i don't wish to reduce further. And i always have normal space saver tire below it, as i hate and don't wish to rely on stock tire repair kit (collegue's car had nice failure with it two weeks ago. Whatever they say about being able to fix most punctures by statistics, i cannot rely on it with piece of mind. +Many tire shops refuse to deal with tires where such kit got used = most probably you will have to buy another pair of tires for replacement instead of repairing punctured one).

I find it believable that air suspension can be better then stock. But - at what price and that "normal" coilovers at that budget can do even better.

[socal_48]

Sorry to jump in on the thread. I just wanted to ask what size wheel and tires do you have? I will be installing bag on mine and wanted to see what is the widest tires and rim I can install.

Originally Posted by ChanceK

I have the P3 Airlift system on my FR-S. I love it. It rides smooth, looks good, and handles nicely. I got my kit from Bagriders.com and I got my kit on sale for $3050 shipped. Heres some pictures of it
If you get a 5 gallon tank, there are holes perfect to mount it upside down in the trunk.

[TheKraken]

Quick change of ride height is the reason for getting bags. I can't exactly lower my car and keep it lowered. Believe it or not I do live in the country and driving down a gravelish driveway every morning and night does make coilovers harder to use being I want a low car like ChanceK is running height wise.


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[ChanceK]

Originally Posted by socal_48

Sorry to jump in on the thread. I just wanted to ask what size wheel and tires do you have? I will be installing bag on mine and wanted to see what is the widest tires and rim I can install.

My wheels are 18x9.5 +22. Without adding anymore camber and messing up the fenders, you could probably pull off +15 in the rear. If you get camber arms for front and rear, you can go +10 square.

[ChanceK]

Originally Posted by TheKraken

Quick change of ride height is the reason for getting bags. I can't exactly lower my car and keep it lowered. Believe it or not I do live in the country and driving down a gravelish driveway every morning and night does make coilovers harder to use being I want a low car like ChanceK is running height wise.


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Just get an alignment at your ride height and all will be fine. You can still ride fairly low with bags if you want. My ride height is still pretty low. My ride height is the same, if not lower than this guy [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaqHEAxi11M"]this guy[/ame]

[TheKraken]

I love the way these cars look lowered on 18's my only problem is my driveway is rutted up in the middle which causes scraping if I'm gonna be much lower than stock. I want to be able to drive down it at stock height or close then once I get to the road hit a switch and be lowered a bit for driving in town and then go to a car show and slam it to the ground. Bags are the only way to do that.

And on another note what's your opinions on D2 airbag kits?


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[ChanceK]

Originally Posted by TheKraken

I love the way these cars look lowered on 18's my only problem is my driveway is rutted up in the middle which causes scraping if I'm gonna be much lower than stock. I want to be able to drive down it at stock height or close then once I get to the road hit a switch and be lowered a bit for driving in town and then go to a car show and slam it to the ground. Bags are the only way to do that.

And on another note what's your opinions on D2 airbag kits?


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I haven't really heard too much about D2 in terms of air ride. Everyone I know either runs Airrex, Airlift, Accuair, or Universal air. I wouldn't get the D2 kit because it's a manual paddle switch management. This meaning that you have to manually inflate/deflate the bags with a valve. With my P3 management system, all you have to do it press a button and your pressure goes to that preset.

[TheKraken]

Originally Posted by ChanceK

I haven't really heard too much about D2 in terms of air ride. Everyone I know either runs Airrex, Airlift, Accuair, or Universal air. I wouldn't get the D2 kit because it's a manual paddle switch management. This meaning that you have to manually inflate/deflate the bags with a valve. With my P3 management system, all you have to do it press a button and your pressure goes to that preset.

I was planning on getting Accuair management system with BC extreme low coilovers and OCD bags mounted on the coilovers. But when I get the Accuair I was going with the E-Level kit and touch pad from bagriders.com I came across the BC coilovers on that website and saw that OCD made bags to fit specifically on their coilovers and it'll help me lower my car now and work on getting money for the rest.


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