Suspension / Coilovers ~ How to Choose the Right Setup for YOU

[Circuit Motorsports]

This is a post we did for our Subaru guys, but I think it will translate well here to the FR-S and BRZ owners as well. There are already a lot of choices on the market for you guys and it can be a daunting quest to choose the right kit. There will be a lot more options out over the coming months and there will be choices of coilovers, high and low end, dampers springs, etc.


These questions comes up all the time; "What coilovers should I get" or "What do I need springs or coilovers" etc. A couple people will give answers and then it turns into a mud slinging contest with Group A saying X coilovers are good and Group B saying X coilovers suck but Z coilovers are better. Nobody benefits.

Well being as I have personally used a wide range of the most often recommended coilovers and I have a view and opinion on most of them that doesn't border on extreme hatred for one and lust for the other I think I have an un-biased Opinion.

First of all, I know there are going to be haters who will read this and snickers at my comments and want to immediately belittle my views, please refrain, this is for the general masses and just information for guidance.

Secondly, realize that no ONE suspension is the best or the most ideal. All suspensions differ and some will do things better than others.

Thirdly, We drive Subarus, No Ferraris. It is not, and I repeat, NOT necessary to have the best and most expensive stuff out there. It just isn't, I'm sorry. You can make due with $1000 suspension and you won't catch on fire and the Angels won't come down and steal your Subaru badge of honor from you I promise. We "compromised" to begin with by buying a performance oriented juiced up Sedan, we Didn't buy the best to begin with, or we'd all have Ferrari F40's...mmmmmmm F40.

OK so on to the actual meat and potatos now that all that is out of the way.

How do you decide what's best for you? Easy, Research! Now that you've done that you need to ask yourself these 3 simple questions, in this order:

1. What is my Budget?
2. What are my goals for the suspension?
3. What is the car used for?

If you can answer those questions then you're well on your way. I'll elaborate on those 3 items here briefly.

1. You NEED to ask yourself the budget question first, becuase if you have $500 in your pokcet and you're looking at Ohlins, you're going nowhere fast. This is by far the most important question and often the most overlooked. Now if you find something you want and can save up that's fine, but you need to set your budget and what you can realistically spend on a suspension when the time comes.

2. What are your goals? Are you looking to slam the car and go for that mad-tyte JDM look? Are you daily driving and just want an upgrade with some nicer features than your stock suspension? Are you doing hardcore wheel-to-wheel racing on the weekends and need a track dedicated setup? Or are you that guy that wants a minor drop with better handling and better damping? All very important, as there is no one "Best" coilover for all of these.

3. This kind of goes hand-in-hand with number 2, but can differ slightly. If you are daily driving AND racing on the weekend you'll need a compromise, or you will quickly hate life. Also if you like to do HPDE events but also need to drive down 8 miles of gravel roads every day to get to work that will factor in to your decision.


Once you have all those questions answered you can now start looking at what's in your price range. Do some more research, see what people with similar situations like yourself are using and what they like. See what people don't like. Ask any one of the great Subaru Vendors on here who have years of knowledge and experience, they can help you decide.

Here is what I recommend. This is just me, so this is not the end all be all of rules, but suggestions.

*Now for those of you who:

I Wanna SLAM it Y0!

Guys will always love the look of a slammed car. And you know what, some of you out there could care less about handling or racing pedigree, you want a low and stiff ride and you want it to look gooood. I feel ya, surprisinly some guys on here don't. If you want this you're best bet is one of the "Budget" coilovers, Ie. BC Racing, Megan, Stance etc. You can lower the car quite a bit, not lose static shock travel and they will be stiff enough to keep your tires out of your fenders, most of the time. They will be ideal for what you want and that's that.


I want to Upgrade my Stock Suspension, but not go Crazy

There are those of you who want to get rid of your tired old worn out or just plain incompetent OEM suspension. You Daily Drive for the most part but you enjoy the corners and the occasional spirited drive on the outskirts of town. You don't care about fiddling with damping knobs or height settings. I would recommend a nice set of Springs and Shock/Struts. You can get a good quality Spring like an Eibach Pro, Hotchkis or RCE offering and get a set of Struts like a Tokico D-Spec or a Koni Yellow insert. You will get a slightly firmer ride, better roll control and better steering feel. Ride quality may even be improved in some cases. This is a great setup for retaining civility and shock travel. You may also consider something like a KW Variant 1 or ST coilover setup, they come pre-damped for street use and also provide height adjustability, another great option.


I Autocross or Race on the Weekends

A full coilover setup with damping and height control is probably the best choice here as oppsed to a simple spring and damper combo. Budget will determine where you can start looking. Almost all The Sub-$1k coilovers have damping and height control, and can do double duty for track/auto-x and Daily driving, but they are limited. They do not have much shock travel and the damping can be a bit much for street use. Limited shock travel may be putting you into the bumpstops a lot depending on track surface or road conditions. They usually include Camber plates and tops though, which is a plus. However, something like a BC Racing coilover set with Swift springs is a pretty darn good kit for the money, we like that setup. Surprisingly comfortable on the street as well.

The next step up from there would be something like a KW Variant 3, RCE T2 or a AST kit. These will have superior damping, more shock travel and will be more suitable for serious auto-x or HPDE/Track use. Some will have Double damping adjustability, ideal for those looking to fine tune their ride. Be prepared to spend over $2k here on just the coilovers, and don't forget to budget for strut tops or Camber plates, as these usually do not come with them standard. However the payoff for the quality and features can be well worth it. The difference between the more expensive stuff and the cheaper stuff IS noticeable, mostly on overall damper travel.

You also need to determine how serious you are about tracking, and whether you will get into timed events. You also need to weigh that with how comfortable the ride needs to be if the car will be used as your Daily Driver or a weekend toy.



That covers the main categories most people will fall into. For everyone else just research and ASK people who know. This is why particiapting vendors on here are so great. They participate, they'll answer your questions, They'll help you. Just be sure and buy from them after you ask them 300 questions and don't go to the lowest bidder who only cares about your Benjamins and could care less if your wheels fall off your car. Don't know who these supporting vendors are? Look and see who posts regularly in the Technical forums, they aren't hard to find. (I won't mention any just in case I leave out someone important or offend someone..and yes you can ask us, but we aren't the ONLY ones)

And as a Final ending comment I leave you with my recommendations for the 2 major types of Coilovers : "Budget" and "Euro".

"Budget" - The Sub $1k crowd, the crowd that gets hated on. The lovers of all things thrifty and low. Seriously though, if you want a set of Budget coilovers and you have done your research and know what they can and can't do and still think they are for you, then buy them. See for yourself. I recommend the BC Racing setup myself. They have been around quite awhile now in the Subaru community. They have good post-sale support and warranty service, rebuilds are super easy and they have great features and better build quality than some of the others. We do sets of these with Swift springs upgrade and the ride on the street is surprisingly comfortable and handling is improved, that's my choice for "best-bang-for-the-buck" setup.

You can lower the car, slam the car, adjust damping, adjust camber via top plates and go drive around and have fun. The disadvantage here is the limited shock travel and high damping rate.

"Euro" - Most of the time this is a KW or an AST or a co-brand or something simialr. Racing pedigree and years of research and development. Usually made with superior materials and improved damping. They will have more travel when compared to the budget coilovers, but they are limited in their abiltiy to drop the car. They also usually don't include top hats, so you need to source your own or get camber plates. However the improved ride quality and overall grip the extra travel provides is well worth it for those who want that and can afford it. I like the RCE T2's or KW V3's, different options for spring rates, stainless steel bodies, dual damping adjustments and good travel. They work great on the street and on the track.

OK I'm done, now go DRIVE your cars and have fun!

No hating!

[Circuit Motorsports]

If anyone has any questions on this stuff we will be glad to help

[Matt Andrews]

Long post. We've posted in similar threads. My commentary hasn't been to "hate" on people with a small budget, and hopefully hasn't appeared to do so. I agree with your comment about understanding your budget and then making a decision from there. But just because you don't put your car on the race track doesn't mean you shouldn't want good quality or value for your dollar. I drive my daily driver every day. I drive my track car only once every other week. Using that analysis, which one should have more high quality parts?

The thing that I would urge people to do is understand what you can get for your budget. Many automotive enthusiasts will spend significantly more on wheels, tires, engine mods, body mods, etc than they do on their suspension. I don't think they realize the quality level they get for certain dollar amts. And then most folks don't know how to understand what they are getting for the money. People know how to read a dyno curve - so they know if an intake makes power. But they wouldn't know how to read a shock dyno curve (s). Is their budget really $1k? Or is their budget $1k because they believe they can get something decent for that price and don't want to be told to buy something that cost 25% of the value of their car? You can get quality for a low price. you just have to know how to find it.

The market is being flooded with products that have lots of attractive features for people looking at feature lists. single adjustable, double adjustable, remote canister, preload adjustment, etc. But there is little accountability for those manufactures on if those features on their product actually do anything. It would be like buying a boost controller that didn't actually adjust boost when you turned the knob - buyers would be outraged, right?

My personal preference is to make a list of the features you need. Then find a product that fits that list. If you aren't going to corner balance your car, don't buy "coilovers". If you don't know how to tune a damper, do you need multiple adjustment knobs? There are reputable brands that will have dampers for these cars that have a high level of quality for a good price available in a short period of time. And there are plenty of aftermarket springs that provide minor to extreme drops. There is a long standing thread on supraforums about taking bilstein dampers and putting them with a quality spring and a threaded perch to make a great coilover for under $800. Are they sexy with annodized finishes and lots of knobs? no. But they work as well as $2k + offerings if you ignore the adjustment? hell yes.

Good hunting people. lots of different options out there because lots of different people have different tastes. I am just urging people to understand what they are buying before they do so.

Best,
Matt

[mla163]

Nice post. A lot of the info relates especially well to the WRX / STI. One significant difference in these and the BRZ/FRS is that the stock suspension on the "twins" is much better than the rally cars.

[kidgogeta]

I don't know much about coilovers but was looking at the KW v3 since I can get them at a good deal. Ride quality, handling and either maintaining or improving the stock feel of the car are important to me

[empower-auto]

This is very .. very .. VERY .. opinionated stuff. The recommendations for each category are GOOD however there's some very choice exclusion of certain brands from the track day / racing field. This reflects a little bit of elitism.

BC Racing / Stance .. and some companies not mentioned like Tein, HSD, etc have plenty of racing pedigree and have their product on all kinds of proper cars competing in motor-sports.

Just because of lower cost and the tendency for them to end up on some "tacky" rides - one should not forget that the product has stood up when tested as well.

[Circuit Motorsports]

I edited my post a bit to reflect newer setups and my views.

I think I covered the main points there, and I don't think it was "elitist" in any way. I actually like some of the budget stuff.

[Chuynh207]

Fantastic write up. I appreciate the info and will use it when I'm looking at buying new suspension. Thank You!

[kidgogeta]

Originally Posted by Circuit Motorsports

I edited my post a bit to reflect newer setups and my views.

I think I covered the main points there, and I don't think it was "elitist" in any way. I actually like some of the budget stuff.

would you recommend getting wheels or suspensions first?

[Racecomp Engineering]

Your suspension should be matched to your tire choice and how you plan to use the car (street drive, auto-x, track days, competition). So ideally you'd at least have a plan on what type and what size tire you plan on using in the future.

- Andrew

[BadCompany235]

Off topic but the same can be said for your brake system. think about mods in the aggregate not just on a singular level.

[Circuit Motorsports]

Originally Posted by Racecomp Engineering

Your suspension should be matched to your tire choice and how you plan to use the car (street drive, auto-x, track days, competition). So ideally you'd at least have a plan on what type and what size tire you plan on using in the future.

- Andrew

Originally Posted by kidgogeta

would you recommend getting wheels or suspensions first?

That's a personal choice. I'd go suspension first just becuase I'd like to see what differecne it makes on the stock tires. But you may want to see how the stock suspension feels on better tires, etc.

As Andrew said plan ahead. A super sticky R-comp tire for auto-x will need stiffer suspension components to keep up.

But for most people a nice street tire like a Dunlop Star Spec will be fine with most suspension upgrades (dampers, springs, coilovers, etc.).

[Matt Andrews]

Originally Posted by empower-auto

BC Racing / Stance .. and some companies not mentioned like Tein, HSD, etc have plenty of racing pedigree and have their product on all kinds of proper cars competing in motor-sports.

The brands you point out may exist on club race cars. But I would suspect if the car is at all high profile, the suspension was sponsored onto the car. The difference between the brands you mention and the penske/jrz/moton/ast/ohlin/sachs etc of the world is that race teams actually pay to run these brands instead of being paid to do so. Doesn't mean they are bad. But I don't think its right to say that XYZ brand is run on a race car means that it is worth the money you have to pay to get it for yourself.

[Synack]

Wondering where these aftermarket struts can be bought for the aftermarket springs.

If all of this costs MORE than budget coilovers, why not just do that?