Coil overs or springs?

[gMit]

Originally Posted by Racecomp Engineering

Just one word of advice...your car will drive much better with a wheel that's not quite so huge.

- Andrew

how would 18x9 with coilovers drive?

[churchx]

gMit: #2 . In addition to slower acceleration/braking/worse dampening car with stock NA power levels also will drive more like on rails, not as easy to get tail out as stock even on easy to correct at safer/slower speeds, but now at much higher and possibly more suddenly and at less progressive rate. And if you plan to track .. tires wear there fast. Ones for 18x9 certainly won't cost less. And it's harder to get enough heat in such big tires to enhance grip. There is chance to get less of cons of heavy wheels by buying very expensive forged wheels to get weight a bit more in check, but tire will weight more anyway, and why should something not worth be doing in first place be spent lot of money to be fixed?

[Racecomp Engineering]

Originally Posted by gMit

how would 18x9 with coilovers drive?

Heavy wheels just make the car slower to react and slower in a straight line.

Wide wheels means you should be running wide tires, which means a lot of grip. Which is fine if your suspension is built around that, but if it's not it means more body roll.

The car is much more fun IMO with like 8 or 8.5 inch wide wheels. And in many cases it's faster as long as the tire compound is sticky.


http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67345


- Andrew

[tyler_win_photo]

It depends how low you're planning to go. Any drop greater than an inch (~2.5cm) I would suggest coilovers. Dropping more than an inch on springs + stock struts will result in a bouncy and harsh ride

[Here2rock]

Originally Posted by Mr.ac

For one, the price. Springs are the cheapest. $300 or for a good name brand
Coil overs start about $800+.

If you'll never see a race track, and want near stock comfort I recommend the TRD or STI lowering springs.

If I am correct TRD and Elbachi Pro are the same springs with different name and price tag.

[Mr.ac]

Originally Posted by Here2rock

If I am correct TRD and Elbachi Pro are the same springs with different name and price tag.

That maybe correct, I never looked into but heard the same story. Price wise their within +/- $25. Depends which deal you get. I seen TRD cheaper one day and Eibach cheaper the next day.

[Here2rock]

Double the price here in Australia.


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[Mim]

The stock car has 12.5cm of clearance. You will need to check your local state's road rules, but I believe the minimum legal ride height is 10cm. STI/TRD springs drop the car by 15mm and I assume the suspension will settle a little further over time.

Sounds like lowering springs will get you the desired drop, be cheap (relative to coilovers) and keep you legal. Aside from needing more care around speed humps and drive way's it sounds like your best option. Oh and forget adding a lip/splitter after that for obvious reasons

[Here2rock]

Originally Posted by Mim

The stock car has 12.5cm of clearance. You will need to check your local state's road rules, but I believe the minimum legal ride height is 10cm.

12.5cn of clearance, where did you get that from? How is that measured? I am in Sydney.

[Mim]

I did a quick google for BRZ ground clearance and found this review http://www.autoblog.com/2011/12/05/2...-drive-review/

The final numbers: overall height is 50.6 inches with a ground clearance of 4.9 inches, length is 167 inches and wheelbase 101.2 inches, the width is 69.9 inches with a track of 59.8 inches in front and 60.6 inches in the rear. Balance is estimated to be around 53 percent in front, 47 percent in the rear. The company doesn't have official numbers on gas mileage but predicts 30 on the highway.

Trust me the wheel gap makes me a sad panda. But scraping on speed humps and steep driveway's even more so. I'm not used to lowered cars and there's been oh so many moments in parking or opening a door and realising, wow if I was lowered even by a CM or two.. that door would be wrecked or front bumper busted off its clips. I already have a scrapped front right fang with a good chunk of missing paint. I call it karma and think of it every time I ponder about lowering.

As for how its measured? Not sure, but I imagine a cop would walk up to the centre (side) of the car and measure from the ground to the first contact point? Some of our other readers might chime in with their own life experiences on that one though.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Here2rock

If I am correct TRD and Elbachi Pro are the same springs with different name and price tag.

Yes the TRDs are made by Elbachi but whether they are the "same" could be questionable. I do not know but the TRDs could be made to a different spec. TRD is a design and development branch (it is right in the name) and do not actually manufacture anything but I highly doubt they just take other companies existing products and slap their name on it. Somebody has to make their designs though and it will usually be a bigger name company that has the resources to be able to do relatively short run production to the TRD specs.

[Here2rock]

Originally Posted by Mim

I did a quick google for BRZ ground clearance and found this review http://www.autoblog.com/2011/12/05/2...-drive-review/

As for how its measured? Not sure, but I imagine a cop would walk up to the centre (side) of the car and measure from the ground to the first contact point? Some of our other readers might chime in with their own life experiences on that one though.

I just took the measuring tape out and it is 8" front and back from the ground, and about 7" on the sides, very rough calculations. Even if you drop 1"-2", you are not going to breach any laws in Sydney from my calculations (unless somebody proves me wrong otherwise)

However I do agree that this car probably does not needs to be dropped from practical point of view as it drives very nice as it is and I would hate to change that. I may stick with the factory height and tyres for the time being unless somebody tells me that I am going to get a better performance by lowering it.

[Here2rock]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Yes the TRDs are made by Elbachi but whether they are the "same" could be questionable. I do not know but the TRDs could be made to a different spec. TRD is a design and development branch (it is right in the name) and do not actually manufacture anything but I highly doubt they just take other companies existing products and slap their name on it. Somebody has to make their designs though and it will usually be a bigger name company that has the resources to be able to do relatively short run production to the TRD specs.

I enquired about the Elbachi product from the local dealer in Sydney, he told me that they are the same. He might have meant that they are the same quality or he was probably just trying to sell one to me. From all reports TRD version is made by Elbachi, they could have improved on their version sold as Pro, I have not read the comparison between the two products but I would love to find out.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Here2rock

I enquired about the Elbachi product from the local dealer in Sydney, he told me that they are the same. He might have meant that they are the same quality or he was probably just trying to sell one to me. From all reports TRD version is made by Elbachi, they could have improved on their version sold as Pro, I have not read the comparison between the two products but I would love to find out.

Ya, like I said I do not know. People assume that since anything is made by the same manufacturer then they are the "same". This is not the case in the auto parts manufacturing business. TRD can give them certain specs and say "make this" and they will. If the TRD parts are actually the "same" then it is a bit fraudulent to just slap their name on them and call them different. However I don't really know how you could ever tell if that isn't exactly what happens.