Quote:
Originally Posted by newman
Despite all the -ve's, would you ever go back to a conventional coil and shock setup? Do you feel that the coilovers are going to be too stiff for every day driving, or will you be able to 'set it up' so that its not going to be too stiff?
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I don't think there's many negatives with a well chosen strut/spring combo. And likewise there's no real advantage to going coilovers if you're going to put them into the car and then let them at stay the same height and damping settings (and spring choices).
I wouldn't go back to the strut/spring combo on this car, but I certainly would not automatically buy coilovers for every car I wanted to modify.
The Coilovers I have are a victim of the Japanese trend to run modified cars mega stiff for a more "race car" feel. And on a smooth track or road I can understand why becuase it really is quite close to the track car feel, although overall grip is compromised.
The best example is Tein who now re-spec most of their kits in Australia with the main change dropping the spring rates dramatically. On some setups they run about half the spring rate they do on the JDM version of the kit on the same car.
Unlike 90% of people who buy coilovers I will be changing the springs down the track, at the end of the day Springs are available off-the shelf in the 64mm ID from a number of suppliers. I do feel that buy using the rear 5kg springs in the front and buying a lighter pair for the rear I can get back a lot of the comfort level for minimum cost.
I think the biggest problem with suspension is that it's a decision you can only really afford to make once because each change effectively throws away components. I do think that the Mazdaspeed/KYB struts combined with Mazdaspeed/Eibach springs would be one of the better combos, and the Monroe Sensatrac/Whiteline combo being one of the worst. Years ago when I had a good relationship with Whiteline I talked about using Monroes with my car and was strongly advised against it, I ended up with Konis and they wound springs to suit the Konis and my own height criteria. In simple terms Monroes are to replace stock struts and work with stock springs and yet on Stinky they were made to work with a ~50+mm drop...
Quote:
Originally Posted by newman
Do you still have a stock rear swaybar or have you and aftermarket heavy duty one? If when you drive in the wet and you find the rear wants to snap out really easiely from either rapid acceleration or deceleration, maybe you'll need to play around with the swaybar a little? i found on mine that as soon as i put a beefy rear swaybar on (even with stock suspension) it still wants to kick the rear out.
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Stinky has a Whiteline Blade bar at the rear. It's currently on the stiffest (short arm) setting and I will experiment a bit.
I haven't driven the current combo in the wet back with the old setup there was a tendancy to tail-out under brakes entering roundabouts etc wet or dry. The Lynx having different weight and COG to the BG/KF and BA/KJ "norm" thanks to the body design seems a little more stable thanks to a bit less pendulum effect at the rear.
On the last car I went down the suspension path with seriously (and tracked the car) I had about 4 rear bars made up: 18mm (up from 16mm), 20mm, 22mm and 25mm. The 18mm made the best street package with stockish suspension. I ended up running the 20mm rear bar all the time becuase it worked best with the Koni/Spring combo on the car and the 25mm was based on the most extreme available in the USA - it was a killer (as in backwards into the trees) on the street, and was really designed it seems for circuit racing.
The blade on Stinky should let me find that compromise, but in all honesty at the moment it feels like the springs are too stiff to really let the 'bar make a difference.
A.