A good street setup?? (Whats your setup)

[RalliartRsX]

Well, I have been delving into suspension research for a little over a month now and I think I have come up with a few (granted, very few) choices.

Springs/dampers - KTS coils (still accpeting options)Wheels - 16x7 or 16x8 with +30 or below offset (Really dont want to run anything bigger for the simple fact of price)Tires - Ehh, many choices. But, I have had a very good experience with the Azenis sport (215 type), Or ES100 from yokohama or Toyo T1-S(R). Really want to run atleast 205-50 (but much prefered 225-50 all around for some serious grip)Suspension components - This is where I need help and have no clue.

After a few weeks of searching for coil reviews, I came to the KTS finale. But, since there are so many other things involved with the suspension on strut type cars (I had a 4 wheel independent setup on previous ride), there is still a bit more tackling involved (subframe bushings, TC rods, tie rods, camber arms, etc), I am still stumped on what else is needed for a properly setup daily driven setup (And this is sans various strut, lower arm, power, etc braces).

Once the car is lowered over an inch beyond factory ride height settings, the geometry becomes distorted and needs to be corrected. The toe is which I am most worried about for the simple fact of increased and uneven tire wear.

But, what do you guys recommend/use on your daily driven 240s??

Goals: Have a nicely setup street driven suspension, good grip, predictable and smooth. I wont be doing any 'touge' or whatever its called as all my spirited driving (or atleast most sans on-off ramps) will be relegated to auto-x and (money permits) HPDE, period

Sorry for the long post, I am just extra anal when it comes to my suspension setup and any car

P.S Will be looking into running atleast a VLSD and also accepting recommendations on wheel offsets/wheel width for good flushness but not some super low offsets to put unecessary loads on wheel bearings.

Thanks

[Juujai]

es100 and t1s is in a pretty different class. es is like ultra high and t1s is max performance.

kts is a good choice on a budget. other suspension parts people typically buy. tie rods/ends, tension rods, subframe spacers or bushings. rear camber, toe... traction is just for show haha replace a bushing with a ball joint why not lol.

i have everything splparts.com ive had bad experiences with their tie rod ends twice so i'm using oem style. if you want to go all out replace all the lower control arm bushings and rear spindle bushings, steering rack and any rubber you see change it. i use cusco zero2r coilovers but i've ridden and driven on kts coilovers before so they're good for money.

yeah you're correct about toe causing the problem. i run 3degs camber all day and my wear is not bad. but add a bit of toe and my tires will vanish lol. go for zero or close to zero toe maybe slightly in or out depending on preference. most guys i know run slight toe in front and 0 rear.

you should run 17s. tires are only slightly more expensive. check these tires out falken rt615, hankook z212, kumho mx in maybe 235/40/17. 17x9+15-22~ offset all around if you're running s13 will be good. try discounttiredirect.com they have freeshipping. they aren't a sponsor but their prices are good. probably about $15~ more a tire for 17s its worth it!

you should really go do some circuit racing. autox is fun but circuit is so much more of a thrill. i wouldn't do the retarded freeway thing. driving stupid on a street is not good....
Modified by Juujai at 11:00 PM 5/17/2006

[RalliartRsX]

As for the comment on circuit racing, ITS DAMN EXPENSIVE !! I know this from first hand experience as I have crew for a number of people (including endurance racing as well as my own brother in ITA). Sorry, but I am a full time university student working part time. Money, IS an issue .

As far as tires. As I said, the azenis 200 wear series tires (215 and 615) I have had experience with and love thme to death, but that was when I had two cars and the car was driven maybe 2-3 times a week.

I have also been browsing discounts site and they seem to mostly have front wheel drive offsets(I will probably call them and inquire about lower offset wheels) when it comes to wheel selection and it becomes worse with the 4x114.3 bolt pattern. I am also a bit concerned about buying unknown brands for wheels for quality control, build, weight, etc among some reasons. And, I am not (or cannot) drop 700 on a new set of 5zigen. So, if I go 17, I will have to go used. But again, tires become an issue as when it comes to the higher max performance tires (azenis, z212, es100, etc), it can become expensive quite fast. But, I have been shopping around and Vulcan tire has some damn good prices, so, 17s arent exactly out of the question.

But what about suspension. Why run the reinforced pieces from SPL as you do?? Whats the reasoning behind the parts bought? Racing?? Bling?? Just want to spend money??

[Juujai]

spl is awesome man. i broke tie rods twice and he overnighted me the part so fast. no questions asked. i've been having problems with the tie rods but everything else i'll recommend 100%. i went back to stock style tie rods

his pricing vs competitors is always lower usually for parts of equivilent use. such as camber arms. his are like 250$~ while cusco are 350$ same with kazama, jic, tanabe. if you break an arm or anything just call him up and he'll take care of you. seriously he takes care of his customers and i usually dont help market but hes too good.

yeah rt kicks ***. you're going to run into trouble with getting wide wheels with low offsets. its near impossible. if you don't want to convert to 5 lug then the only choices are fn01rc and grenade gx01 at a reasonable price. 5 lug is fairly expensive front rear s14 hubs +front spindles from s14. i have a set of front spindles if you're interested by the way.

i also circuit race its real expensive tires alone is pretty painful. maybe go once a month or season if you can't afford it. i'm young also going to school making ends meat and i still throw all my cash at this.

make sure you get coilovers/sway bars/wheels/max summer tires at minimum the car will change completely. then go from there. but yeah fix all broken stuff first of course. keep car in good shape

[Bosrudorfer]

Go with G-Force Sport tires. They are the very best and at an awesome price.

[j-z]

juujai, youve been having problems with the height adjustable ends? if so, what exactly went wrong?

[RalliartRsX]

UPDATE!!

Well, decided to go with 15inch wheels and call it a day. I love how the 17 fill the well, but I have to think long run. I will be in school and not have extra cash laying around so if something happens (hit a large rut or something) I probably wont be able to afford replacing the wheels. Plus, I readily have access to tires for cheap in 15 inch variant as compared to 17 inch.

But, suspension mods will be put off for a while as there are other issues to attend to currently in the suspensions (name, tie-rods). So, will still be doing loads of reasearch and such.

But, I think I also have made another choice(or narrowe ddown selection). Stance or KTS coilovers it is

[180fan]

Dude I just put on my stance coils last night to get a breather from studying for my finals and they're sweet. Gonna get the write up for their review up soon enough though.

[RalliartRsX]

Well, suspension is currently on hold for a few more weeks. Shouldnt be long though.

Also, let me know about your stance coils. They should have a shock dyno coming out pretty soon, so in the mean time, I will be calling koni to ask them to teach me how to read one . Those people have been very good to me in my previous suspension endevour

Anything else folks before project Jamrock gets rolling??