to cage or not to cage???

[hilux30]

I moved from silky phoenix to nightmare roads southeast MI, my S13 with Ksports is taking a pounding even when set at the softest setting, at my shop I have nice pipe bender for exhaust, so I'm debating it I should bend up and weld a six point cage to strengthen the body so it can take those roads in tride, but I never done it before and I'm debating the benefits, also those K-sports are in question, as far as coils: is there something better as far as ride?

[Wc240]

dont cage. get some bars from gtspec or somethin, and swap the gaysports,no offense

[hilux30]

OK, I just a NISMO power brace, so thats a start. but for coils, swap to what, I don't want to blow $1K + and still get my teeth rattled

[mattblancarte]

A cage will just stiffen things up. You're on performance suspension, so it's going to be bouncy. I'm not aware of any coil-overs that have a soft ride.

If you want a nice, smooth ride, perhaps converting back to stock and just lowering with some soft springs may be your best bet.

[240life]

My Tein basics ride really nice, there not slammed cause the roads in maine sux too, but I have them set to only like 1.5 fingers between fender and tire...a decent set is very affordable. Most any coil over is going to be a harsh ride though, so I think you are just going to have to sacrifice some handling in order to achieve the ride quality you are looking for. I don't think a caged car is actually going to be any better on the roads, because it is just going to be stiffer causing the bad roads to be more of a issue

[Chris28]

So you are trying to gain a more comfortable ride, but the way you want to achieve it is by taking the slop out of your chassis? Each bump tweaks your chassis a little bit, so if you add a cage the right way the only thing softening up the bumps will be your suspension, which at the moment blows. (pun intended?)

If you want to be able to go over bumps, go back to stock. Otherwise suck it up and get a better set of coilovers.

[hilux30]

I don't want to start this issue again about chassis stiffness, it was a big debate that I started few months ago. I'm not really trying to make it like a camry, i'm trying to tie the body together which will help me at events AND it will ride better over bad roads. My complaint over the Ksports is the rebound dampening is not steller and there is no travel on the shocks WHAT SO EVER. Need to tie the body together, it feels like the whole shell is taking a beeting and too much flex. I don't understand where this notion comes from that a cage or braces is going to make things worse, it's chassis rigidity not suspention siffness. AS far as the coils, I walked in a place in PHX and I was ready to dish out for tein flex's then the sales man convinced me that the Ksports are the same or better for less than half the price...... I should of listen to me first. I mean forget bad roads the dampening on them will kill me at autox or time attacks!

[jamie]

If you drive this car regularly, don't go with a cage. It will be a PITA to live with.

Plus if you got into an accident, those bars are just that closer to your bean. Even with padding the effects on a unhelmeted head would be undesireable at least.

If this is mainly a track day car, go for it. Just make sure its made out of the right stuff. No sense putting a cage in if its not legal for what you intend to do.

[Ohio_S13]

If the car is going to be a track car cage it.

Get some coilovers with compression and rebound adjustment. I know all about those Michigan roads because I have driven my car (and others) in Detroit many times and where I am from it is not much better.

I have KW's on my car now but before I had Eibach springs and AGX shocks. I can set my KW's to be as soft as the Eibach/AGX combo and even if I set them hard they still allow for the suspension to travel normal. They cost but are well worth it.

[Chris28]

Need to tie the body together, it feels like the whole shell is taking a beeting and too much flex. I don't understand where this notion comes from that a cage or braces is going to make things worse, it's chassis rigidity not suspention siffness.

This flex is the chassis absorbing the bumps in the road. Yes, adding a cage will reduce chassis flex, but now instead of absorbing the bumps the chassis will translate the bumps to you, making a less comfortable ride.

If you drive the car on the street don't cage it, I guess that's the answer you are looking for.

[hilux30]

ok, forget the the cage, the accident stuff makes sence since it is mostly street driven, gtspec has some good stuff I already ordered the rear bracings. The part about the bumps transmitted to me I have to disagree (and there is nothing wrong to diagree). Now with out any bracings the bad stuff IS transmitted to the driver, with the cage or bracings, with a stronger body the bumps will be absorbed mainly by the suspention. I'll discuss this with my professor at college and he'll give me the low-down about it on monday, he used to work for ford designing truck frames.

[Ohio_S13]

No matter what type of chasis stiffening you do, the suspension will still control how the car handles bumps in the road.

[hilux30]

I figured out why it was riding like a rock, it was that the spring perch seat was tight and the springs were pre loaded, my mistake and now rides tight but faaaar less harsh, i like it alot, but I'm in the market for a better suspension set up, leaning towards Koni's with ground control, I read alot seams its better for street and track. I added the NISMO power brace and lubed all the energy bushings, much much better thank god, I can enjoy driving it on the week end now

[Matej]

Buy softer springs for your coilovers.

[adrianfromthecastle]

Buy softer springs for your coilovers.

as if the stock springs on k sports coilovers don't already blow the dampers, lulz

[hilux30]

thats not all, I'm not impressed with the construction, and the front mount to the spindle is not precise hole placement. I already have tein top mounts I'll add to the Koni/GC set up. I got the ksport kinda for free so I'm not really salty,

[Ellerstein12]

i say cage for sure

[Persona]

Ksports are not that great, trash em do some homework and get a new set of coilovers.

Also a 6point for daily driving is retarted unless your going to be wearing a helmet everywhere you go.