A little background, I want to stay as close to stock as possible with exception to some coilovers, wheels, track tires for road courses (Buttonwillow, Laguna Seca etc.) I will mostly be doing 2-3 track days out of the whole year and mostly use the S for daily driving and some random canyon runs. My question is if you are in the same boat as I am, what coilovers did you choose, why you got them, and hows do they compare to stock suspension. I'm leaning towards the Tein Flex EDFC coilovers simply because of the EDFC gadget, I have no clue how they perform on the street/track so this worries me.

 

I was in the same boat as you except that I did 15 track days last year rather than 2-3. I chose to just run with the stock coilovers.

If it's a difference between the Teins and doubling your 2-3 track days, you should spend your money on the seat time rather than the car.

 

"Some track but mostly daily driving and canyon runs" is precisely what the stock system was designed for.

 

If you're only going to do 2-3 track days a year stick with stock. BTW, I didn't know there were canyons in Bakersfield.

 

There aren't any canyons in Bakersfield but outside of it 20-30 minutes away.

Anyways, the reason I wanted those tein flex with edfc was because of my experience in my Dad's Benz S430 which had 2 levels of dampening for sportier driving. Does any know if the technology in the S430 is similar to the Tein EDFC?

 

Hmmm...depending on how you drive....I found switching from stock to Tein RA coilovers had two huge benefits: 1) easier to control slides and/or recover from them and 2) no shock fade.

Switching to coilovers in my opinion is more related to safety/car control than lap times. One track day is all it should take to tell you whether or not the stock suspension is adequate for your level of driving or not.

 

I donno. People keep telling me that stock setup in s2k is good enough for track. I havent taken my car to the track yet but the handling is nowhere as confidence inspiring as my previous car which was an Is300 with HKS sways and Tein coilovers. I guess I will have to find out soon.

For those interested in track day on Feb 20th. PM dorikin_86. I believe he is hosting one.

 

I personally suggest running the stock system at the track for a bit because it tends to be more forgiving. Jumping into a quintuple adjustable mega-super-ultra system helps you not unless you have hours of seat time at your driving limit. I also suggest that whenever you get coilovers, get a F/R spring rate balance similar to stock initially. Once you learn what the multitude of adjustments do, then putz around with spring rates.

Reason for all the above: your sensitivity to adjustments in shock settings needs experience and a reference frame. Benefits of using the stock system is that you already paid for it and it is well matched to the car imho and is good reference frame.

Learn a specific track and get good at it. After that time yourself, and get to the point in which you are running consistent competitive times. Then toss the stock system away and spend your hard-earned money on a decent coilover system and have fun.

Sorry for the long post, but I like trying to get people to learn from my mistakes,
Bassem

 

I find the stock setup very unfriendly for aggressive driving. I understeer badly taking corners.

 

Maybe just adding some more camber up front would reduce the understeer to your liking. Understeer can happen with coilovers too.