01BBS2K

im shopping for coil overs as my next mod and i am curious whats going to improve my handling the best for under 2500-2k area. right now im looking at kw V3's, everyone seems to be very pleased with them. What do you guys think and what are you running.

urBan_dK

Track-use? Street-use? KW V3 works very well for a mix of both.

Mrwilliams

the kwv3's work well, and i think the gt motoring challenge comp. coilovers work well too. hit up evasivemotorsports.com they have a nice selection good luck

01BBS2K

shooting for best handling, will make sacrifices in comfort for better results.

rob.ok

You can find used Tein SRC's for that price. Hands down the best for under 4K. Plus they seams to be rather resilient and can be rebuilt at Tein's US head quarters for a fair price.
They are also much more user friendly and offer better options than the KW's (ride height without effecting spring preload and ease of adjustability). However if your just street driving it's pretty much a waste of money to buy any coilover. Lowering springs and OEM dampers is the way to go

-Rob

urBan_dK

SRCs are very nice from what I've heard, but much more aggressive on the spring rates and valving. More track-oriented, for sure.

The ride height/spring preload comment is a red herring as the KW V3s have helper springs that will soak up any height adjustment and minimize any "preloading" to a negligible amount.

And I tend to follow conventional wisdom that using the OEM shocks with lowering springs is a great way to mess up suspension geometry, handling, and wear out shocks prematurely.

rob.ok

^ SRCs do surprisingly well on the streets.

There is something to be said about loosing stroke when lowering spring perches to gain ride height adjustment on a damper that doesn't have adequate stroke to begin with. It's not so much a preload issue as it is a piston stroke issue. Loosing too much stroke on any damper gets you that much closer bottoming out which is a nasty problem.
The rear damper on the S2000 are quite limited when it comes to stroke cause of the short body.

The geometry will change regardless of what damper you use if you lower the car beyond factory specs. I don't think I've ever heard that it will cause the damper to wear out prematurely though. Having spring rates outside of the recommended range will blow the valving though.

urBan_dK

Haven't tried the SRCs myself, I'll have to take your word for it. Just looking at the the spring rates and shock dyno as compared to the KW seemed enough evidence for me.

The piston stroke definitely does get shortened, something I hadn't thought about. I can tell you that the KW has a decent amount of droop dialed in and you shouldn't be bottoming out in the recommended ride height range except in a car with insane grip (wide R-compound tires).

And I agree on the geometry comment. However, I wasn't trying to imply that the geometry would wear out OEM dampers. Rather, it is the having to damp springs that are necessarily stronger than stock in order to allow lowering without bottoming out, and therefore work the shocks that much harder to damp the stiffer springs.

rob.ok

I didn't think about or ever really know that the spring rates of lowering springs were typically higher. Makes sense though. Buyers should just try to keep them within +1-2kg and the dampers should be ok (I think..).

-Rob

01BBS2K

I'm trying to avoid used in fear of no warentee.