thielepr

A little background. My Ap1 is a 2001 that is a weekend toy. I got it back in 2010 when I was still living in Puerto Rico. At some point I was running tracks days on a monthly basis full stock except from brakes pads, Motul brake fluid and stainless steel lines. I bought it with AP2V1 and I’ve been running RS-3 225/255 for years now.

Moving forward to the preset, I moved to the mainland two years ago and took a hiatus from track days. The cars is at 63K with stock suspension. I do autocross (not as much as I would like) and I do a lot of canyon roads. I will do a track day in November and hopefully and will be back to track days in 2015.

After a lot of researching it seems that Ohlins is the best option for me but I can’t afford them at the moment. My budget is between 1,200 and 1,500. My first idea was to get a CR shocks and spring but to my surprise that will run like 1,200. Which is why the coilovers came to the picture here. People seems to be very happy with BC, Fortunes 500 and specially with the PSS9 on the street. But when I read the track experiences they aren’t that great. Even the PSS9 people complains that they are too soft for the track and the rebound isn’t what they were expecting.

I’m not looking into coilovers for a looks at all. I don’t like slammed cars. A minimal drop is fine for me. Which is why the Switch R with Koni (on the upper perch from what I read) seems like a good option until I could afford a good set of ohlins of something in that range.

So, the question is should I go the old fashion way with springs and Koni shocks or should I step up to Fortunes or PSS9 until I can get the Ohlins? Are those coilover mentioned above better that the stock setup? I don’t want to spend money in something that won’t improve the performance of the car.

SlowTeg

I think you're leaving out KWV3's or Clubsports. If you can find a used set or new for a decent price I wouldn't cross them off the list. Years ago I considered getting Fortunes, but am glad I went w/ KWV3's because they're proven. I wouldn't even bother with PSS9's. Ohlins are nice, but lack double adjustability that I would expect at that price.

Personally the decision came down to Konis/GC coilovers vs. KW's. I opted for KW's.

thielepr

I wish that I could find a KWV3 for a decent price but I wouldn't like to put on used shocks.

Slowcrash_101

I have Koni's with CR springs on my 02, I'm totally happy with them, you'll be surprised how stable it makes the car considering how soft they are on compression. It's almost weird how easy the car is to drive on or near the limit now. They can be set plenty stiff on rebound, I have them 1 turn from full soft front and about 6/8ths of a turn from full soft in the rear. With OEM shocks I had to worry more about lift throttle oversteer, and using too much power coming out of a turn, same with these but it's so much easier to catch the rear from stepping out. I don't even need to counter steer, just use a little less steering angle, or play with the throttle and it all sorts itself out.

charlox5

Koni. Don't even bother with Fortune, BC, FF, Tein, or anything of that ilk.

When it comes to dampers, unless it's made by Koni/Bilstein/KW/Moton, you're taking an unnecessary risk. That even applies to Ohlins, which look to be a very trick setup--but one that is still unproven to me, and one that I passed up for MCS (basically a moton).

The Koni yellow or the Bilstein Sport is basically the best suspension damper you can buy until you start ponying up for V3's. The Koni's have adjustability, which gives them an edge, but a custom valved Billy sport is a very formidable shock.

Question is, will CR springs give you the spring rate that you want? The limitations of lowering springs is you don't get to tune via spring rate, which may or may not be important to the end user.

thielepr

About the spring rates your right. The reason for the CR springs because they have the oem quality. However, Ground Control with 550 fronts and 440 seems like a good option and the price is right on my budget

thielepr

IS the GC with Koni the best bang for the buck?

charlox5

absolutely. quality construction, proven damper design, great warranty, affordable, and your choice of springs and rates. IMO until you spend $2K or more you're not going to do better than a koni yellow or bilstein sport and GC's.

550 lb/in is getting to the upper range of what a off the shelf yellow can effectively damp, but I ran 550# on a OTS yellow setup and it was fine. Also, given the tight space in the S2K, extended top hats are probably not going to work, so you're limited in how much you can lower, but from your OP it sounds like you're not going to dump the car anyway. If you wanted to run more spring, koni custom valves yellows to SPSS spec, which should work with up to 1000 lbs of spring and i believe can be shortened as well.

thielepr

I could go with 440F and 380R to be safe I guess but I wouldn't like to go too soft either. You're right about the drop. Less than an inch would be good enough.

tcjensen

I wouldn't rule out Bilstein PSS + 100 lb stiffer swift 70mm springs. (8k front, 7k rear) Should be < $1500 shipped all said and done. Then you can custom revalve them for cheap when you are ready to go to stiffer custom rates. Quality monotube shock.