Just out of curiousity, why do you say the teins are junk? I'm considering getting the flex, primarily due to their compatability with the edfc...i don't track or autocross, but do occasional canyon runs (gotta love the malibu canyons and angeles crest... )...i believe that the edfc will allow me to maintain street settings while jacking them up easily on those every other week canyon runs...

please elaborate as i'm looking to pick some coilovers in the next week or so...if the flex are not good, would you recommend the pss9's or the kw v3? thanks for all your help...

 

before you ask for my advice, remember. i'm nobody special... i am not a suspension engineer, i just happen to have tested out a lot of different suspensions... some on S2000's, BMW's, and EVO's....acruas. whatever. that being said, take what i say with a grain of salt as it is only one mans opinion and i reccomend doing your own research and coming to your own conclusions. with that being said.....
my friend had TEIN HG's on his evo... those unfamiliar, the HG's are there rally suspension meant for rally cross and light dirt events... well, before he could actualy enter any rally events, the TEIN's had to be rebuilt... these TEIN's have no warranty so TEIN wouldn't honor anything and he had to have them rebuilt...a second time. at this point he just sold them... so their "heavy duty" shock couldn't even handle the street, i know people like Giff at bulletproof who have the TEIN's that are like $2g's a corner and love them...but thats $2g's a corner. in addition, i have rode on TEIN's in many different cars and just wasnt impressed with the handling or the ride at all. i mean frankly, for the price.... and for what TEIN's offer...which isn't much, i'd just get KONI shocks and some type of lowering spring.
about PSS9's... for me they are too soft. Bilstein's quality is absolutely undeniable. the spring rates are FAR too low for the dampening level, this can cause bottoming out...
about KW... i have KW on my BMW before and i hated them... they rode like shit and the quality was a joke. my girlfriends dad builds SCCA racecars and used to build/race the ISUZU baja 500 and 1000 cars and won the baja 500 once and the 1000 twice. when he saw the KW and helped me install them he laughed and said it was the most "mickey mouse" suspension he has ever seen and that the quality was a complete and utter joke...on the other side of that, MANY people have them on their S2000's on the board and they love them.

PERSONALLY....in the 1000-1500 range i'd just get KONI's and Springs.... above $2000... whatever ZEAL i could afford or the Ohlins can be had in the $2500 area. at $3000...which was my personal price range i bought the Top Secret/Aragosta's and i could not say a single bad thing about them.. with 12KG springs they ride beautifully and handle even better.... and then at $4000-$5000 i'd get some custom PENSKE's.... after that, spending anymore money on suspension is retarded for anything other than a dedicated track car.

 

its your car, i would leave it stock, spend money on others.

if you lower it 1" you will have to get it alligned. before doing this research the numbers on what you want the new alignment settings to be BEFORE GOING TO THE SHOP. the ap2 model you have is different than eariler models. you can get WILD BAD results even with 1" so schedule some time to debug the resulting handling mess.

i have new KSport's in my ap1 and have NOT gotten the car to perform back where it was oem. the back end is comming loose on most every 33mph turn. i am sure a fix awaits but i am going back to the alignment shop this weekend because they phucked up. takes alot of time.

the KSport will lower the car 1.5" max by the way. they were cost effective for me but i have yet got the perofrmance i want form them. you are doing the right thing asking which coilovers got best results

you can lower the car to the point the suspension will fight it self. i only lowered it 1". you really got to appreciate what you have and how un functional it could get, just the S is so bad this way.

 

great post!

Do you have an opinion on the T1R B-max-R's?

 

Let us know how you like them. What spring rates did you get?

 

Have the PSS9's on my car right now.

These won't allow you to "drop" or "slam" the car much. At the lowest setting, I have a little gap between the fender and the top of the tire up front, and the back I can have it mildly "tucked".

Have them set at 3 up front and 4 in the rear for the dampening. They feel great, not harsh at all, very refined.

Handling characteristics feel as good as stock, maybe even better in some instances. Car seems to be more predictable now.

I'm happy with them, but I wouldn't mind the springs being a little stiffer than what they come with.

 

i have not driven, or even ridden in a car with with them, further more... i don't know who builds them for T1R... frankly, i just don't know enough about them to forumlate an honest opinion about them. sorry.

 

Bilstein springs are pretty soft (in the low 300s, IIRC). Had they been stiffer or had a choice of rates, I would have considered them over the Konis/GC's that are on the way.

 

no mention of hks coilovers? no love for them?

 

WAIT!

On page 15 of the current (May, vol. 20, no. 5) issue of Sport Compact Car is a piece on "Ready, Set, Bench Race." The mag plans to bench test all of the major coilovers for the S2000. It says no "winner" will be selected, but that all of the data will be presented for comparison. Three different cars will also be used with all running the same tires.