Suspension spec thread

[SilverSquirrel]

OP:
Anti roll bar stock specs:

Golf V R32: 22,0 solid / 21,7 x 3,0 (4-motion)

taken from this swaybar thread on the MKV forum: (other arb specs listed as well)
http://www.golfmkv.com/forums/showth...ght=fsb&page=7

[Slave IV]

OP:
Anti roll bar stock specs:

Golf V R32: 22,0 solid / 21,7 x 3,0 (4-motion)

taken from this swaybar thread on the MKV forum: (other arb specs listed as well)
http://www.golfmkv.com/forums/showth...ght=fsb&page=7

Awesome, thanks!

[Fast1one]

Haha nope...just interesting to hear that the people who have the most R&D on this car and platform say that about suspension setups for it. I still think the Ohlins are the way to go no matter what you are after, unless it is just going as low as possible.

I'm glad I decided to wait on my suspension install as APR has confirmed my suspicions that lowering the R will likely make the handling worse. I'm ok with sacrificing a small amount of performance for looks as a few MM lower won't be too bad, but I will wait on the H2sport spindles (if they ever get released!) until I throw on my suspension. Hopefully they have some improvement for the MKV R platform.

I was starring at my suspension the other day and decided against doing anything for now. Looking at the stock LCA, its pretty obvious why it won't make a big difference: The LCA is already pretty parallel to the ground on the stock suspension.

BTW, does anyone know if the MKV GTIs share the same spindle design? It is my understanding that the MKIV R32, along with the MK1 Audi TT, have an upgraded spindle design compared to the regular golf and GTI variants. The R32 had a steel version while the Audi TT was aluminum. However, speaking to one of my friends he seems to think that the MKVs had the same spindle design across all variations.

I don't have access to a MKV golf or GTI to poke my head under there. Anyone know for sure?

[Slave IV]

I'm glad I decided to wait on my suspension install as APR has confirmed my suspicions that lowering the R will likely make the handling worse. I'm ok with sacrificing a small amount of performance for looks as a few MM lower won't be too bad, but I will wait on the H2sport spindles (if they ever get released!) until I throw on my suspension. Hopefully they have some improvement for the MKV R platform.

I was starring at my suspension the other day and decided against doing anything for now. Looking at the stock LCA, its pretty obvious why it won't make a big difference: The LCA is already pretty parallel to the ground on the stock suspension.

BTW, does anyone know if the MKV GTIs share the same spindle design? It is my understanding that the MKIV R32, along with the MK1 Audi TT, have an upgraded spindle design compared to the regular golf and GTI variants. The R32 had a steel version while the Audi TT was aluminum. However, speaking to one of my friends he seems to think that the MKVs had the same spindle design across all variations.

I don't have access to a MKV golf or GTI to poke my head under there. Anyone know for sure?

You can get Passat Control Arms and Spindles, which are aluminum and will reduce your unsprung weight by around 5lbs per wheel. TT parts will give you camber adjustment but also widen your track (front only). Details found in this thread.

[Fast1one]

You can get Passat Control Arms and Spindles, which are aluminum and will reduce your unsprung weight by around 5lbs per wheel. TT parts will give you camber adjustment but also widen your track (front only). Details found in this thread.

Not looking to reduce unsprung weight, though that's not a bad thing. Rather, I want to improve the geometry of the front suspension by lowering the LCA mounting point on the spindle. This would effectively raise the roll center, allowing me to go lower without negatively affecting the performance of the vehicle.

Peak under the car and look at the LCA. For McPherson strut suspensions, you really don't want to lower the car further than when the LCA is parallel to the ground. Lower the suspension further and the roll center will drop much faster than the center of gravity will, increasing the roll couple and causing the car to roll MORE while turning. In extreme cases, the roll center could be located below the ground and the distance between the roll center and center of gravity will be immense. This is why handling could get worse even if the C.G. gets lower.

I have read in some places that the MK2 Audi TT spindles are an improvement over the MKV Golf spindles. But I have no way of knowing if people are just making assumptions based on the A4 (MKIV) platforms, where the Audi TT and R32 had improved suspension geometry to lower the car more than the standard Golf. VAG achieved this in the A4 platform with different spindles:

http://audittmk1.blogspot.com/2009/0...s-how-bad.html

[Slave IV]

Not looking to reduce unsprung weight, though that's not a bad thing. Rather, I want to improve the geometry of the front suspension by lowering the LCA mounting point on the spindle. This would effectively raise the roll center, allowing me to go lower without negatively affecting the performance of the vehicle.

Peak under the car and look at the LCA. For McPherson strut suspensions, you really don't want to lower the car further than when the LCA is parallel to the ground. Lower the suspension further and the roll center will drop much faster than the center of gravity will, increasing the roll couple and causing the car to roll MORE while turning. In extreme cases, the roll center could be located below the ground and the distance between the roll center and center of gravity will be immense. This is why handling could get worse even if the C.G. gets lower.

I have read in some places that the MK2 Audi TT spindles are an improvement over the MKV Golf spindles. But I have no way of knowing if people are just making assumptions based on the A4 (MKIV) platforms, where the Audi TT and R32 had improved suspension geometry to lower the car more than the standard Golf. VAG achieved this in the A4 platform with different spindles:

http://audittmk1.blogspot.com/2009/0...s-how-bad.html

Well, you are sparking more good discussion and things to think about/research on. I feel like the experts probably already thought of these things and that is why VWR and Ohlins both agree that the best way to improve handling on this car is to improve the components but not the geometry of the suspension. Please post any further findings you come up with though.

[Fast1one]

Most well versed suspension gurus will tell you the same thing. I learned the parallel LCA rule back when I owned my previous car. I have been pretty much riding on the hope that H2Sport will release their sport spindles for the MKV platform. Otherwise, I'll just install my coilovers, lower the car slightly for aesthetics and call it a day

[Slave IV]

Most well versed suspension gurus will tell you the same thing. I learned the parallel LCA rule back when I owned my previous car. I have been pretty much riding on the hope that H2Sport will release their sport spindles for the MKV platform. Otherwise, I'll just install my coilovers, lower the car slightly for aesthetics and call it a day

Yeah, it's probably best to just do that...cars that were designed for all out performance instead of being good all around DD's have completely different suspension geometry for a reason and unless you are willing to go to the lengths it would take to customize your car in a similar way, it probably isn't worth it.



Keeping it VAG

[Harry_Krishna]

Argh!!!!!! If only all these parts and info were available 4 years ago

Back then, I had to go with gut feelings, and what I knew from my previous cars, which were Subies. Oh if I only had the money to do it all over again,.........

[Frank The Car Guy]

Greetings all,

By way of introduction, I'm new here. I just took delivery of 1784 last Tuesday and I've been enjoying it (for all of 250+ miles at this point).

I'm an automotive journalist and I've tested and tracked both MkIV & MkV R32s. The MkIV was one of the most impressive "arrive and drive" street cars that I've ever just pulled off of a public road and thoroughly enjoyed on a racetrack. I have a pretty hardcore track car in a prepped Lotus Elise and I race on a LeMons / Chump team that campaigns two VR6 VWs: a '94 Jetta & a '95 GTI, so I don't need the R32 to be anything more than a reasonably engaging daily driver (that I would occasionally let a friend track for novice / beginner use. I.E. they won't be pushing the car very hard).

I plan to use my R32 for 75% street (mostly highway, shuttling to / from airport), 15% dry track and 10% ice autocross / ice track. I do live in Colorado though and will need a reasonable ride height for winter use.

So, I originally thought the car had stock springs and shocks (more on that in a bit) and I figured I'd look into Euro springs, which, in the VW / Audi world had typically been slightly lower (~20mm the last time I utilized a set on an Audi) and slightly stiffer and likely eminently livable on a daily basis for my purposes. It ends up though that when you compare the Euro and US MkV R32 parts fiches that the springs carry the same part numbers...

Front Spring - 1K0411105JD (Yellow/White)
Rear Spring - 1K0511115GE or 1K0511115GF (Dependent on weight class, determine by options)

...So much for that idea.

I had planned on just driving the stock suspension for a while, but I'm rarely one to leave well enough alone for that long though. 1784 has 44k miles and as a Lotus driver and occasional Formula Ford racer I am pretty snobby about suspensions. I was looking to refresh the stock shocks at the very least (likely with Koni FSDs). I don't want to deal with aftermarket coil-overs though.

So, it ends up that 1784 did not come to me with stock springs / shocks as I was led to believe it would. I believe it has Neuspeed sport springs (1.4" lowering, ugh) and, as of yet, unidentified shocks (possibly the stock units). Ugh. The car is too low and responds poorly to road undulations (including scraping in some instances when encountering undulations while traveling at the speed limit). I will likely search out a set of stock springs to pair with Koni FSDs and give that a try. I don't have to raise the car back up until winter and I don't dislike the ride that much, per se, but when I have passengers in the car with more adult sensibilities than mine, I kinda cringe about the ride. I haven't had the car out on the track yet, but I don't think my current setup would perform that well.

So, after reading through this thread, it seems to me that there aren't any milder lowering spring options (like 0.75" lowering?)? The least amount of lowering seems like 1" for the KW1s. Is that correct? If so, looks like I'll source a set of stock springs and some fresh Koni FSDs and give that a try.

I'd like to hear people's thoughts and please let me know if you have a set of stock springs available.

Thx,

[motrrrpsycho]

Hi Frank,

Congrats on the recent car purchase and welcome! I used to dream of being a moto journalist (car and / or motorcycle) and envy you the opportunity to drive so many different cars, but I decided I liked writing software allot better than words. It's cool to hear that someone with your level of exposure to a huge variety of cars pics the same one as us for his own! BTW - who do you write for?

It sounds like we have similar goals in terms of finding slightly stiffer than OE springs with no / minimal drop. That's interesting what you found on the euro R32 springs - I thought I had heard that they were a bit stiffer and lower on the euro MKV but maybe that is the case with the MKIV and not the MKV? Audi S3 springs are supposed to work as well, if you can find them. I guess OEMPlus used to sell them, but they don't seem to cary them any longer? I talked to a guy at ECS tuning the other day and asked about S3 springs and he said that there are allot of different part numbers for S3 springs, so you would need to know which PN you needed (if you did, they could order them).

Anyway, I was contemplating trying some Passat springs (B6 gen, 3.6 4mo) but IDK... I keep going back and forth on that idea. I'm thinking OE Passat might actually raise the car a bit, and it's pretty hard to guess where Passat lowering springs would get you. In theory, something like the H&R sports which, for the 3.6 4mo wagon are supposed to lower 1.2" (30mm) front and rear would lower our car which 350-400 lbs lighter less - but how much less and how they would ride??? Tough to say. I've done a little bit of searching on euro sites for other spring options and did find that KW makes 20mm F/R Passat lowering springs which don't seem to be offered through any US site that I've found. I'm getting a shipping quote from a UK company and might give those a try (was almost going to just order them but shipping came up as 88 bucks or something crazy) Here is a link to those in case anyone is interested. Maybe they have a similar set for the MKV R32 - I have not searched for that option yet.

Other options I'm looking at are possibly less of a gamble in terms of achieving desired ride height and quality, but also allot more $$. One being a Ground Control coilover kit, which let's you pick whatever weight Eibach springs you want with several different dampener options, including Koni (I already have FSDs). The only thing I'm concerned about there is getting spring weight right and the fact that there are no progressive spring options - only strait rate. They do also offer tender springs, so a dual rate set up might achieve a similar effect to progressive. Since ryeboy is doing this kit and also trying to stay stock ride height, I might just wait and see how his turns out before trying the Passat spring idea.

For coilovers, the KW's seem to offer the least lowering of any that state their specs. The VWR offerings sold through APR seem promising, but they don't state what their height adjustment range actually is. I'm trying to find that out. They offer lowering springs for GTIs and such, but actually state that they do not recommend use of lowering springs on any 4mo/quattro car and point you to their coils. This seems to imply that their coils will allow stock or very close to stock ride height. I called APR and was told they will let you maintain stock height, but they had no numbers of adjustment range and didn't seem to know anything else that was not already on the web site, so I'm skeptical. I emailed VWR in the UK and got this response:

Hi Jake,

Thanks for the message, good questions. The 4Mo definitely works best at near-stock ride height.

Given that the R32 is already runs lower than the regular G5s, then our suspension will just give you the OEM ride height at highest setting. So no problem there. You can of course then drop the car a long way from there if you ever choose to.

Hope that helps,

Best wishes,

Sam

I replied to ask again if they can give me an actual adjustment range, so we'll see. These coils are also pretty cool in that they come with progressive springs but you can get strait rate and swap them back and forth, and even add adjustable camber plates if you want. The only bummer is that adding those options or adjustable dampening all increase the price quite a bit. Comparing the non-adjustable ones to KW V1s or the adjustable to KW V3s with the current pricing of KWs - the KWs are fair bit less expensive and already more of a known quantity. I would be pretty torqued if I decided to pony up the extra $$ for the VWR units only to find that they still drop my car an inch at the highest setting when I could just just got the KWs.

If only H&R / Eibach / KW / Swift / anyone made direct OE replacement springs for AWD cars that maintained stock ride height, were still progressive, but just less progressive and stiffer........

Anyway... if I get a more concrete answer from VWR, I might just give those a shot. If so, I would have a set of OE springs and Koni FSDs for sale, if you were interested in used ones My springs have 35K miles and the Koni's only about 5K.

-Jake

[Slave IV]

Frank, I think you can get Swift to make you some custom springs based on whatever you have at the moment. I'd send them the springs you have and tell them you want to be a bit higher and go for linear rate springs with higher rates on whatever new dampers you choose. By the way, welcome and thanks for contributing more to this thread.

[motrrrpsycho]

Slave, any idea what swift would charge for something like that?

BTW, in case anyone saw my comment on the KW Passat springs - they actually lower by 40mm. They lower a Passat R36 by 20mm, but the R36 already sits 20mm lower than other Passats. I guess there was a Passat sport package that used 15mm lower springs, so the sport package or R36 OE springs might work.

[Slave IV]

Slave, any idea what swift would charge for something like that?

BTW, in case anyone saw my comment on the KW Passat springs - they actually lower by 40mm. They lower a Passat R36 by 20mm, but the R36 already sits 20mm lower than other Passats. I guess there was a Passat sport package that used 15mm lower springs, so the sport package or R36 OE springs might work.

I think you would provide them with the info they need (car model/spring specs/or just send them your current springs) and they will have some that already fit your application or custom make them. Probably around $500 either way.

Thanks for the other info!

[Ryan E.]

The spindles are out, and go for $800. They're designed to work for cars up to 2" lowered and work fine with cars not.

I have some other stuff in the works at the moment (Rigid Collars/Bushing Refresh/245 track tires), so they'll come down the road in summer. I hear they enable the car to pull more more than 1G.

Most well versed suspension gurus will tell you the same thing. I learned the parallel LCA rule back when I owned my previous car. I have been pretty much riding on the hope that H2Sport will release their sport spindles for the MKV platform. Otherwise, I'll just install my coilovers, lower the car slightly for aesthetics and call it a day

Frank The Car Guy
I'd just go back to OEM for your needs with some nice shocks, like you had mentioned. I tracked my car on the OEM setup for a few years before making any suspension modifications, car felt great OEM.

[Fast1one]

The spindles are out, and go for $800. They're designed to work for cars up to 2" lowered and work fine with cars not.

I have some other stuff in the works at the moment (Rigid Collars/Bushing Refresh/245 track tires), so they'll come down the road in summer. I hear they enable the car to pull more more than 1G.

Yup. I also confirmed that the R has the same spindles as the mkv gti. Since the R is a bit lower they should still be good for about a 1.5" drop. I'll confirm on Friday when I order a set :-)

Should be installing the sport spindles and coilovers in the coming weeks.

[Howboutcha C'mon]

VWR coils...


popcorn.gif

[Slave IV]

VWR coils...


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You got 'em? They are probably the best option besides Ohlins at this point but again, wish there was more info about these things. Can't wait to hear about the TrackSport options:


It's funny...APR website states, "Visit our TrackSport page to learn more.", yet, there is no link and I didn't see a TrackSport page anywhere.

[Fast1one]

VWR coils...


popcorn.gif

Sport Spindles

[Frank The Car Guy]

Hi Frank,

Congrats on the recent car purchase and welcome! I used to dream of being a moto journalist (car and / or motorcycle) and envy you the opportunity to drive so many different cars, but I decided I liked writing software allot better than words. It's cool to hear that someone with your level of exposure to a huge variety of cars pics the same one as us for his own! BTW - who do you write for?

It sounds like we have similar goals in terms of finding slightly stiffer than OE springs with no / minimal drop. That's interesting what you found on the euro R32 springs -

If only H&R / Eibach / KW / Swift / anyone made direct OE replacement springs for AWD cars that maintained stock ride height, were still progressive, but just less progressive and stiffer........

Anyway... if I get a more concrete answer from VWR, I might just give those a shot. If so, I would have a set of OE springs and Koni FSDs for sale, if you were interested in used ones My springs have 35K miles and the Koni's only about 5K.

-Jake

Thanks Jake!

Yes, the auto journalist gig is a nine year old boy's dream come true, and, in the final analysis... we're all just nine year old boys. I've driven / tested everything from Chevy Aveo / Suzuki SX4 to Toyota Sienna (Swagger Wagon Baby!) to Lamborghini Gallardo (LP560-4, Balboni, Spyder, etc.) Aston Martin DBS / Bentley Continental Supersports and pretty much the full gamut of everything in between. All told, I've driven / tested about 750 cars over the past ten years. You won't make a fortune doing it, but the fringe benefits are sublime.

So, you bring up a good point regarding my deciding on a MkV R32 after having been exposed to so many cars in the past decade. I can't afford any car that my heart desires, but I can afford the reasonable majority. I am a HUGE proponent of having a street car and a track / race car, if your budget and situation allows. Hence the Lotus and the R32. The Lotus is truly unique in most all of autodom in that it is pure and focused and unlike anything else out there (feather weight, bonded / extrded aluminum tub, etc.) and, well driven, it can embarass / outperform cars that cost 2-3x as much... at the track. It's a woefully inadequate street car though. On that side, the R32 represents an amazing amount of comfort, technology and performance for a serious value proposition. For those interested, here's a sampling of the more desirable vehicles I've tested:
http://amoroso.smugmug.com/Cars


But, at the risk of going off topic... allow me to bring it back to suspensions...

As to your stock springs with FSDs, short of my finding another set of springs in the interim (and my ability to purchase FSDs directly from Koni), I am VERY interested in your set! Please PM me to discuss.

Frank, I think you can get Swift to make you some custom springs based on whatever you have at the moment. I'd send them the springs you have and tell them you want to be a bit higher and go for linear rate springs with higher rates on whatever new dampers you choose. By the way, welcome and thanks for contributing more to this thread.

While that sounds appealing: something slightly lower and slightly firmer / less progressive (but still progressive), I don't feel up to the logistics / trial & error. If there were an off the shelf solution I would be ALL OVER IT!

Glad to be here. Just in case my diligence / sources are flawed can anyone on here check US and Euro parts fiches and confirm those part numbers? I'd very much like to find out that there is a factory alternative for slightly lower and stiffer progressive springs.

Frank The Car Guy
I'd just go back to OEM for your needs with some nice shocks, like you had mentioned. I tracked my car on the OEM setup for a few years before making any suspension modifications, car felt great OEM.

Very likely that's where I end up. First step is to find out what's on my "new" car. Hell, if it's a set of adjustable coilovers, maybe I can order lower rate springs and adjust the ride height up. If it's just a set of H&R sport springs, or the like, I'll likely put them up on here as a trade for a set of stock springs.

[Frank The Car Guy]

Hi Frank,

It sounds like we have similar goals in terms of finding slightly stiffer than OE springs with no / minimal drop. That's interesting what you found on the euro R32 springs - I thought I had heard that they were a bit stiffer and lower on the euro MKV but maybe that is the case with the MKIV and not the MKV? Audi S3 springs are supposed to work as well, if you can find them. I guess OEMPlus used to sell them, but they don't seem to cary them any longer? -Jake

Well, does anyone have any experience with these...
http://www.oemplus.com/springs-eu-r32-p-672.html

???

Thx,

[motrrrpsycho]

Yes, the auto journalist gig is a nine year old boy's dream come true, and, in the final analysis... we're all just nine year old boys.

Hey... I resemble that remark

Well, does anyone have any experience with these...
http://www.oemplus.com/springs-eu-r32-p-672.html

I know, confusing, right? I would also like to hear if anyone has tried these. They call them "EU R32" springs in the OEMPlus URL / title, then they say "3.2 S-line A3" when you look at the details. For anyone looking at this, I suggest 3.2 A3 should be fine but be careful about S3 or any other springs from a 2.0 car, as the VR6 is heavier than 2.0, thus requiring stiffer springs. That said, these might be worth a try. I am also considering trying OE passat 3.6 4mo "sport suspension" springs which are only 15mm lower (for the Passat) and designed for a car that is about %10 heavier, so on paper - seems about right.

As to your stock springs with FSDs, short of my finding another set of springs in the interim (and my ability to purchase FSDs directly from Koni), I am VERY interested in your set! Please PM me to discuss.

Cool, I'll let you know if I decide to sell those, but might take another month or two for me to decide. Don't wait for me though. I gather there are good sale prices on Koni's right now, and you should be able to find someone's OE springs. Not sure if user "ryeboy" is selling his, but he has just (or soon will be) replaced his.

You got 'em? They are probably the best option besides Ohlins at this point but again, wish there was more info about these things. Can't wait to hear about the TrackSport options:

It's funny...APR website states, "Visit our TrackSport page to learn more.", yet, there is no link and I didn't see a TrackSport page anywhere.

Slave - just curious - how / why are you so confident that these VWR coils are that good? As for their site - I think APR largely copied and pasted text / content over from the VWR site, so just a guess (without looking) but there might be a tracksport page on the VWR site? Or they are mentioning a page on their site which does not exist and APR copied that text

[Frank The Car Guy]

-

Cool, I'll let you know if I decide to sell those, but might take another month or two for me to decide. Don't wait for me though. I gather there are good sale prices on Koni's right now, and you should be able to find someone's OE springs. Not sure if user "ryeboy" is selling his, but he has just (or soon will be) replaced his.

No worries, I can wait it out a while, just lemme know when you make a decision either way. I'm now kicking around a Ford Raptor purchase and that should keep me busy for a while.

[Slave IV]

Frank, I don't think you'd have to go through too much if any trial and error with Swift, I bet they have specs on most cars and a suitable solution "out of the box" already.

motrrrpsycho, I've stated before that there are companies that you should be able to trust based on the nature of their business. VWR is in the business of developing performance parts for VW and using those parts to compete with. They are not just a random company that has access to different parts and machines to put together things to sell purely for profit. Everything they offer has to be proven to work as intended or else they wouldn't exist. The same reason I can trust that a car made by quattro GmbH is going to be better and of higher performance than a car based on the same platform from the regular Audi factory...AMG to Benz, M to BMW, etc...

That being said, I'd personally still go with Ohlins if I ever had to change my stock suspension.

[motrrrpsycho]

motrrrpsycho, I've stated before that there are companies that you should be able to trust based on the nature of their business. VWR is in the business of developing performance parts for VW and using those parts to compete with. They are not just a random company that has access to different parts and machines to put together things to sell purely for profit. Everything they offer has to be proven to work as intended or else they wouldn't exist. The same reason I can trust that a car made by quattro GmbH is going to be better and of higher performance than a car based on the same platform from the regular Audi factory...AMG to Benz, M to BMW, etc...

Hm, OK. I don't know, but was under the impression that VWR was not part of / directly affiliated with VW where the other brand pairings you mentioned were? In any case, I'm not making any kind of argument against VWR - just wondering what you are basing your level of confidence on that they are the best (besides Ohlins (in your words)). I don't know about this either, but am under the impression that these VWR street based product offerings are fairly new to the market? If so, and even if VWR are great at designing and producing race products, how do we know how good their street line will actually be? How do we know the same level of R&D has gone in to the street line as the racing line? Are there any independent reviews out there yet? I find it kind of odd that there are not more details on their site and that they can't answer a basic question such as "what is the height adjustment range relative to OE for the MKV R32?" Again - not arguing against them at all - they look good, probably are good, I'm just looking for more to base a decision to buy (or not) on.

[Slave IV]

motrrrpsycho, all good questions and I would want answers myself if I were buying anything. I do find it interesting that Ohlins and VWR are the only two companies that specifically design their products to not lower the car. If you don't trust VWR, I challenge you to find anything negative about Ohlin and any of their products regarding suspension performance (I'd really love to hear about it because every Ohlin product I've experienced has been fantastic). If you just list every company mentioned in this thread, I don't think any of them are as respected as Ohlin and I don't think any have had as much specific development on VW cars as VWR and I doubt it's just a coincidence that they both agree. Sure, VWR is not a direct subsidiary of VW like the others I mentioned but they do work directly with VW for performance development. Also, a company like Ohlin does not release products unless they know it will provide performance up to their standards because they don't need to mass market their products like most the other companies mentioned here.

Basically, the whole reason for this thread is because there is such a lack of info for this platform but if you have to go by blind trust, I'd trust Ohlin and VWR over anyone else.

[motrrrpsycho]

Slave - again - I'm not trying to say anything negative about anybody I'm actually very open to the idea of trying some VWR coils, but just hoping to find more supporting info (since I have never heard of them before the last few weeks or whenever they popped up on the forum here with the APR announcement). So I'm just hoping to find test review articles from magazines, review posts from forum users or whatever before I drop 1500+. Ideal would be reviews of the street coils, but even reviews of any of their street products would help.

Ohlins are great - no argument there. They are a huge name in the motorcycle world as well. Lots of motorcycle road race teams use them and they come from the factory on several of the top tier exotic bikes. I'm sure their dampeners are dabomb.com, but I don't want to spend $2k / set, and I suspect I would still not be quite where I want to be for spring rates, so would still be looking for options there.

BTW - I did call Swift a couple weeks ago and described in detail what car I had and what I was looking for, and they (or at least the guy I talked to) did not have any idea what to recommend for me. I'm sure they are a great company, not putting them down - just saying they might not have an off the shelf spring solution for us, so if someone were to go that route, would probably need to send their OE's in to Swift as a reference point or something.

Maybe when Jay gets his suspension install done we can send his OE's on tour up to Swift and down to Vorchlag for analysis

[Slave IV]

Cool, I didn't think you were putting anyone down. I was just clarifying the reasons why I would trust those two companies over most the other ones. And of course, I agree that more info would be ideal. Again that's the entire point of the thread is to have more factual info and real world feedback. Thanks for looking into the springs. I'm looking forward to hearing more about the setups people are trying.

[Howboutcha C'mon]

You got 'em? They are probably the best option besides Ohlins at this point but again, wish there was more info about these things. Can't wait to hear about the TrackSport options:


It's funny...APR website states, "Visit our TrackSport page to learn more.", yet, there is no link and I didn't see a TrackSport page anywhere.

Don't have them... but I'm waiting for somebody on here to get them and give us the low down.

[Slave IV]

I hope APR/VWR can provide some more information on them before someone just buys them blindly...but I still think they will be better off buying these blindly than most others if someone does want to buy something now.

[ECS Tuning]

ST Performance Coilover Suspension

Average lowering of 1.8" to 2.8" front and 1.8" to 2.5" rear









Street Performance Coilover Kit

Unrivaled comfort and performance. Average lowering of 1.2"-2.2"F 1.0"-2.3"R



FK Stainless Series

FK Standard Series

[Slave IV]

Thanks ECS...The ST Coilovers should be the same as KW V1's minus the inox-line anti corrosion feature. Can you provide any information that would give an idea on the ride and handling characteristics of any of the options you posted about? Specifically, spring rates?

[Slave IV]

Some good news for anyone interested in finally getting details on the stock springs AND some new replacement springs with higher rates and slightly lower stance. Frank The Car Guy has talked to people at Swift Springs regarding a custom spring set for our cars. He has a set of brand new OEM springs that he will send in for evaluation and development for new springs. They can do a one-off for him at a considerably high price but they mentioned that the price would drop to $250 a set if there was interest in 10 or more sets. Frank is getting in touch with Swift to get more details and answer some questions I had. Hopefully, Frank will chime in when he gets some details. I wasn't planning on doing anything with suspension yet but if we can get a set that is engineered to our liking for $250, that sounds pretty good to me. Anyone else who is interested, please post up so we can get an idea of the interest for these. Thanks Frank!

[motrrrpsycho]

Nice! I would likely be in, tho still trying to decide if I want to try KW V3 or VWR coils...

[Remedy]

Slave;

Are you considering struts as well in this thread?


Such as Koni STR or FK Tec?