Your thoughts on coilovers ??

[kellsled]

This isnt another typical coilover thread asking what is best!!!

Me and MUGEN on here had fitted a set of coilovers onto a mates dc5. We set the top mount camber adjusters fully in as the alinement was badly out,then he went for a full alinment and camber settings at this garage.

Anyways was talking to the guy behind counter and he told me coilovers are the worst invention ever.Said there **** 2bh lol and i was like well what would you use?He said lowering springs are the best to lower cars by and i was like well i have a set of coilovers and my car handles really well.(If here no good why does most civic and dc2's use them on track) lol.Didnt seem to impressed with my responce haha.

Just wondered what you guys thought???

 

[Barryl85]

Different people have different opinions. and theres maybe a few scenarios that would explain it:

He might prefer a decent performance shock and spring combo theres a lot of people who do - and a lot of people who believe this is more suited to the street.

Coilovers are normally better suited for track use (although there are alot designed more or less for the street) - not public roads and he has maybe had some himself and burst his expensive coilovers on public roads.

He maybe very unaware as to what proper coilovers actually are - his experience maybe only with cheap ebay coilover sleeves bolted onto corsa's/saxo's for the ultimate cheap ass chavved up way to screw your standard shocks.

Or he was just making conversation and trying to make yous think he knew what he was talking about.

 

[boostabuse]

what garage phil? i've heard plenty of people tell me that for street use, and especially back roads in NI, that a good springs and shock combo is better... personally any of my cars with coilovers have been a far better drive than with springs.

 

[kellsled]

kerr's tyres lol and the way he said it he ment as in coilovers are no good how expensive they are for street or track lol think it was just him tryn to make it look like he new what he was talkin bout.Apart from that statement he was spot on lol

 

[PaulJ]

9/10 times a good spring and damper setup will match or out perform a coilover kit on the street, purely because coilovers are assentially designed for track use, and our roads are not like a track. The dampers cant react fast enough and thats what gives you a bumpy / crashy ride which can cause bump steer etc. This doesnt happen with a well matched lowering spring and damper combo.

 

[Kozy]

I don't endorse anyone buying coilovers for a street car for the reasons mentioned above, decent Koni/Bilstien dampers and properly specced springs will outperform coilovers on the majority of shitty UK roads.

The adjustability that everyone claims to 'need' is a bit of a moot point in my opinion, a given weight and spring rate has a set frequency, and that frequency has an ideal damping ratio. This should be a set and forget affair, setting at anything other than that optimum is going to be detrimental to the performance of that strut.

 

[V-TEC ABUSER]

hhmmm interesting. i must admit that ive always thought that coilovers are the dogs danglees, but since ive added the good old buddyclub race coilovers i now know why it says on the box 'for race use only'. the ride is so harsh its untrue on the road and i suffer with bump steer badly. but then its my track car as well and i cant fault them on track.... guess you win some an lose some.