Landon

First off let me preface this by saying that I am not an auto crosser or racer at all, so this review may seem a little rudimentary compared to some of the expert reviews that we get around here. I don’t know what I am supposed to be feeling other than I am not supposed to be bouncing over bumps as much, but I hope this is somewhat informative to some of you. My first impression of these coilovers was WOW… That’s because my car now has a 3” DROP from stock. (pics coming soon). I didn’t think that the rx8 could be this close to the ground but ah well, it rides nice! Me and my friends did not finish putting on the coilovers until 11pm last night so I still have to go and get my alignment reset or at least checked so the review below is PRE-Alignment. The first time I got to really test these coilovers out was this morning (5am) on my way to work. My trip to work proved to be an excellent test of the coilovers because of the roads involved. From my home in Ellicott City, MD (Baltimore metro area) to my job in Arlington, VA / Washington DC I have everything from smooth straight roads to curvy pothole filled roads! Also let it be known that it’s raining cats and dogs out here in the DC / Baltimore area which also adds to this test. The first thing I noticed about these coilovers is the stability. The road has a tendency to puddle water at certain areas which always caused my car to pull to the left or right when I hit them at high speeds on my stock suspension. On these new coilovers, the pull was reduced by at least 50%! This to me is big because when I hit the puddle I was doing about 70 MPH and remained in total control. Also we have the coilovers set pretty stiffly but it’s still very drivable. On the areas that I hit like a bump in the road, there was none of that “bounce” you get on a soft suspension… it was just a ”thump” and that’s all you feel. This new feel took some getting use to because I have never ridden in a car with a stiff suspension like this. Another thing I noticed is the way the car just cuts into a corner. I have strut tower bars in the front and rear so my cornering before was pretty good but now its like “Damn”. In DC there are some pretty high bank turns and some hard LONG turns coming off the highway on to the city streets. There is one in particular where it’s hard to take it at high speeds because of the lateral forces trying to pull you as you cut the turn but the coilovers reduced this in my opinion. Normally I can take it doing about 45 – 50 before I get a little scared of losing control. This morning I did it closer to 60 ON WET ROAD and still felt fine. The lateral g force was still there but I still felt quite in control all the way through the curve. Anyone who lives in this area knows about pothole avoidance and well doing that in my car now is more of a pleasure than ever. The responsiveness it’s just…wow… I don’t know any other way to describe it. Even doing it at high speeds, the car just goes right where you tell it. It’s not like it didn’t do that before but now it’s like razor sharp. I don’t know if that in my head or what but I do know my car didn’t respond like it did this morning. Once the roads start to dry, I may set up a small auto cross course with some friends and run it through there to see how it feels. I got to say, these coilovers give some serious bang for your buck in my opinion. By the way I got mine used in here for 500 bucks but brand new they are maybe 1000 bucks which still isn’t bad compared to the more expensive brands. As I said before, the drop from these is pretty incredible without really sacrificing ride quality. The downside to this is that you now have to work EXTRA hard to avoid things in the road since you no longer have the height clearance of a stock 8. I haven’t given the car the speed bump test but this should prove to be kind of interesting. Oh yeah if you get these and you have a driveway with a HUGE dip, forget about parking your 8 there. You will royally **** something up on the underside and if you have the MS kit... say goodbye to your front. Once I am able to really test them hard core when the roads dry I will try to post more. I hope this is helpful to some of you, and if you professional auto crossers have some good way of also testing these let me know and I will give it a shot and let you know the results!

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Cam

Thanks for posting a review, I thought it was fine.

BTW, I love your avatar.

Landon

Thanks!

Jax_RX8

3" Drop - Wow! How much suspension travel do you have left before hitting the bump stops - couldn't be more than about 2-3 inches is it?

Also, do you know what your alignment settings are, must have a lot of camber that you can't dial out?

Don't mean to throw cold water on your purchase - these are supposed to be great coilovers - just wandering what the ramification of a 3" drop will be long term on tires, scrubbing, etc.

Landon

I think its 3 inches until you actually hit the top of the wheel well so i would guess about 2 but dont quote me on that. As far as the alignent settings that I dunno... I just helped with the install. I dont know suspensions like that but I can ask my friend who did most of the work but I think we kept the settings from the previous owner of the coilovers. Also I just shot the previous owner asking him what the specs were that he had them set to. Once I get that I will post it up in here. I should have a few pics later on today so you can see the drop. By the way there is no rubbing so far in turns or going over bumps... Although I havent given it the "speed bump" test. Thats going to be when the road begins to dry up some.

Edit:
One other note, I have to be EXTRA careful having the Mazdaspeed front because thats really low to begin with

TurboEight

I Want Pics!!!

Jax_RX8

Raining here too today (I see you in the metro DC area as well)

You will need an alignment at some point because of the install. Depending on your priorities (max handling versus tire wear) you will have to see if you want to keep it that low (I assume they can be adjusted up some) as you will likely have some pretty high camber settings causing big inside tire wear if you keep it that low (but will have great cornering).

I just installed the NF210 springs (drops 1.4 front and 1.2 rear). With these springs I could maintain -.5 camber in the front and -.75 camber in the rear (0 toe front and rear and 6 degrees of caster in the front) - fairly close to stock settings with good handling angles and decent tire wear, but I was at the end of the adjustment range for both front and rear camber adjustments (to take any more out due to lowering).

Going lower will force higher camber settings (probably 1-2 degrees minimum, especially in the rear) because you will not be able to adjust any more of it out- which is OK if max cornering is your goal, but it will cause big time inside tire wear.

You can even up the wear a little with a little toe-in front and rear - about 1/32" per side for a total of 1/16" each, for both front and rear. This will not reduce inside wear, but will add some stability and increase outside tire wear to keep the wear a little more even across the tire, but at the expense of a little less turn in responsiveness (from the front toe-in). Some do have toe-in only in the rear as you will likely have more camber there to compensate for the inside tire wear.

Also, I have not had any Front lip/understray scrubbing issues, even crossing RR tracks, with mine yet. You may also have to see now much scrubbing you incur if you to see if you can keep it that low all the time.

While I love a low car, just thought I would pass along some of what I have learned for you to use as you see fit - hopefully it helps some.

Landon

Ok people since you asked I went out in the pouring rain to take these pics for you.





As you can see its one hell of a drop. I made the decision that I am going to raise it up an inch to bring it close to what my espiler springs were at. that was low but manageable at the same time which was a good fit.

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Landon

And here is a few more and one showing just how much space is between the car and thr ground by using my fingers.

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Landon

I plan on getting the allignment done on like wednesday and max corning isnt my goal. My goal was a more stable rige...the cornering was a great bonus with it

BTW what the hell is camber? Remember i dont know supensions and the language associated with it

Jax_RX8

Here is a pretty good site on suspension adjustment basics - and their impacts on handling and tire wear

http://www.ozebiz.com.au/racetech/theory/align.html

PUR NRG

Any time you replace springs or shocks, you need to drive the car 200-300 miles to let everything settle in before getting it aligned or corner-weighted.
________
Bmw s1000rr history

Landon

Thanks for that tip because I was about to have it done today and its only been maybe 100 miles since i put them on.

Umbra

The MS exagerates the drop a bit. I have about the same wheel gap but have an extra inch of clearence on the front and sides.

Add some sways and then you'll feel real razor handling. I have hypermax'es with sways and the handling is beyond my bravery limits. I back off before the car needs to..... but that gives me room to grow... hehehe

Landon

Its not mazdaspeed, its megan and they are fully adjustable. I used them with the settings the previous owner had and it is a 3 inch drop... we measured it out.

Jax_RX8

I think he is referring to the MS bodykit you have making the drop seem even more than it is.

ALXVA8

I like the drop. Where are you getting them corner balanced at?

kwescott

wow...low, yes. Looks about the same clearance that MissyK has.

Landon

Corner balanced?

Landon

Then I wonder if she has as many issues with speed bumps as I am. I TOTALLY scraped the bottom and the sideskirts up going over a speed bump. I am getting them raised tomorrow night when I get off work. I am going to bring it up about an inch to an inch and a half

kwescott

I scrape my MS front every once in awhile...I have only the MS springs/struts. I have seen Speeddemon32's undercarriage, and he is as low as the pics you posted above..he had a lot of noticeable wear from scraping. His tire wear is pretty bad as well, so it may be a good idea to add some height to your ride.

Corner balancing....a reason why coilovers are beneficial. You basically go to a place that has four independent scales/weights. You drive the car on the scales, and adjust the height of each coilover so that the car is balanced (same weight) on all four corners.

The basic principal, is as you raise height on one side, weight is transferred to the opposite side. Not much work needs to be done, since the car is balanced pretty well with the factory settings...some people have it corner balanced while they are sitting in the car, with half tank of fuel.....(driver weight varies and could affect your balance...fuel, not so much since we have a saddle-type tank)

llzjayarzll

wow thats stupid low! i wish i could have a drop like that on mine. too bad i live around pothole city.

WoodsOfGreenRx8

Where did you get them from?

Landon

Oh wow thats a kick *** idea. Do you know of any places out in the mid atlantic (MD, DC, VA,) that does it or know anyone that could give a reference to some place?

Landon

I bought them in here from another group member