Rzoops

The "correct" spring rate is one that complements the shocks well. The easy button is something like a set of KW V3's or Bilstein PSS9's that are well valved and sprung right out of the box. You might be able to find a set of Bilsteins for ~$1,000 used. They are usually around $1400-1500 new.

I second the comments about sway bars as well. They are a fine tuning tool, not a primary suspension mod. The stock sway bars will be fine for the majority of drivers. There are very few handling traits that can't be corrected via alignment, shocks, and spring rates. Autocrossers like stiff front bars for slalom response. A lot of FWD cars use huge rear sway bars to get the rear end to rotate better. These are both "fine tuning" type changes.

slvrstreak

iTrader: (3)

as you and others have said no since in getting a spring/shock setup if you're going to get coilovers soon
ProgressTech sway has 3 adjustable settings...dont worry about the rear...only need to tighten up the front...ideally this should be done after the springs/shocks
after that tires and an aggressive alignment
if you still have money burning a hole in your pocket stiffen up the car with support struts

GeorgeH

iTrader: (2)

Good points above.

One comment about running a stiff front sway bar and a soft (or no) rear sway bar - I would only recommend doing that if you increase the rear spring rates to keep the car balanced. Which is to say, good coilovers come with spring rates that assume reasonably matched bars. If you run these spring rates with a stiff front bar but OEM rear bar (for example) the car will push more than most people (who do track days, autocross, etc) would prefer.

For example, I run 600 lb front springs, 375 rear, with the OEM front bar and no rear bar. With this setup I am able to balance the car properly via tweaks to alignment and rake. If I had run this sway bar setup with the KWs (and their off-the-shelf springs) I used to run, the car would have pushed. When I ran the KWs I had Whiteline bars, front and rear.

RotaryMachineRx

iTrader: (1)

I see lots of mention about Koni's.... what about D-Specs?

GeorgeH

iTrader: (2)

As a follow up to my earlier post -

This is another good reason to do coilovers before bars. Learn how to balance the car with coilovers (which give you plenty of "*****" to tweak, especially when combined with alignment & tire pressure) and then figure out where you want to go from there.

GeorgeH

iTrader: (2)

D-Specs are fine, but perhaps 90% of Konis. I ran them for a while and really liked the affect they had on the handling of the car. Personally, if I could only do one "thing" to the suspension (and I count coilovers as two or more "things") it would be shocks.

But again, if you want superb handling (even for street), save your money and get the coilovers.

GeorgeH

iTrader: (2)

I’ll throw one more option out there for the OP, even though I am about to contradict myself, to an extent.

As a starting point, consider getting some revalved Bilsteins from FatCat Motorsports.

The advantage of doing this is that Shaikh, the owner of FatCat, is very familiar making Bilstein bodies work extremely well as a basis for a coilover setup. I run his double adjustables right now and am extremely happy.

So, you could get some revalved non-adjustables right now, and then, when you have the dough, send them back (keep your OEM shocks!) and have them converted to height-adjustable coilovers.

The only problem with this – and this is where I contradict myself – is that you will want shorter shock bodies when you switch to coilovers, but if you run the shorter bodies with stock springs you will run out of droop travel. So, for the time being, pick the stiffest aftermarket springs you can find, and Shaikh can give you valving that will complement the spring rates well (and I would recommend being a bit aggressive on the valving, just to compensate for the lower than ideal spring rates). Then, when you have the cash to go for a full coilover conversion, you have the bodies you need. I’m pretty sure this would work, but Shaikh would tell you for sure one way or another.

I’m not sure if you could do all this for $1k but, if you just leave the Bilsteins as non-adjustable for now (his valving is so good you probably won’t feel the need for shock adjustors right away) you might be able to pull it off.

One caveat: Shaikh has had delivery issues in the past, and I’m not sure where he is on that right now. In my experience he can revalve a set of non-adjustable Bilsteins quite quickly, but it just depends on his backlog. So be sure and understand what his delivery time is.

This is a new approach for the RX8Club community, but I suspect you will be very happy with the results.

bonestockrotary

I do. But I also operate on a realistic budget. I don't have tons of money to throw at my daily and upgrade the 7 too. And yeah they were baller spec. They got the job done and the car handled fantastic at track days and drift events. Id say that's pretty damn good for half the asking price of most coil over sets on the market. Just my personal opinion.

c0ldf1ame

iTrader: (5)

^+1 fatcat

its best to call shaikh up personally and talk to him to get a idea of shipping and time, dont just order through his website.

If you plan accordingly you can end up with a set of non adjustable coilovers for about 1400 thats probably times better than anything else on the market for that price.

shr3da

Thanks everyone for the wealth of knowledge that you have presented me with, very helpful and I have taken a lot of info in

Now I was asked what are my plans for the car?

The car will be a weekender, with the intention of doing lots of track days!

Spin9k

Notice you said you'd likely be getting some adj sways. 2nd that, excellent idea. Fixed sways severely limit (eliminate) your tuning options and esp for track. Sways definitely helps greatly with the severe stock lean you'll experience on track if you have no other mods, and keep swhatever tires you have in better track contact. It's hands down the best bang for buck handling mod along with a good alignment.

I'm all for other suspension adjustability too, and so recommend some type of **easily** adjustable suspension, i.e. realtime adj coilovers, whenever you get to that point are so worth the extra cost. If you can't adjust dynamically while driving to experience the immediate result, you're far less likely to ever get the 'best' settings. That 'right now' feedback is essential, and memory is not a good way to get it right.. whereas the next lap with different settings is far superior Beyond that, each track is different, as are ever changing track conditions due to weather, temp, etc. If you can't tune on a dime, you'll almost guaranteed be misadjusted each and every track day.

hoss -05

iTrader: (4)

Working on something special with him now, Hope it will benefit the whole community.

Like I said Much earlier in the thread I would recommend picking up the Bilstein HDs and going with a good lowering spring. (i like the progressive or s tech) Later down the Road you can send those dampeners into FCM and get them rebuilt to spec with his spring sleeve. The Hd's and springs should be well under your budget.

MaD666MaX

iTrader: (3)

Tires?

shr3da

I have another question, What if I did get sway before coil overs, but I got adjustable ones, So I could make the sway operate in accordance with my future coil over set up?

I live in Australia so I think something like fatcat is out of the question.

Cheers Ben

hoss -05

iTrader: (4)

Keep in mind you will not need a different rear sway bar for 99% of anything you could do with an rx-8 including racing.

Not sure where you are in the Land down under but I would talk to Danney In Brisbane I think his shop is called auto plus. I am sure he could give you a hand and more then a few pointers with anything you need.

shr3da

no worries thanks for the advice, I have a pretty good mechanic who specializes in rx-8's. What would a front sway bar impact on? Turn in? Less wheel spin through corners?

slvrstreak

iTrader: (3)

less...sway

as in body roll

hoss -05

iTrader: (4)

Calling it a Sway bar is actually incorrect. It is a "Anti sway bar". It helps to keep your car level during hard turns. Excessively stiff anti sway bars can a loss in traction and odd feed back and handling traits.

Sephitrask

There are some great thoughts on here on what to buy, but to me the biggest "mod" to do to improve the cars handling hasn't been listed. Driver Mod. Take that $1000 and spend some of it on a good driving school. I have a friend who is a semi pro driver who has got in my car at several events and beat the crap out of my best time. He usually only does this to me when I start talking about mods. I personally feel that until you have completely maxed out the cars potential, modding it acts as a replacement for skill, and the modifications never get fully used. I am not saying your a bad driver, since obviously I dont know you, but thought I would throw that out there.

Chad D.

iTrader: (19)

Wait for the coilovers, get good tires, spend money practicing until those tires are toast, buy a new set of tires and you will know what you want/need.
Then, in the future, get coilovers, a front bar + adjustable endlinks.
Fuzzy Dice to measure your lateral G's.

Rzoops

A front bar will stiffen up the front; a rear bar stiffens up the rear. As mentioned in my previous post, these are typically used for fine tuning an existing setup and should not be the focus of your suspension mods.

A front bar will provide better response through transitions (ie: an autocross slalom) but may notice some understeer in turn-in. It should theoretically allow better traction upon acceleration, but again, there are much better ways of achieving that.

A lot of big front sway bar opinions are based on the US autocrossing classes, where the RX-8 is popular in the stock class, and you are only allowed a front sway bar change. Thus, a lot of testing is done for that specific purpose, but you may find that it really isn't in line with what you enjoy the car for. I'm guessing you don't plan to run giant 18" Hoosiers around tight cones in a parking lot.

I know there are plenty of HPDE type events in Australia and I think that would be your best bet for enjoying the most out of the car. Why buy all the nice toys if you can't really play with them?

Spin9k

The 1st mod I got for my stock RX-8 was the Whiteline adj bars and had them imported from Australia, so it should be way easier for you to get those there. Although coilovers might be a better 1st mod, they are expensive, and most want to start off gradually moding the car and see how it goes. For doing that, anti-sway bars are good, cheap, and improve track behavior a bunch.

There is some confusion here in this thread about what is meant by the word thrown about i.e, "track". Track here is being used to refer to both autocrossing or road circuit. Me, I consider tracking taking your car to the race track, like an HPDE event. Autocrossing is a time trial, not tracking. But that's just me. My comments are about HPDE use, noting to do with auto-X

Confusion comes when some people here say "You only need ONLY a front sway bar for track." and they are referring to auto-x. For HPDE that advice is totally incorrect. The RX-8 stock is relatively balanced street car stock, with a bit of understear tendency. Adding a stiffer front bar only will make it a pig on track, understeering mightly. That is not what you should be after, although some people feel better if their car is understeering i.e., "it feels safer". In fact I've been riding with people who think their car handles great, but what they do is to plow at full speed into a corner, slam on the brakes, the yank the steering wheel over, then power out of the turn. Fun maybe, even fast if you have gobs of power, but driving with finesse and balance, it is definitely not.

The combination of adding front and rear adjustable bars let you tune the car to a balanced state that lets you, the driver, glide through corners without plowing, and without a happy rear end getting away from you, and maintain the momentum the RX-8 needs to go fast. The adjustability lets you use the bars to tune effectively whether you have coilovers or not, and so makes a great investment.

bonestockrotary

I just bought a set of tein flex for less than a grand shipped. Good deals are out there.

shr3da

Hey everyone I have a bit of an update. The last two months or so I have had some coilovers fitted, they are great, they are a custom set up I got of my mechanic as a test/trial before they go on the market.

However I find that something is missing.

I am happy with the firmness around corners (not fussed about street drive ability). Corners are very flat and very fast.

My main concern is responsiveness. When really going hard through corners I feel like something has some slack in it, it's still predictable but I feel as though something needs to be tightened up a bit.

First I thought it was my bushings, my car is an 03 and done over 100,kms or 60,000 miles. Perhaps I need to upgrade to polyuthrane bushings? If so which ones?

Or perhaps it's the coilovers themselves? If so I have a budget of about $1600 what would you recommend?

tofu_box

you got your sways yet?

and i think save your money for the impending motor rebuild