guys
Last week I insalled koni's and tein H springs (in my driveway without power tools).
I have a little write up about it on another thread here. DPE was of great help with me in getting this package and giving advice. I have the RB swys(big bars by some standards) so that influenced my decision some in getiting the tein H's vs the S's.
Performance wise it has been just as I expected. "The happy tail" rear end is now gone that I used to get with HARD high speed braking. The "floaty" front end that I used to get when exiting a high speed turn under power or hitting a little depression in a turn at high speed is also gone.
Yes the ride is more harsh. But it is not uncomfortable. Nice drop also. I had to be careful about the drop since I am running a 35 offset wheel. To be truthful I dont really see that i am going to have to do much if any adjustment for the track.
Do get a good alignment after the suspension is settled. The drop does visabily change the camber. I was running -1.4 front and -1.9 rear with my stock suspenion. It is more now and I have a appointment soon to get it spec'ed.
I really dont see where the expensive coil over systems can be any better except if you want to play with corner weights or ride height. And the corner weights on a stock rx8 is pretty dang good.
I highly recommend this combo. It is a little harder to install than coilovers.
olddragger

 

olddragger,

how do you have your shock set. ~% from soft?????

beers

 

Thanks for the info olddragger.... I was thinking about this combo for a while.

 

Guys,
Rear is set 1/2 turn up(firmer) from full soft. The front is on full soft for everyday driving then 1 turn firmer for the exciting times. The fronts are very easy to change the settings on. Takes 15 seconds
rotor on guys
olddragger

 

what's the difference between tein basics and tein h-tech?

 

from the spring standpoint????? not sure the basics are a whole coilover system. the h-tech are just springs.

beers

 

ahhh well that's a pretty big difference lol.

 

and the spring rate on the baics is a LOT higher. But yeah, the Basics are a full height adjustable coil over. Not a bad option on a budget, but they have been reported to be a little firm.

 

i havent measured but i can tell you this i got more drop than one inch in the fron at .3 in the back with the tein h's and koni's. I will try and talk my teenage son to take a picture so i can post. i am out of town this w/e so i will try next week
olddragger

 

In the Competition forum Uuulose describes how to take the rear shock/spring apart on the car without a spring compressor to allow making rear Koni adjustments in the field, this was with an OE spring, should be easier still with a lowering spring

starts down at Post #29

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-racing-25/order-do-b-stock-mods-76872/page2/

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by DPE
All numbers taken either from the manufacturer, or from other posts on this forum. Some we can verify, and a few we can't. Just keep that in mind. . .

Stock 'Sport' Suspension spring rates on the RX-8 are 156/113 (F/R)
Mazdaspeed: 280/190
Tein S-Tech: 207/145
Tein H-Tech: 179/129
Tanabe GF: 179/146
Tanabe NF: 162/112
Racing Beat: 187/136
Eibach: 180/130 (progressive, so this varies a bit)
H&R: 195/141 (progressive, so this varies a bit)


As for the question on coilovers, all aftermarket adjustable 'coilovers' come with a shock and spring. The more expensive ones also come with the upper mount, usually of the 'pillowball' variety (a spherical metal bushing in a metal plate rather than the rubber top mounts that most cars use from the factory). Tein Basics, for example, re-use the OEM top mounts and a few of the small hardware bits. Tein Flex do not re-use any of the OEM coilover assembly. The aftermarket coilovers also come with proprietary springs, so one would never use their OEM springs with their new coilovers. Hopefully that makes sense?


DPE - Thank you sooo much for the continuing information. If I'm interpreting all of this correctly,
- H-Tech's are pretty darn close to the OEM rate and provide just alittle drop (mainly in the front - 1.0 fr & .3 rr).
- S-Tech is more aqgressive but still should work well with the oem dampers.....drop is pretty nice with 1.4 fr & .7 rr)
- Tanabe NF's, again, pretty darn close to OEM but provide a bit more drop than H-Tech's (1.4 fr & 1.2 rr)
- Tanabe GF's, Probably a nice upgrade from OEM while allowing for the retension of the stock dampers? and provide a nice front/rear drop (1.4 fr & 1.2 rr)....right?
- Racing Beat, hmmmm....maybe same as above as far as rate is concerned but with almost no drop (.5)
- Eibach, again.....rate very close to H-Tech and should work OK with OEM dampers, right?. Drop is pretty good at 1.2 fr & .8 rr.

Ok...with all that said, my budget does not allow for the replacement of the OEM dampers with the springs.....but....I was kinda wanting to lower the car a bit. I'm 'leaning' towards the Eibach's or the Tanabe GF's. Any words of wisdom with these? OR......am I making the wrong move and should wait till next spring and replace all?
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could we make all this info here a sticky????? most everything you need is here.

beers

 

This info is perfect...it does give most of the important factors in one place. The only missing peice is the suggested retail price. It would be nice to see that side by side as well. It would give a starting point to assist our search. Thanks Swoope, and to DPE.

 

If you are only looking to lower car and want a good ride for street and maybe a track event or two go with the Eibachs.

I started there and now have the Tein Flex with Electronic Control unit. 8 sees the track at least 8 times a year and in the Florida Region of NASA group 4 (instructors) is combined at times with race practice. Full open passing. I wanted the best handling car around. My mazdaspeed bumper sits less than 4 inchs off of the ground. Use soft settings around town, but go full hard for two or the three tracks that we run. At full soft it is still a rough ride when compared to the eibach setup.

Jay Goldfarb
Instructor with PBOC, BMW CCA & NASA

 

not seing any info on the SPRINT springs... here is my car with them.

 

thanks, in part, to the information presented by DPE, I've decided on the Mazdaspeed setup. I am waiting for the springs/struts and sway bars to arrive...hopefully to install them this week. Thanks again for the info...I bookmarked this thread awhile back, but have come back several times for reference.

 

Springs alone will not improve you cars handling

 

install of MS components is complete. I still need to get an alignment, but I am definately happy with the final product. I have an autocross event next weekend and I hope to test them fully.

 

bumpety bump!
(can you tell Jedi has a case of the 'mod bug')

 

any tein s-tech group buys in the future???

 

I went with MS and Koni shocks and IMO the combo is PERFECT, perfect drop and stiff but bearable rates with good overall balance.

 

CosmosMpower, I'm thinking about the same setup, probably with sway bars. When you say bearable, since everybody's bearable is different, can you quantify that? Is it wife/girlfriend complaining stiff, or just BMW 3 series stiff?

My last car was very stiff, good for autox and track, but horrible on the road, so I'd like to avoid the same mistake.

 

My gf doesn't complain but she drives a 00 S2000 I would say it's fairly stiff though especially over some hard bumps my *** has left the seat a few times. The caveat is that I turned my shocks up further than I probably should have. Out of 2.75 possible turns I did a 1.5 turns and I think 1-1.25 would be completely street comfortable but still stiff enough for track/autocross.

Even how it is now over good/normal roads it feels very well dampened and is tolerable, small bumps are just fine as well. It's considerably stiffer than a 3 series, I had a 97 M3 sedan before the 8 and it's about equivalent to an M3 on bilsteins and 30-40% stiffer than a M3 on factory shocks.

I drive about 20-30 miles a day and am thinking about an Elise in the near future so I guess my tolerance might be a little higher than some.

 

Just had my Eibachs installed yesterday. Wow, is all I can say! Car looks great and the ride isn't any different with the exception of abrupt, harsh square edged bumps. Like the ones on a bridge that separate the different sections.

Anyhow, I'll post some pics as soon as I find my camera.

I would hightly recommend Eibachs for those looking for a nice drop without sacrificing hardly anything in ride/comfort.

Pics are posted.

 

Bump bump.

I am doing research on some springs and thought this thread was super informative and deserved a bump. Newbies: don't start new threads!

 

I had Eiback sportlines on my celica and loved them. Now eibach pro-kit on the 8 (just springs) and they are also great. They get my vote.