So, summer has officially started and I plan to give my 8 the attention it deserves (School/lack of income prevents me from doing so lol)

Long story short, I was looking at coilovers, but my father has given me permission to use his Bilstein shocks from his 09 R3. This will let me get a better suspension setup than the OEM one, get springs to get a lowered look, and not pay 1.5k for the Tein Flex coils I was looking into getting.

Now most of you may just say, "go with coils to begin with", but to be completely honest, I'm a novice when it comes to "modding" a car, this will be truly my first car to actually put real money into. And though I don't consider my driving horrid, I can drive a stick better than the average Joe, but still have much to learn. So I think upgraded shocks + springs is a good start. It will let me experience what upgrading those parts can do for me and if I do decide to go coils in the future, it will let me further appreciate the coils (or completely the opposite) and know the difference between OEM AND an upgraded shock+spring package

Now that being said, I want a pretty low drop, from what I was looking around it seems the Tanabe's have the lowest drop? (may be wrong, but I DID search the forums, a few hours total). But what I wanted to know was, what the best springs would be for both the lowest drop AND highest performance, with the R3 Bilstein shocks.

It doesn't seem like many people run the R3 Bilstein setup on the S1's (which I can understand why of course), so some input would be greatly appreciated!

 

If you have a Series 1 and want factory Bilsteins, wouldn't it be better to get the 40th Anniversary Bilsteins since they are made for Series 1?

The R3 Bilsteins are different part numbers front & rear from the 40th Anniversary and the rear perch would be different as well.

 

Well, the point was that I could basically have upgraded "shocks" for free and just get springs.
Are you saying that the R3 Bilstein's would not fit on a SI? If so I may have to reconsider. But because I knew most coils and struts made for the SI were compatible with the SII's, I just assumed it would be backwards compatible as well...

 

so wait ... you have an series 1 and your dad has a series 2 ???

 

Never mind my post. Just put the Bilsteins on and see if it will work. I'm sure no matter the perch height or whatever, they should be an improvement over the stock tokicos.

 

Yes, lol I have a '05 TiGrey, and my father owns a '09 black R3

Thanks for the input though, but I'm still trying to figure out if it really will work, I don't want the higher perches causing my rears to have a taller stance since the overall look I"m going for is to be lower lol

 

Did you ever install the R3 bilsteins on your car? I recently bought some R3 shocks and springs from a member here with an 09 R3 and was thinking about getting them installed next week. If you did, how did it come out ?

 

If the rear coil overs are the same length... DO IT!!!

 

I wonder if he ever got it done... Can it be done?. I'm interested