I like this, there seems to be competition between the JRZ and AST. Much like FI or AAM! HA, can't go wrong either way. I'll be doing more research soon on comparing the two, but all this info has helped tremendously! :tiphat:

Yea I'm still torn. Looks fortune can either do a min 1in drop with Oem spring mount or Oem height with true rear coil overs. AST is true rear coil overs and can reach near Oem height, tein can do min drop with Oem spring perch and linear springs so that sounds great yet from what I have gathered they are harsh. I am warming up to the idea of true coil overs which then would probably lean towards AST. I just don't know why a designer would choose to go true coil over vs the Oem design and risk body damage. Just can't seem to have my cake and eat it too.

Oh and vs fi bs Sam I went stillen. Not the most popular but I like it, awsome Oem quiet at cruise and nice not and power at WOT.

I will agree with that. I admit that was a general statement based on one person's experience, but I also know JRZ's will last a long amount of time given the abuse they can receive. They can wear out faster, as it all depends on the specific circumstances of a particular car. Motorsports teams that rebuild them every couple events have the money to support that level of maintenance, but they are also making sure the driver can get every .001 out of a lap. For the normal user, you don't need to worry about that thousandth of a second per lap, so you can go longer in between rebuilds/refreshes.

A proper company would do a ton of R&D on what happens to the chassis when you switch over to the true type coilover before ever releasing them to the public. If their R&D department can't make a failure happen in 300k miles (random number) of rigorous testing, I personally feel that they are perfectly fine for the end users they are targeting.

The Doran team that used 370's in the Continental Tire Challenge use a true type coilover only. Granted, those cars have a cage, but if Nissan directly is okay with using true type coils on a factory-built car, I have no issues doing it to mine.

Wow, I ordered my Aragosta Type S directly from Japan through KTS and already have them and will be installing on Monday. I also paid about $1000 less than what Bulletproof had them listed at. Just PM me and I can send you contacts and info. I believe I ordered mine on April 7th.

AST can indeed rebuild these here in the states. All the parts are not 100% the same as what's offered on the AST website. Better or worse? I can't say as I don't have the knowledge to make that determination.

My setup:
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...pshtaxaqjh.jpg

Beautiful bro! Have them installed? How much do you enjoy it over stock?

Sorry for the late reply, I've had them in for a week and a day now. Managed to screw up my rear preload initially and went back and changed them this morning. Made quite a difference in rear compliance.

Absolutely loving them. I used to run Aragostas on my FD3S so they were a bit of a known quantity. Best way I can describe them is it's made the car feel 500 pounds lighter. Body roll and squat have been reduced substantially (I have a G IPL so it has the larger Nismo sway bars) and it feels more neutral than it did prior. Steering is sublimely precise and quickened without feeling nervous in the least.

I felt the stock suspension was actually pretty good but it wasn't always tidy and it had too much body motion. The car always felt it's weight. Not so with the Aragostas. But buy them directly from Japan. You'll save a ton of money.

Also, Aragostas are designed and tested in Japan but made in Holland. They are serviceable in the states by AST which is in California. It's my understanding they use some internal AST parts but many are unique to the brand.

The front damper package is five pounds lighter per side than the OEM package too. The rears, with the OEM location are the same weight.

I ordered mine thru bulletproof because they're established and I wanted the peace of mind. Unfortunately it's been a three month wait(March 15), altho they said my stuff is due to arrive early June

Did U go thru KTS on eBay? I saw those listings for way cheaper than BP and that made me nervous. I didn't want to spend a few thousand on an eBay seller

Did customs hit you at all for taxes/fees? I got stuff directly from Europe before and got his with a few hundred extra

He did indeed get them through KTS. And yes, he had to pay duty.

http://www.myg37.com/forums/brakes-a...coilovers.html

Really wish I saw that thread before paying BP

Did you get the pillowball top mounts for the front?

I believe he got rubber mount

Hey guys, sorry for the non-immediate response, I'm not getting any email notifications of replies to this thread.

Anyway, yes I went with the rubber upper mount instead of the full-on pillow ball since the car is street driven and the roads suck around here.

I did go with KTS and duty was less than $70. Here's the rub. Different states have different tax rates. I used this link to calculate potential fees.
New Import Duty & Taxes Calculation | DutyCalculator

Given the feedback for KTS on the Ebay site was very good, I felt comfortable pulling the trigger. Their English is not the best and it usually took two days for a response but everything came out fine in the end. It helps that you know exactly what you want and have done the research. Really technical questions don't get answered to your satisfaction due to the language barrier.

It's end of June! You get em yet?!

Just researching on the different suspension systems, and while I still really like AST and JRZ, I'm wondering if I'm going to experience a real difference with how I'll be using the car of the Aragosta?

Mainly street driving, not my daily, but will have some track use, nothing competitive just for my own smiles.

So I can confirm, the Aragostas use OEM location and don't need rebuild. While JRZ and AST both appear to need to be rebuilt every few thousand miles and may even need some reinforcing bc of the location? Sorry a bit new to it all, hoping to clarify, but I also don't want to get into something where the Z is down constantly bc of maintenance on the suspension. I'm starting to lean more towards the Aragosta just bc of the ease of it all. Sounds like a much bigger project with the others and just more stuff to break. Last thing I want is more downtime. However if it's not a constant money pit of maintenance, I'm still interested. The price of the other suspension systems doesn't scare me. It's the apparent alterations and rebuild needs that do. I'm a newbie so I'd need to take it to my shop every time I needed. Anyone shed light on this?

Every shock needs to be rebuilt/serviced at some point, just that:

• The general car scene neglects shocks maintenance.
• For lower cost systems, will be cheaper just to sell and replace
• Our butt dyno more often aren't sensitive enough to know it
• The down time and effort/cost being too prohibitive.

I raised that point of shock maintenance to bring awareness. The high initial costs of the shocks in question would justify the owner taking more active measures to ensure the shocks operating at a very high level. However, please don't take it as "you must rebuild them exactly after every xxxx miles or they stop working all together".

Based on experience from the community as a whole (Z and G platforms), you don't need to reinforce the rear shock tower when switching to true type (AST and JRZ in this example).

You do have a 6xx+ whp car, by default you have to take stringent care of your car anyway. Don't let this extra bit deter you. Being not your daily, whatever system you choose, you will have quite a while before any shock needs to be serviced or rebuilt. Don't worry.

^^^This

If you're really that concerned, you can order the AST dampers as non-truetype in the rear.

Also I've had AST 5200's on my Z for 2 seasons of autox with some occasional street driving and have no signs of degradation.

My Aragosta Type S w/ pillowball mounts just arrived! They're sitting on the floor w/ a pile of SPL parts

Now I just need to decide which Sacramento area shop to go to

So x'mas is in June!!! :yum::excited:

real christmas will be October/November . . . awaiting a delivery from Mackin

This is great man, ty for addressing directly my setup and what I'm looking for to answer the question. I was just trying to avoid another reason I'm not able to drive it during the downtime. LOL. But that's great news, I'm back on the AST/JRZ wagon. Lol Repped!

Saving this comment for when I order. Thanks man! Can't wait to be able to order these. Hoping just a month out when I'm done dealing with the eviction process of these nightmare tenants. They've cost me well over $10k. People suck.

Just to be clear you'll either need the spl mid-links or an adapter to get universal 2.5" ID springs in order to not run true-type in the rear.

uhhhhh. How about I just message you to confirm when I have my order straight? LOL