Springs or coil overs?
 

Looking into fixing my z up a bit. What do you guys think would be the first step to make it look more aggresive... I want to drop it a little to have a flush look but still ride smoothly as possible. Im not a fan of how the tires are more inside and looks like the body kit is too big for the wheels. Spacers etc what would you recommend? I just like the low and slow look. Don't need no speed just want to look nice :ugh2::tup: p.s. I would love for my z to look as close as possible to this red one below.... sweet ride

Better put on a helmet...the 'use the search feature' flames are going to be coming quickly.

Springs are less expensive but the drop is static. I have Swifts and love them. The drop is 1.2" in the front and 1" in the rear. The car in your picture might be dropped .25" more but someone else will likely pull out a ruler and tell you.

Most people go 15mm in the front and 20mm in the rear for spacers but 20mm/20mm is also very common. Looking at my car I think 20mm in the front and 25mm in the rear would get them truely flush. Dunno.

:iagree:

That's the same pic that made me want those wheels. Those are Avant Garde M310's Deep Concave. They are specifically designed for the 370Z and come in 19x9.5 +20 & 19x11 +18 so you wont need any spacers. I'm running 255/35 Fronts and 285/30 Rears however I'm switching to 305/30 Rears later since 285 doesnt cover up the gap as much and there's some stretching. I recommend you go with coilovers if you want a low and slow look. Here's my Z on Swift Springs and Avant Garde M310's. I'm also located in Houston so hit me up if you want a closer look.

Once the mod bug hits, it does not stop. I you get springs, you'll want coilovers at some point. If you've got BC's or Stance, you'll want KW, if you've got KW's you'll want JRz's. It never ends. Skip the springs and get on coilovers. That's what I should have done. All it takes is to drive and discover the limits of your car and you'll want to change things up. It's sickening.....but I like.

Ha! I went backwards I guess.... I had KW's and then went Stance. Don't regret it one bit either.

i believe the red z has hks hipermax iii's. i have the same coilovers and for daily use they're pretty comfortable, but they have adjustable dampening and ride height if you ever feel like changing things up a bit...and you will, someday.

:bowrofl: Precisely! I have swifts and they are awesome in terms of handling and it does provide the perfect amount of drop but I still want MOARZLOWZ!

Only thing stopping me from going coilovers is my 18" stock wheels and new Fast Intentions CF mufflers. Once both are compromised, I will be switching to coilovers.

Stance Gr+ is less than the cost of Swift+Koni Yellows, just saying =)

For a good reason ;)

If coilovers cost less than $1k or so, they're probably Taiwanese crap.

But at the same time, which is a more comfy/better feel setup?

A good shock/spring combo will handily outperform a cheapo coilover. The only reason to buy a budget coilover over good shock/spring combo is if you have to lower the car beyond what the springs will allow.

Honestly I have no prior experience with Stance so I cannot answer how comfortable they are, I'm only considering them based on reviews from people I know and from others on the web, maybe some Z34 owners can chime in with their experience with Stance. I've had BC before and they were quite comfortable for my daily driving and going lowww, I would def get BC again, but want to give Stance a try this time.

Stance products maybe outsourced but their HQ and customer support is US based (Ill, Chicago), where you would send your c/o in for rebuild if you ever needed, not TW. For my daily use and hard parking, I just cant justify dropping $2k+ for KW, rather spend that money on new wheels or other mods to show off. Although Stance are track tested and proven. You can check their web site and decide for your self.

Super Sport+

I decided on Stance SS+ after talking with SPOHN. I figured if they are holding up as well as they are as much as he pounds on them on the track and still likes them, then they are good enough for my street and occasional track use.

In response to comfort, I love them. I'm running them somewhere in the middle as far as dampening goes. They are really firm yet ride almost as good as stock. Cornering feels solid and very well planted.

I had the KW's but like you I wanted moarlow...The KW's maxed out as low as they would go in the back didn't even close the fender gap. So I sold them, and with the money bought the SS+ true type and then still had the money to buy SPL camber and SPL toe arms.

As for BC...I had BC BR's on my 350 and they rattled real bad in the rear (OEM Type). Had several shops look at it but never got the rattle issue resolved.

Too bad we can't do a Stance GR + vs Swift/Koni shoot out. Same car same driver one track. Just dreaming here.

Personally, I'd pick the Stance GR + if I had to choose between the two.

OP don't fall for the belief that price/$$ is the end all. There are a few good coilover set ups that are in the sub 1k range and clearly far from crap and better than a spring shock combo. You asked between a spring and a coilover, go with coils. You did not mention your budget so the choice is wide right now. I was fine with springs until I discovered it's limits. Car looked great dropped and stanced out but was a challenge to drive in the twisties around the mountain.

Appreciate your review bro. How many miles have you put o your SS?

I never had any or issues with my BC, and I've installed 3 sets for my friends and none had any problems on the rears, one person did had clunking noise but that was due to us forgetting to torque down one of the bolt and worked itself loose :rofl2:

Agreed bro. Dont automatically write off certain products solely based on it's price, find what fits best for your usage, and only then factor in cost. If you just want a mild drop for daily driving and don't want to compromise rideabilty then others have said, go with Swift spring and koni shocks if needed, If you want the same thing with the added benefit of height adjustments then buy coil overs, which coil overs is up to you, do your research. As for me Stance seems solid for what I plan to do with my car, dropping $2k+ for higher end c/o to hard park my car just seem overkill IMO, I'll save that extra money toward other mods :happydance:

Thats what i thought was wrong with my BC's to. But it was tight and pre-loaded correctly. My Stance, I've put probably 2000 miles on the coilovers but most all of that has been twisty curvy tennessee back roads. I really am happy with them but I think all my SPL stuff compliments them nicely to.

The first 3 years of ownership the Stance GR+ might come close to being at the same level as a spring/Koni combination. At 5 years in the Stance GR+ will already be suffering pretty heavily from nitrogen loss in the free piston. At 10 years the Stance GR+ will not even function as a shock anymore. Its the same problem I see pretty often from customers with older coilover setups. An example a 20,000mile Viper ACR with dynamic racing shocks (I looked this up says ACR came with KONI Competition (Monotube) but I swear they were dynamic not that its important) felt like driving a pogo stick simply because of pressure loss.

Cheap Monotube Coilovers are a compromise of A. Performance or B. Durability you cannot have both because of physics and I should note by cheap I mean every single monotube ever built that doesn't have a nitrogen charge port to be re-pressured. Since extremely few non-external res shocks have a charge port then you can expect that you basically need to get external resevoirs if you want to not be considered "Cheap". Anyways, to the physics! of Monotubes because of the very nature of the design a Monotube cannot perform good and be durable at the same time. To make a shock last on the street without being rebuilt every other year they have to add significant sealing pressure/surface to the free piston or they run the highest possible pressure when new so as they drop pressure the shock will actually get better. As you add this sealing you create friction and friction causes the piston to stick and that means your initial shock response is extremely poor. This makes for a bad ride quality (like Bilsteins HD's for example) and a major reduction in overall shock performance expecially on the street. This of course is all done so the shock will last longer but usually even doing this will only make the shock last at a decent level of performance for about 5 years before they start to drop off. The alternative being that you can get a good performing monotube with lower free piston friction that gives good ride and performance like most Motons/Ohlins/Penske type shocks but they don't last long before they start to drop in performance becuase that free piston will leak out its nitrogen quicker due to less sealing they tend to lose about 5psi a month or 100psi every 2 years. The pressure loss is reduced as pressure from the shock lowers since there is not as much pressure pushing against the sealing surface. When it does that on cheap shocks you have to rebuild them since you have no way to get nitrogen back to the other side of the free piston. On high end shocks you simply go to a nitrogen tank and re-fill them to the proper pressure (for awhile anyways but eventually you will have to rebuild due to nitrogen on oil side but you can do this yourself since they are built to be serviced). Now, also on most cheap coilovers (D2 and a few others excluded) lowering significant amounts can cause a massive reduction in performance simply because the shocks serial layout. This can cause major issues with valve piston to free piston distance and so the shock will not behave properly. Now on the D2's you can adjust the shock body so its not that big of a problem but on many other brands this isn't an option.

So why do you even want Monotubes for the street performance? Monotubes better design and heat disipation? Well, they will not perform better then a twin tube if they have high stiction on the free piston or running completely the wrong shock pressure (overpressure) for the valving. Even if they don't Monotubes really don't do any better then a twin-tube unless they get hot and on the street your not stressing the shocks enough to build up heat very often if at all. So go with spring/shock combo for the street is my advice and enjoy not having to service your suspension for many years. Hell, just last year we had a on track incident that broke a front strut on our 944 race car. So we went back to the shop that night to find what we had on the shelf and a set of 1989 Koni Yellows (double adjustable) + Coil Conversion off a Turbo S M030 car with 150,000miles were our only option. A bit soft on compression but rebound seemed to be great. The car went back together in the morning and we ran it to a podium finish. That is 23 year old shocks with 150,000miles going to the podium (3rd). I can't think of any mono-tube that could even think of doing that.

Every bit of this. Quoted so people have to read this twice.

Not to mention the quality control of the cheap coilovers. A while back I found a shock dyno that someone had done of lower priced coilovers, and even on the same settings the shocks had completely different damping. The amount of adjustment you got with one click was completely different between each coilover as well. The other catch with cheap coilovers is the materials used. Good materials cost money, and this is where the Taiwanese companies cut their manufacturing costs.

I'm not against coilovers in general, just the cheap ones. For actual performance, a set of good shocks and springs will do more for you than cheap coilovers. A set of KWs will be even better still, but you're looking at $2k. Most of this will be disregarded though, because people want to lower their cars more than springs will allow, completely ignoring how excessively lowering a car wrecks the suspension geometry.

OP - let's simplify this and leave the science to the experts. Look at your budget, consider what you want to do with your car and balance with what you want for self gratification. If you want to be practical, get a coilover set up that's rebuildable. It should be the last suspension set up you'll buy. Like most, I started with springs and now going to c/o. This btw was predicted by Lou at Amplified Motorsport who did the install for me. He gave me fair warning. If I recall correctly, he gave me 1 yr and I'll move on. More like 10 months.

Springs if you are on a budget, or only want set height set. Still track worthy if you pair it up with Koni shocks.

Coilovers if you want to drop to specific height or want track use.

in the end if you want something fully adjustable and for strict track use I would only recommend a high end coilover.

Thanks for your input I appreciate. & for everyone else too

FYI someone just posted brand new KW V1 for $1,350 obo in teh Classified, but I don't get paid for another two weeks :eekdance: