Need damper suggestions
 

Hey guys, I'm looking to get new struts for my '14 Z sport.

Does anyone know of some good struts designed to mate with the stock Springs? I've only seen koni so far, but having driven a z on konis i was a bit disappointed as it felt the compression was too slow for the rebound of the strut and coming out of a corner the car seemed to squat and push itself up to create a bit more understeer. I know this might have been due to the adjustment made by the owner of that car, but I'm not certain I could get it more accurate without spending a lot of time at the track fine tuning it.

I've also seen that Nissan sells the s tune stuff. Does anyone know how those struts will do with stock Springs? Or does anyone know how they balance the car versus stock?

EDIT: No idea why I called them struts. I meant dampers. Looking for alternative after market dampening to mate with stock spring rates.

Plenty of adjustable coil overs out there. That sounds like what you would want.

unfortunately, coil overs would bump me out of the stock class in auto-x as well as sprint, time attack, and some hill climb races. The max I can do currently is struts.

There are coil overs kits(almost all of them actually) out there that don't convert the rear to struts(true type)

Or are you saying you can only use drop coils?

sorry, need to be more explicit on terminology. Just looking for dampers at the moment. No idea why I called it a strut. I blame the season :icon14:

ah i see now. Yea I have only heard of the koni's being used. My guess is you can't really get a huge advantage from dampeners alone without other suspension additions

Koni's are your option. Sounds like the guy with the Koni's didn't have them adjusted correctly.

Well I'll be getting a front sway bar soon which will make the front end under-dampened for the stock spring. The rear will follow suit but nearly as bad as the front. A set of good dampeners will reduce some of the instant lean and squatting when changing directions quickly. Other suspension goodies would be nice, but I just don't want to sacrifice my ride height and classing as I stand right now.

I tried them when he had it at full hard, varied front and rear (rear softer), and at full soft. Full soft was probably both his and mine best lap times for his Z, but it still felt as if it was pushing. I felt like the front needed a bit more dampening and the rear less still.

Are there really no other options but the Konis? Someone mentioned there's a company in Colorado that will custom build me some dampeners with external adjustment for compression and rebound but they're $4k a set :eekdance:


EDIT: Just found that Motion Control sells several dampener kits ranging from 2750$ to 7600$. It's kind of a ridiculous price but for 3500$ they do have a 2 way adjustable non-remote dampener. That would at least keep me in all of the classes I'm in now.... I need to find a sponsor, racing is expensive

Get a hold of AST suspension. I have a set of AST single adjust currently. Bought them used from a member on here. They were specifically built for the SCCA street class. If money is only a second thought then I'd probably have a set of double adjust shocks custom built assuming your serious about autox. Another option is contact Anze engineering and see what they can do for you. They should be able to build a set to meet your needs.

I'd like to be around the $1000-1500 mark, but from the looks of things I doubt that's going to happen.

trying to fit into different race categories while aiming for certain classes really sucks. It's weird how SCCA is so concentrated in their efforts on classing..

how are you liking the AST? Are they easy to get right after a lap or so? Did they require a lot of initial tuning?

I started off with them set the way the previous owner had them. After a couple events I had them adjusted how I like. Just remember they're only single adjust so there's not much to adjust.

bilstein is also an option

Gotcha. I'm just wondering because with the stock spring rate and a front sway I would have to increase dampening in the front and slightly increase the rear to keep the car balanced. Then again I'm looking at a square tire setup too, so that might throw part of that out the window...

Do you know where I can find a set of those? I've been looking around and have only found coil-overs from Bilstein.