Wednesday, March 13, 2013 - 04:19 pm, by: Tom Richards(Tomr)
I have read positive reviews on BC , but only have the one experience. Ride i thought was great after we reduced the damping from the factory set of i think about 6 (hard) to 15. (Ie in the middle, they adjust from 1 hard to 30 soft)
Wednesday, March 13, 2013 - 08:39 pm, by: James Johnson(Jimbo)
If you are not bothered on price then I would say to go with some Tein or other up market type of brand. I have BC Gold's in my Soarer (street and odd track day car) which do the job but so would some D2's and others. If you went with some Tein then at least they are re-buildable if need be. The BC's and D2's are more of a throw away type when things go wrong.
Thursday, March 14, 2013 - 03:30 am, by: Ben Lipman(Ben12a)
I have HSD HR coilovers. They do the job just fine on the track car. Tein Super Streets are on my daily driver. They do that job OK. The Teins do not have a separate height adjustment, but the HSD do. This is a must on a track car so you can adjust ride height separate to preload etc. (I'd rather you try something else rather than use HSD, LOL. Then I would know what to upgrade to if I need to)
If you are truly "Not fussed on price" then start looking at 'proper' race suspension manufacturers like Ohlins, Koni, Bilstein and Spax etc. You might need to get something custom through these companies.
Otherwise, look to Japanese manufacturers as they will have decent product knowledge of the Soarer and Supra in tuning circles. Think Cusco, Tein, Buddy CLub, Trust, Greddy, HKS etc. They all have stuff on the market. Cusco and Tein are more suspension focussed, the rest are likely to have had stuff made under license etc as opposed to developing a damper/spring set up themselves.
The third category are HSD, etc. Made outside Japan, but for the Japanese tuning market.
The remainder would be the D2,G4 made in Taiwan stuff etc and would be hard to tell apart if they were not painted different colours.
Another reportedly good suspension setup is the 'Gixxer Drew' setup designed for the Supra, but works equally well on the Soarer. A bit of manufacturing required, but those that have bothered with it rave about it. Cost effective too.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013 - 08:29 am, by: Tom Richards(Tomr)
just for interest i have looked thru the gixxer link above. It does look value for money.
I have a question . I recently helped fit BC coilovers to a celsior. The coilovers came with the springs "preloaded" and when making height adjustments they were made at the bottom end so that the spring tension was not changed.
Looking at the gixxer, to me the springs are "loaded" when you adjust the height, meaning the tension/loading varies with height. The correct "loading" is a factor of the length of the spring and the "correct" height of the car Am i correct or have i missed something?
Wednesday, March 20, 2013 - 11:58 am, by: Tai Johnsen(Privatejohnsen)
Interested in this gixxer setup too, probably need different spring rates for the soarer.
Tom, he does mention that you only have a narrow window of height adjustment and effective operation for the 'loaded' spring. (-2.5 inches from stock height)
Wednesday, March 20, 2013 - 12:29 pm, by: Tom Richards(Tomr)
hi Tai, rereading , i believe you adjust the spring length to shorten it by 1 inch.
That will give you a "correct ht" It is not an adjustable ht system as such, but is designed to give you "standard" ht with a small window around it.
Reading it, soft springs are the way to go to maintain the ride and also the handling for street use. Supra and soarer appear to be very similar in what is required.
Thursday, March 21, 2013 - 10:53 pm, by: John Stafford(Johng12)
Hi guys, I ordered and fitted the gixer drew set up a couple years ago and it cost me about $1200 plus postage from the states, including some second hand top hats to put where the air struts were, for the springs to rest/push on. The components list assume that you already have the top seats, so you have to get them if you are going straight from 31 air suspension.
I love my set up, took Teins off to fit it. No hard jaring like the Teins with their hard springs. the heavy duty Bilsteins are guaranteed for your life time with the car. They are just about unbustable. It is very predictable when you push it and drifts well under full power. If you want to keep it flatter then you need to fit sway bars from a Supra (there is post on here somewhere that tells about that).
You can fit stiffer springs but then you lose the very well balanced road car feel. There is a thread on here that refers to the gixer system, just do a search for it. It was done only last year.
One thing to note, pull off your 31 height adjusters, or you may get a undiscoverable rattle/clunk. If you are doing a 31 then pull out your 31 suspension compressor, which will save you a bit more weight as well.
Peter Nitschke Junk Filterer South Australia UZZ30 UZZ31