I know this has been beaten to death but...

I'm looking for coilovers for autox and track days. I know the best solution is the farnorthracing version built around koni yellows. I don't really want to spend the $1800 at the moment though. I'm thinking megan coilovers for now, but I'm thinking I could make spherical bearing caps for them sometime in the future (design should be similar).

Long and short, I sort of figure that at this point there is not a lot of functional difference between a cheap shock/spring and a koni (a lot has changed since truenorth racing started his site).

Anyone have the megans? Opinions?

I know Buschur loves the Megans for their (relative) low-price and adjustability. But, this is for drag racing and we all know how very different drag and road racing/autox-ing are. It does seem to be the option that a lot of people go with, though, until they step up to the FNR setup/Ohlins/Hotbits/etc.

Sadly, Koni yellows are still considered kings for bang per buck.

With that being said, a spherical bearing top hat can help quite a bit and RTM does make such a top hat.

Anywho, can't help you on the megans, but they do seem to be popular.

Looking into it, I see that the Megans run for ~$1000/set. I've seen the time and effort you put into some of the other aspects of your car and the way I look at it is, why spend %60+ of what it would cost for an amazing setup on a setup that you're going to want to replace down the road anyway.

For what it costs for a FNR setup, just spend the extra $ if you can afford it, or put it off until you can. At least, that's how I look at it and which is why I haven't bothered to touch springs/shocks/coils/etc. yet on my car.

On that note, I've been through 2 full sets of tokico whites and I gotta say, the dampening adjustment isn't night and day noticeable.

I'm even considering swapping them out for those Megan's you guys are talking about or possibly some Tein's.

Jamie has the Tein coilovers on a 2G, so perhaps shoot him a message about them. I do know he wants to step up to the FNR setup, though.


In all honesty, I autox-ed on stock wheels/brakes/20 year old suspension components/14b/etc. last year at the SO and my car felt a lot more solid being thrown around the course than I ever thought it would, which is why I'm even less likely to upgrade until I can afford something I'd want long-term.

I don't know if the 2Gs are similar stock, but I'd assume they handle as well if not better, especially given all the adjustability I know Brad has built into his suspension as is.

Awww but your experience comes to light in those situations. No doubt about that!

It does, but I say that as someone who has track experience and knows what a solid and a loose car feels like and I was thoroughly impressed by how well the car handled itself. I'd be the first to call out a soft/roll-y/etc. car and while it does still have understeer tendencies, it was a lot more solid than I expected, that is for sure. It's still a long way from being track-eating, but for it being a $500, 20 year old car with all-original suspension components/bushings/etc, it didn't disappoint.

This, I thought the name was familiar, you are the one that is working on the custom suspension components.

Wait until you can piece together a FNR set. Pick up the Koni's now to give you a step up on the stock components. Then when get the parts machined from Magnus, either sending in your Koni's to get grooved or groove them yourself.

I think you would be hard pressed to find any person who is unhappy with a Koni Yellow set up.
I am too struggling with the 1G awd suspension being crap and wanting something else but so timid to pull the trigger on a 1000 set of megan coil overs...
I am tempted to try Bilsteins through essex canada they have the Touring class struts and shocks which are 10% stiffer valved over stock which from what I am told are like the KYB GR2 (the AGX are better but cost more obviously)
I had a set of Megans set to be bought and that fell through so I picked up a used set up from a member on here, they are what they were stated to be but I am used to a car that handles and really not happy with KYB GR2...the Eibach Prokit not bad lots of clearance but the body roll in a corner is sick. I have upgraded the bushings in the rear and have front and rear strut bars. Next is a rear sway bar from RTM but thats not until the spring time. I am still struggling with what to do suspension wise... I know this doesnt help cause theirs no difinitive answers in there but I have been researching the hell out of this for some time now

I did a lot of research back in the day for Megan vs. Tein back in the day. I've been riding on Megan super street coilovers for about 2.5 years now, ALL YEAR ROUND. The 32 way adjustable dampner is something that you can notice as you drive whether it be aggressively or just through the city. (usually stiffen them up in the summer)
The price, you really can't go wrong. They are comparable to their Tein counter part in every way (with the exception to that electronically adjustable dampner, but that's a lot of useless wires to run and stop being lazy ) for a fraction of the cost.
Oh, did I mention that I run these all year around? I've never oiled them up in the winter and they still are completely adjustable. No seizing, no corrosion/rusting. All you need to do is get the dirt/sand/crud out of the threads and you're good to go.
I would highly recommend them!

I have Tien super streets on my 2g and I have nothing but good to say about them.

I haven't officially had the car on a road course, except for one drag strip that uses part of the course for the return road. I am always hard on the car through the turns and it has really surprised me how well it goes, level and flat through the corners.

They've held up to 4+ years of Quebec roads to date, so reliability is proven lol.

I cant even see where one can find anything other then Megan for a 1g awd or am I outta luck?

We are pretty limited as far as 'budget' solutions go. They don't even make all the Koni yellows for the car anymore (can't remember which, but either only F or R are still available, but not both).

1Gs actually have as much if not more selection in the high end stuff. Hotbits, Ohlins (Evo pieces modified to fit 1G - see one of my posts on here a while back), etc. But you really have to pay-to-play if you're going with anything like that.

Fronts are still available in the Koni, no rears.

What kinda coin on those front Zig?

Someone buy my Tokico White/Eiby Pro setup

I'm after a coil over this season!

My input, save your money till you can buy a real set of coilovers. If your serious at all about your suspension, your just wasting money by buying one of the cheeper options first.

All the setups for 2g's that run under the $1500 range all basically come under the same category, that category would be junk.

If you want a budget setup, go with a Koni shock, GC coilover option. This will give you the best bang for the buck. You can also build it into a "DG" setup in the future, so your not throwing your money away.

The 1g front pair are around $375. plus shipping and tax, of course

I am looking into hotbits, mind you I am looking at a rally setup and not a street setup.

From my research they are not ridiculousness priced, and they seem to compete with the stuff that is in the 5000 range.
I have also read that they are easily rebuild-able too, and cheap to do so.

I ve been waiting on my DG setup since september! Im pumped for the day I test those out! I think the tuners group buy had Koni scrambling to get more shocks together. Should have em soon. But I ll only be looking at them as art for the next while

Yeah, the Tuners group buy depleted NA stock of shocks and had to wait for a bunch to be made to complete the order.

I thought those were mine mofo!

Oh yaa!!! My bad! nevermind.

My supplier has lots of the Koni fronts for 2g, only the rears are in short supply.

Man, you guys are great, lots of good info here, saved me from a stupid impulse buy.

I think I like Darren's suggestion of the Koni yellow/GC coilover combination. That way for about the cost of the megans I can have something to grow into, can always make the spherical bearing mount later on. Only downside I see is I can't use hypercoils.

Does RTM carry GC's? I don't see them on the site, wtf!

I would have to look into special ordering them. That being said, the spherical bearing tophats are only $260. a pair, not that much when you are looking for a good suspension setup. I know I can get hypercoils also...

Basically it comes down to this:

MR coilovers ~$1000
Koni + GC's ~$1200
FNR complete set ~$1800

but option two can be converted to option 3 with no waste,

So Koni Yellows and Ground Control coil overs is what you're saying?

Sounds like you're telling us you're going with option 2

That's because that is the correct option.

yep, yep and yep. konis and GC's it is for now!

Ok my turn!!

Anyone have any guidance on doing a Rally Setup?

Speak to Richard Fender.

He has a 1G Rally Car (legit rally race car, caged, proper rally bits, etc.) that he campaigns at various rallies around Ontario. He had sent me some pictures a while back - not sure how easy it will be to get ahold of him, though.

The guys at hot bits talked to me for about 2 hours regarding 1g dsm rally cars. I was there fixing the doors not buying stuff.

Richard runs Hot Bits on his Rally car, AFAIK.

Where was that Tyler?

Thanks Sal, I will try and see if I can get a hold of him.

I was able to find a guy in the states that gave me some advice, but without Canadian part source it's hard.

I hate leaving open threads so I'll close this out. I ended up finding (on tuners) someone that was selling Koni + GC's brand new that decided to go a different route for some savings.

ALso happened to find the spherical bearing hats that someone had made and never used. Got them for cheaper then I could buy the material.

I machined the rest of the spacers and spring perches and sent it all off to get anodized with our regular batch lot.

So I ended up with a full FNR set-up for $1000 all brand new. Rates are 600/300 so we'll see what that is like. I've set -2 deg camber front and -1deg camber rear plus quite a bit of extra castor up front.

I'll try to post race reports to give some insight into where the set-up needs to go, I've found very few sources other then DG, so hopefully it will help someone who is not quite as serious (I'm not running 275 width tires!). Also I'm setting up for dual purpose, I want to put a road course slant on things.

Oh and there seems to be some debate out there but as far as I concerned you NEED helper springs on the rear and your DO NOT need helpers on the front.

The reason is that the fronts you end up pre-compressing the spring a bit to get a reasonable height. The rears have a lot more negative travel and you are no where close to preloading the springs.

Bradley for what reason do you need a helper spring, I thought you were just doing road course.

Excuse my ignorance but I can't think of anytime that your springs would become unloaded.

They help for jacking up the car as well. On some coilovers it can be annoying to get the main spring to seat properly when you lower the car back down.

I know for Megan's, they recommend setting the spring set screw just tight enough so the sting doesn't move when unloaded. The bottom portion gives PLENTY of room up or down for ride height.

I jack the car up 2x every event (to take tires on and off), I don't want to have to deal with making sure the spring is seated every time.