My search for coilovers story is similar to most others here:
*Need to upgrade my old stock stuff
*Would like to track but will be mostly driven on the street
*Want adjustability for future tinkering
*Try to do as much research as possible up front so this is hopefully a "one-time" purchase I'll be happy with for awhile.
*Get as much as I can for my money (not buying a "name," while also not getting ripped off by cheap stuff)
On my search for new coilovers, I've done a lot of internet reading. I've read a lot (if not all) of John@Microsoft's and others posts on handling, and they have been very informative and helpful. There really is a wealth of information here (and Dali's website too). My budget is $2k like a lot of other NSX owners that I've found. This covers about all of the most popular models but leaves a significant $1k+ gap to the stuff like Ohlins, Koni Pro, JRZ, Moton, etc.
A very important aspect for me is the height adjustability. My car is a daily-driver and my driveway has a significant curb. I can only lower a maximum of an inch right now. After the car is retired from DD routine in a few years, I'll lower her more and deal with driveway modifications later. That leaves me with filtering through the $2k coilovers available (Tein, JIC, HKS, ARK, Buddy Club, DG5, other JDM stuff, etc).
From what I've read, people who have gone to a JDM setup from their OEM stuff appear to have very mixed reviews. The much higher spring rates than stock gives the impression of a sporty ride with no body roll, but at the high cost of comfort. The ride is little improved as the dampeners are softened, since they still have poor low speed dampening. The really expensive $4k and up stuff has more technology in their dampeners for low/high speed compression/rebound dampening and that's what makes them even somewhat comfortable on the street.
I started looking into coilovers from KSport. There have been a few threads and posts on these coilovers here, and much more info out on the web. They met my feature requirements, are made in Taiwan, and have a 1 year warranty. Also, these are rebuildable in the USA (with little turnaround time compared to Teins from what I’ve read). There are various grades of performance, ranging from the basic coilover kits for mainly the slammed crowd to the monotube inverted coilover kits for track/street. My extensive internet searching did turn up a few isolated complaints with these (by far, most were praises), but these were older reviews (all seals are now by NOK in Japan) and most likely due to improper installation/application (slammed too low). They are popular and have a good reputation.
I was originally interested in D2's, but after reading more, KSport seems to be more into the racing world with good known support. Also, I've read one racers various threads on Nissan and Honda boards, PhoenixR34. A very interesting thread on his S2000 NASA buildup is here (with a few Science Of Speed or SOS shop pics):
http://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=567808&st=0
He appears to be very knowledgeable and successful racing his 240sx and S2000. I will never be at his racing level, so thought I would go ahead and try the KSports since the features, quality, and price seemed right.
The top-of-the-line KSport model is the soon-to-be-recently-released Circuit-Pro inverted monotube coilover, some highlights are below:
• Inverted monotube with 55mm strut.
• Compression and rebound dampening are adjusted separately.
• Nitrogen pressure is adjustable.
• Will come with a dyno graph.
The features and material specifications for these are impressive, and they sure look well-made with quality construction. Spring rates are user-defined, so I went with the 15 kg/mm (840 lb/in) spring rates in the front, and 11 kg/mm (616 lb/in) rates in the back (a popular ratio of 1.36 front/back). Dali has a great spring rate comparison table that you can compare these too for reference.
I’m pretty excited – These should be shipped to me in about three weeks :biggrin:
http://www.k-sportracing.com/shock-super-racing-intro.html
Company Profile:
http://www.k-sportracing.com/company_profile.html