figgie;1410165 said:
On the whole, that's a good article. I do have some serious problems with a couple of his assertions.
First, his claim that all Japanese coilovers are crap is ridiculous. This is a guy who is in the business of rebuilding/revalving shocks and admitedly does not have access to parts from all of the companies. I don't doubt that he sees a lot of "crap," but consider this:
A) who takes their brand new $2500 coilover set to him for revalving and/or shock dynoing? Probably no one. If he does get his hands on a quality Japanese coilover, it probably is after it's been used/abused for a while and is in need of repair services that he is unable to provide.
B) Most of the <$2000 japanese coilovers aren't made in Japan anymore. They're made in China and Taiwan, where (on the whole) quality control is not what it is in Japan. Even still, TEIN's dampers don't typically exhibit the "crosstalk" he claimed they do. Here's proof:
C) JIC, TEIN, Cusco, Zeal, HKS -- all offer custom valving on their mid-upper level coilovers. Zeal will provide shock dynos (not sure about the others). Just because he can't get the parts doesn't mean its not possible
The other dubious claim is that no one needs adjustable dampeners. The "since F1 cars don't need x, you don't need it either" psuedologic is so played out. F1 teams don't need adjustable dampers because they have testing days where they can try out various custom valving. There is no need to have the extra weight of adjustable valving on the car because by the time the race starts, they know where they want the valving to be. This is in addition to a whole host of other suspension adjustments at their fingers, to fine tune throughout the course of the race.
Most guys at an autocross or track day have very limited suspension adjustments at their disposal. They can adjust tire pressure, they can adjust shock dampening, and they may have an adjustable swaybar. They aren't sitting there in the pits revalving shocks and swapping springs. They aren't adjusting the roll center. They aren't changing the alignment. They aren't changing tire size/compounds. So they have to make do with things that aren't ideal, but are better than nothing...
This isn't to say that the Wiisass and Gixxer_Drew suspensions aren't an excellent choice for those in the $1000-$1500 price range. They're probably better than most coilovers under $2500. But they aren't ideal for:
* The guy with $800 to spend who wants the best handling he can buy (even if at the expense of comfort)
* The guy with $2000 to spend who needs adjustability (either because he uses the same suspension to drive on poor quality roads that he uses on track days, or because he needs to dial in his car for each course he comes across)
* The guy with $3000+ to spend (lighter weight offerings are available from Zeal, Ohlins, Penske)
