As for what I've tested or used. I've driven on Silkroads and they weren't bad for the price, but still leave something to be desired. They suffer from the too stiff compression curve like many of the others. Tein is another one that I've had a bunch of experience with and am not happy with. I was actually testing a mkiv on HA's at Pocono the other day and the dampers were definitely what was holding that car back. Too much compression made any rough part of the track upset the car a lot more than it should have and too much rebound would make the car get loose during any kind of hard braking and I felt like I was drifting when I tried to trailbrake at all. I had actually tested my setup in my brother's MK3 on the same course a few months back and it instilled a lot more confidence and made the car much easier to handle. I have not had a chance to mess with HKS very much, so I can't say much there. A lot fo my experience with Buddy Club and JIC has been similar to Tein but a little better. I know people have been successful in the supra community on Buddy Clubs, but I also know that it was probably the weak point in their setup. Zeal is one that I would like to mess around with more. I have heard good things about them, but for the price of any of the good stuff, there are much better options out there for the same price that will probably perform better. I've also analyzed Stance stuff and powered by max, D2, etc. I've looked a little at the Megan stuff and it seems like the Megan stuff isn't any better or worse than a lot of the others. In my opinion, if you're getting any of the JDM or similar stuff for under $2k, it's all pretty similar. That's why I started doing my setup because I wasn't happy with the amount of money I would have to spend to get a setup that I was happy with.
I don't want this to sound like I hate all the JDM stuff. I'm just tired of it and the hype and that no one will prove their damping even with just dyno plots. I just think most of it is hype and I haven't really been proven wrong yet. I also think a lot of people and their cars are moving past the point where an off the shelf damper is going to cut it for what they want. I mean if you're really trying to be competitive then most common setups are going to be holding you back.
Thanks Grimsta, I appreciate the comments. The setup I am introducing today is a little different than the prototypes I ran on my brother's car. I found a couple ways to cut costs which I can pass on to you guys. So it will be an OE replacement damper, which will be converted to be almost exactly the same as the Bilstein take apart dampers. I be using a spring sleeve for height adjustment and hypercoils springs because, in my opinion, they're the best springs you can get easily. This will also use the OE upper mounts to help cut down costs. Of course there are always different options for setups that I can put together and I could recreate the setup I have on my brother's car, but the cost would go up.
Supraguru, thanks for the compliments. It really depends on what you want. I like to use the Bilstein because I'm very familiar with the valving and know how to tune them to get them to work well with the car. But I can do that with any damper. So if you don't go with my Bilstein setup, I could help you get a Koni setup figured out. The nice thing about the Mk3 is with a couple machined pieces, you can fit most race car dampers. With the stuff I made for my brother's car, I could easily sway the Bilsteins out for a Penske setup or a Koni setup. Pretty much anything that uses 1/2" bearings on both ends. And using sleeves isn't really a bad thing. As long as the setup is designed to work with then and it can take the proper loads, it's no worse than having a threaded body damper.
Tim
