FTO AUSTRALIA

I can comtemplating a set of height n hard(soft)ness adjustable coilovers for my FTO.

Can anyone give any comments on the following?

Cusco Zero 2R, Tein NA and Tein HA?

I would prefer a not to hard(harsh) ride.

Thanks all!
Sam

as long as they are damper-adjustable, you should be able to achieve a certain level of ride comfort... I know that some of the TEINs are kinda rock-hard so choose carefully...

as a rule of thumb just bear in mind that a harsher ride will tend to give you sharper handling characteristics (like any track car) so if you want a good balance between ride comfort and handling, you'll have to compromise somewhere...

fitting any of those coilovers would see you well on your way to a very firm (harsh!) ride. i would liken the difference in damping adjustment settings on each of those coilovers as the difference between banging your head against a wall and banging your head against a wall......

sorry if that sounds a bit harsh ( ) but they do compromise comfort and handling a lot. they would be beneficial if you were regularly traveling at high speed (ie. racetrack) where you need such high spring and quick rebound/compression rates to maintain substantial traction. on the street at legal speeds those coilovers would not absorb bumps well and being so restrictive they would place extra stress on the chassis.

to give you an example, you will find the HA coilovers to be 200% stiffer than the stock FTO suspension and the NA coilovers to be up to 70% stiffer. that would make the type NA coilovers the most compliant and comfortable of the three, but they are still really really firm. maybe you should firstly outline what you want/need your car to do and go from there. i have assumed that they will be fitted to a street car.

right on twistea. you will have worse handling on bumpy roads if your suspension is too hard (by losing traction) not to mention the discomfort, obviously race tracks are silky smooth so thats not an issue

i have my konis on the softest setting at the front and i can still corner 90 deg turns at 50kph without fuss (obviously not the backstreet alley type corners)

Hiya guys,

Thanks for the responses so far, really appreciate it!

Well...roads here in singapore not really well paved.
The stock suspension is already kinda uncomfortable for old folks(u know what i mean...)

I plan to lower the car but is skeptical about using lowering spring as these will wear out the dampers...my front dampers are already leaking.
Hence i choose to go for a set of coilovers as these will allow more adjustablity and the rebound rates of a coilover will complement the lowered springs and higher spring ratings(correcting me if I am wrong).

I am kinda leaning towards Tein NA as it offers a allround package with progressive springs(the old man drives its and doesn't push it), so that when driven soft, will not be to harsh a ride.

However the Tein HA has a better adjustability in terms of height and is more versatile than the NA n is race track proven(i think).

The Cusco Zero 2R comes into view when compare to the Tein HA, hence I am unsure Zero 2R or HA is the better choice if i were to choose the harder option(if you get what i mean).

Hope you peeps can provide me with a more detailed insight on this issue.

Cheers!
Sam

Id say cusco. Im running both Tein and Cusco at the moment and having to live on a day to day basis with Tein is hard work. Even with the damping on its softest setting they are rock solid coilovers. Excellent on track, not so good on the poor roads we have over here.

The Cusco zero 2 r's (i think thats the ones) i have are only slightly firmer than a standard uprated setup on softest setting but go nice and firm for trackwork.

//\\//\\ark

MarkFTO wrote: Excellent on track, not so good on the poor roads we have over here.

i'd be willing to bet our roads are of a similar "high" quality

smorison wrote:

MarkFTO wrote: Excellent on track, not so good on the poor roads we have over here.

i'd be willing to bet our roads are of a similar "high" quality

If they are as bad as ours i feel sorry for you!!! Think Japan must have the best road surface anywhere if people run about with Teins all the time. Mine were even set at midway in damping when the car arrived from Japan!

I can tell you from first hand experience Japanese roads are fantastic...

well until you meet the peak hour traffic..........

im running on Cusco coil-overs at the moment...
i think they are Comp-s's which are the HA units that Cusco do..
as for ride..it definatly is harsher but a lot better for the driving i do...
and come sunday ill let you know how the performed track side...


SilentBob

i can tell you, if you often drive in tram line-littered roads around melbourne, you don't want to get TEINs or you will be forking out more than the cost of the suspension itself when you factor in the frequent trips to the dentist LoL...

Hmm...I guess most of you guys vote out of Tein...

But is it the NA or HA dat puts you guys off?

Markyboy: BTW Cusco Zero 2R and the Tein HA, which is the more versatile in terms of adjustability?

Comfort for day to day driving and hard stuff for track days are my main concerns now...since the UK, Aust and Sgp have such *nice* roads!

hmmm Singapore roads are good... mostly freeway quality... well thats what i thought when i was over there.

Jono

PS Go tein. if i can handle it. u can too.

wildfaye - id rate them as follow -

Tein HA - at softest setting damn hard, mid setting ideal for track, solid but with a little travel, hardest setting.... not been brave enough to try yet

Cusco - at softest setting, about an extra 20% or so softer than the tein, but still firmer than any normal spring/damper combo ive tried out. Mid setting, good for smoothish fast roads. Hardest setting about the same as teins just past middle setting.

Hope that helps.

P.S. Teins have also cracked a pillowball topmount too think that could be due to them being so solid!

Ahhh...Mark....dats very usefule information! Thanks!

My fren has tried the Tein NA(not HA) and also the Cusco Zero 2R.
His comments were that in every aspect the Cusco is harder!

As the Tein NA is a Progressive spring, I would suspect this is the main reason why its more comfortable than the Cusco.

I read that the Cusco offers a 5 click damper softness adjustment whereas the Teins(both NA n HA) are 16 click adjustments.

Now...leaving the HA aside...would you choose the NA or the cusco?

poor mark's going to have a thesis on shocks by the end of this

wildfaye wrote:Ahhh...Mark....dats very usefule information! Thanks!

My fren has tried the Tein NA(not HA) and also the Cusco Zero 2R.
His comments were that in every aspect the Cusco is harder!

As the Tein NA is a Progressive spring, I would suspect this is the main reason why its more comfortable than the Cusco.

I read that the Cusco offers a 5 click damper softness adjustment whereas the Teins(both NA n HA) are 16 click adjustments.

Now...leaving the HA aside...would you choose the NA or the cusco?

I am pretty sure it is the HA i am running at the moment, so not got any experience of the NA dampers.

You can spec up softer springs from Tein, which if it was my car would be the route I would take as the dampers have decent adjustment.

The new stuff from Tein looks good, aparently they are fine tuning new dampers to be more forgiving on UK roads, which can only be a good thing. I believe cusco have recently done the same too.

Have you considered coilovers from JIC or Ohlins?

WILL wrote:Have you considered coilovers from JIC or Ohlins?

JIC magic are supposed to be very nice indeed. Would think ohlins would be out of the fto's league as it would require a set specially made as to the best of my knowledge they don't do an fto fitment.

HMM...JIC...i have tot of this as well...but it seems pretty uncommon brand
Have absolutely no idea of its performace etc.
Care to advise?

I saw on the Jap Tension website that JIC DOES do some for the FTO.

But I have been trying to find the website of JIC...but not avail.

The specs on the Tension website does seem pretty hard...btw...

http://fto-tension.web.infoseek.co.jp/f ... shi-e.html

It near the bottom of e page.