Suspension tuning - dampers, spring rates, etc.

[aw614]

Chris thanks for the response that clears the questions I had. I like the honesty of the product.

From a driving dynamics perspective I've felt a lot of what you have described with the stock OEM bushings. Though my usage isn't a full on track car, I've allowed some slow compromises and it being driven mostly on the weekends and two and from events, I think I'll eventually have to buy a set since I have spare cores, I don't see it giving me much issues. Worst case, I know eventually I'll end up with a more serious eg/dc that they would be perfect for.

[Xian]

Super late to the party here but yeah... Chris and Ryan already nailed the salient points. The compliance bearing is for sure something that I’d be comfortable (and recommend) running on the street. IMO, there’s little reason not to upgrade to them as the older, stock bushings age out/crack.

As far as the shock questions, I ran a set of revalved Bilstein sports with stock ITR springs and really liked them. Haven’t tried their coilover stuff but they make a quality product... no reason that I wouldn’t take a swing at them if they fit your price point/feature requirements.

[Dave7CDMTYPER]

I have konis/ITR springs on my gs-r daily. It's a nice feeling suspension, but it's not quite dialed in also imo, like little Nolan said above about the koni/gc setup. I wonder if there is a better strut or spring? I have Jdm 23mm rear sway bar.

I wonder if I can get some Ohlins struts that would work with ITR springs?

[KIngpinMachine]

Thanks for the additional info around these!

I've been very curious about trying the kingpin compliance bearings for my ITR project but its pretty likely to see some street mileage\cruising. Sounds like I should pick up a set and maybe plan to swap them in for track days. Or would repeated swaps likely create an issue with the alum. spacers?

Chris,
Are the integra compliance bearings in stock or do you have a sense of what lead time is?

I would just install and DD on them as Ryan said. Unless you are driving 15,000+ miles a year on them they should last many years. I only have the Outlaw Series ones with the aerospace NMB bearings in stock right now. Having some issues getting the Aurora COM Series bearings I use in the standard ones. I use 7075 AL for the spacers and the SpeedFactory drag car runs 7.5 in the quarter mile at 215+ MPH on them. You will be way good. I am moving to 303 stainless later this year though because the drag guys just keep going faster and I have to keep up. An AWD Honda drag customer just went 7.45 at 186 on my parts this past weekend for a world record. The drag guys are the hardest by far on my stuff and they generallly get 6+ years of passes before a rebuild. Most have never been rebuilt. James Houghton in the 800+ WHP Time Attack ITR has 6+ years on his set and says they are still relatively tight. The standard last pretty well but the Outlaw ones are amazing. NMB makes great bearings. Drop me an email at: sales@kingpinmachine.com to discuss. If you might be interested in the Outlaw I can knock some money off of the core charge or something for you.

Thank!
Chris

[KIngpinMachine]

It is not something I push, or even have listed currently on my rather sad online store, but I do resell MCS dampers. Amazing dampers but tough on the wallet and it looks like they just had a price increase unfortunately. More of a motorsports option I would imagine but just a heads up. I bought a set of 2 way remotes for my race car/spider habitat late last summer. Embarrassed to admit that they are still in the box. Running a tiny, struggling machine tool business out of a 2 car garage and basement is a bitch. And I have gotten old and just don't have single car friends anymore. But I finally have one half of garage cleaned out. ie. The side that does NOT have a CNC lathe, big compressor and 15 lbs of other shit in a 5 lb bag. Have been doing way overdue maintenance on street GSR the last week and race GSR is finally coming inside soon. Forgive the thread hijack but linked some older pics just before I got left side cleaned out. Don't need the fanciest shop to make nice stuff. Although I imagine it would help!! You have to maximize every square foot in a 20' x 20' ish garage. Couldn't do it without the basement though.

[Xian]

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: MCS dampers are badass. Buying them from Chris is icing on a great handling cake.

[Dave7CDMTYPER]

I've never heard of MCS dampers. Just looked on their site. Look awesome!! But pricey.

[Xian]

I've never heard of MCS dampers. Just looked on their site. Look awesome!! But pricey.

Yeah, they’re not cheap but they’re really good. MCS started out around the time that Moton was going out of business and then got gobbled up by AST. They (MCS) have a strong motorsports background and were founded by one of the original folks behind Moton. You’ll find their stuff on really high end autox and club race cars as well as Pro/Semi-pro stuff. They’ve developed a reputation for awesome baseline valving plus a willingness to work with racers on developing the shock package. It also doesn’t hurt that their stuff lasts damn near forever before needing a rebuild.

PS
You can also upgrade their singles to doubles and the doubles to remotes and the remote doubles to triples or 4-way. I’ve had their double and triple remotes on a couple of cars... truly amazing stuff.

[coolhandluke]

...

PS
You can also upgrade their singles to doubles and the doubles to remotes and the remote doubles to triples or 4-way. I’ve had their double and triple remotes on a couple of cars... truly amazing stuff.

I had no idea the MCS units were this modular, very impressive. Thank you for always dropping knowledge.

[Xian]

...

PS
You can also upgrade their singles to doubles and the doubles to remotes and the remote doubles to triples or 4-way. I’ve had their double and triple remotes on a couple of cars... truly amazing stuff.

I had no idea the MCS units were this modular, very impressive. Thank you for always dropping knowledge.

Anytime

Yeah, they’re definitely upgradable but (no surprise) it’s cheaper overall to just buy what you want upfront if you can swing/justify the cost. My $0.02 though is to get whatever fits inside your budget and then figure out if you need the extra functionality. The damper curves on their non-remote singles and doubles are really damn good... most folks will be plenty fine with them. If you start bumping up against range limitations or want a revalve anyway then maybe you look at changing to remote doubles/triples but that’s overkill for 99% of the applications out there.

Alternately, you’ve still got folks like Whitener doing custom valved Bilsteins, Guy Ankeny dropping upgraded Bilstein internals into cheaper housings, Redshift doing basically the same thing (believe they use a BC body), and a few others offering similar options. For sure a great time for what amounts to “custom, off-the-shelf” suspension options.