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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

'Best' Supra Street Suspension...?


Glanza_Mike

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To be honest unless your planning on spending thousands (£5K+) on coilovers you won't improve the handling on your car over the standard bilstien shocks! Things like BC and Tein have an ok outer build quality but the internal valving of the dampers are crap! They just give you the feeling of better handling by increasing spring rates which there is no need to do unless you are planing on adding more weight to your car or planning on using slick racing tyres. The way to improve handling on suspension is all in the dampening!

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Style over function with low ride height and low tyre profile is where it all goes tits up.

 

 

If you lower it more than 10 - 15mm from stock, the traction & handling will be worse.

 

If you run less than 40 profile tyres, the traction & handling will be worse.

 

If the wheel offsets are not very similar to stock, the traction & handling will be worse.

 

If you don't have the geometry adjusted for any such changes, the traction & handling will be worse.

 

If you run on budget brand tyres, the traction & handling will be worse.

 

If you run road legal track tyres, a couple of leaves on the road will swap traction & handling for brown pants.

Edited by David P (see edit history)
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I believe Chris can also machine grooves into the dampers so that the spring seats (which are secured using a circlip) can be moved to adjust the ride height

 

 

He can, and does. Most people so rarely adjust their ride height on screw threaded spring seats they find they are seized solid anyway. It would be churlish of me to say Teins are crap, and rarely last 10K miles. But I am feeling churlish today, they are, in my humble opinion, crap. The valving in them is nothing like as sophisticated as even the bone stock black dampers Toyota fitted, let alone the lovely jubbly stuff in Bilstein Sports, the chrome on the piston rods is lousy, and the top seals leak, and they lose gas and knock. They are a nice green colour though, and the advertising and packaging looks great. I agree with what DavidP said above, it's really hard to make a MKIV handle better than stock, but REALLY REALLY easy to make it into a dog with no traction, a bone shattering ride, a propensity to follow ruts and white lines, wear out tyres for fun, and to suddenly step out of line mid corner and to give you a dose of the willies.

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He can, and does. Most people so rarely adjust their ride height on screw threaded spring seats they find they are seized solid anyway. It would be churlish of me to say Teins are crap, and rarely last 10K miles. But I am feeling churlish today, they are, in my humble opinion, crap. The valving in them is nothing like as sophisticated as even the bone stock black dampers Toyota fitted, let alone the lovely jubbly stuff in Bilstein Sports, the chrome on the piston rods is lousy, and the top seals leak, and they lose gas and knock. They are a nice green colour though, and the advertising and packaging looks great. I agree with what DavidP said above, it's really hard to make a MKIV handle better than stock, but REALLY REALLY easy to make it into a dog with no traction, a bone shattering ride, a propensity to follow ruts and white lines, wear out tyres for fun, and to suddenly step out of line mid corner and to give you a dose of the willies.

 

Stance. :cry:

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He can, and does. Most people so rarely adjust their ride height on screw threaded spring seats they find they are seized solid anyway. It would be churlish of me to say Teins are crap, and rarely last 10K miles. But I am feeling churlish today, they are, in my humble opinion, crap. The valving in them is nothing like as sophisticated as even the bone stock black dampers Toyota fitted, let alone the lovely jubbly stuff in Bilstein Sports, the chrome on the piston rods is lousy, and the top seals leak, and they lose gas and knock. They are a nice green colour though, and the advertising and packaging looks great. I agree with what DavidP said above, it's really hard to make a MKIV handle better than stock, but REALLY REALLY easy to make it into a dog with no traction, a bone shattering ride, a propensity to follow ruts and white lines, wear out tyres for fun, and to suddenly step out of line mid corner and to give you a dose of the willies.

 

Yes that!

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it's really hard to make a MKIV handle better than stock, but REALLY REALLY easy to make it into a dog with no traction, a bone shattering ride, a propensity to follow ruts and white lines, wear out tyres for fun, and to suddenly step out of line mid corner and to give you a dose of the willies.

And that's the exact reason I did the engine, clutch, brakes, bodywork, stereo, wheels, tyres and left the suspension as-was.

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My current Supra with CW suspension handles so much better than my previous car with Tein Mono Flex suspension. It's also a result of a good geo setup, 315 rear wheels with a 40 profile. I've 17" rear wheels and 18" front. The car is incredibly well behaved and stable at all speeds and conditions.

 

My suspension is ride height adjustable, this was a custom thing done by the previous owner and is in the build thread somewhere (if interested look for thread by DanDan). As people point out, I will never have need to adjust it, so it seems quite pointless.

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And that's the exact reason I did the engine, clutch, brakes, bodywork, stereo, wheels, tyres and left the suspension as-was.

 

"18" Volk Challenge Wheels,

245/40 and 285/30 tyres,"

 

With 30 profile tyres and likely non stock offset wheels, you've probably buggered the ride and handling enough already?

Edited by David P (see edit history)
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I installed the HSD dualtech coilovers a few months back. I am very happy with them so far and a great improvement compared to my OEM yellow bilsteins with lowering springs. They were too low and quite harsh. The new setup is much more comfy sits at the right height and is all in all like driving a different car. I think my car became a lot faster after this as now i can carry speed even on B roads and really enjoy the car. Handles great and was relatively cheap too compared to other alternatives.

Setting them up is quite important too. When I first fitted them the car was too low. Went to CW and explained what I wanted and after he set the ride height and adjusted the geo setup and alignment the difference was unreal.

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"18" Volk Challenge Wheels,

245/40 and 285/30 tyres,"

 

With 30 profile tyres and likely non stock offset wheels, you've probably buggered the ride and handling enough already?

 

His wheels were very close to stock offset (looking at his garage pics and knowing the wheels) and for 285 in an 18, 30 is the closest ratio to the stock 255/40/17 rolling radius, 35 might be better overall but I think it's a bit OTT to suggest he buggered the handling by those choices!

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His wheels were very close to stock offset (looking at his garage pics and knowing the wheels) and for 285 in an 18, 30 is the closest ratio to the stock 255/40/17 rolling radius, 35 might be better overall but I think it's a bit OTT to suggest he buggered the handling by those choices!

 

Anyone who thinks that 30 profile tyres on a Supra is an "improvement", should move on and get themselves a Saxo.

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