Tanabe Pro S-OC Coilover Review
#1
11-24-2009, 04:35 PM
Tanabe Pro S-OC Coilover Review
For reference, I’ve run:
* OEM non sport sedan suspension (spirited street only) mediocre handling, good ride quality – crappy 4X4 looks.
* OEM struts with Eibach Pro springs (spirited street and drag strip), good handling and good ride quality decent drop, pretty good look.
* Tokico D-Specs with Eibach Pro – good handling and good ride quality, I liked the versatility of track and street ride quality adjustment of the struts. This is a very good option btw – still just avg looks from drop though.
* D-Specs with Eibach Sportline – ride quality is okay (not as good as Pro Kit), handling is not bad (as long as you don’t rub & scrape) – looks awesome! The drop is significant and looks really cool.
And currently - Tanabe Pro S-OC coilovers.
Obviously the idea of coilovers is to have a struts valved and height matched to springs height and rate – something that is sometimes hard to do with separate spring and strut combo. My use is spirited street, occasional drag strip, occasional road course and future autox – I don’t drive the car daily so ride comfort isn’t a huge consideration, but is somewhat important.
After tons of research and reading reviews, I considered several different coilovers and was initially set on KW V3 or possibly HKS sport or street. But after dropping way more money than reasonable on other aspects of the car, I started looking at more economical options. I really liked the versatility of adjustable damping on the d-specs, but decided it wasn’t really worth the price point (for me) in coilovers. Non-adjustable damping is considerably less money…
The obvious common choices in the sub $1K market are Tein basic, BC, and recently Megan… but I wasn’t thrilled with any of those (for various reasons that I won’t go into now)… I considered H&R, then started toying with Tanabe… I tend to be one that tries new things – as long as what I am able to determine about them make sense. So I started digging around for info about Tanabe coilovers – not much exists and virtually nothing on these particular coilovers for the G or even Z. I researched Tanabe as a company and became very confident that they build quality parts. I’m partial to “made in Japan” when it comes to automotive and electronics (and no, I’m not Japanese).
Tanabe makes their own springs with a German engineered and built machine that allows for cold winding… according to Tanabe, this keeps the integrity of the metal as opposed to heating steel to make soft enough to wind. Also, Tanabe partnered with Kayaba Industry Co. (KYB), who has been making struts/shocks for years and is one of Japans leading manufactures. I’m certain KYB makes the struts for these coilovers. Considering the history and quality of what is Tanabe – I figured I’m going to give ‘em a try.
Coz at CZP hooked me up – dropping his listed price considerably in order to match competitor (I’m a fan of CZP, they have done good things as far as I’m concerned).
So now the review…
Adjusting ride height is a bit of a pita because you just don’t know how low it will sit until the coilovers are installed and car is fully weighted… then to adjust, you need to basically remove, adjust and re-install… I’m not sure how low these will go yet because the rear still needs to be adjusted – but the front are sitting as low (if not a little lower) than the Sportlines did – here’s a pic for reference (this is with Sportlines)
The rear currently are about Eibach Pro ride height (here’s a Pro Kit pic for reference)
I plan to bring the front up a little bit (1/4”-1/2”) and the rear down quite a bit (1/2”-1”). I’m letting the spring settle before adjusting because I need an alignment too – so I’ll do all at once in a couple weeks (this is why there are no current pics of the car’s ride height).
*12/5/09 Edit: Got car aligned today - and re-adjusted ride height... I have slight @ss squat so I'll probably drop the front a little more (or maybe bring the rear up a tiny bit). Ride quality at this setting is very nice - similar to Eibach Pro. Its amazing how much ride height affects ride quality (even with same suspension). Will go much lower than this - but for now, I like this height (comfort, handling and not nearly as much scraping/rubbing).
crappy camera phone pics again:
FWIW, these coilover have a goofy color combo – purple, red and black it’s not a deterrent to me, because undercarriage isn’t a big deal as far as I’m concerned – but for those that care about such a thing, these might not be a good choice – here’s a crappy phone pic of the fronts:
& gotta give props to Henry @ Temple City Auto! If you are local, let him know your onthe forum and he'll hook you up
As for performance/handing – so far I love ‘em!!! I’m really anxious to get the car on a track then really see how they fair, but I’ve done some “test runs” on isolated twisties near me. *for the record, I do this on a Sunday in an industrial complex with no cars or people around – it’s about ½ mile with broad sweeping turns, perfect for testing car’s handling characteristics.
To say this thing is on rails isn’t far from the real truth! I can take corners much more sure-footed than any other suspension setup I’ve run on this car. The spring rates are 10/8 (roughly 560/450) which is very close to what JIC A1, Cusco Zero, some HKS, and Zeal Function X run… and are linear (all other aftermarket springs I’ve been running are progressive). The struts seem to be valved perfectly for these spring rates and the damper case and stroke are shorter to accommodate a lower stance from springs. The cars weakness now seems to be the tires ability to grip (although I’m sure the cars limit is more than mine)… I think I may need to play with anti sway bar settings now to get things dialed in better.
So performance is really good (imo) it’s very fun taking corners so aggressive and having the car behave the way it does now.
As for ride quality – it’s not bad, but not as “comfy” as the springs I’ve used. But considering the spring rates are substantially less on all the springs previous, it’s to be expected. Contrary to other states belief, our roads here aren’t that great – and in some areas they are truly horrendous! I-10 just west of 605 for example, is complete crap! So I used that fwy to determine how bad the ride quality was… and surprisingly, I wasn’t that bad. Road imperfections are definitely more pronounced, but the car stays well controlled over deviations and I’m not always modulating the throttle to overcome fluctuations in the road surface. Long trips could become a nuisance if you are accustom to the more “luxury” feel and ride quality – but I think it will be bearable.
So all in all, I am very pleased with theses coilovers – they are an excellent bang for buck! Once I have the ride height dialed in I’ll post pics of stance. And eventually I’ll get it on a track and post better performance impressions.
So there you have it - now there’s at least one review of Tanabe’s Pro S-OC coilovers – IMO they are definitely worth considering.
* OEM non sport sedan suspension (spirited street only) mediocre handling, good ride quality – crappy 4X4 looks.
* OEM struts with Eibach Pro springs (spirited street and drag strip), good handling and good ride quality decent drop, pretty good look.
* Tokico D-Specs with Eibach Pro – good handling and good ride quality, I liked the versatility of track and street ride quality adjustment of the struts. This is a very good option btw – still just avg looks from drop though.
* D-Specs with Eibach Sportline – ride quality is okay (not as good as Pro Kit), handling is not bad (as long as you don’t rub & scrape) – looks awesome! The drop is significant and looks really cool.
And currently - Tanabe Pro S-OC coilovers.
Obviously the idea of coilovers is to have a struts valved and height matched to springs height and rate – something that is sometimes hard to do with separate spring and strut combo. My use is spirited street, occasional drag strip, occasional road course and future autox – I don’t drive the car daily so ride comfort isn’t a huge consideration, but is somewhat important.
After tons of research and reading reviews, I considered several different coilovers and was initially set on KW V3 or possibly HKS sport or street. But after dropping way more money than reasonable on other aspects of the car, I started looking at more economical options. I really liked the versatility of adjustable damping on the d-specs, but decided it wasn’t really worth the price point (for me) in coilovers. Non-adjustable damping is considerably less money…
The obvious common choices in the sub $1K market are Tein basic, BC, and recently Megan… but I wasn’t thrilled with any of those (for various reasons that I won’t go into now)… I considered H&R, then started toying with Tanabe… I tend to be one that tries new things – as long as what I am able to determine about them make sense. So I started digging around for info about Tanabe coilovers – not much exists and virtually nothing on these particular coilovers for the G or even Z. I researched Tanabe as a company and became very confident that they build quality parts. I’m partial to “made in Japan” when it comes to automotive and electronics (and no, I’m not Japanese).
Tanabe makes their own springs with a German engineered and built machine that allows for cold winding… according to Tanabe, this keeps the integrity of the metal as opposed to heating steel to make soft enough to wind. Also, Tanabe partnered with Kayaba Industry Co. (KYB), who has been making struts/shocks for years and is one of Japans leading manufactures. I’m certain KYB makes the struts for these coilovers. Considering the history and quality of what is Tanabe – I figured I’m going to give ‘em a try.
Coz at CZP hooked me up – dropping his listed price considerably in order to match competitor (I’m a fan of CZP, they have done good things as far as I’m concerned).
So now the review…
Adjusting ride height is a bit of a pita because you just don’t know how low it will sit until the coilovers are installed and car is fully weighted… then to adjust, you need to basically remove, adjust and re-install… I’m not sure how low these will go yet because the rear still needs to be adjusted – but the front are sitting as low (if not a little lower) than the Sportlines did – here’s a pic for reference (this is with Sportlines)
The rear currently are about Eibach Pro ride height (here’s a Pro Kit pic for reference)
I plan to bring the front up a little bit (1/4”-1/2”) and the rear down quite a bit (1/2”-1”). I’m letting the spring settle before adjusting because I need an alignment too – so I’ll do all at once in a couple weeks (this is why there are no current pics of the car’s ride height).
*12/5/09 Edit: Got car aligned today - and re-adjusted ride height... I have slight @ss squat so I'll probably drop the front a little more (or maybe bring the rear up a tiny bit). Ride quality at this setting is very nice - similar to Eibach Pro. Its amazing how much ride height affects ride quality (even with same suspension). Will go much lower than this - but for now, I like this height (comfort, handling and not nearly as much scraping/rubbing).
crappy camera phone pics again:
FWIW, these coilover have a goofy color combo – purple, red and black it’s not a deterrent to me, because undercarriage isn’t a big deal as far as I’m concerned – but for those that care about such a thing, these might not be a good choice – here’s a crappy phone pic of the fronts:
& gotta give props to Henry @ Temple City Auto! If you are local, let him know your onthe forum and he'll hook you up
As for performance/handing – so far I love ‘em!!! I’m really anxious to get the car on a track then really see how they fair, but I’ve done some “test runs” on isolated twisties near me. *for the record, I do this on a Sunday in an industrial complex with no cars or people around – it’s about ½ mile with broad sweeping turns, perfect for testing car’s handling characteristics.
To say this thing is on rails isn’t far from the real truth! I can take corners much more sure-footed than any other suspension setup I’ve run on this car. The spring rates are 10/8 (roughly 560/450) which is very close to what JIC A1, Cusco Zero, some HKS, and Zeal Function X run… and are linear (all other aftermarket springs I’ve been running are progressive). The struts seem to be valved perfectly for these spring rates and the damper case and stroke are shorter to accommodate a lower stance from springs. The cars weakness now seems to be the tires ability to grip (although I’m sure the cars limit is more than mine)… I think I may need to play with anti sway bar settings now to get things dialed in better.
So performance is really good (imo) it’s very fun taking corners so aggressive and having the car behave the way it does now.
As for ride quality – it’s not bad, but not as “comfy” as the springs I’ve used. But considering the spring rates are substantially less on all the springs previous, it’s to be expected. Contrary to other states belief, our roads here aren’t that great – and in some areas they are truly horrendous! I-10 just west of 605 for example, is complete crap! So I used that fwy to determine how bad the ride quality was… and surprisingly, I wasn’t that bad. Road imperfections are definitely more pronounced, but the car stays well controlled over deviations and I’m not always modulating the throttle to overcome fluctuations in the road surface. Long trips could become a nuisance if you are accustom to the more “luxury” feel and ride quality – but I think it will be bearable.
So all in all, I am very pleased with theses coilovers – they are an excellent bang for buck! Once I have the ride height dialed in I’ll post pics of stance. And eventually I’ll get it on a track and post better performance impressions.
So there you have it - now there’s at least one review of Tanabe’s Pro S-OC coilovers – IMO they are definitely worth considering.
Last edited by OCG35; 12-05-2009 at 07:29 PM.
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bsowhat1 (11-12-2011)
#5
11-24-2009, 09:56 PM
#7
11-30-2009, 01:18 PM
If you are referring to the other suspensions I've run (OEM, D-specs with Pro kit, etc... I did post pics of those, I just mentioned it as reference to what suspension I have used on this car...
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#8
12-04-2009, 10:38 PM
#9
12-05-2009, 07:29 PM
ride height update
Edited first post with this:
*12/5/09 Edit: Got car aligned today - and re-adjusted ride height... I have slight @ss squat so I'll probably drop the front a little more (or maybe bring the rear up a tiny bit). Ride quality at this setting is very nice - similar to Eibach Pro. Its amazing how much ride height affects ride quality (even with same suspension). Will go much lower than this - but for now, I like this height (comfort, handling and not nearly as much scraping/rubbing).
crappy camera phone pics again:
*12/5/09 Edit: Got car aligned today - and re-adjusted ride height... I have slight @ss squat so I'll probably drop the front a little more (or maybe bring the rear up a tiny bit). Ride quality at this setting is very nice - similar to Eibach Pro. Its amazing how much ride height affects ride quality (even with same suspension). Will go much lower than this - but for now, I like this height (comfort, handling and not nearly as much scraping/rubbing).
crappy camera phone pics again:
#10
01-12-2010, 01:31 AM
#11
01-12-2010, 12:32 PM
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awesome awesome review!! I may just have to go with these tanabes hahaha and ditch my springs! BTW, how much did you get them? Same as website cost? http://www.tanabe-usa.com/s0c.asp?id=6
#12
01-12-2010, 02:18 PM
they were $850 from Coz @ CZP (sponsor here)...
John, I've had so many damn photoshoots and pics lately, its doubtful I'll get any better anytime soon (kinda done with the pic taking thing unless someone posts some from local meets that I may or may not be at)... but as far as looks, it looks like any other coil-over lowered car...
John, I've had so many damn photoshoots and pics lately, its doubtful I'll get any better anytime soon (kinda done with the pic taking thing unless someone posts some from local meets that I may or may not be at)... but as far as looks, it looks like any other coil-over lowered car...
#13
01-12-2010, 05:33 PM
#15
01-13-2010, 01:18 PM