I've spent 10 hours researching suspensions. I have come to the following conclusions...

1. The RSR springs for the 350z seem to offer a modest drop 0.6" (+0.5" for the G coupe) to total a 1.1" drop. I will need camber and toe adjustments and will end up retaining the stock shocks. The stock shocks will need to be replaced in the near term future as they are not designed to work with this spring rate. This set up will cost about $1000-ish and should help offset the stock understeer and the understeer that the 245/35/19 and 275/35/19 tire set up would add. I would probably still need antisway bars at a tune of $250-$300.

2. The TEIN Basic Coilover would cost ~$800.00, would be able to be adjusted to any height I desired, and could be adjusted so that I WOULD NOT need camber and toe adjustment (at least I could fall within factory specs with the correct drop). <font color=red>Is this assumption correct?</font color=red> Also, this set up would ride stiffer than stock and would transfer ~18% roll stiffness to the front of the vehicle. This would increase understeer even more than the stock set up and even more with the 245/35 and 275/35 tire setup. I could dial out the understeer with the adjustable anti sway bars and this overall set up would not affect tread wear because I could adjust the ride height to meet factory toe and camber specs.

Is this general understanding correct? Please post anything you feel I might have missed or overlooked.

 

With the basics, it all depends on how much of a drop you take. It could be adjusted to where you don't need camber rods and arms but like I mentioned in the other thread, being in spec (max tolerance) and having nominal specs is entirely different. IE There's not going to be that much difference in tire wear from having your front camber at -1.25 degrees (max camber still within spec) and having your camber at -1.275 (out of spec).

I don't think you can go much past 1/4-1/2" of a drop before going past the ability of the stock adjustment to get it back into nominal specs. You also have to remember that there really is no adjustment for the front camber.

In terms of the tires, go with 255 up front. No real reason not to.

 

Thanks Al for all of your help. You got me pointed in all of the right directions. Also thanks to Gsedan35 (he didn't even reply to any of my posts [img]/w3timages/icons/tongue.gif[/img]) but after searching and reading for hours, his posts proved to be very helpful. Especially some of the things he said on 6MT.net.

I think I've come to the correct decisions for me...

1. 19x9.0 toyo proxes T1-S with a 255/35/19 and 19x10.0 toyo proxes T1-S with a 275/35/19.

This should maintain the stock stagger and not induce too much additional understeer if any.

2. I've chosen the TEIN H-Techs (for the 350z, p/n SKP26-BUB00) which should give me ~0.8"/f and ~0.7"/r drop.

This should give me a slightly stiffer than stock suspension (+14% and +11% stiffer than stock according to gsedan35's previous posts) and will only transfer 3% of the roll stiffness to the front. This amount of additional understeer will not be noticible by me, yet should allow me to obtain the drop, look and ride that I'm looking for which is all well within the budget. [img]/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/img]

This also leaves a few dollars to be spent on SPC camber rods and toe bolts, and possibly even some front control arms if needed.

I'll get an alignment after a few days or ~100-200 miles of driving and will measure the camber and toe according to the stock specs...

camber, front: -0.05 deg. +/- 0.75 deg., rear: -1.25 deg. +/- 0.5 deg.
toe, front: 1mm +/- 1mm, rear: 2.8mm +/- 2.8mm

Did I miss anything?

 

Did you miss anything?

Yes. Your car is going to look at least 2 times better. :-)

Good luck and post pics.

 

IMO, you are not going to receive much benefit from going with the H-techs other than the difference in looks - they really do not offer any performance upgrade (unless paired with a performance shock setup - in which case, I would re-recommend the RS*R to get the most out of the setup, performance-wise) - I woudl strongly recommend going with the Basic's and being done with it - along with a good set of sway bars, they are going to offer a tremendous advantage over any of the above setups and will also save you about $100-200 in the meantime... I know RevHigh and others can do them for $735-750 shipped, which is an absolute steal for height-adjustable coilovers (3/4" f/r is optimal)

2003.5 BS coupe 5AT
Clear Corners, Alum. Pedals, Pro-1 Intake, Resonated Test Pipes, UR Pulley, CF Engine Cover, GReddy EVO II, Kinetix Plenum, Hotchkis Sways, Pro-1 Headers

 

neff has no plans to track. Besides, why wouldn't he get some benefit from the springs? They'll drop his center of gravity. They'll stiffen up the ride slightly and they do with without transferring as much stiffness to the fronts as the basics do. Care to explain your point?

 

I was in neffster's shoes a couple of months ago.
I started with a plan to get the Tein flex w/edfc, but with a lot of research and a reality check of what I <strong>really</strong> wanted out of the suspension, I ended up with the RSRs and sway bars. Actually, through my research, I found more what I didn't want from the springs as apposed to what I did want.

My decision was made on the fact that I really just wanted a drop out of the springs along with some stiffness, but not too much stiffness.

The rest of what I want out the suspension will come from adjustable shocks and swaybars.

http://www.floridag35.com

 

Jeff,
I considered the RS-R's, heck I even was going to get the T12000's, but decided against having that much of a drop. Plus the H-Techs are so close to the stock understeer characteristics that I wouldn't need a sway bar to keep the stock 6MT feel. If I want sways later, fine. At least now they're not a necessicity.

Also, I'm doing a little experiment. I want to see if I'll need camber or tow adjustments with the H-Techs to stay near the "nominal" stock spec's. If adjustments are necessary, a full coilover might be in the picture down the road, but I figured that I'd start out with the cheaper solution first and work up from there.

BTW, I'm very happy with the way my Daily Driver handles right now. I'd just like to have a slight drop to go with... well that's all I'm saying right now. [img]/w3timages/icons/wink.gif[/img]