I happened upon a flat tire 1 week after purchasing my 06 g35 from a dealer and drove a distance on the rim (accidentally on purpose). Just kidding. But seriously, I bought news wheels and tires, delivered 30 minutes ago.

18x8.5 TSW Nurburgring Gunmetal
245/45ZR18 100W XL Toyo Proxes 4 for a square setup.

Don't care about being flush, don't care about people looking at my car and going "ohh ahhh" I just bought the setup for the best daily driver experience possible and good handling while autocrossing without breaking my budget. Total cost shipped for anyone curious was about $2100. I know lots of you wheel/tire show guys are gonna start yellin about "its not flush" but I don't care...not trying to look like a pit bull on the road with an attitude. That being said, I am buying coilovers ... any recommendations on what would work well with this setup, or should I even drop at all? Don't want to negatively affect handling in any way. Anyway, here's my intro thread from a bit ago:

https://g35driver.com/forums/new-mem...ber-new-g.html

Now for some pictures! I'll update this thread once the wheels/tires are installed. Very excited on this end >>

 

Not trying to pick with you but you said "good handling" yet you purchased a square set up on a RWD car. On top of that you plan to autocross on replica wheels. If something goes wrong your heavier, 1 piece cast, weaker wheels will not be of any benefit to you. I hope it does all work out though.

 

Thanks for your input, however I don't believe the G has enough power to force the staggered setup. If I was running FI, then definitely...but for now between 250-298HP does not warrant staggered setup from my point of view, seems quite unnecessary.

 

Tsw wheels are not really replica wheels either. They make a good product. One piece yes. But still good.

 

Power really has nothing to do with why a RWD car works best with staggered wheels but.... yea ok.

Anyways, you shoulda bought RPF1s lol TSW are going to out weigh your stock wheels and add to your un sprung weight.

Annnnyways. Coils, get HSD Monos and run all SPL multi link with the lock out kit.

 

PFFFFF like ^^^^^^^^ guy knows anything.... Jkjkjkjkjkjkjk I now down to your knowledge!!!!! You are very correct Tswana wheels are extremely heavy.

 

There's heavier, but if I were to pick track wheels there is a million I would pick before going for these.

Either way, post pics once you got em on!!!

 

haha, I like all the hate on this forum.

those wheels may not be the lightest out there, but at 19.5lbs, they are only 0.6lbs heavier than the enkei rpf1's, and definitely a ton lighter than the oem 18's, and lighter than the ray's 19's. If you really cared about performance though, you should have looked into 17's , if they clear the rotors. could have shaved like 3.5 more lbs off the wheels.

I wouldn't trust most recommendations from this forum in terms of suspension if you are looking for performance. I would stick with the well known, well vetted brands where people actually test and dyno the products and have good results, such as bilstein (not the pss9/10), koni, ohlins (and maybe kw and maybe ast?), or jrz or moton if you have a spare $5000 lying around. Surprisingly, many times the good coilover systems feel softer and unimpressive compared to crap ones, but provide better handling and better comfort. One thing to keep in mind is that reducing the unsprung weight by like ~5% with lighter wheels has a similar effect to stiffening the spring by 5% in terms of wheel frequency.

in terms of lowering,
pros: less weight transfer, which means higher average cornering forces. (also looks good?)
cons: roll center usually ends up underground, which means roll angle becomes larger, which means more time in roll and less steady in transitions, and driving feel is usually reduced (some people like it though). in terms of pure handling though, usually the less weight transfer trumps everything, and you try to work your car around it. (ie roll center adjustors, stiffer springs, stronger anti-roll bars).
in addition to the obvious clearance and underbody damage for daily driving, doing routine maintenance becomes a chore, bottoming-out issues leading to suspension and/or frame damage if your springs/bump stops aren't strong enough. worse bottoming out issues when car is loaded (i guess not as big an issue for coupes).

Oh yeah, in terms of the square setup. In the end it's up to driver preference. I know a lot of people at the track that switch their bmw's to a square setup on the track, and view people with staggered setups as using a crutch. but then again something like a porsche would become neigh undriveable with a square setup. that being said, the rear in my sedan feels super twitchy on a square setup, even with an extra -1.8 degrees of camber, but that may be because of my blown shocks and bushings and my retarded right foot.

 

Enkei RPF1 quality > TSW. When you're at the track, even with wheels of the same weight, I'd trust the Enkeis hands down.

As for your advice for on suspension, read up on Stance and HSD and tell me that isn't a better recommendation for a daily/weekend warrior than your option of $2500 KWs or $5500 Motons. Nobody in the right mind is buying Moton's unless they A) make too much money and bought a cheap car to mod for no reason B) are stupid.

 

I haven't really been able to read up on stance. I guess people haven't been curious enough to dyno them. I've seen one shock dyno of one HSD, and it looked pretty linear and unimpressive.

I have others there on my list that are not as much as the kw or motons. A set of bilstein HD shocks + a matching set of swift or hypercoil springs will be like $1100. A set of koni yellows + a matching set of swift or hypercoil springs will be like $1300. And the bilstein PSS system seems to be $1400 if height adjust-ability is a make or brake for you.

I think a lot of it comes down to probability for people like us that don't have a shock dyno and hugely deep pockets to buy and test and discard left and right, since there isn't a lot of test data for our application that is out there publicly on the web. Basically, the few engineers out there that have been nice enough to test and disseminate data with the public are pretty consistent in recommending the same brands, especially in the budget category (koni, bilstein). All the independent tests floating out there also seem to confirm that reputable companies are reputable for a reason, and the vast majority of other stuff out there is crap.

That's not to say there might not be some other good shocks out there, but without the data, it's hard to say. Basically i think the probability of (insert your favorite budget shock company here) being better than the konis or bilstein is pretty low. I just don't see why you would take the gamble of other stuff without having good data to back you up.

Again, I recommend everyone read http://farnorthracing.com/autocross_secrets6.html
don't be fooled by the shiny adjuster *****, and first get shocks that are good.

I guess this mostly applies if you want your car to handle better than stock. If all you care about is lowering the car and having height adjust-ability and don't care too much about performance, than there are cheaper options out there if you completely ignore the damping performance side of things, but the op seemed to suggest he cared more about handling.

 

Might want to read into HSD a little a bit, they pair quite well with swift and can actually be ordered with custom built swifts on them and your choice of spring rates. HSD and Stance are actually the same company (well HSD makes stance, among other dampers)

Koni yellows if I remember correctly are roughly $900 for the set of 4? Then you're into $500 in swifts. $1400 for non height adjustable coils is a little steep and kind of silly for the daily that the average person would surely want to lower at least a little bit even when running a 245/45.

The Bilsteins are actually closer to 2k, and yea they're progressive rates but aren't offered in customs rates without revalving and going to a swift spring.

HSD for $1200ish are fantastic coils and have been track proven on multiple platforms between the Germans and Japanese. They haven't been dyno'd because majority of the cars are in the scenario of the OP. Had OP said "I'm going to gut my car and make it track dependent" my recommendations would be different, if he had said money is no object, then I would have told him to buy a new car!

That being said, HSD +SPL multi link and the eccentric lock out kit will not be beat by anything else for the money!

Quick review from someone in similar shoes as the OP.

http://www.racingandwaiting.co.uk/20...hsd-coilovers/

Feel free to hunt around for somebody that argues the ability of HSD or Stance at the track. Pretty much every track car local to me is running them (aside from the exception of the SG motorsports 370hp N/A Z which I believe is running Koni 2822s paired with swifts)

 

Dude, are you a HSD dealer or something? I tried to do some reading on the HSD, and again, I really can't find any data. They are a korean company, some people claim the internals are built in taiwan, but I don't know if that is trustworthy. The only 2 dyno plots I can find are not confidence inspiring, but they are pretty low quality plots in terms of scaling and are only pvp plots of one shock. http://www.preludepower.com/forums/s...d.php?t=338438
http://soarercentral.com/sc-forum/me...04/103008.html

I saw that article you linked, it tells me basically nothing. He could have just received a lot of advertising money, or they might have repackaged something like bilstein internals in their shocks and sent them to the reviewer. Or they might have spent the time to rebuild and dyno tune those 4 shocks they sent him. I also can't find anything really great about stance shocks either.

Just because they put nice swift springs on it doesn't mean the shocks are any good. (but at least you know you are getting decent springs. Look around for the tests on the budget coilover springs, like the one with the megan spring)

Again, I think for our car, since no one does testing, or if people do, it's for competitive applications where they keep all the data to themselves, that it all comes down to probability. What is the probability that HSD coilovers are better than oem from a handling perspective? I have very little faith in these budget companies and I don't think it's very high. What is the probability that koni or bilstein systems is better than oem? Pretty freaking high.

with koni+swift/hyperco springs, you can end up with a lower ride hight, and you will have adjustable shocks (overrated). I am seeing the swift springs for around $300? that's how I got my estimates. the bilstein PSS is $1425 on tire rack and you get height adjustable suspension, though no dampening adjustment (which is probably a plus...). Adjustable coilovers aren't all they are cracked up to be. A high quality non adjustable damper will outperform a crappy damper with all the ***** and dials and bells and whistles you can put on it.

Here's a bunch of people re-iterating this point a billion times, but they have the luxury of being harsher on everything because their stock suspension is so good (but the bilstein HD are still supposed to be better):
http://forums.evolutionm.net/evo-x-t...coilovers.html

edit:
Forgot to add, progressive springs aren't necessarily bad despite what the swift marketing arm might tell you. Even with linear rate springs, at hard cornering, your outside suspension will be riding on the bump stops at hard cornering, which gives it the effect of a progressive spring rate. If you didn't have a progressive overall system, you would either have a suspension that is way too stiff for wheel compliance, or you would bottom out your suspension all day. The amount of vertical acceleration the wheel has to see is just too large a range given the limited wheel motion. Currently reading the classic tune to win by carroll smith. Amusing that when he was writing the book in the late 1970's he was wishing progressive springs were easier to get.

2nd edit: my bad, didn't realize you thought progressive springs were a bonus. I personally don't place much faith in adjustable shocks because 1) they have been shown not to work like intended by many people, 2) I don't have a shock dyno to actually make use of them.

 

You need to read less and use more IMO

I'm not going to try and sell you on a product that is street and track proven by many many people. Before you write something off and try and suggest something else you should at least have some knowledge in the product or at least have used it at some point.

 

Anxious: congrats on the new rims!

for coilover suggestions, depends on how much you want to spend. I'm on KW Variant 2 and they've been working well for me. Those cost me about $1800 new but I'm also in Canada, so price may be different for you in the states.

definitely +1 on the drop to get rid of the wheel gap!