I recently posted a thread over in the suspension section about wether coilovers are worth the extra price for an autox car (SP or SM2). One of the responses recommend that I take a look at the autox forum and see what people are running. I did, and I was suprised that in a lot of the posts people seem to be running some sort of koni/spring setup. So for those of you running spring/shock combos: Why did you choose this setup? What springs/shocks are you using? If you had it to do over again would you go with the same setup?

 

What class are you going to be racing in?????

 

I usually autox in club events that have much less restrictive classes then SCCA (some only class by tires, streeet or race). If I were to run SCCA it would probably be SP or SM2.

 

In SP you can run coil overs on the front but not the rear. In SM2 suspension is basically free except for control arm mounting points. For autocross in SP or SM2 you'll want a lot of spring on the car. The Nissan Motorsports T2 spring kit would be a baseline starting point and I would probably go higher from there on the front.

 

I guess my car would most likely be in SM2, by the time I finish the mods I have planned. But like I said I usually run in club events that have really open classes. I mostly run for fun, but as my skills get better, it's nice to take a win every now and again.

I am guessing the T2 spring kit recommendation is so I could stay within the rules for SP. If I were planning to run in SM2, would you still advise going with a spring/shock combo or upgrading to a coilover? The events I run in are usually pretty high speed for autox (atleast as far as I have seen). We run at an air national guard base on the runways, so the course is about 1.8 miles and I routinely hit speeds around 70 in a stock Z (with wider tires). Would a coilover benifit me more for the higher speeds?

 

There's nothing magical about a coil over style spring setup vs. a stock style spring setup. The wheels/tires see a rate and they don't care if it comes from a coil spring, air bag, or a big chunk of rubber. If you setup works best with a front spring rate of 650 and a rear spring rate of 550, what spring you use doesn't matter as far as the chassis is concerned.

The main benefit of a coil over style is the availability of spring rates and ease of changing springs. It makes finding the ideal setup much easier and cheaper. It also makes ride height and corner weight adjustment a snap. Additional benefits are better packaging for larger wheels/tires, and (possibly) lighter overall and unsprung weight.

 

That makes sense. What shocks would you suggest to compliment the T2 springs?

 

I would also like to know beta's answer for this question. Bump.

 

I don't know from any experience or testing, yet. I've talked with a couple people racing 350Zs in T2 and they all say good things about TC Kline's Koni double adjustables. http://www.tcklineracing.com/nonbmw.htm

I'm also working with Erik at EMI Racing to develop a set of double adjustable Penske's for the 350Z but those are a long way off.

 

I agree with the TcKline Koni's. Though I can add that I have run Koni sport's with 448lbs spring rates. I personally would not run them past that rate, though I did have a member pm me that he felt fine with them and the Nismo T2 springs. Biggest quesiton on my mind is if the TcKline front's have shorter body/pison rod lengths. I consistently ran out of bump travel at just a 3/4" drop on the fronts.

BTW, the TcKlines are valved for use with up to 800lbs rates.

 

I am running JRZ shocks with the T2 springs on my T2 car. They work great. Had JRZ valve them to the T2 springs.

 

so those TcKline tuned Koni's will handle the T2 nismos no problem?