nofeardude87

iTrader: (11)

So I just recently picked up a set of Buddy Club Coilovers with an extra set of custom made Swift Springs with 11 kg front and 11 kg front. For people who have no idea what I am talking about, Buddy Club is a well known japanese company that makes various parts like suspension and wheels. Their coilover they offer for the z is called "racing spec" damper system and are true rear coilover type suspension. Swift is also a japanese company that specializes in making springs for many types of cars and also do custom springs. Anyway, I decided to not go with the original Buddy Club springs and stuck with the Swifts. Install was pretty straight forward. Only bad part was we had to tie strap the abs lines to the brake line since the front strut didn't have a bracket for it. It was not problem at all. Now to the point. At a dampening setting of 5 clicks out of 15 (the lowest number being the softest), the car feels very very smooth. It would feel like i'm flying on top of a cloud if it wasn't for the random pot holes on the ground. Of course, over bumps you can definitely feel it, but it is not as bad as I would have imagined. It's not jarring, but it is noticeably stiffer than my hotchkis w/ stock shocks setup. Handling feels very confident now and I feel like I can take corners at higher speeds. In the future, I'm going to try to increase dampening by 2 clicks and it should be perfect. It looks like I lowered about 1.5 inches in the front and 1.2 inches in the rear, but I believe i can go about 3 inches lower all around. I'll eventually lower a little more, to see how it looks. Oh and for all the people wondering about noise. For the two days I have driven the coilovers, there is absolutely no noise at all, which relieved me as I have heard several knocking issues on true rear coilovers. I haven't driven the car too much so i don't have that much more to say, but I'll write more as I ride on them longer. Overall, this suspension setup seems to be of very high quality and offers excellent comfort with great handling (i'm eager to see how much better with higher dampening settings).

If anybody wants more info, here are the specs I found on a website.
# Features: All Strut Sype Suspensions use Inverted Shocks for More Horizontal Stability.
Because strut type suspensions absorb the shock directly from the road, it requires a high strength design. Buddy Club utilizes the inverted shock design for its high durability. The inverted shock tubes are manufactured with corrosion free chrome plated steel.

# 15 Way Compression/Rebound Adjustment.
15 different settings are possible with just a simple click on a ****. Inverted shocks have the adjusting **** on the top of the shaft. The others have the **** on the bottom of the shell case. The basic compression (softest setting) offers excellent comfort for daily street use of the suspension kit. About 4kg/mm spring rate increase is expected with the damping force set to all the stiffest settings.

# Mono Tube Design Shell Case.
All Racing Spec Damper uses the mono tube design shell case instead of an inferior ordinary cartridge type. Strut type applications use a 36mm piston and wishbone type uses an extremely large 46mm piston for greater control of the damping force.

# Spring Seat, Lock Seat.
This aluminum material spring seat/lock seat will let you adjust the height 2mm for every one full complete turn. By using the preloadable adjusting bracket it is now possible to change the spring pre-load without changing the vehicle height.

# Pillow Ball Upper Mounts.
Steering response will be dramatically improved by adding upper pillow ball mounts instead of the factory rubber bushing. Aluminum upper mounts will let you adjust the camber on everal strut type suspension kits.

# Original Springs.
High quality original springs are used on all of our suspension kits. A special coating gives extra protection against any corrosion caused by the every day driving.

# Bracket Adjustable.
Buddy Club has eliminated the need for helper springs by using the adjustable bracket system. A super low ride-height is possible without having any free play of the springs. One complete turn of the adjusting bracket will lower the ride-height approximately 2mm. The shell case finish is an off black coating to prevent corrosion and offer a high quality feel.

Gsedan35

iTrader: (10)

Oh wow, that's a really high amount of rear spring to be running since your leveraging more spring power to the wheel vs what the same spring will leverage when run in the oem location. It would take a 19.6Kg spring in the oem location to equal the amount of force your running now. Do entertain the thought that you may want to reduce the rear rate. Notice that the Stance setup is 12Kg/5Kg

nofeardude87

iTrader: (11)

I thought the same too, but for some reason it's not too stiff at the setting i have it at. Maybe i will try the original buddy club springs later, but for now it feels pretty good. It is also quite possible that I got the rear spring rates wrong and they may actually be lower than i thought...

Oh and the buddy club setup does not share the same spring rates as the stance setup. Buddy club is 10kg front and 8kg rear

satoshi004

Pardon my english. Gsedan35 is correct, 12kg rear is too much. This is a very interesting topic to me. I had previously same setup and for drifting I put 12kg rear. Within 2 weeks even before any event, the two rears had been blown out. The technician at buddy club then told me that because of particular shock design plus true coilover setup make spring swap difficult without rebuilding. Before my new coilovers I had 14kg front and 12kg rear. And it required a total of 3 rebuildings. With 12kg it should be much firmer than oem even at most soft setting. I suspect that rear may be feeling soft because the shocks have been worn down.

nofeardude87

iTrader: (11)

I'm sorry, I wrote the wrong spring rates. The swift springs actually have a spring rate of 11 kg front and 11 kg rear. That can explain why the rear is not suuuuper stiff. It is still pretty stiff though so I am pretty certain they are not blown.

nofeardude87

iTrader: (11)

just switched the swifts in the rear out for the regular buddy club springs. The car definetly feels alot more smooth now. Stiffness is not as bad either, but definetly noticeable over stock. Overall, with the rears on 6 clicks and fronts on 5 clicks, handling is much more improved. Now that i don't have the aggressive swift springs on anymore in the rear, I think I will try more clicks in the future.

chriskabobbers

iTrader: (13)

good stuff derek! damnit i hella wanted to buy your springs too .. oh well, gnna look for someone else. =P how much did you get the coilovers for?