BC Coilovers..best spring rates for comfort?
08-19-12, 04:49 PM
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BC Coilovers..best spring rates for comfort?
Question for those with bc coils, what are the best spring rates to get to give the car a more comfortable ride without losing any of the oem handling characteristics? Is that possible?
08-19-12, 06:11 PM
#2
FIGS Engineering has done all of the work for you on this - Check out his web site for further information
Front 14 K
Rear 10 K
At the '08 SEMA show we were looking for a coilover company willing to offer a solution for the Lexus IS-F. On the final day we hooked up with the folks at BC Racing and found exactly what we were looking for in a performance coilover. Great build quality, affordable price and best of all flexibility in spring rates and valving to serve a number of different tastes. After all, everyone has a different opinion on what they want in a suspension and one size does not fit all. After carefully specifying spring rates that we felt would be a good start, we took delivery of the first part in Jan. 08 and installed them on our test IS-F. The results were dramatic and evident. The stiffer spring rates and enhanced damping had taken the rough low speed ride from the OEM shocks and turned it into small blips of road surface feedback. The high speed handling was more predicatable and entry and exit out of corners was more linear which allowed more precise modulation of the throttle. In short, the car was transformed.
The damping range was then tested for scale, after all what is adjustability if you can only use the bottom 5 settings. Overall we found a good range from 5-25 clicks on the system. 9 clicks out on the front shocks and 12 clicks out on the rear provided an excellent canyon/track setting while a more conservative 20 clicks FR and 25 clicks RR was a more suitable ride for a daily driver. Regardless of your personal settings these will get you where you want and allow drastic changes in the way your vehicle performs with a few clicks of the ****. We are proud to offer these products to the IS community and hope you will enjoy them as much as we do.
Digger08
Front 14 K
Rear 10 K
At the '08 SEMA show we were looking for a coilover company willing to offer a solution for the Lexus IS-F. On the final day we hooked up with the folks at BC Racing and found exactly what we were looking for in a performance coilover. Great build quality, affordable price and best of all flexibility in spring rates and valving to serve a number of different tastes. After all, everyone has a different opinion on what they want in a suspension and one size does not fit all. After carefully specifying spring rates that we felt would be a good start, we took delivery of the first part in Jan. 08 and installed them on our test IS-F. The results were dramatic and evident. The stiffer spring rates and enhanced damping had taken the rough low speed ride from the OEM shocks and turned it into small blips of road surface feedback. The high speed handling was more predicatable and entry and exit out of corners was more linear which allowed more precise modulation of the throttle. In short, the car was transformed.
The damping range was then tested for scale, after all what is adjustability if you can only use the bottom 5 settings. Overall we found a good range from 5-25 clicks on the system. 9 clicks out on the front shocks and 12 clicks out on the rear provided an excellent canyon/track setting while a more conservative 20 clicks FR and 25 clicks RR was a more suitable ride for a daily driver. Regardless of your personal settings these will get you where you want and allow drastic changes in the way your vehicle performs with a few clicks of the ****. We are proud to offer these products to the IS community and hope you will enjoy them as much as we do.
Digger08
08-20-12, 01:18 AM
#3
I got the 14/10 spring rates with the upgraded swift springs. Although the ride is very smooth; in comparison with the stock suspension, I prefer a slightly stiffer spring rate. You can adjust the damper at a lower stiffness if you get stiffer springs. Hope that makes sense. The handling feels much better and hugs the road. No more of those "bumps" where you pop out of your seat. The coils rebounds quite nicely. Any chance you're from SoCal? You can check out my ride if you are or if you are plan on getting 14/10 perhaps we could swap? I prefer stiffer spring rates and I recently had them installed. Here's my car with the BC coils with swift springs. Be aware with the swift springs upgrade it will push the ship date back to approximately 3 weeks since they do not carry those in stock, but it's worth the wait. =)
08-20-12, 02:20 AM
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08-20-12, 11:00 AM
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I got the 14/10 spring rates with the upgraded swift springs. Although the ride is very smooth; in comparison with the stock suspension, I prefer a slightly stiffer spring rate. You can adjust the damper at a lower stiffness if you get stiffer springs. Hope that makes sense. The handling feels much better and hugs the road. No more of those "bumps" where you pop out of your seat. The coils rebounds quite nicely. Any chance you're from SoCal? You can check out my ride if you are or if you are plan on getting 14/10 perhaps we could swap? I prefer stiffer spring rates and I recently had them installed. Here's my car with the BC coils with swift springs. Be aware with the swift springs upgrade it will push the ship date back to approximately 3 weeks since they do not carry those in stock, but it's worth the wait. =)
08-20-12, 11:07 AM
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I just had mine installed and corner balanced a couple of weeks ago. I got the 16k/12k swift springs instead of the lower spring rates as I do go to the track... On damping settings of 14 front and 19 rear the ride was even softer and more comfortable to my '11 oem stock suspension... I stiffened them to 9 front and 14 rear for my recent track day and it was slightly stiffer than stock... Hope this helps! 
08-20-12, 06:13 PM
#13
The "feel" is going to be different for everyone. Playing with the adjustments to find the right "sweet spot" for your driving needs is going to be a trial by error. Tommy @ Music Box and Apex spent a lot of time dialing in his KW3's for all the canyon runs that he does, and I don't think Apex is absolutely happy yet on being "dialed in".
08-20-12, 06:26 PM
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I'm happy with my KW V3's. It totally changes the ride on my 08 F. I'm still on factory setting and I'm like the ride for everyday driving. Haven't hit the canyons yet. I cant wait for my PPE headers to arrive and get installed. I'll be dialing it in when I hit the track. I still cant decide if I want to get some new wheel or just get wider tires. I haven't found one yet that's worth replacing the stock BBS.
08-20-12, 08:42 PM
#15