Megan Racing Coilovers
09-05-06, 08:30 PM
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Megan Racing Coilovers
Short Story:
$900 new and it is everything I hoped it would be. Separate adjustible ride height, spring preload, and dampening, a firm comfortable ride on the softest setting like a luxury sports car should have been, with the option of tightening it up for the track, and a price tag that severly undercuts the competition yet the finished product was of the same high quality you would expect from the most brand recognized imports.
Long story:
Well, I had been needing new shocks/springs for my sc400 for quite some time, but never really had the time to take care of it until now.
As with everyone else on this forum, I was not sure with what brand to go with. Teins are probably the most popular here and on supraforums, but they are expensive for what you get as only the high end versions do separate ride height and spring pre-load... and you have to buy the pillow top mounts too. JICs by far have been praised the most, but they are real costly at over $1700 new. There were others such as Silk Road, D2, HKS... and all seemed to have favorable reviews.
So for me, as long as it had individual ride height and spring pre-load adjustment, it was on my list to consider. Then came spring rates, I wanted something comfortable as this is my daily, not yet a track car. Afterwards, it came down to price.
After doing my research, I ended up taking a jump with Megan Racing Coilovers. The spring rates were 14kg front / 10kg rear (pretty much middle of the road for these cars), offered more than enough dampening adjustment (32 settings) and the price of $900 shipped brand new beat out all the other competitors by a fair margin. Now, I'm not the one to be a test bed for new products, so initially I was not keen on going for them due to lack of reviews specific to these cars. However, I also own an MR2, and many MR2 owners own and love these coilovers... and to me that was enough to try them out.
I installed them last weekend, so this is just sort of an initial impression... but so far they are wonderful. I left the dampening on the softest setting while things are still settling in, but on this setting the car rides just as you would expect, and just as I want. Satisfyingly stiffer in the turns with out the crazy body roll, but when it comes to the little bumps and ditches on the road you are not hurting... it still feels like a luxury car that I could fall asleep in on the highway if I'm not careful. And this is with 19" rims no less. After things settle in and I roll my fenders and get an alignment, I'll probably stiffen it up a bit for fun.
And for those who may ask... Installation was just as easy as any coilover setup, took me about 2 hours with hand tools and a friend every now and then to jump on the axle for me. There is a write up on here for installation, but that really was too indepth.
For the rears, all you need to do is unbolt the strut from the lower control arm and from the frame... then have your friend jump on hub while you pull it out... takes no time at all.
The fronts are a bit more involved, as you have to remove the upper control arm bolt, but that only takes an extra 10mins to do... in the end still the same process. Swing the upper control arm out of the way and have your friend hop on the axle while you pry it out. No need to remove those rusted sway bar bolts.
Oh, if you can, do both the fronts at the same time, then the rears at the same time. For example, if you do the front passenger side first, doing the front drivers side will be a lot harder, unless you can unbolt the swaybar. When you install the lowered coilover on the one side, you effectively compress the opposite side because of the sawybar, and this gives you less room to work with.
$900 new and it is everything I hoped it would be. Separate adjustible ride height, spring preload, and dampening, a firm comfortable ride on the softest setting like a luxury sports car should have been, with the option of tightening it up for the track, and a price tag that severly undercuts the competition yet the finished product was of the same high quality you would expect from the most brand recognized imports.
Long story:
Well, I had been needing new shocks/springs for my sc400 for quite some time, but never really had the time to take care of it until now.
As with everyone else on this forum, I was not sure with what brand to go with. Teins are probably the most popular here and on supraforums, but they are expensive for what you get as only the high end versions do separate ride height and spring pre-load... and you have to buy the pillow top mounts too. JICs by far have been praised the most, but they are real costly at over $1700 new. There were others such as Silk Road, D2, HKS... and all seemed to have favorable reviews.
So for me, as long as it had individual ride height and spring pre-load adjustment, it was on my list to consider. Then came spring rates, I wanted something comfortable as this is my daily, not yet a track car. Afterwards, it came down to price.
After doing my research, I ended up taking a jump with Megan Racing Coilovers. The spring rates were 14kg front / 10kg rear (pretty much middle of the road for these cars), offered more than enough dampening adjustment (32 settings) and the price of $900 shipped brand new beat out all the other competitors by a fair margin. Now, I'm not the one to be a test bed for new products, so initially I was not keen on going for them due to lack of reviews specific to these cars. However, I also own an MR2, and many MR2 owners own and love these coilovers... and to me that was enough to try them out.
I installed them last weekend, so this is just sort of an initial impression... but so far they are wonderful. I left the dampening on the softest setting while things are still settling in, but on this setting the car rides just as you would expect, and just as I want. Satisfyingly stiffer in the turns with out the crazy body roll, but when it comes to the little bumps and ditches on the road you are not hurting... it still feels like a luxury car that I could fall asleep in on the highway if I'm not careful. And this is with 19" rims no less. After things settle in and I roll my fenders and get an alignment, I'll probably stiffen it up a bit for fun.
And for those who may ask... Installation was just as easy as any coilover setup, took me about 2 hours with hand tools and a friend every now and then to jump on the axle for me. There is a write up on here for installation, but that really was too indepth.
For the rears, all you need to do is unbolt the strut from the lower control arm and from the frame... then have your friend jump on hub while you pull it out... takes no time at all.
The fronts are a bit more involved, as you have to remove the upper control arm bolt, but that only takes an extra 10mins to do... in the end still the same process. Swing the upper control arm out of the way and have your friend hop on the axle while you pry it out. No need to remove those rusted sway bar bolts.
Oh, if you can, do both the fronts at the same time, then the rears at the same time. For example, if you do the front passenger side first, doing the front drivers side will be a lot harder, unless you can unbolt the swaybar. When you install the lowered coilover on the one side, you effectively compress the opposite side because of the sawybar, and this gives you less room to work with.
09-05-06, 08:51 PM
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Thank you very much for that write up. I posted a question about the Megans not too long ago and no one seemed to have an answer.
My buddy just installed him in his 240 and they GREAT for the price. I was wondering how they would be in our heavier cars, and I guess they are ok. After being set on Tein CS' for a while, I think I may go Megan..
My buddy just installed him in his 240 and they GREAT for the price. I was wondering how they would be in our heavier cars, and I guess they are ok. After being set on Tein CS' for a while, I think I may go Megan..
09-06-06, 08:26 AM
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$1050 is what you would pay if you buy directly from them... go find one of their authorized distributors (they should have a list on their site) and you'll pay what I did. Hell even ebay lists them for $950 shipped.
As for a comparison to the Buddy Club... the only difference is that the buddy club uses 18kg springs for the front and only offer 15 levels of dampening adjustment. So... they should probably be just a little stiffer, though I have never ridden in a car equiped with the buddy clubs.
As for a comparison to the Buddy Club... the only difference is that the buddy club uses 18kg springs for the front and only offer 15 levels of dampening adjustment. So... they should probably be just a little stiffer, though I have never ridden in a car equiped with the buddy clubs.
Last edited by millions; 09-06-06 at 08:34 AM.
09-08-06, 05:51 PM
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so did you get yours secretly? not being sarcastic, well sort of, but we really want to know where you got them for $50 less. We have a track event coming up, and i would appreciate it, if you give us some info. Thank ya'.
My brother had them on his car, and did really well at the events, Open diff.
My brother had them on his car, and did really well at the events, Open diff.
09-09-06, 08:09 AM
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Now... to comply with forum rules I won't be advocating any 1 particular shop... but did you even check their distributor page? I just visited 3 of their links off meganracing's site and they all had them for $900 w/ free shipping.
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09-11-06, 09:52 PM
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Pertty much as low as possible... when I put them on with the settings that came from the factory my bomex front bumper was about 1/2 in off the ground... and it could have still been adjusted lower.
That was however too low for me as my 19" tires were supporting the fenders at that point, so I raised it up.
That was however too low for me as my 19" tires were supporting the fenders at that point, so I raised it up.
09-12-06, 02:49 AM
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To all the Megan Racing Coilover advocates, do you all have buddies or affiliations with shops that sell these parts? I just heard from a reliable source in the suspension industry that the valving on the Megans is very different from the valving on the Apexi N1 and that is why they're so much cheaper. Apparently the Megan Racing Coilovers have nowhere near the internal quality, performance, and reliability as compared to their "copies," the Apexi N1's.
I read about someone on supraforums blowing out his rear Megan Racing Coilovers (internal manufacturing inconsistencies) and now I'm just starting to think this ~$870 shipped price (ebay) is so cheap because the internal quality is so low.
I read about someone on supraforums blowing out his rear Megan Racing Coilovers (internal manufacturing inconsistencies) and now I'm just starting to think this ~$870 shipped price (ebay) is so cheap because the internal quality is so low.
09-12-06, 03:51 AM
#14
To all the Megan Racing Coilover advocates, do you all have buddies or affiliations with shops that sell these parts? I just heard from a reliable source in the suspension industry that the valving on the Megans is very different from the valving on the Apexi N1 and that is why they're so much cheaper. Apparently the Megan Racing Coilovers have nowhere near the internal quality, performance, and reliability as compared to their "copies," the Apexi N1's.
I read about someone on supraforums blowing out his rear Megan Racing Coilovers (internal manufacturing inconsistencies) and now I'm just starting to think this ~$870 shipped price (ebay) is so cheap because the internal quality is so low.
I read about someone on supraforums blowing out his rear Megan Racing Coilovers (internal manufacturing inconsistencies) and now I'm just starting to think this ~$870 shipped price (ebay) is so cheap because the internal quality is so low.
09-12-06, 03:56 AM
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I haven't been impressed with Tein, so they're out too. I was all excited about the Megan's until I heard their internals are $h!tty quality. Can anyone put these Megan Racing Coilovers on a shock dyno so we can see some empirical results instead of heresay?