I second this answer... Just stay away from K sports and Megans how ever as I have seen them fail pretty often in the 240sx world. Tien basics are also chinese so are Apexi's, stance and PBM's. Stick to the name brand china brands LOL. For 900 u can get megans. Wait another 2 weeks and you can get Stance's or PBM's. Patience is a virtue in the custom car world....

 

This is all true about cheap coils being crap! I have two friends who both autocross their Scion tC's. One is running Hotchkiss springs with Tokico HP shocks (not tooth rattling stiff but better than stock), and the other is running K-sport coilovers (corner balanced too).

Hotchkiss car has Axle back exhaust, rear sway, and Star Specs.
K-Sport car has Hotchkiss front and rear sways, turbo kit (~300whp), gutted interior, racing seat w/harness, and slicks.
Both are very good drivers, and are comparible when driving the same car.

Hotchkiss car has 1-2 second better lap times.

Enough said about K-Sports?

 

Lol no not in the least. Those cars are setup entirely differently, you can't possibly blame the slower lap times on just the k-sports. If you want to do a real comparison have them exchange suspensions and see the difference. I'd also be curious as to what a simple driver swap would do even both are "good drivers". Also depending on how the coilovers are adjusted and dialed in will make a huge difference. What about tires? Wheels? Allignment settings? Brakes? You're comparing an apple with a bowling ball.

 

I'm not too familiar with Scions, but I wonder what's the power delivery like on that turbo'd 4cyl in an autocross situation.

 

I was simply trying to say that the tC with the K-sports is set up much better than the other. It has stiffer sway bars, grippier tires, more power, its lighter, and both have the same aggressive alignment. They've switched cars before and still managed times within a few tenths of each other while driving the same car, but the one with the Ksports is consistently slower.

He's going to get some Dan Gardner race spec coilovers when they start taking orders, so we'll see if that helps out too.

EDIT: Both have stock brakes with aftermarket pads. One is running Axxis and the other Stoptech I think. The pads have pretty similar results.

It's pretty fast in a straight line, but he has trouble putting down all the power coming out of a corner (just like me ). I think an LSD is in the works for him too.

 

I think what he is saying is that the sway bars could have made the car handle worse. Stiffer sways do not necessarily mean better handling.

 

True, but you'd think with a pair of swaybars from the same company, they would be well balanced. I could be wrong nonetheless.

Oh and the guy with the K-sports managed to snap his front Hotchkiss bar right in half last summer during an autocross. Just thought that was worth throwing in there hahaha.

 

Yea, but what are the spring rates on the coilovers? If they are ridiculously high, then paired with super stiff sways you would end up with insanely high net rates which would probably mess things up.

 

Oh I have no idea on the K-sport spring rates. But from what I gather the Hotchkiss sways are indeed pretty stiff.

 

What does that matter? Means the coilover maker's should have thought of that when they built the setup. I have done a lot of coilovers and sways conbos, and usually a well matched set of very very stiff sways only tends to be deceiving in making you think you are going faster through a turn, does not make the car faster or slower through turns.
Now a caveat is that in bad weather the very very stiff sways do induce more hydroplaning.