FIGHTEX Suspension set up question.

[BioBanker]

Hello All - my FIGHTEX coilovers are about to be delivered and I am making arrangements for install.

I am looking for any advice/experience for setting them up for street/occasional track use. I am specifically looking for what drop I should have, I am thinking about 1.25 all around, but I want to check in first with what has worked well.

Anyone here have this suspension?

 

[docjohn]

never heard of it,but regardless make sure you corner ballance the car to set it up by wieght distribution then have it alligned.What are the spring rates?

 

[BioBanker]

The FIGHTEX units are TODAs street suspension. Info on them is here :http://www.todaracing.com/products/honda_nsx/fightex_coilovers.html.

Fronts have 12k-160 rate and rears 10k-160.

 

[docjohn]

Looks nice from the add,let us know what you think once installed.

 

[NSXDreamer2]

Just a suggestion, find the lowest point that you would like to live with, aka street driving with going up and down the ramp, speed bump, steep entrance...etc. Then just lowered it the exact same height front and back.

I belived most people, including the guys at H&R and Eibach, make the rear's lowered than the front (in relation to the fender gap), I believed that will lessen the turn-in feel and also might affect aero dynamics at high speed.

corner balance and alignment is good too, but the problem I always have with people is that they should drive it first to kind of get an idea what should be done. (Alignment people usually don't drive your car that fast to tell the difference, nor you wanted him to.) As everyone had their own preference on car settings.

 

[Osiris_x11]

redo alignment, again?

Is alignment recommended after changing from stock suspension to another stock but different suspension setup (ie. going from OEM suspension to Zanardi/Type_S suspension)? Also, corner balancing? :redface:

I just ask as I had the alignment done a week or so ago, and plan on swapping the struts/springs soon.

Thanks.

(btw, the Toda coilovers look awesome! did Toda extend any customer discount/special?)

 

[Cairo94507]

Well to change out the suspension they have to take it apart so you definitely want to have it realigned after the new stuff is in the car.

On my car all I had done was to replace the stock struts with Bilstein units set on the lower perch, dropping the car about 5/8" to maybe 3/4". That was enough to throw everything off and it definitely needed aligning.

 

[docjohn]

You only need to corner ballance an adjustable coil-over suspension,the simple strut spring combo like the type s is a plug and play.I'm sorry people but if I were going to go full coilover like comptech pro I would want the corner wieghting to reflect the proper distribution rather than adjusting by eyeball based only on cosmetic reasons.If you change suspension pieces then you need to realign :smile:

 

[Peter Mills]

DocJohn is absolutely correct. You must corner balance adjustable struts. If you don't you'll regret your purchase because your tires will wear out quicker than they do now.
If you eyeball lowering the car you will screw up the NSX's balanced suspension. Spend the $250.00...you already spend $2750.00.

 

[freelance201]

yes, alignment is probably a good idea after you install the new coilover.
yes, corner balance makes a big difference!!!!!

 

[ScienceofSpeed]

DocJohn is absolutely correct. You must corner balance adjustable struts. If you don't you'll regret your purchase because your tires will wear out quicker than they do now.
If you eyeball lowering the car you will screw up the NSX's balanced suspension. Spend the $250.00...you already spend $2750.00.

I think you mean to perform an alignment in regards to tire wear. Please align after any suspension modification that produces a ride height change. Toe along with camber will change due to the new suspension geometry. A good technician with measuring tools should know how to properly set spring perches to proper ride height. Make sure to put the car through several load cycles after lowering to settle the suspension. Corner weight balancing with a threaded body coil over is possible, however, on anything other than a purpose built road race car, doing so will not produce significant performance gains if the car's ride height is already correctly set.

Good luck!

Cheers,
-- Chris

 

[docjohn]

Chris,help me out here,how do you know what ride hieght is proper with aftermarket coilovers?Are there marks on the body and if so and if you are tracking the car do you trust it?Or are you saying from experience that no matter how off the average joe might set his own ride hieght,that it dosent really matter as long as the car is alligned?

 

[NSX-Racer]

I belived most people, including the guys at H&R and Eibach, make the rear's lowered than the front (in relation to the fender gap)

Your impression is wrong IMHO. H&R and Eibach spring kits for the NSX lower front and rear nearly equal - other kits from these companies (and I know them because they are in Germany) for posers and show cars are vice versa: Front lower than rear.

 

[TypeRTurbo]

Your impression is wrong IMHO. H&R and Eibach spring kits for the NSX lower front and rear nearly equal - other kits from these companies (and I know them because they are in Germany) for posers and show cars are vice versa: Front lower than rear.

When I lowered my car with the Koni adjustables and Eibach springs, the rear was definately lower than the front. But as I drove the car, the springs settled in and the height of the car evened itself out after about a week.

Like I told SPA_S2000, I've ridden in a C30 with the TODA coilovers and they're great until you go over rough terrain (nothing terrible but more teeth chattering than I prefer). IMHO, they're the best riding coilovers on the market (I've test driven HKS & TEINs) for the street and track. I've decided to put my TODA set on the market only because the street conditions of NYC are more user friendly towards SUVs. If I ever move somewhere where the open roads don't have craters or terrain harsh enough to bruise my kidneys, I'm ordering the TODAs again (assuming I've sold them by then! :biggrin: )

 

[Andrie Hartanto]

DocJohn is absolutely correct. You must corner balance adjustable struts. If you don't you'll regret your purchase because your tires will wear out quicker than they do now.
If you eyeball lowering the car you will screw up the NSX's balanced suspension. Spend the $250.00...you already spend $2750.00.

I don't see why you must corner balance (or Corner weight) a street car. Unless you move around stuff or cut some metal to meet the desire corner weight. There is no way you'll get one right with just adjusting the height. You would not want one of the corner of the car to jack up higher than the rest just to meet the desired corner weight.

For a street car, first decide what is the ride height you like to have. Second is adjust the desired rake. Third is do alignment.

 

[NSX-Racer]

I don't see why you must corner balance (or Corner weight) a street car. Unless you move around stuff ...

Ha, I just imagined moving around this elephant on my driver's seat a bit - of course to the right, because I'm pretty sure the corner balance of my track rat gets way off when I enter the car! :biggrin:

BTW: For this reason I would have to testify that Bilstein shocks and Eibach springs lower the left side of the car more than the right side - as long as I'm in... :wink:

 

[BioBanker]

Thanks for all the advice guys.

The coilovers are going in tomorrow.

The plan is to let them settle for about a week prior to doing an alignment, but if that doesnt make sense, I can get a realtime alignment done immediately after install if I like.

What should I set toe in at tomorrow and should I wait a week for the alignment, or am I okay to get it done also tomorrow?

 

[BioBanker]

Ill just post a quick follow up here on the FIGHTEX; they're installed!

FIGHTEX is the TODA suspension and there are very few of them around (TODA told me 8 in North America, including mine).

I had the installers use the minimum drop for now (only about an inch). I dont expect them to settle very much, but want to give them a little room. Because its only an inch, Im holding off on the alignment until next week (mostly didnt have time yesterday).

They ride stiff - very stiff - but still quite streetable IMO. The specs are a 12k spring in the front and 10k in the back, so a little stiffer than the Type R suspension. Its not too stiff for my liking, but I would not want it much, if any, stiffer for street use. The inch drop has not presented any problems on the speedbumps or curbs Ive encountered so far.

The car corners MUCH flatter. It is way more neutral, which is exactly what I was hoping. Turn in is improved and powering through turns seems better also. Around slower corners, it feels as tossable as my old S2000 did, which is a GREAT thing. Over road irregularities, its certainly stiff, but the wheel and the suspension are back in action much sooner than the stock set up. No more of the lag that I hated so much after a bump before the car would be interactive again.

I have not played with anything on the coilovers yet. Everything else is stock, rims (until tonight! WORK TM1s going on with RA1s) and all stock bars.

So far I love them. No problems with noises or anything, so far.

Im off to MOSPORT Tuesday, so Ill have a better write up then. When I swap the wheels, maybe Ill take some pics.

 

[donwon]

Sweet! Hey do you know how much they weigh?

 

[BioBanker]

I didnt weigh them, but TODA tells me 35% lighter than stock. I carried the box of the four of them around with ease. The four stock shocks with springs are MUCH MUCH heavier to my arms!

They're inverted also, so unsprung weight is even less!

Love them.

 

[TypeRTurbo]

I put my Toda Fightex coilovers on the scale fully assembled. Total weight = 8 lbs per coilovers. Total weight is 32 lbs for all four. I will weigh the stock setup and report back. :biggrin:

Sweet! Hey do you know how much they weigh?

 

[donwon]

Stock is something in the neighborhood of 64 pounds.

 

[BioBanker]

30 pounds lighter doesnt surprise me at all after one of the stock monsters fell on my foot! You can feel it too when youre driving.

 

[ATERPAK]

That's 8 lbs. per wheel. No too bad. Now if you also change the front brake system to something like a Wilwood setup you could save another 9 lbs. and that would equate to 17 lbs. lighter in the front than a stock setup. Now that's a savings in weight you and the car can feel. You probably won't have as big of a savings on the rear if their replaced because of the extra e-brake caliper but it would probably be less than stock. It all adds up quickly doesn't it?

 

[TypeRTurbo]

That's 8 lbs. per wheel. No too bad. Now if you also change the front brake system to something like a Wilwood setup you could save another 9 lbs. and that would equate to 17 lbs. lighter in the front than a stock setup. Now that's a savings in weight you and the car can feel. You probably won't have as big of a savings on the rear if their replaced because of the extra e-brake caliper but it would probably be less than stock. It all adds up quickly doesn't it?

Yes it does add up quicky. Anything attached to the wheel is what's called unsprung weight which includes suspension. Wheels, brakes, and suspension make a big difference in the way car is balanced and you will feel the difference in performance. Imagine yourself holding a 8 lb. weight on the end of rope and you're swinging it in circles. Now imagine the same motion but with a 16 lb. weight. It would be much simplier to control the swinging speed of the 8 lb. weight in comparison to the 16 lb. weight. The same applies to unsprung weight in a car. I hope that made sense to everyone. My partner, who is an engineer, explained this to me and made much better sense than I did. :tongue: :biggrin: