Wasn't sure whether or not to post this here or in the lounge, but just putting it here since it's long and I may update it as time goes by and more parts are added.

So, back in late July/early August I picked up a nice, clean, stock low mileage base model zenki S14 for a fair price from the original owner. It would have been nice to hold out for an SE, but I needed a new daily driver asap and the price was right...

Here she is in all her stock, 4x4 glory:



Since then I've been dailying it and trying to decide what all I want to do with it. I've seen a few really tempting deals on already modded cars pop up lately, and I've kinda been going back and forth with whether or not I want to pick up a new car that already has some work done & resell my car or just keep what I alraedy have... but I think for now I'm just going to stick with my zenki and slowly build it up...

So, I've been taking my time, doing research, and making plans... I decided on dealing with the suspension first. I wanted something equally suitable for dailying on the street and going out to a track for some fun now and then (looking for some real performance benefits, not just looking to slam the car on some cheap, harsh JDM coils with shitty dampening). After a lot of reading, I ended up narrowing my choices down to the KW Variant 3, or a custom Koni/Bilstein setup. I heard a lot of good things about KW and was about drop some bucks on a new set of Variant 3s until I got in touch with somebody from Dynamic Autosports/Gruppe-S and got a sweet deal.

If you're not familiar with Dynamic Autosports, they're the team currently competing in Formula D with a GT-R and a WRX STI.

Anyways, these coilovers were custom built for their old Hankook S14 that Joon Maeng drove in Formula D in 2008.

I'm not sure whether or not they still have it or what they're doing with it now, but here's some pics of it:





Dynamic Autosports has a good relationship with KW. All of their competition cars are sponsored by and run KW Suspension. They actually had some KW engineers fly over to CA from Germany to check out the car and gather data on the S14 chassis during a couple test sessions at Irwindale. They created a custom setup built specifically to have optimum grip for drifting, but they could easily kickass for autocross as well with the right settings.

What they came up with is a hybrid of their Clubsport and Variant 3 coilovers. The outer body of the damper itself is from a KW Variant 3, but the internals of the damper is from a Clubsport. So, basically, it's a fully custom KW Clubsport that has been hand valved by KW in Germany for an 8K spring rate in the front and a 6k spring rate in the rear with a helper spring. This combo offers a good level of grip by not going too aggressive with the spring rates, so you actually get good suspension travel for maximum control of the car... but at the same time the more aggressive rebound of the Clubsport compensates for the softer spring rates along with the helper spring setup.

The team had ordered a few sets (to have backups), and this set ended up never getting used (because I don't think they have that S14 anymore). So, I ended up getting this custom S14 setup brand new in box for a bit less than stores are selling the normal Variant 3s for. Fuck yeah.

Here's some pics of the coilovers:









Pretty psyched to get these on my car! Going 5 lug and getting wheels will probably be next... thinking about some black 17", maybe 18" Enkei PF01s, but not sure yet.

I'll try to update with some new pics when the coilovers are on and I've got some new wheels.

 

Hooray! You got the coils. They're definitely bad ass. Now get the 5 lug and wheels.

 

^lolololol

a pic of your stock car, then a few google images of a race car, then some pics of some nice coils.....

awesome thread

 

Yeah, probably should've posted this in the lounge area instead of here.

Then again, since this is TR it probably still would be ignored because it's not a half-assed, barely running swapped s13 on megan coilovers.

 

No it probably woulda been ignored because there is still nothing going on here... wow horray coils... we all have coils...

 

^ i dont, lol anymore, but im gonna start saving up again..

these are nice tho

 

if it's all one color, built half way decent, not rattle canned, then you're gonna be lumped into the "elitist" catagory...

Mike's there
i've recently joined the club (it seems)

others are there, but usually aren't called out...

i guess owning legit RHD's make you a douchebag elitist... who'da thunk it?




but on topic, this post does kinda fail bro, i mean, pics of a base model S14, race car, and some coils, not even installed....

you could/should have shortened it to just the pic of the coils, and posted in "what did you do to your Nissan today" AKA "car wash odyssey", instead of making an entire thread about it...

 

Yeah... if you think all coilovers are the same...

Most of the guys I see on here are running shitty Megan, Apexi, BC, D2, Ksport, etc.... maybe Tein or Stance at best... If you really think those are comparable to the stuff being made by high quality, performance oriented suspension companies like KW, Bilstein, Koni, Ohlins, Moton, etc., then I don't really know what to tell you.

Then again, a lot of the guys on here don't give a shit about performance or ride quality and just want to slam their car to the ground for as little $$$ as possible. JDM tyte, y0!

 

welcome to TR's 240 Tech....

 

Yeah, I agree. I just don't look outside of the for sale section too often... wasn't sure where to post it and was excited about getting a sweet deal on my new coilovers. haha.

I only showed the race car, because I thought it was pretty cool that I got ahold of a set of coilovers custom built for a Formula D team's S14. You can't just go online and order these.

but, yeah... I'll probably just let the thread sink into the abyss, at least until more work has been done to the car.