hello1

hello, i was just wondering about other peoples experience. i have espellir springs but i track my car and the springs just arent working for me nemore. do any of you know if coilovers would make more of a difference in handling or would adding sways help? i can only afford sways or coilovers, of course i would like both but which one should i go with first? also if coilovers, what would be ideal for a track setup with maximum drop since im on 17's cuz i cant afford to buy all those 18' tires every month. thanks for any help and all input is greatly appreciated. =)

CleanSC

If you're at the track often and you already have good springs, get the sway bars. These will help your springs out since they better tie one side to the other so they can work together.

VSsc400

iTrader: (1)

coilovers would give you full adjustability in terms of dampening force. As for making the car stiffer different coilovers have different spring rates so I would check to compare spring rates on your espellir and the springs on the coilovers that you are looking to get.

I've seen many here go with supra TT sways or TRD sways but I would suggest Daizen Sway bar set. They come with poly-U bushings and the rear sways are adjustable to 3 different settings. The supra TT's bars are about 50% stiffer over stock. The Daizen sways are 100% stiffer over stock.

For track I would say that you stick with 17" wheels.

I bought tein HA coilovers first. For very agressive driving or track i had to jack up the front dampener rate to 13 and rear dampening to 15 with 1.2" drop in front and 1" drop in the rear.
Then I went and bought Daizen sway bars and they were WOW. I don't need to set the dampening force so high to keep the car fromw swaying. The sway bars allowed me to drop the dampening rate to 6front and 8rear and it corners better than with the original settings with stock sway.

I spoke with Todd at TMengineering for hours about this before i made my purchase (I bought both the sway bar set and coilovers from Todd at tmengineering).

If you are going to go with supra TT sway bars then I would say get coilovers first. But if you are going to get Daizen sway bar sets then I would get the sway bars first.

I have no stock suspension component in my car as of now and experimented with different combinations of different suspension components and I think you should go with Daizen sways. They are more expensive but it's well well well worth it's money.

hope this helped.

hello1

tthanks man, i really appreciate that. since i am not to familiar witht the sc's and their handling/suspension, i am more familiar with 240's. i used to have jic flt a2 on my 240 and i could run the car without swaybars. i dont know about the sc300 thats y i asked. the spring rates i plan to get are at least 16 in the front, i want the 20kg in the front, and 14 in the rear, but i want the 16 in the rear. so as you can see i am going to be on a really stiff ride. what i am concerned about is that if i purchase the sway bars first, then go coilovers, i dont want my sway bar purchase to be a waste of money. when i got sways for my 240 and then coilovers, i realized that the sways didnt do much help after the coilovers, so that is what i am concerned about, whether or not the 500 dollar sways would benefit me after i purchase coilovers. thanks and any advice/experience/suggestion would be appreciated. =)

VSsc400

iTrader: (1)

the SC weighs considerably more. I think even with 16kg and 20kg you are going to need some help compensating for the weight of the car. The coilovers do a lot for the suspension but I don't know if it would be wise for you to run the coilovers at near full stiff under track conditions. Furthermore I don't think the answer is that you would need both sways and coilovers... They really work differently to control you car. the thing is which one you should get first. Since you have springs already I would say sways.

hello1

yea thats true, i forgot about the weight factor in our cars, so a sway bar would further tighten the car nomatter what. thanks and i believe i will go with sways first for immediate response to handling with less the price of coilovers. =) i truely appreciate your help. thanks alot

morris

iTrader: (2)

Dont take me wrong here and for the record, I'm no track expert. But from my admittedly limited experience, swaybars while a great mod can in no way approach the handling improvements of a good set of coilovers. Swaybars primarily reduce body roll while coilovers effect every single aspect of the cars handling abillity.

Well thats my 2 cents

And I do have coilovers and Sways.

hello1

damn..that was my experience too but i didnt know if the weight of the sc would make sways more useful after coilovers or not. do you think your sways helped any after coilovers? thanks =)

morris

iTrader: (2)

Yes they definitely helped but they cant help as much as the coilovers. Think of a metal worker, he starts with a really big ole hammer to bang a piece of metal into the general shape he wants. Then he swithces to a tiny little hammer for the fnal touches.

I think of these in the same way. The coilovers are what changes the entire character of the car, the coilovers fine tune it even more. The coilovers are a sledge hammer and the swaybars are a little finger mallet.

my 2 cents.

hello1

thanks man, that really helped. i guess my concern is if i should save up for coilovers or get immediate results with sway bars since i already have springs? thanks

morris

iTrader: (2)

I had H&R springs prior to moving to the coilovers, if it were me I would save for the coilovers. Sways are what 400-500 bucks? I think tein Coilovers are 1300 or so and thats new. If you have the cash for sways you are 1/3 or more of the way there. If you think you can get the rest together in the next 4 or 5 months I would wait. You might also consider used ones, but be careful people can sell junk and not think twice about ripping you off. If I were considering used I would only buy from someone on the board that I knew, trusted had a good rep and was smaller than me

VSsc400

iTrader: (1)

I would have said that he should go with coilovers too if he didn't have springs already and if the stock sways weren't so incompetent.

I think the sway bars are the sledge hammer and coilovers are like the little finger mallets.

the sways (sledge hammer) will reduce the overall body roll and properly get you to a proper base for your suspension upgrades and the rear sway bar adjustability will also help you to dial in (in a crude manner) under/oversteer to the car. Then the coilovers (finger mallets) will fine tune each corner of the car.

hello1: you have both sides of the story here from 2 people who both have coilovers and sways. You have the story, now it's time for you to decide. I think morris will agree with me that both coilovers and sways are necessary to build a successful track suspension it's just what you should or want to do first.

my reasons for you getting sways first
1. you already have springs
2. coilovers cost anything from 1200 to 2500 while daizen sway bars and bushings cost 500. I think mentally it's easier to save another 500 than another 700 to 2000

good luck and which ever way you go i hope you will be happy. If not just go get the other since you're going to end up getting them anyways

hello1

thanks vsc400...like you said, both is required for a good setup, the question is just which one to do first. all your help led me to my decision, i believe sway bars would be better off for me first. it was just that the whiteline adjustable sway bars i had on my 240 didnt do jack after i got the coilovers. so since you both ensured me that the daizen sway bars for the sc300 will probably eventually still aid me in my suspension tuning, i believe the wisest choice is to save $1200-1700$ and purchase what will benefit me the most now, and probably in the future as well. =) thanks for both your help it is greatly appreciated..and who knows, in a year they might come up with some break through suspension evolution and coilovers might be useless =)
and thanks morris for the beware of used junk =) its just i dont think i can come up with extra money for coilovers in such short period of time, so the immediate benefit would be from sways, although coilovers will eventually be in the process =))

morris

iTrader: (2)

Let us know how it turns out once you get them on.

hello1

np guys...thanks again