Coilover KW V3 -vs- Eibach R2?

[TurboGT]

Anybody with personal experience with these setups on an 08GT500 on a car used for 50/50 street/road course?

[TurboGT]

Nobody? Other opinions are welcome - I'm not sold on either. CorteX is another option & I know there are more than a few running CorteX.

[waihona]

i have a 07 gt500 that i put the ford racing suspension kit with the lower springs, adjustable shocks tight for the track and soft for the street but even hards not that bad, sway bars front and back. i road race the car about 4 to 6 weekends a year and only drive it to and from events. consider track insurance too if your gonna do it. drag racing i don;t have a clue what works. coilover are for the track only car or at least that what i see alot of on the track. don;t know what the R2 is. what kinda brakes you run on the track?

[glroy]

correct me if I am wrong but the main advantage to the coil overs are for setting up the ride height. I have adjustable shocks and struts but you know what they are set in the middle and I have never moved them since the install. It would be the same deal with the ride height once I have set would I change it. not likely. I would get the eibach lowering springs (rear only if you lower the front you are going to scrape on everything),tokico adjustable shocks and struts, watts link. and all the rest of the goodies.

it works well for me.

[TurboGT]

Thanks for the responses guys. I'm doing the brakes first - DBA5000 slotted fronts & 4000 slotted rears, Goodridge lines, HPS pads, cooling ducts for the front, Motul fluid. Also have 3.73 gears ready to go in - those should be fun with all the torque this car makes. Once the factory tires are done (probably about 2-3 track days) that will be the next upgrade.

The suspension will come a little later this year after I get more seat time. A quality adjustable coilover system should do a lot more than adjust ride height. Although that is important, I'm also concerned with properly corner weighting the car to make it more neutral in cornering among other things. In stock trim it handles decently on the street & with upgraded LCA's and UCA it can do pretty good in a straight line on the drag strip, but IMHO the factory suspension is overmatched on a road course.

I really like the FRPP handling kit for a factory upgrade & may go that route if I decide not to do the full coilover setup. Eibach R2 is an adjustable coilover with remote reservoir. They look good but if I commit the car to more track time (and my skill level justifies it) I'm looking past them. Griggs Street coilovers with torque arm setup & watts link (CorteX is similar) should make the car handle about as well as it can.

[waihona]

if you wanna upgrade your brakes the goodridge lines are a must! the hps are tremendous street pads but on the track they'll last 2 weekends maybe 3. rotors the stock are gonna give you the best wear and life the slotted stuff looks cool but how do they price to ford brembo oem. i know drilled rotors crack at the holes not sure how slotted handle the extreme heat. i've went trough 5 to 6 sets of front rotors one set of rears. use the hps's till you learn how to do pad changes on the rear. the fronts are a breeze. motorcraft fluid is 500degree too i switch between that and some blue stuff i bought so i know where i'm at on changing 2 or 3 times a year always before the glen. 373 on the strip is probably a good thing but on the track i mostly use 3rd, forth on the front straight and 2nd once in a while on a tight turn. 5the after 140mph all with a stock rear. what road tracks are near you? factory tires i still use for rainy days. they'll last pretty good until you learn to trail brake. then you'll wear the front outside edge off leaving the rest of the tire. seat time thats the fun!! of the whole deal. get the seat time listen to the instructors and ask questions pay attention in class. did i say have fun or mention fun?

[TurboGT]

Having fun is the most important part of the whole deal!

The drilled rotors are definitely prone to cracking at the holes, whereas the slotted ones don't and the slots help "out gassing" between the pad & rotor. I went with a 2 piece front rotor because having the "hat" (center) made out of a lighter material saves rotating weight and supposedly helps shield the hub from heat generated by the rotor.

I know the HPS pads won't last very long, but my thought is they won't be as "grabby" as full race pads as I'm building skill.

I would love to have two sets of wheels & tires and eventually will have a set for the track with the same tires at all 4 corners. I don't drive the car in the rain if I can avoid it, but have to drive about 50 miles each way to the track so my first set will be a dual purpose tire.

The two tracks closet to me are Atlanta Motorsports Park, it's a private membership track and I'm about to join. It's tight, twisty and where I will be doing the vast majority of my track days. Road Atlanta is relatively close too. Much longer straights, so higher speeds - but I will only go there to play with the big dogs after a LOT more seat time for planned events.

 

[waihona]

sounds like your in a sunny spot being near atlanta. i hear road atlanta is a pretty great course. i keep my car in de. and have thought about driving to an event down their but with watkins glen and vir around i haven't got enough motavation to drive that far yet. my wife got me a drive in a stock car i have to use this year so maybe i might see if the two courses collide unless their is something closer to where i hang. to help with heat on hubs the cooling kit m-2004-a could help also i put one on my car. they also have a m-20045-msvt "cooling sheilds" these look interesting to me. but you have to remove dust sheilds so is that my m-2004-a kit???

i use the hawk dtc-70 front and dtc-60 on the rear and the only thing i noticed was in the same corner on the same day. i slowed down so much faster that i had to hit the gas to get to the corner to turn. or i started to use the next braking cone closer to the corner. you get i'd say 10 to 15% faster breaking. over hps pads. i even drive them to and from the track they make a real mess of black dust on the wheels. changing at the track was kind of a hassle but sometimes its the best way but i'll steet drive um. they squeek and i press them hard on the street and then coast to the light or car. just me. never thought they where grabby though but i drive um that way. i wouldn;t get in a commute to work with them they would drive ya nuts. but to and from the track usually isn't bad.

i bought a set of 2007-9 svt wheels on ebay for 500$ a couple years ago and put nt-01 on them their ok and all the same size. 275x35 or 40x18 i think. the cars 5000 miles from my home so i can't look right now. i hear nt05 are good in the rain and the track you could try those after you waste the goodyears.

if you go with a nasa hpde club to road atlanta they will have you with folks in your same level or group. you can have all the fun and not get run over by some crazy.

can you change the rotor and keep the hat?

[Kevin Patten]

If you don't go with the Griggs or Cortex ( which I highly recommend ) I will say that I've put on a couple of sets of the KW variant 3 set ups on cars for people and it works well and on the same note I have removed some Eibach R2 set ups . Roush uses the KW set up on the 427R and some other models . Just sharing .

[TurboGT]

If you don't go with the Griggs or Cortex ( which I highly recommend ) I will say that I've put on a couple of sets of the KW variant 3 set ups on cars for people and it works well and on the same note I have removed some Eibach R2 set ups . Roush uses the KW set up on the 427R and some other models . Just sharing .

Contrary to my usual M.O., I decided to do more research before jumping into the suspension purchase & that was probably the best decision. After endless questions to vendors and forum members I keep coming back to the Griggs & CorteX systems. The current sale on the Shelby Track Pack may be the clincher. $3999 for the full Shelby/Cortex package is sounding like a pretty good deal right now. My only hesitation is the watts link that comes with this setup. IMHO, the Fays2 and the Griggs watts are a more robust design. Having said that - at my current skill level it's doubtful that I will break anything on the Shelby/CorteX watts link - barring any off track excursions. Although my car isn't for show, I admit that the idea of having the Shelby logo & paint scheme on the setup should make for a visually appealing package.

I'm finishing up the brake install today - DBA slotted F/R rotors, CS brake ducts, Goodridge lines & new fluids. I was going to just get a set of track wheels/tires and get some track time before jumping into the suspension - but the current deal on the suspension may be too good to pass up. I'll likely make a decision Monday.

[RMatovich]

I have a Vapor 2008 GT500. I was running Tokico D Specs shocks with FRPP lowering coils along with a full Shelby BMR suspension and chassis buildout. I recently installed the Eibach R2 coil-over kit with the Maximum Motorsports custom caster/camber upper mounts for the R2 kit. I'm also running the Shelby FAYS2 Watts Link. I run my car on the 5 or 6 road courses aound me in the MidWest SCCA region as well as drive it often on the street and will hit up some open drag strip TnT nights just for fun. I have about $15K total in chassis and suspension mods trying to "solve" the Mustang suspension issues. This Mustang is also my 7th, so I have had lots of experience with the Mustang 3 link rear end setup. In my latest build, the Eibach R2s were added last...and they made a HUGE difference compared to the Tokico D Specs and FRPP coils. I'm still adjusting the dampening settings to try and get it as good as it possible can be, but thus far I am very pleased with the setup. For drag strip nights I can make the rear end softer for better bite. On road course days I can stiffen up the front and rear compression and tune in rebound dampening just right and it only takes a few minutes in the paddock to do it. I was skeptical if the dampening adjustments would be noticeable or not, but am pleased to report they really are noticable and allow for a wide range of tuning scenarios. The FAYS2 Watts link also made a HUGE difference in the rear end, so much so it doesn't even feel like a 3 link anymore. The Watts really keeps the rear tires planted hard and eliminates the wagging in the rear due to the panhard rod arc. Something else that really made a noticeable difference and is inexpensive is the BMR Rear Upper Control Arm Bushing. It's only like $50 and really helps with rear end stability. It is also key to get adjustable "everything" along the way. Once you start messing with key suspension geometry parts, you'll need the adjustments in the long run to make everything work together properly. For instance, when putting on R2s I had a clearance issue due to backspacing on my 20"x9.5" wheels. I was able to adjust the BMR Front adjustable lower control arms to provide clearance and still get the 2 degrees of camber I wanted.

[hunters1]

R2's, strogly suggest a shop Speed South outside of Birmingham if not too far away. Check out their site. I bought my car second hand, that shop did majority of work, car is amazing.