RWspinning

So gentlemen I recently purchased my Z and before I go snooping around for deals on suspension upgrades I thought I'd get some of your opinions on what you are using/ have used and so on.


My usage, 90 street/ 10 track ( at most)

what do you guys reccomend outa these 4 or is there a better option all together.

1-Pfadt coilovers with a sway bar upgrade

2-Jim o stage 1( upgraded shocks and sway bars)

3-GT2 COILOVER /VanSteel Sway Bar Package

4- KW V3's with a sway bar upgrade

So keep in mind I will be driving 8-10k a year. and also Im totally clueless when It comes to suspension upgrades to the Z's. I come from the BMW community so take it easy on my gentlemen haha

And I also dont know if there is additional upgrades to do to the Z if I am already taking the dive with the shocks' coilovers..... bushings and so on.. some of these kits come with some additional items but I do not know what I should be doing also.

Id really like more turn in feel, sharper handling and a better planted feel when driving in turns oron the street( highway)

Thanks
PS I love the Z I dont know what took me so long to get one

ZO ZICK

I personally, would lean towards Choice 1

LFZ

I have Pfadt Featherlight coils with light rate sways....made it a whole new car. Quality is second to none and customer service is awesome. The car is very flat and planted. Best mod I've done so far.


/Lee

Bill Dearborn

With your usage I would stay with the stock springs and maybe switch over to a different set of shocks so you can track the car and get on the power a little sooner coming out of rough corners. The turn in can be handled by getting a more aggressive alignment.

Use the money you would save on the coil overs on a set of 18x11 front and 18x13 rear wheels from CCW with Hoosier R6s mounted and Stop Tech brakes front and rear. After that or maybe before that pop for a set of race seats so you can stay in the seat with all the grip you have.

Bill

tjsears

I'm in the same boat as the OP. I'm going Bilstein/DRM shocks and some sways and calling it a day. :-)


BTW: The DRM Group buy is going on now!!!!!!!

Pfadt Racing

Well there are a couple ways we would suggest you go, one being the Johnny O'Connell Stage 1 package, the other being coilovers. The determining factor really has to do with how much adjustability you want, how much of an emphasis you put on track performance, and your budget.

The Johnny O'Connell package was really made for guys who spend most of their time driving their cars on the street with some occasional track time. The sway bar package brings the handling balance away from oversteer back to more neutral or a touch of understeer at the limit, which really does make the car overall easier to drive fast. All of our Johnny O'Connell packages include poly sway bar bushings as well as adjustable endlinks to complete your install.

We also make some strategic changes to the shock valving to make the car more confident at turn in, as well as over rough and choppy road surfaces. The shocks are non adjustable, the front bar is fixed, the rear bar has 3 positions of adjustment to help you dial in the balance of the car depending on the tire compounds you're running and your driving style. This is a great package for the customer looking for a plug and play package without too much fuss for track use with a great price point.

The other option are going to our FeatherLight Generation Coilovers and an adjustable sway bar package of your choice. This setup is going to offer greater flexibility, and once properly setup will ultimately offer superior track performance without sacrificing ride quality. The FeatherLight Coilovers can be setup as the best of both worlds, aggressive at the track and then adjusted back down for a comfortable street ride and manners. You can expect increased performance both on track and on the street with the coilovers because of the increased spring rates we package into them, the adjustable dampers, as well as the elimination of the leaf spring from the suspension. By eliminating the leaf spring you end up with less overall weight, and a suspension pacakge that is able to articulate more effectively than with the leaf in place.

We typically like to pair the FeatherLight Generations with either our Heavy Duty - Light Rate or Heavy Duty - Heavy Rate bars depending on application. For mostly street use with some track time the light rates are a great match. They use our lightweight 3 piece construction technique, and feature both an adjustable front and rear for fine tuning the exact balance your looking for. All of our heavy duty sway bar packages also include endlinks as well as poly sway bar bushings for a complete install.

Thanks for the feedback Lee! I'm glad you're really happy with the new setup!

Here are some photos of the products we've been talking about in this thread. If you have any questions please feel free to give us a call. Our number is 1-888-972-2464 or you can reach me directly at jarrett@pfadtracing.com


JOHNNY O'CONNELL PACKAGE



FEATHERLIGHT GENERATION SINGLE ADJUSTABLE COILOVERS


HEAVY DUTY - LIGHT RIGHT SWAY BARS

Crash_Z06

Does the elimination of the rear leaf sping hurt with straight line traction or take off at all?
How about wheel hop?

Pfadt Racing

Most users find that it's easier to launch their cars once they've been coilover equipped. This improvement is less about the leaf spring and more about the improvements in traction due to damper changes, but gains can be seen none the less. If you're heading to the drag strip you can make changes to the dampers to further help traction by optimizing weight transfer to the rear.

We do have full Drag Race specific spring packages available, but the drag package will compromise the overall handling capabilities of the car to be optimized for straight line acceleration.

GrillnZ

Johnny O sways are a must!

Joezone914

Since it is a street driver the first ? is are your road surfaces good? If for the most part they are I would go with Pfadt coiloover. Sways are really nice but on the street I would try this first. The car is soooo much more confidence inspiring when you drive it. If road surfaces are more on the harsh side the Jonny setup might be more compliant with the factory springs being softer the pfadt and that I think comes with a sway which will help with body roll on the softer spring rate.

Crash_Z06

Answers my question perfectly.

Thank you

timber wolf

I'm also curious about wheel hop and deflection over bumps with the Oconnell setup.

RWspinning

Pfadt, who makes your shocks?

I have time before I purchase because I want to make sure I am 100% sure with the setup i am going with.... I don't want to be doing things twice like I have done in the past.

Anyone with experience with Kw's or the LG's?

I used to have bilsteins on my M3 hat i had before and they weren't the greatest quality shock, they started rattling and making all srts of noise after 40k street use.


Also the road surfaces are ok, nothing spectacular.. I live in toronto.

GeorgeSSS

I've heard some people complain about not having road feel when driving the car. Do any of these suspension changes affect road feel for the driver?

LFZ

I had DRM shocks and the car felt like stock, but better....Twitchiness at the rear during the corner was eliminated, coming out of the turn was more planted, and it seemed to have decreased the probability of wheel hop (for me). Road feel was not affected, but it did absorb bumps better.

Currently I am on coilovers and it can ride as smooth as my Caddy, but being lower, road feel was still there....if that makes sense. I can then turn 2 clicks harder, and it's amazing how different the car is in firmness, responsiveness, and agility. So I would say that road feel is not affected at all for the driver, and if it is....just harden up the dampening. I would also say that tires would play a key role in that as well.

Pfadt Racing

Our Johnny O'Connell shocks are built by ZF Sachs on the same line as the factory shocks. That's why our JO package looks extremely similar to stock.

The FeatherLight Generation Singles are a shock completely of our own design, and all of our FeatherLight Singles are built by hand by our engineering staff here in Salt Lake City. From building individual components like adjuster mechanisms, to building shim stacks, to the charging of the shock is all done by our engineers here in house. This gives us fine control of each shock before it leaves our facility, and we are able to run each unit on our in house shock dyno before it leaves to verify great functionality.

Our FeatherLights have survived our Million Cycle test on our in house durability tester with minimal change in valving over time, so we are very confident in the durability of the units even with long term use. That being said shocks a certainly a wear item and with that in mind these are serviceable by our technicians.

Let me know if you have any questions! We can be reached at 1-888-972-2464 or jarrett@pfadtracing.com

Here is some footage of one of our production ready FeatherLights passing the 500,000 continuous cycle mark. Be sure to note the BOA Upper mount in action.

Keith N

I have the DRM Bilstein shocks and the Pfadt Johnny O sway bars. I'm very pleased with the performance for aggressive canyon runs, street and highway road trips. IMO - The combo is a huge improvement over stock.

tjsears

Keith, are you lowered at all on the stock bolts? I'm planning on a dual use daily/track car. I hear the DRMs drop the height just a bit. I've got them on order right now. I'll be buying a set of Johnny O Connell sways next.

VetteVinnie

This is exactly what I was thinking about doing since I already have the DRM Bilstein, but wasn't sure of the OC sways would effectively compliment the DRMs. This is what I needed to hear.

andy82

I have the LG2 setup and am very happy with street as well as track performance. They are a good price/performance package and you don't have to drill holes to get to the shock adjusters.