LG MOTORSPORTS Coil Overs and Mono Ball Bushings Review
 

I personally wanted to thank Anthony and the crew at LG Motorsports for the well engineered parts, product knowledge, customer service and the opportunity to run and test their products on our car.

Our car has had multiple different suspension parts under it over the last few years and even some parts from multiple brands. We've tried 4 different sets of sway bars, different spring rates on the coil overs and we've gone from stock to poly bushings to try and make the car more capable on track. We've played with alignment settings, tire pressures and anything else I could to try and make it handle right.

Last year I got to drive a friends C6Z with LG's GT2 coil overs on it and I really liked it. Up to that point, both of the cars (his and ours) were exactly the same. We both have the same Katech 427, ARE 3 stage dry sump system, sway bars, poly bushings, brake pads/rotors, wheels, Hoosier A6's in the same size, LS9X clutch, roll bar etc. We even had the exact same alignment in both cars, performed by the same local shop. Literally the only differences in the cars was the color of the paint and the brand of coil overs. His car had a noticeable difference in handling, especially turn in and mid corner grip. We could both switch cars and each of us was faster in his car. That got me thinking about switching to LG coil overs.

Long story short.... This winter I approached Anthony at LG about running a set of their coil overs and at the same time, I noticed their Mono Ball control arm bushing kits. He was confident their setup would out perform what I had and that I would be completely happy with the change. A couple weeks ago I finally got around to installing the GT2 coil overs and the mono ball kit. The Mono Ball install was straight forward, albeit a little time consuming, but it all went together perfectly and exactly as expected. I took the car to the alignment shop and put in the alignment that Anthony recommended, which was not far off from what we were already running. I bought a couple new sets of A6's (315x18 front and 345x18 rear) and waited for last weekend to come so we could get a chance to try it all out at the first event of the year.

All I can say is Holy Sh*t. I have never been so impressed with the way a car handled. There is a night and day difference in grip, not only at turn in, but mid-corner and especially track out. I could get back on the throttle earlier and much harder than ever before and the car was the most neutral it has ever felt. We had been constantly fighting a push that we could never get to completely go away...

Not anymore!!

There was some pretty fast cars at this last weekend's event, including some that I will usually go back and forth with for Top Time of Day (TTOD) honors. I waited until later in the afternoon to run and let many of the race cars run before me so I could try to chase down their times. Typically I would have to drive my ass off to try and beat them and there were a couple cars that I just simply could not beat when they showed up. Well, that is not the case anymore. TTOD had been set by one of the usual suspects that I was used to chasing. I went out and set TTOD on my first run, cold tires and all. I was able to better his time by over a full second over the next couple runs and had a comfortable lead.

Next up to drive was my wife. She is a very good driver, very competitive and has been consistantly getting faster each time out. She has no fear behind the wheel, but was a little nervous. This was not only because we had a new setup under the car, but also because I had set a good time for her to chase. Well, before her runs were up, she had eclipsed all of the race cars and was only .12 seconds behind me.

It was a 1-2 finish both Saturday and Sunday for us. We had had TTOD honors for both male and female previously, but never an actual 1-2 finish over all for TTOD. :rock:

Needless to say, I am extremely happy with the LG GT2 Coil Overs and the Mono Ball control arm bearings. I would highly recommend this to anyone trying to be competitive in Auto X or even the occasional HPDE driver. There is a slight increase in road noise, but there is no comparison in how much better you feel the car under you. I was able to anticipate what the car was about to do and make changes before it happened. There was no front end push, the overall grip is hugely increased, our tire wear and temps were perfectly even and I could control the car out of the corner much better.

Anybody on the fence about installing LG coil overs or Mono Ball bushings should do it.

Here are a couple before and after pics.

Before (Notice the inside tire barely even on the ground)

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h7...olano_1222.jpg

After (much more planted)

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h7...psb69e0366.jpg
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h7...ps7bc4eb68.jpg


Thanks for reading. If anyone has any questions or wants more specific info, please PM

Thanks Rich. Interesting feedback and perfect timing. I too had an AutoX this weekend and I was getting quite frustrated with the level of grip. It just isn't where I think it should be. I think some of it has to do with tire and the current alignment, but I'm beginning to wonder about my shock setup too.

Not sure if you're open to questions here since you asked to PM, but I'll try here first in case others have the same questions...

1.) What was your old setup?
2.) Have you tried the DRM Bilsteins? How do these compare?
3.) Have you tried other coilovers? How do these compare?
4.) Is it difficult to adjust these LG coilovers?
5.) How is ride quality?

:lurk:

Awesome results Rich! Again congrats to you and your wife for taking 1-2 on both Saturday and Sunday!

When you race what you sell, and sell what you race it really does make for a better product on the customer's end.


As always, hit me up with any questions you have!

I will address a few of the questions, but some of it will have to be offline in respect to the other brand I was running. I will PM you the rest of the details.

First off, the C6Z is a horrible Auto X car to start with. The C5 was such a better platform handling wise. Street tires obviously don't help any, but an aggressive alignment can make it significantly better. Honestly, changing shocks is going to make such a minimal difference that you are better off either going to coil overs or spending the money on adjustable sway bars.

We had another brand of coil overs on the car for 3 years and have tried changing spring rates on them, along with multiple sets of different sway bars to try and get the grip where I expected it to be.

There simply is no comparison to the other coil overs that we had in terms of handling and overall grip the car has.

I have never tried the DRM's.

It is not hard to adjust the LG's. If you turn the front wheels from lock to lock, you can reach the adjustment on each side. The rears, just like most other brands are a little more difficult. We already had holes cut in the back floor panel to adjust the other coil overs so these are no different. I highly recommend making the small (less than 1" diameter) holes to allow for very easy adjustments.

The ride quality is obviously not stock, but it is not to harsh. If you want a stock ride quality, then you have to stay stock. If you want significantly better handling and adjustability, then the LG's are the best bet. There was more of a trade off in ride quality due to the increased interior noise from the Mono Balls, but the increased level of grip they provide when installed with the coil overs is unparalleled to anything that I have tried int he past. I would have no reservations about recommending the coil overs on a street car, but the bushings are not for a street only car.

You guys not kidding about the "We race and you win" and "we blur the line between racing and street." Those quotes are 100% accurate and I am glad we were able to help prove it.

:cheers: RICH

I have been looking at those mono balls for a while now. Its nice to hear some feedback on them. Thanks for the detailed post!
:cheers:

LG makes top notch stuff.

One day I'll have Anthony put together a set of street/drag coilovers. I know they don't do many of those but I trust them to do them correctly.

I ran LG's, T1 bars and R6's for a few years and brought home many TTOD's on them. This was a stock motor car. I loved it when I would beat the guys with the big aero and cammed motors on slicks.

Riche, do u have the g2 or gt2?

Because im not aware of being able to choose spring rates on the gt2 coilovers

He is running GT2's right out of the box with no changes to them.

Great write up ..

^ohh ok, for some reason i thought he did custom spring rates etc.....

Great write up!

And damn i want to do coilovers!!!!

Any special on LG coilovers coming?

As Anthony stated, I have the GT2's and made no changes to them other than adjusting the ride height where I wanted it and picking a setting for the adjustment.

My previous setup had the coil overs that I was changing spring rates on, trying to make them work. These LG's are box stock and there is no comparison to how well they work.

You can spec them on the GT2's but it is an extra cost option. On the G2's they are all built custom from scratch on each set.

Something that i did not see addressed in this thread happens to also be the 800lb gorilla in the room......and that is whose coilovers were you running before and why could they not get the spring rates right? But that's what PM's are for lol. But great write-up as is and if there every was a convincing thread for purchasing a certain product, this ranks among the best I've read.

Anthony,

Would the mono balls benefit my car if I only run R compound tires and not slicks?

Did you try the same spring rate in your previous coilovers that you are using in the GT2's now?

PM if you want any more info. Out of respect to the other company I didn't want to post the brand.

I am sure that he will also answer, but my opinion is that you will see a benefit on R comps. We have another customer that will be installing these very soon and he runs an R comp tire so I will update when he gets out to the next event. If nothing more than better and more even tire wear, you will notice a difference.

The spring rates that are on these LG's are actually less than I had on the other coil overs. The original rates on the other coil overs were close to the same as what LG runs, but there is a drastic difference in how they feel. It's possible the shock valving in the LG's is just so much better and that helps as well.

You can see how much they move on even a stock run flat tire here...



And that car had very little miles on it....

Really interesting video to watch...that's a lot of bushing flex.