Are there any suspension upgrades for an R53 that are easily adjustable between sport and cruise like on the new cars? Is there any way to do this? How much might it cost?

 

Hi, KW has a suspension that is functioning the way you describe (and i am sure other brands have as well...) dont know if there is anything similar to this for the R53 though. As far as cost... my guess would be substantial, if you´re even able to find something for the R53.

http://www.kwsuspensions.com/kw/info/kw_ddc/

 

Yeah it's called a well sorted out spring shock combo.

You can't change spring rates, so the spring is set when you buy it.

Those "sport" buttons basically just turn up suspension valving to super stiff to the point where the shock basically doesn't move.

While it feels sporty, it's not any faster on a race track. This especially true of sport buttons that make an engine more responsive. It is essentially fooling the user into thinking they just unleashed 75 hp with the push of a button.

I would get a set of matched bilsteins and springs that have been valved properly

 

What's your price range? Give HVT http://www.hancheyvehicletech.com a look. Brian sells an "i" series that's electronically adjustable.

 

For the love of God no!!! Those guys use to sell and rep AST both that brand and their are terrible

Expensive doesn't mean good.

Ground control
Guy Ankeny
Fat cat

 

Brian doesn't work for Vorshlag anymore. His flagship product is based on a Tractive shock/strut. He made the suspensions for the fastest STF, STX , SMF SCCA Minis along with the setup in the winning SMF Honda and 5th place One Lap Of America car.

Whatcha you got?!

Agreed that AST has gone to ****, though ;-)

 

that's a lot of impressive acronyms there, but that still wouldn't get me to drop a dollar on their products with the history I and many others have experienced.

If the OP were asking, what's the best-est suspension I can get? I have unlimited money but I have to conform to these class rules and I have unlimited mechanical hours, unlimited corning balancing, high tolerance to irritating rattles/squeaks and unlimited alignment resources at my disposal...then yeah perhaps HVT suspension would be the best tool (doubt it).

I gather that if the OP is asking if there is a suspension capable of quickly adjusting from comfort to sport, he ain't asking for the absolute fastest suspension but is looking for a quality suspension that he can daily drive and sport (maybe track) drive from time to time.

That definitely is not the strength of bespoke suspensions, for that you will want something that is sorted out, tried and true. For that, the best dampers are going to be bilstein, kw and koni. I have the kw clubsports on one of my s2000s and they are an impressive off the shelf box unit. Excellent documentation, easy setup, maintenance free and well sorted out. It's able to drive comfortably to the race track then run competitive class times (mostly driver limited). My other one has the factory CR showa suspension - again excellent quality, a little less capable than the clubsports but not by much. My miata has custom ground control - again people knock ground control - but they were one of the first shops to customize off the shelf suspensions and really go after optimizing shock/spring combinations. I have a set of blown bilstein PSS (absolute garbage from the factory in terms of valving/spring) but they can be built into budget monsters just because of the quality of the damper and endless tuners that can easily, quickly and affordably setup these dampers.

I look for the following attributes regardless of the cost of the suspension:
#1 documentation; including dynos of adjusters
#2 build quality; this is not how much fancy machining or how many sphericals a manufacturer uses, but how solid the product is through crappy daily driver roads, did they engineer it such that midway through installation I don't have to look for zip ties; how well does it hold up before it starts leaking
#3 support, if I want to revalve, refresh or fix something, how long does this take? Is it going to cost me an arm and a leg?

One final note: Typically the lap times someone can put down is not going to vary greatly between various class of suspensions. That is if you take a JRZ, penske, bilstein, ohlins, tein, koni and this HVT kit and the same classification of suspension they will all pretty much do the same lap time. It's really going to depend on the driver that's why I don't get all gushy over who won what trophies.

 

Now that is a response I can appreciate. Thanks for the additional explanation.

 

Thanks for the great info everyone. How are the Koni FSDs? They sound almost too good to be true. providing a softer suspension on bumpy roads and firm on flatter roads.

 

I like them....But DO NOT EVEN THINK OF USING THEM ON A LOWERED CAR.....
Made for the track, NO...more of a progressive feel, but great daily driver....
Most adjustible setups are hard to adjust, and are set once, and forget., or adjust 2x a year...