New Springs

Need some advice!

Im getting some new 18" rims for my skylines r34 in about 4 weeks and I need to drop the ride height down a bit or else its gonna look kinda gay. I guess that fitting a set of lowering springs is going to be the cheapest way to do this (dont want to chop the current ones) but I have no idea what springs to get.

Ive heard that King Springs are good for what you pay for them, seems like they sell for around $500 mark for set of 4,is this right? If you think there is something better out there that I could get please make suggestions.

Thanks!

Lowering springs are much in a muchness with the top brands.

What you are looking for is a spring that will give you a soft ride when the wheel travel is minimal (around town) and when your starting to push it you need them to progressively get harder or support your ride more.

You probably want to go down about 40-50 mm .. however check with a professional and tell them _exactly_ the look your after.

Whatever you do dont cheap out on your suspension. It can be the difference between you enojying your car or not ..

yeah ive kind of felt the sting of bad suspensions on others car's and no-way I want to skimp out on decent springs, however I dont want to shell out heaps and heaps, would really like to keep it under $1k, is that reasonable? Yes I am looking at dropping it about 50mm in the back, maybe slightly less in the front.

To be honest get kings, you'll probably want superlows, with 18" wheels it wont be too low, Also I highly advise getting at least a nolathane rear camber kit from www.whiteline.com.au skylines get rear nasty camber on the rears when lowerd, a camber kit will correct it so your not chewing through tyres too often, nolathane bushes will also stiffen up the rear end for cornering. I can install the camber kit for you if ya want.

One other thing you need to think about is theres a good chance you'll need to get your shocks shortened which usually can cost about $500 for 4 shocks I can get them done for $100 for 4 for you and they'll be made to your exact size

expect to pay around $500 for new kings although i have seen them for as low as $300 Mag and turbo often have 'buy a set of mags and get king springs free' on most months, you could give them a call if you dont mind paying for overpriced mags

Other wise I can get advanti wheels and nankang tyres cheap, i can get my wheels 19" chrome stalkers for around $700 each compared to the over a grand i paid mag and turbo, I can get Nankang NS2 rubber 235/35/19 for $250 which is damn cheap considering they grip better than the Toyo Proxes T1S's i had before and cost me $400 each

If you dont want kings you could check out Tein springs, there good quality and usually decent prices too

All up would cost about $850 but i might be able to get you the kings for around $330

On the other hand if your feeling a bit richer I can get you a set of the coilovers i have on mine (HKS Hipermaxx II) for around $1700 and there very good coil overs, height and 30 way damper adjustment you can set it on 1 - 10 for a nice smooth ride or like me on 22 and the car will be dead flat through cornering

Send me a txt or whatever if your keen

Mags I will probably be getting are either the Advanti Medusa or Advanti Photon's, leaning toward the Medusa's.

I may take you up on that offer with the king springs I'd luv to get the HKS suspension but for this car think it would be a waste of money as I want to sell it in about 14months, definately will put either Tein Adjustable or HKS Hypermaxx II on the next car though

I was quite lucky with the bmw, I have a about a 1 1/2 camber on the rear ... but the way the car rides so it doesnt roll on just the insides of the wheels ..

also you had a look at these ...

http://www.racinghart.com/wheels_rac.asp

check the bottom ... you get the whole "tough" jap racing mag look.

please please please whatever you do, don't buy Nankang tyres.... there's a reason they're cheap and it's because they're TOTALLY crap... I've known an alarming amount of them to disintegrate at speed and they have nasty wet weather and breakaway characteristics.... one thing you should never do is skimp on rubber. On a heavier car like yours, Bridgestones tend to work fairly well and also the Goodyear Eagle GS-D3, I hear Dunlop also do a pretty good tyre for heavier cars too.

Yokohama, Kuhmo, Falkins are also excellent brands.

They all do really really good high performance tires.

Personally running Falkin FK-451's with a 30 profile. I was a bit sketched out at the tire wall size at first but they shampher inwards and are built to handle the knocks the road throws at them.

The tire choice is totally up to you, but things to look for are; What treat type are you after .. I would suggest a sharp directional pattern with two center grooves to exspell large volumes of water (great for NZ conditions) The compound of the rubber, most high performace tires are soft .. which is great for grip but will obviously wear out quicker, however the wider your tire is the slower it will wear out.

You also have a choice of shamphered tire side wall or striaght. Again this is upto you, Shampherd will give you a lot less give and you wont feel that tire wall wobble, however they do expose the rims a lot more and ther is nil protection to curbing (I use my mirrors and have not managed to curb once yet touch wood)

Nankangs are fine for street driving, they grip better than toyo proxes, ill be getting semi slicks for track work

Not really to concerned with the tyres to much, just get decent ones that will last. Dont drive my car to hard as Im saving for a GT-R. Just been driving the current car like a nana to keep it in good condition
Only do about 20km day around auckland and maybe 100km in the weekends, dont really go on the harsh NZ roads, my cars idea of a hard drive is from Manukau to Auckland city down the motorway
Im really just doing the mags and springs to spruce it up a bit until I can afford GT-R, then i'll be looking at performance

Toyo Proxes are an AWESOME tyre... just not on heavier cars.... on my Lotus, they're about the best tyre money can buy... they tend to be crap on other cars because they have a very light sidewall construction and do some very odd things to the slip-angle under load... on a light car, the give in the sidewall is beneficial whereas other tyres can actually be TOO stiff... it's all about what tyre works on your car..... for day-to-day driving, there's nothing wrong with Nankangs, but then there's nothing wrong with retreads for that.... usually I'd recomment Toyo Proxes, but they're not the best on a heavy car like an R34, I'd recommend the Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3.... best in the wet, near best in the try, give good mileage and economy and they're consistently the best allrounder.

Except theres different types of toyo proxes.. I had T1S's on my 25t, they were rubbish, and my skyline isn't heavy as far as skylines go, GTR's are around the 1600kg mark, mine standard is around 1500kg, I've taken around 100kg out and plan to take more, at least another 100kg, especially when u compare to a holden commodore

we run Proxes RA1's on the race car, great tyres for the track, not feasible on the street

I was wondering why people are going on about skylines being heavy? mines around the 1560kg mark, I thought that was pretty light as far as a sedan goes?

I think they just see them as a big car...

(not a skyline) Mines 1715 kg.

On paper, skylines are fucken heavy! 1560KGs is a big bitch!

Thing with car geeks is they tend to judge things on paper without having a clue as to the reality. Somehow I doubt they'd complain about the handling of a 1600Kg GTR vs. a standard 1200Kg Silvia...

1715Kg is pretty mind-boggling but you got that euro engineering to power it and keep it on the road, so really it's fairly irrelevant

Skylines are heavy'ish cars, RWD ones aren't too bad, the GTRs are really heavy because of the drive train and transfer cases that are needed to make a straight 6 do 4WD.

To put it in perspective 2 guys can carry a COMPLETE 13B rotary engine

2 guys will struggle just to carry a Skyline BLOCK, Skylines are built damn strong which is why the parts are so big and weigh so much

There are sweet bugger all other cars I know of where 500BHP is possible on a stock engine

My car has done over 100,000kms, the standard engine now has to deal with double the power and still shows no sign of letting up. The only reason I will get it rebuilt is because I want 600BHP

Toyota Supras will handle a bit over 500BHP on a stock engine except they have the benefit of an extra .5 of a litre capacity

And the Supra gear boxes are awesome, I'll be swapping mine for a supra one

There are tons, most of the jap AWD's will do these sorts of figures with correct modifications on stock internals. Its the gearbox side of things most struggle with.

ahh yeap ..

? Supra gearbox's are often used as upgrades to Skylines etc even some rotaries run them as they can handle 600BHP +

I was speaking of 'the complete package' as in no gear box change, no need to touch the head etc

hey man, give me a call on 0211256898, I have a heap of mays and wheels and tyres for your skyline, aswell as lowering kits and bucket seats and I can beat just about any price I have seen posted on this link.
Cheers james