Joined: 19 May 2008 Posts: 656 Location: Perth - SOR
Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 11:42 am Post subject: Coilovers or Airbags
Hi Guys,
I am looking at suspension upgrades for my GS300 (havent even collected it yet, get it tomorrow 28/5/0.
I was going to try and save up pretty aggressively for the next 6 weeks or so and buy some Insurance Group coilovers from Japan (~$1900 delivered by Air). I was hoping to get these and get them installed at a Tech Day to save further costs. so in about a couple of months i can be sitting pretty. But my adjustability is a little limited.
my other option i've considered is Airbags. I've done a lot of browsing of US forums (e.g. VSC) & read a few VIPcar/VIPstyle mags and nearly all of the seriously crazy looking cars are on bags. I contacted a local shop (Airborne Suspension) who have been very helpful answering my emails full of questions. ball-park figure all installed for a strut&bag system with wireless remote (bolt in/bolt out system) is around $6000.
now to save $6k would take me about 10months or so as im saving for other things and paying debts etc. So my question is, do you guys reckon it is worth going the whole hog on airbags, or just dump it on coilies and spend the next 6-8months saving for some nice Japanese wheels?
i'm leaning towards the coilovers but interested to push things a bit so thought id get some other people opinions on the matter.
Joined: 13 Jan 2008 Posts: 386 Location: Sydney NSW
Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 12:20 pm Post subject:
adjusties all the way.. yeah with bags you can raise and slam it to avoid kerbs and speed bumps etc, but your ride quality is crap, you cant throw it round corners, and then theres the boot space you lose and the need of having to replace the air bags eventually.
My advice, get yourself some nice rims and good quality adjusties... i swear by D2 suspn.
otherwise your paying mega bucks to achieve the same lowered on rims look.
Joined: 19 May 2008 Posts: 656 Location: Perth - SOR
Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 2:51 pm Post subject:
i've done some research and discovered the Roberuta Cup system. it is basically exactly what i want. I will try to get some coilovers which can accept the Roberuta Cups down the track when i can afford them.
for those who dont know, i couldnt find a simple link that explains it all so ill just put my summary here:
- It is a metal Cup that goes on the top of your coilovers and has air lines hooked up to it and a compressor like air bag suspension.
- You have a control which can have a couple of height settings.
- It cant lower your car, all it does is raise it.
- It works by forcing air into the cup and lifting the car momentarily higher for going up driveways or over bumps or whatever. If you dont deflate it, it automatically bleeds back down to normal ride height after about 5 minutes.
- It costs like 2.5K just for a front cup system with all the parts (this is additional to your actual coilovers).
- It fits a broad range of coilovers but depends on the top mount design of the coilover in question.
So basically you slam your car to the height you want, and then you use the cups (usually people run front only but can get all 4) if you want to get a jack under the car, or raise it to get over a bump or up a driveway or whatever. it means you still have the good handling of the coilovers too.
It doesnt seem particularly good value really but considering the hardware you get i guess its expensive stuff. and it means i can drop it hardcore style on Coilovers and then just jump it up for bumps and stuff! There are some videos floating around on YouTube and the like apparently but i havent seen them as i'm at work.
i reckon it may be a happy medium. although when you add up coilovers and cups you could get air bags, but then theyre more maintanence and worse handling than the cups, plus i dont want to do crazy shite anyway.
You know that the V8 Aristo came with airbags right? They would bolt straight in place of your existing suspension! You could buy a V8 Aristo, chop it in half and bring it in for less than 6k, then sell off the engine & other bits making your money back.
The only difference between the factory Aristo airbag suspension & aftermarket one is that the aftermarket one is more likely to be faster, so it will look better if you are wanting to snoop dog it down the road.
Joined: 16 Apr 2007 Posts: 282 Location: Coca Cola Amatil
Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 5:27 pm Post subject:
A lot of people bring up the point that airbags dont have a good ride or if you put them in you cant "throw" your car into the corners...
Hate to ruin the party but an Aristo is hardly a "track" or "sports" car... I wouldnt be throwing it into any corner no matter what suspension i had.
On the upside if you do buy airbag suspension you can achieve an excellent ride. Its all just a matter of what brand you use just like coilovers. _________________
Joined: 14 Apr 2007 Posts: 1148 Location: melb, aus.
Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 7:34 pm Post subject:
Aristo wrote:
Guys,
You know that the V8 Aristo came with airbags right? They would bolt straight in place of your existing suspension! You could buy a V8 Aristo, chop it in half and bring it in for less than 6k, then sell off the engine & other bits making your money back.
The only difference between the factory Aristo airbag suspension & aftermarket one is that the aftermarket one is more likely to be faster, so it will look better if you are wanting to snoop dog it down the road.
Any idea how low the factory ones can go? if they were capable of ground scraping i might start a hunt on import monster
Joined: 14 Apr 2007 Posts: 1148 Location: melb, aus.
Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 8:54 pm Post subject:
i just realised that it will require more than just the struts. the controllers are not cheap and i have no idea what other factory parts will be required for the conversion.
Joined: 19 May 2008 Posts: 656 Location: Perth - SOR
Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 1:02 am Post subject:
i imagine it would be similar to your usual airbags i.e. struts, lines, compressor etc. but, if you can get hold of the struts it would probably be possible to buy the rest of the gear aftermarket through an air bag guy. this would also allow you to upgrade it all to make it work better.
i dont know if it would be cost effective in the end though. Also, you can get aftermarket height controllers and they let you drop it about as low as it can go, which with a hit is usually just about ground scraping i think.
Anywho, this above doesnt help me since i have a 2nd Gen ! i.e. not jzs147 but jzs160/161!
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