BC coilovers

aviper4u · Postby **aviper4u** » Wed May 29, 2013 3:15 pm

jackmack wrote: Believe it or not, "soft settings" aren't actually the answer.

+++1

I think all coilover mx5 cars I have dríven or sat in feel very similar on the street.

Facts are, they have higher spring rates therefore will be harsher because of this as mentioned can never use super soft dampening without feeling bouncy and/or bottoming out.......

Other very imprtant point is the rear travel issue the MX5's have i guess, maybe resolved with the NC's?

jackmack · Postby **jackmack** » Wed May 29, 2013 4:46 pm

I have done too much research on this subject I think. I have had hours of reading, checking and just plain getting side tracked as is easy within the forums available. However, I have made a decision based mainly on a post herein...so it's BC BR coilovers and get my head around it when I try them out...play with them and enjoy. In all the research I completed, I did not find any negative feedback, generally good to excellent and only those that used other brands saying they though theirs were superior...but hadn't tried BC's. For the price they seems excellent value. So thank you all for your comments and I will give my feedback in a week or two. Cheers

MattR · Postby **MattR** » Wed May 29, 2013 9:46 pm

If you are near ashgrove I can take you for a run on Saturday arvo in my na6 if you want see what the v series feel like, being only 5 minutes from nebo rd or my cootha I can take you over some challenging roads.

mx5002 · Postby **mx5002** » Wed May 29, 2013 10:13 pm

I run Bc br's.
The car is quite nice on the road still. Not to aggressive in the bumpy stuff.
I thought the car turned well stock. The car is unbelievable now however it's pointed out that I really needed a lsd :oops:

Lucky I have cusco centre in the garage :mrgreen:

Good luck with your decision

jackmack · Postby **jackmack** » Thu May 30, 2013 5:07 pm

Thanks for the offer Matt....unfortunately I work all Saturdays and I have also ordered the BC BR's for placement next week when the new wheels go on. I will post a reply when they are on and I have had a chance to get the feel and adjust them to a happy standard. Looking forward to having them replace my standard springs/shocks as they are shot. Thanks again.

MattR · Postby **MattR** » Thu May 30, 2013 7:46 pm

Who are you getting the coilovers through?

If I'm right in guessing Option One, and they are fitting them, Paul will do the wheel alignment to suit what you want to do and also set the dampers to what will be pretty close to right out of the box for what you want. The wheel alignment will be spot on, after two track days on semis and a track day on new road tyres, no wear on the shoulders that you would expect with a road biased alignment.

For the road I had a play and put them back to where they were set at the shop, as that's where they worked best for the road. On the track I'm still finding out how much firmer I can go before the damping starts to over ride the spring.

Anyways, they will make a huge difference over the standard suspension, and it will be good.....

jackmack · Postby **jackmack** » Thu May 30, 2013 8:07 pm

Good guess...and Paul said he will do the job, but said it was not an easy job as they were hard to get to and fit. Asked another major MX5 shop and was also confident they could do the job well too. But have made my decision that Paul can do it well. Will stay in touch.

MattR · Postby **MattR** » Fri May 31, 2013 10:10 am

They knocked my car over in about half a day.

Once Paul has it set up, I wouldn't be playing too much, it will be spot on, with maybe an adjustment one or two clicks either way for your preference on the ride.

jackmack · Postby **jackmack** » Wed Jun 05, 2013 9:16 pm

BC BR coilovers fitted today. They feel a little different in that they make the car feel tighter with a little harsher on rough road sections. Set on 10 from Soft, but corner...WOW!!!

KevGoat · Postby **KevGoat** » Wed Jun 05, 2013 10:40 pm

That first drive is somewhat of an eye opener. I felt the same tightness in the car as soon as I backed out of my drive. Then drove round a bit and felt like I could feel every tiny ripple in the road! Just thought "oh no, what have I done?!" But after making a few adjustments, I started to realise their potential and why people like them.

There's a much different feel to the car. So much more is communicated to the driver.

Give it time. Let them settle down a bit. Mine are still pretty new, with only about a hundred k's on them by the previous owner before his car got defected and he removed them. I've added a couple hundred on them since fitting. Ironically, they're back in the same car now, as I ended up buying his car from him as well a couple months later :lol:

.

The setting my wife & I liked was 9/7 Fr/R and that gives us a good ride over the really crappy roads around here. I've read that 9/6 is a popular street setting for comfort. I find going much lower than that starts getting too bouncy & uncomfortable, not properly controlled. On our setting, we find there's the occasional nasty "compression" bumps that really jar and I get a nasty look from my wife, but all in all, we're finding them very comfortable. Hopefully my wife stays happy with them :roll:

As you said, the first few corners after they're fitted are like "...this is awesome!!" ... :mrgreen:

Hope you enjoy them ...

MattR · Postby **MattR** » Wed Jun 05, 2013 10:57 pm

KevGoat wrote:
The setting my wife & I liked was 9/7 Fr/R and that gives us a good ride over the really crappy roads around here. I've read that 9/6 is a popular street setting for comfort. I find going much lower than that starts getting too bouncy & uncomfortable, not properly controlled. On our setting, we find there's the occasional nasty "compression" bumps that really jar and I get a nasty look from my wife, but all in all, we're finding them very comfortable. Hopefully my wife stays happy with them

As you said, the first few corners after they're fitted are like "...this is awesome!!" ...

Hope you enjoy them ...

Kev, that's still fairly soft in damping when you look that they have 30 steps of adjustment, and the BC coilovers seem to be non-linear in adjustment as you head up to the stiffer settings, you will get a bigger change the closer you get to the full hard setting in the last third of adjustment.

The different models, V series to Br series would probably account for the differences we have in our adjustments between the two models. Setting my coilovers at 4/4 F/R for the street gives me a compliant ride with the dampers doing their job with no oscillation from the springs over bumpy roads, I have the perfect test section of road around the corner from me, some badly rutted road that tests any suspension so have had a good play there.

On the track settings I am playing with, the suspension at road speeds doesn't have the big loads that the track generates and then it feels like the damper is doing the spring's job, or at least is too stiff to allow the spring to actually do anything about the bump. Yet on the track with the sticky tyres and the smooth surface the damping needs to stepped up to control the spring more as the movement is less, but at a higher speed when a bump is hit, eg the bumps in the kink at Lakeside or the bumps coming back at the entry to turn one at QR, and also the saw tooth ripple strips at Morgan Park.

KevGoat · Postby **KevGoat** » Wed Jun 05, 2013 11:27 pm

That's interesting MattR ... quite a difference in them by the sound's of it. So far, the first few settings on the BR's haven't felt like they do that much, though have to admit I haven't been able to give each setting enough time to really feel them out properly. I'm still playing around with them when there's no critique coming from the passenger seat :roll:

I don't track my car, just normal road use, so I doubt I'll ever get up to those higher settings, apart from maybe experimenting on a decent stretch of road to see what they're like

Byron_s13 · Postby **Byron_s13** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 12:44 am

I've dríven bc's in an mx5 handled ok noisy as hell annoying shudders.

Had them in one of my track cars they lasted about 6 months before they started spewing oil. in the end I couldn't even adjust them because the cheap alloy housing threads streached and seized.

Cheap for $1000 but it's money down the drain when they flog out in 20000km and you have to fork out for some real ones

Personally I'd rather some brand name lowerd springs and bilstein shocks & set my own limiting straps for a better preload. Cheaper safer more travel and won't rattle your car to pieces

Haters gonna hate

MattR · Postby **MattR** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:35 am

Horses for courses. I'm more than happy with my BC's, but I would do about 5000km a year if lucky and that would include 5-6 track days.

For my S14 prod sports car I will be getting MCA coilovers for obvious reasons, and then most likely the red series as that is affordable for me, but there is no way I could justify the costs of big dollar coilovers on a little run about that does near no work.

jackmack · Postby **jackmack** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:37 am

Interesting points of view and reports on actual experiences. I will be experimenting with mine over the next few weeks with different drives on many different types of roads etc. Yes, I am a perfectionist and must get the right ride and feel and after the small k's I did yesterday, I feel the right ride will be achievable. Can't wait for its first track run when the next QR track date is scheduled.
I will report my findings as time goes on but so far obviously happy with my decision based on info from this forum. Thanks everyone.