Fortune Auto 500s arrived today!

[Pablo Pistoffo]

Just had a mini Christmas with a couple boxes showing up at my doorstep. The first was from Rock Auto- I bought a pair of new control arms to have new poly bushings put in. the second box was the big one from Fortune Auto. They were really helpful and patient talking me through the spring selection and various choices. I went with the FA branded springs in 7k front/5k rear rates, and went for the Whiteline camber bolt add-on, as I haven't been super happy with the -1.5 degree front camber I was able to get in the front on the H&R camber bolts I have on now. It took about 5 weeks to get them built because of Covid madness, and then about a week to get up here to Alaska.
They are so much prettier than the Swift/Bilstein setup I am running now- I can't wait for my control arms to get done so I can put them on.


I was really impressed with the packaging- each piece was securely bubble wrapped and foam blocked into place inside the thick double boxes.

They came with a manual, build certificate, spanners, allen keys for the adjuster knob and locking perches, a thank you card, a bumper sticker, and two FA branded masks.

The finish and machining were really really nice. I almost felt bad about getting my sweaty hands all over them.

The small green anodized collar is an adjuster for the rear shocks.
See this, Koni? This is how rear shock adjustments should be done, you Dutch weirdos. None of this "remove the shock from the car, stick it in a vice, pull it to its full limit and rotate the unmarked shiny shaft some indeterminate amount before putting the shock back on the car and testing" bulllshit.

Since our rear springs and shocks are divorced, here is a shot of the rear spring and its adjustable perch.

WTF?! (in a good way!)
What happened to my camber bolts? Granted, I'd much rather have these plates, but I was a little surprised and will email to be sure these are the correct bits.

Every bit of the buying experience has been pretty good. Sure, I wish I could have had them soon, but I also realize quality takes time and I would much rather wait a while than buy crap.
I can't wait to get these on- I had asked the autocross subforum whether I should wait until after this winter to put them on, but screw that, they're going on as soon as the arms get the bushings in.
Thanks for reading, hit me up if you have any questions.

 

[TyphoonFiST]

Just had a mini Christmas with a couple boxes showing up at my doorstep. The first was from Rock Auto- I bought a pair of new control arms to have new poly bushings put in. the second box was the big one from Fortune Auto. They were really helpful and patient talking me through the spring selection and various choices. I went with the FA branded springs in 7k front/5k rear rates, and went for the Whiteline camber bolt add-on, as I haven't been super happy with the -1.5 degree front camber I was able to get in the front on the H&R camber bolts I have on now. It took about 5 weeks to get them built because of Covid madness, and then about a week to get up here to Alaska.
They are so much prettier than the Swift/Bilstein setup I am running now- I can't wait for my control arms to get done so I can put them on.
View attachment 33171 View attachment 33173
I was really impressed with the packaging- each piece was securely bubble wrapped and foam blocked into place inside the thick double boxes.
View attachment 33174
They came with a manual, build certificate, spanners, allen keys for the adjuster knob and locking perches, a thank you card, a bumper sticker, and two FA branded masks.
View attachment 33175
The finish and machining were really really nice. I almost felt bad about getting my sweaty hands all over them.
View attachment 33176
The small green anodized collar is an adjuster for the rear shocks.
See this, Koni? This is how rear shock adjustments should be done, you Dutch weirdos. None of this "remove the shock from the car, stick it in a vice, pull it to its full limit and rotate the unmarked shiny shaft some indeterminate amount before putting the shock back on the car and testing" bulllshit.
View attachment 33178
Since our rear springs and shocks are just like divorced, here is a shot of the rear spring and its adjustable perch.
View attachment 33179
WTF?! (in a good way!)
What happened to my camber bolts? Granted, I'd much rather have these plates, but I was a little surprised and will email to be sure these are the correct bits.

Every bit of the buying experience has been pretty good. Sure, I wish I could have had them soon, but I also realize quality takes time and I would much rather wait a while than buy crap.
I can't wait to get these on- I had asked the autocross subforum whether I should wait until after this winter to put them on, but screw that, they're going on as soon as the arms get the bushings in.
Thanks for reading, hit me up if you have any questions.

Do you DD the FiST? If so...do they use salt up in Anchorage?

Sent from my SM-N975U1 using Tapatalk

 

[M-Sport fan]

Do you DD the FiST? If so...do they use salt up in Anchorage?

Sent from my SM-N975U1 using Tapatalk

One of my major hesitations about going with coil overs, even if someone offered a set that would fit/suit my 'in the vast minority' as far as ride height needs go.

 

[psiaddict1]

Nice, If parts that pretty had arrived on my doorstep, I would have definitely just installed them right away also!

I looked at those exact ones for my mazda2, never pulled the trigger but now whishing I had…they would have transferred right over for my ST.

Anyway, look forward to hearing some thoughts on the performance improvements since I know they were not cheap.

 

[Erick_V]

I look forward to hearing more about these. I wanted a set since I got the car in 2017 but they weren't around at that time. I'm jealous and now need to budget some money toward these lol

 

[Pablo Pistoffo]

Do you DD the FiST? If so...do they use salt up in Anchorage?

Sent from my SM-N975U1 using Tapatalk

Yes, they do use brine and the sand they use at intersections has some salt in it, but I don't think it is nearly as heavily used as many areas back east. I'm planning on swapping back onto my stock springs and the Bilsteins for winter, as dragging the Pierce 2 point through the snow and ice last year sucked. Sure, it means I'll be going through a couple torque to yield bolts every year and I'll probably buy myself an alignment setup, but the 185/65R15 Nokians I run in the winter are so soft the stiff, low suspension isn't wroth it. I also hope to be driving the rallycross car ('85 4000 quattro) a lot more.

 

[Pablo Pistoffo]

Just got an email back from Devin, the rep I have been working with at Fortune- the camber plates have just finished testing and are now included.
I'm a big fan of the responsive customer service- they get back to you within a couple hours, or at the latest the next day (time zones and whatnot).

 

[MagnetiseST]

Just got an email back from Devin, the rep I have been working with at Fortune- the camber plates have just finished testing and are now included.
I'm a big fan of the responsive customer service- they get back to you within a couple hours, or at the latest the next day (time zones and whatnot).

I also got camber plates with mine and I was super surprised. Mine were the first set besides the guy who tested them, and it looks like you got the right adjuster knobs to go with yours as well! (they sent mine after the fact lol).

I love them so far, I went with 8k/6k and I have both front and rear just over halfway stiff. Bye bye body roll, hello oversteer lol.

 

[Pablo Pistoffo]

I also got camber plates with mine and I was super surprised. Mine were the first set besides the guy who tested them, and it looks like you got the right adjuster knobs to go with yours as well! (they sent mine after the fact lol).

I love them so far, I went with 8k/6k and I have both front and rear just over halfway stiff. Bye bye body roll, hello oversteer lol.

Nice! I'm probably going to put them on tomorrow.
A couple questions, if you don't mind:
Did you cut your shock towers to get the full camber adjustment range? I can't do that due to autoX class requirements, but will see what the stock hole allows.
Anything I should be aware of on the install? These are my first coilovers, so I'm a touch nervous.

 

[MagnetiseST]

I did cut a hole in my front strut towers, but the hole saw size necessary to actually be able to do it properly (without dropping the shock) is around 3" and that was uncomfortably close to the mounting holes on another FiST, so I went 2 3/4" and its barely not enough to be able to adjust the set of bolts closer to the firewall. Go 3" if you want to but be really careful. The stock hole doesn't allow anything beyond the adjuster to pop out.

Set the front pre-load off the car, then install them. Ride height adjustment I would do on the car. For the rears, the spring adjuster goes on the top of the spring. You'll want there to be a little bit of movement between the spring & spring seat (depending on the length of your springs, I have 6" springs in the rear) when you jack the axle up to connect it to the shock. Don't compress the spring because then your rear will be super tight and bouncy (plus you wont have much shock travel). Adjust the shocks down to meet the hole in the rear axle instead.

 

[Erick_V]

As far as rear settings go I agree so much with what @MagnetiseST said. When I initially installed my BC Coils I felt the rear and was super bouncy and had no travel (mainly because there is a little less than 900lbs on the rear on my car). I pulled the rear adjusters out, adjusted the settings and reinstalled. Turns out my feeling was correct because when I got my corner balanced my eyeball settings and driver feel got my corner balance 95% of the way there. When you adjust your front pre-load loosen the collar to where the spring is freely moving and then keep adjusting the collar until you can't turn it anymore by hand and you should be around where you want it, after that adjust height. I have a 2 finger gap and I rarely rub on a 16x8 Dekagram/205/45 RS Pro Setup. Also, I put my camber plates at full negative and it put me at 1.6 degrees. I'm not sure how different the FA's will be but I'm sure it'll be very similar to the BC Camber plates. Good luck! I'll try and keep my eye on this thread tomorrow in case you have questions.

 

[Pablo Pistoffo]

So I finally got them in today- I did the fronts on Thursday, but then was busy with other stuff so just now evened out the front and got the rears in. I may go a bit lower, but this is fine for now- I can feel the paint lines on the road surface now.

A question for those that already have them- when I tried adjusting the rear shocks on the car, the boot twisted up, so I had to pull them off and spin the top mount- is it supposed to be like that, or is the boot supposed to spin on the shaft?

I wasn't able to get more than about .5 degrees of camber on the plates, so I squared them up and just used my old camber bolts and the slotted bolt hole to get a pretty decent amount of negative camber- we'll see what it looks like after I get the control arms in and an alignment done.

Just from my very short drive afterwards, I'm really impressed. I can definitely feel small imperfections in the pavement, but big bumps are soaked up smoothly and with little drama. Porsche club has an event next weekend, and I can't wait to see how it goes.

 

[Cheetah30]

Do you use the factory spring pads with these? Wondering if I should order the Powerflex spring pads with my coils

 

[MagnetiseST]

Do you use the factory spring pads with these? Wondering if I should order the Powerflex spring pads with my coils

No you do not. They come with their own.

 

[Pablo Pistoffo]

Do you use the factory spring pads with these? Wondering if I should order the Powerflex spring pads with my coils

No, the kit comes with some lower profile pads that fit on the upper and lower areas, replacing the top foam mounts and the thin, hard plastic bottom pieces. I had originally set up my base height to take into account the theicker PowerFlex pad, but had to readjust.

 

[Cheetah30]

No you do not. They come with their own.

Sweet thank you

 

[Pablo Pistoffo]

So, I got an alignment done yesterday. Because I didn't cut my shock towers, I just used the slotted upper holes in the hub mounts to get some negative camber. I think I may have actually put too much in, and have ordered a cheap gauge to help me dial it to an even -2.5 ish. The car feels great- I took it around some roundabouts just to get a good feel for how it responds. I currently have the rear 5 clicks from full soft, and the front 3 clicks off soft. The rear feels a touch bouncy in some situations, but I'm pretty sure I got the preload correct.

 

[CSM]

Just want to say thank you to @MagnetiseST and @Pablo Pistoffo . This thread is very helpful. I recently picked up a BNIB Fortune auto 500 set w/ 8kF/6kR springs locally and have been digging through these older threads as I prepare for install, setup, and tuning in preparation for next autocross season.

Sounds like you're easily able to get nearly -3* camber using camber bolts in the upper strut mount and NOT drilling out the shock tower (something I didn't want to do). Exactly the amount of camber I am hoping for.

As far as winter use goes - I am on the fence on whether or not I want to pick up a set of OEM springs+Bilstein B6 to swap out for winter use, or just buy a set of Coilover Sleeves. The folks in the 86/BRZ community seem to have had good success with them.

Here's an example of what an entire midwest winter looks like on a set of coilovers with and without sleeves per some of the 86 forums. This was immediately after taking off for inspection and before any cleaning.

 

[haste]

Great thread here.

I'm hoping you all could answer a couple questions. I was wondering if you can run stock ride height with the 500 series coilovers? If not, whats the drop with these coilovers? I really don't want to go more than .5" to .75" drop if I can help it.

I can't seem to find this information anywhere, even from Fortune Autos website.

 

[CSM]

Great thread here.

I'm hoping you all could answer a couple questions. I was wondering if you can run stock ride height with the 500 series coilovers? If not, whats the drop with these coilovers? I really don't want to go more than .5" to .75" drop if I can help it.

I can't seem to find this information anywhere, even from Fortune Autos website.

I emailed them with this question and was told on the standard springs it's a minimum 1" drop.

If you have stiffer springs it's not as much of a drop. I haven't had time to install mine yet but I'm on 8kF and 6kR and hoping for as minimal drop as possible