Swift Spec-R Springs Installed

[neeqness]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

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[neeqness]

How many miles/type of rough road use are on the Konis?
Are they the street oriented STR.Ts, or the adjustable yellow Sports?

IF the latter, I had a set on my Z28 for about 15 years (in both a standard spring mount setup, AND a front GC coil over, HIGH spring rate, conversion setup), for 150K+ HARD miles of everything, and only had one rear damper go bad/leaking in that time, which they replaced after all that time, NO QUESTIONS ASKED.
So, even though their longevity 'rep' may not be as great as Bilstein's, they STILL are pretty damned long lived.

I have the Str.Ts with about 43k miles. But I'm kind of looking forward to the b8s so this is good and bad news. But maybe I'll get the springs and run them with the Str.Ts first. I think I may have seen a couple posts with good feedback on the Koni/Swift setup.

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[M-Sport fan]

I have a full Ground Control/Koni coilovers setup on my M3 and love the ride. My previous M3 ran a Koni based coilovers setup as well and they were practically blown and still rode great.

I am a big fan of Koni Yellows. I would not bother with the Orange as those are pretty Koni aftermarket OEM replacements.
The Yellows are specifically sport shocks.

Do not get me wrong Bilsein are great. I think it's a lot easier to get Koni's rebuilt and valved though vs Bilsteins. I would consider a Bilstein setup for the right price but would not hesitate to throw Koni Yellows on.

I am sure Koni Yellows and Swift Springs would make a killer combo on the Fiesta and be quite trackable. One does not need adjustable ride height to make a car perform on track.

It's nice if you want to get into corner weighting and whatnot, but once you go down that road your getting pretty serious about dedicated track time.

Personally I feel these cars handle really great right off the showroom floor to the point that Springs and shocks make it a serious contender already.

Back in the day with 510's and 240z's they won races on Springs and shocks. I can tell you that a dropped 510 on springs and shocks could pretty much kick ass on a lot of cars in the corners. In fact it did to the point of 3 years straight under 2.5 liter Trans Am championships as well as IMSA series wins.

I point this out because I really feel Fiesta ST's for most drivers on here do not need coilovers. Unless your car is complete full track machine.

To add to the point how often are you going to adjust your ride height? Most set and forgot and like I mentioned earlier, few bother with corner wieghting. If you are not going to be playing with ride height, dealing with corner weighting, going to the track every other week or week, do you really need it?

I am leaning towards a Koni Sport/Swift spring, or Koni Sport/GC coil over conversion kit with Swift coil over springs setup right now.

STILL not sure that I trust ANY/all of these mainland China made "coils" (as the Fn'F crew likes to call them), as far as longevity/reliability goes, let alone accuracy in valving, and matching valving rates between dampers in a given set.
Yes, the off the shelf Koni and Bilstein performance dampers may not be spot-on perfect in this aspect either, but I trust that they are closer than the Sino made junk.

IF I had unlimited fund$$$$ to play with, I would order a set of tarmac spec Reiger 3 or 4 way adjustable reservoir dampers. LOL

BTW; Are you SURE that the TA 2.5 and IMSA GTU winning 510s ONLY had springs and dampers changed on their suspensions??!!

 

[Driver]

I wouldn't look past the MeisterR brand as though they are some typical cheap coilovers purely based on their looks. I have them on my Miata and I highly recommend them. I think I've even decided after looking at options that I will put them on my ST as well. They are not the cheapest option but I think they're worth it. Again, just my opinion.
I was considering the Swift springs because I've also had good luck with them in the past and they were designed around the stock shocks. That was before I discovered they were designed around different stock shocks than what's on my 17. If I'm doing shocks too I'll just go MeisterR. I adjusted height on my Miata a few times before I got it perfect with my current wheel and tire setup and the damping adjustment is very effective. If nothing else I will enjoy being able to adjust the compression/rebound between daily driving and canyon carving/track days.

 

[Dpro]

I am leaning towards a Koni Sport/Swift spring, or Koni Sport/GC coil over conversion kit with Swift coil over springs setup right now.

STILL not sure that I trust ANY/all of these mainland China made "coils" (as the Fn'F crew likes to call them), as far as longevity/reliability goes, let alone accuracy in valving, and matching valving rates between dampers in a given set.
Yes, the off the shelf Koni and Bilstein performance dampers may not be spot-on perfect in this aspect either, but I trust that they are closer than the Sino made junk.

IF I had unlimited fund$$$$ to play with, I would order a set of tarmac spec Reiger 3 or 4 way adjustable reservoir dampers. LOL

BTW; Are you SURE that the TA 2.5 and IMSA GTU winning 510s ONLY had springs and dampers changed on their suspensions??!!

Ya most of the Japanese brand coilovers were/are crap too. People don't realize Japan has a lot of reallly nice smooth roads they can overdamp stuff and get away with it.

As far as those 510's amd 240's go ya. We did not see coilovers come into the picture till the 80's. In the 70's it was all about spring shock combos for those cars. You could not get coilovers alone anyone knowing of it. God I gotta dig out my old Datsun comp catalog.
Or my How to modify your Datsun for racing book. The bible as we used to call it. It covered all the stuff Don Devendorff and Electramotive did, BRE, Far Performance, .
It was kinda of a magical time for sports cars though. I grew up in Palo Alto there were quite a few racing places on old Middlefied Rd . Garretson Porsche Racing( "He who dies with the most toys wins" to quote Bob Garretson) etc.. and then there was SoCal, Electramotive was in El Segundo, Datsun comp was in Gardena, . Different world different time. There were other big names and teams . 510's and 240z's is what lead me down the crazy road of car modification and driving.
It was actually a sub product of the aerospace Industry, Aerospace guys played with cars on the weekends.

Ground Control got their start in the 80's specifically because of it. When ITS first hit amd 240z's were the car. everyone was taking Tokico Illumina's for Honda and shortening their factory strut housing and putting GC collars,on. It was revolutionary. It was like wow adjustable suspension. That was around 1986.

 

[M-Sport fan]

^^^Thanks for that info!

But I was not questioning whether or not they used coil overs setups vs. struts/dampers/springs, but whether or not the complete rest of their suspensions were factory stock or not.

Not much around where I grew up, but Mark Donohue was raised the next town over from mine.

I am also currently not living too far from what used to be Holbert Porsche, the shop/dealer (one of the first in the country) out of which the late Al Holbert ran his successful IMSA 911/952/962 campaigns.

 

[Dpro]

^^^Thanks for that info!

But I was not questioning whether or not they use coil overs setups vs. struts/dampers/springs, but whether or not the complete rest of their suspensions were factory stock or not.

Not much around where I grew up, but Mark Donohue was raised the next town over from mine.

I am also currently not living too far from what used to be Holbert Porsche, the shop/dealer (one of the first in the country) out of which the late Al Holbert ran his successful IMSA 911/952/962 campaigns.

Oh definitely they went aftermarket shocks and springs lol. Stock 510's rode at off road vehicle status compared to track setups. I will never forgot driving my friends imported Bluebird (510) 1800 SSS coupe ten 10 years ago and it was low mileage stock. Worth 10k at the time. I called up a fellow 510 cohort from the glory days and was like WTF did we see in these tin cans. Hahaha thing is the minute you lowered them it was instant go kart. Oh and boy did they slide nice. That's were I learned to drift every time it rained we would go out and get sideways. Lol
I remember watching them go through corners on the track and they were just flat on the ground while the BMW 2002 yawed slightly and the Alfa GTV raised a wheel ( perhaps in anger? )
I used tp want get a personalized plate IEATBMW. Hahaha Who would have known years later I would own a BMW or two.
I digress though. I do know it was a work in progress learning. Like the fact that using a 69 front crossmember had higher pickup points for the control arms thereby helping the roll center when lowering and elminating bump steer.
This was pre urethane days . Not exactly sure whe Delrin bushings were introduced but by 76-77 it was what everyone was doing to their car for the rear semi trailing Arms. It was also down for the A arms in the Z's. They also slotted the rear crossmembers for camber adjustment. Oh and they did have camber plates for the struts prior to coilovers.
The early cars though pretty much were aftermarket springs and struts. Koni's were used, Bilsteins were used. Of course Datsun comp had stuff from Japan but also American manufactured stuff from the likes of BRE, Electramotive, Far Performance, Later Bob Sharpe racing etc.. . Nismo did not exist at that point.

Oh and yes they did mod the engines , cams, port work, pistons, they had too. The Alfa's had power the BMW's had brakes but the 510's had stiff chassis and cornered flattest. So they had to work on the engines to keep them competitive on the straights.

Nissan racing in Japan was pure factory. My paint guy used to race Formula cars in Japan and remembers the Skyline GC10 GTR's and Fairlady 432Z's( s20 twin cam triple solexed 5,speed 240z's with G noses and ZG fender flares) said they use to toss S20 engines in piles next to the pits at the track. They had no idea those were going to become super rare engines worth over 10k.
Wow I have completely derailed this thread with Datsun racing history . Lol

Shall we return to Swift Springs? Oh ya they are a Japanese company! Hey I tied it in. Lol Though I have to say they have put a lot of research into their spring design and unlike most Japanese shock companies understand that their springs will be used on lots of different types,of surfaces.

 

[neeqness]

Oh definitely they went aftermarket shocks and springs lol. Stock 510's rode at off road vehicle status compared to track setups. I will never forgot driving my friends imported Bluebird (510) 1800 SSS coupe ten 10 years ago and it was low mileage stock. Worth 10k at the time. I called up a fellow 510 cohort from the glory days and was like WTF did we see in these tin cans. Hahaha thing is the minute you lowered them it was instant go kart. Oh and boy did they slide nice. That's were I learned to drift every time it rained we would go out and get sideways. Lol
I remember watching them go through corners on the track and they were just flat on the ground while the BMW 2002 yawed slightly and the Alfa GTV raised a wheel ( perhaps in anger? )
I used tp want get a personalized plate IEATBMW. Hahaha Who would have known years later I would own a BMW or two.
I digress though. I do know it was a work in progress learning. Like the fact that using a 69 front crossmember had higher pickup points for the control arms thereby helping the roll center when lowering and elminating bump steer.
This was pre urethane days . Not exactly sure whe Delrin bushings were introduced but by 76-77 it was what everyone was doing to their car for the rear semi trailing Arms. It was also down for the A arms in the Z's. They also slotted the rear crossmembers for camber adjustment. Oh and they did have camber plates for the struts prior to coilovers.
The early cars though pretty much were aftermarket springs and struts. Koni's were used, Bilsteins were used. Of course Datsun comp had stuff from Japan but also American manufactured stuff from the likes of BRE, Electramotive, Far Performance, Later Bob Sharpe racing etc.. . Nismo did not exist at that point.

Oh and yes they did mod the engines , cams, port
Nissan racing in Japan was pure factory. My paint guy used to race Formula cars in Japan and remembers the Skyline GC10 GTR's and Fairlady 432Z's( s20 twin cam triple solexed 5,speed 240z's with G noses and ZG fender flares) said they use to toss S20 engines in piles next to the pits at the track. They had no idea those were going to become super rare engines worth over 10k.
Of course once again I have swerved

Ahh yes, have a 240 sitting in my driveway now...

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[Dpro]

Ahh yes, have a 240 sitting in my driveway now...

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Yes! Mad respect.

 

[HAHAFiST]

Has anyone gotten their aligment after installing these spring yet? I'm almost at a week with them being installed. Should I go for stock spec? Is there a recommended setting otherwise?

 

[Turbo65]

Has anyone gotten their aligment after installing these spring yet? I'm almost at a week with them being installed. Should I go for stock spec? Is there a recommended setting otherwise?

I drove for a few weeks to make sure they were settled before I took mine in. The dealership set it to factory specs

 

[Ptuning_Nate]

yes you should, there is not much alignment adjustability at all on these cars stock, the only one is front toe

 

[M-Sport fan]

yes you should, there is not much alignment adjustability at all on these cars stock, the only one is front toe

Some have gotten up to .75* negative camber out of the factory fronts, without the use of camber bolts/slotting bolt holes, but yes, for any REAL front camber, bolts/slotting, or camber plates on top of coil overs is necessary.

 

[neeqness]

yes you should, there is not much alignment adjustability at all on these cars stock, the only one is front toe

I have had my alignment done several times now in the last couple years and front toe is definitely not the only one adjustable or prone to be misaligned. Just had it done last week actually and there were a few points adjusted on it. Maybe it's all because of these horrible roads (and/or my speed over them), but that issue still remains a factor.

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[Ptuning_Nate]

I know the cars alignment can be totally jacked up from driving, if you hit a pot hole ect, but these cars have no front camber or caster adjustment (stock), do you only have the factory alignment adjustments still?

 

[neeqness]

I haven't made any modifications to my alignment from stock at all. I am still using the OEM springs, but I am also using an aftermarket wheel and Koni dampers. When I changed my wheels to 15", I had the same problem with vibration at or near freeway speeds that others have complained about even after having my tires balanced several times trying to solve it...and it wasn't until I got an alignment that the problem actually went away. (I didn't suspect an alignment at first because I had already had one done not long before I switched my wheels.)

In my experience, modifications to wheels, tire size, and/or suspension could potentially affect your alignment somewhat. Sometimes it may not be an issue but at other times the alignment helps. An alignment can also go bad over time. However, maybe I'm a bit more anal than most about having an alignment and this is easy for me to say since I already have an unlimited alignment plan.

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[codestp202]

Anyone running stock dampers + Spec R springs and 17x8 40 offset wheels? I don't want any rubbing. I'll be running 205's and 215's that run more like a 225.

 

[Ptuning_Nate]

Got my springs on today, have to say the drop is perfect and the ride quality is better than expected, would have to say these are some great springs!

 

[LILIKE16ST]

Got my springs on today, have to say the drop is perfect and the ride quality is better than expected, would have to say these are some great springs!

I got some swift spec r springs to go on tje car as well and I plan to put them on within the next couple weeks at the same time I throw my 15x8 pro race 1.2s back on the car for warm weather. I'm excited to say the least and reviews like this one make me even more excited!!! Will supply pics when that time comes. Also have a cpe Intake and velossa tech big mouth to go on the car along with a whoosh symposer delete and 1 step colder ngk plugs and an awr rmm....I will need to update my sig pretty soon with all these new added parts

 

[mercdank]

Mine are on their way from Whoosh can't wait, will be going on in conjunction with HardRace lower control arms.