Best Coilovers Under $1500 for Street & Occasional Track Use?

[stevbd]

What would you pick between the Bileteins and these Koni's?

I ran Vorshlag's "street pro" kit with bilsteins for years and now have the Cortex entry level coilovers with Konis. Both setups are great. The bilsteins are monotube and those Konis you are looking at are twin tubes. In my experience the Konis ride a little better on street and are adjustable, while the bilsteins had a little more impact harshness on sharp bumps but also seemed a little more durable and higher quality. Many prefer monotube for performance driving.

 

[stevbd]

"The M3 is still just a little bit better than the Mustang at the track. For now."

Boss 302 has entered the chat.

Boss is always the boss but I think the results of that 2011 comparo could well have been reversed with just a decent set of dampers on the Mustang.

 

[noldevin]

I have Fortune Auto 510s. I can't really speak on the 500s, but the 510s are an improvement over my old Bilstein setup and have held up pretty well over a couple years (plus, they're rebuildable and upgradeable).
I'm sure they're not nearly as good as an MCS set, but I think they're an acceptable budget option.
The only real issue i had was the default rear springs were too short and had some binding issues. Easy fix, I just got new springs in the correct length and took the opportunity to play with a softer rear (which I ended up liking a lot). I'm sure you could custom order them with whatever springs you want.
I can't really back them up with great lap times, but that's a me problem, and times have been improving steadily. Now that I have the right springs in the rear I have no real complaints.They have been reliable so far over 3 seasons / about 15 track days, and eat up curbing pretty well.

 

[ShifterX]

There is only one coilover kit I would consider at that price. The H&R street kit. Non adjustable bilstein sourced damper that uses the factory style upper mount and an adjustable preload spring. Talk to the people at Kenny Brown. That’s their choice for entry level street track cars.

Otherwise it’s Bilstiens or Konis and springs. I would pair the Bilsteins with med rate springs. The Konis are soft on bump damping so they need as much spring as they can handle. On the plus side they have tons of adjustable rebound damping to control most springs.

I moved from progressive wound Steeda springs to the stiffest straight rate BMR springs, and I have seen an improvement with my setup that uses the Konis. I will have a more detailed write up soon but here is my experience.

New shocks / springs for street track setup?

Tried to order H&R coilovers from tire rack. They quoted me about 3 weeks from Germany. A bit too long for me. I ordered koni sports instead and I already received them. I went with the gt500 style as I got a good deal on a steeda upper mount for that style. After speaking to the rep with...

trackmustangsonline.com

 

[blacksheep-1]

"The M3 is still just a little bit better than the Mustang at the track. For now."

Boss 302 has entered the chat.

This... the Old ancient buggy axle Bosses handled the m3 quite nicely.

 

[Eaglewing]

You could get the h&r street coil over system for pretty close to your budget and then maybe upgrade them to the vorshlag kit when time/finances are available. They’re great on street as is, haven’t tried them on track yet but I have a feeling they’ll probably be a little too soft for aggressive track days.

You can’t go wrong with some of the other suggestions from others on here such as the ford package. I’d stay away from those brands you mentioned, I’ve gone down the road of trying to save a buck today only to spend double tomorrow. If you can’t swing the costs now it’s probably best to save up until you can. The guys on here know their stuff and I wouldn’t hesitate to take their advice regarding performance mods, although your wallet might not have the same sentiment lol

I stumbled onto a post that indicated you may have (or had) the H&R coilovers on a Mustang? I have a 2013 Mustang 3.7 and updating suspension now. Debating options... Thanks for any insight/input.
Respectfully,
Brian

 

[Wolf]

@Eaglewing I’ve had koni yellows with eibach pro and sport springs and custom valved FEAL coil overs, and now I’m on the H&R non adjustable setup. The konis were great with the pro springs on street and did pretty well on track (street tires only). When I switched to the sport line springs they were way too soft, I liked the lowered stance aesthetically but got tired of the poor ride quality pretty quick. Skip any of the budget coilovers as I assume they would have similar or worse performance than the FEAL setup I had which was terrible on street. The H&R feel perfect to me for the street and they handle track days pretty well (better than the koni + pro spring setup) , they’re also upgradeable through Vorshlag if you decide you want more track performance.

 

[Eaglewing]

@Eaglewing I’ve had koni yellows with eibach pro and sport springs and custom valved FEAL coil overs, and now I’m on the H&R non adjustable setup. The konis were great with the pro springs on street and did pretty well on track (street tires only). When I switched to the sport line springs they were way too soft, I liked the lowered stance aesthetically but got tired of the poor ride quality pretty quick. Skip any of the budget coilovers as I assume they would have similar or worse performance than the FEAL setup I had which was terrible on street. The H&R feel perfect to me for the street and they handle track days pretty well (better than the koni + pro spring setup) , they’re also upgradeable through Vorshlag if you decide you want more track performance.

@Wolf Good insight. I'm back and forth between GT500 upper strut mount (upgrade from for my V6), lowering handling springs, with name brand strut/shocks. However, just a tad more gets me into the H&R Street Performance coilover setup, which I believe I could run on GT500 strut mounts vs adding camber plates initially. We don't track it or autocross is enough to justify more racable currently. Do you have camber plates?