Relentless Autosports Coilover package...
 

I ordered a set of BC ER coilovers from Scott in mid november and they are on the UPS truck "OUT FOR DELIVERY"...

After a lot of consideration I decided to go with Scott's coilover package. Which consists of the BC ER Coilovers, re-valve of the shock, and 10K/12K swift springs...

I will post up some pics when they finally arrive today... I may get the install done this weekend if the weather does not turn into utter crap...

K

Isn't Relentless somehow tied together with VRT? Which scammed a bunch of people in the Z community?

I poked around a bit and only saw that Scott at Relentless had fixed some of the VRT problems...

^^ This is a prime example of the rumor spreading problem :rolleyes: This subject has been beaten to death time and time again... :shakes head:
Please, if you do not know the facts first hand, please do not spread the BS rumors you read somewhere and become part of the problem. Thanks.

Thanks. I have had WAY more than my fair share of unwarranted blame from that company, that all was ironically and strategically put out there in the rumor mill by other competing shops.... and Yes, we have fixed several botched cars, from VRT back in the day as well as other more (supposedly) reputable shops currently. My short stint as a subcontractor at VRT ended with me leaving due to me finding out about shady practices there... almost a year later (in 2007) and while vrt was still around scamming people, I opened Relentless Autosports. Relentless Autosports had, and still never had anothing to do with vrt.

Glad you got the coilovers, Kirkster. Sorry for the delay (damn SEMA LOL) Hope to see pics and a follow up review when weather permits... :tiphat:

what are the regular spring rates of the ER's?

That is the regular spring rate of the ER, 12K front, 10K rear.

Why are the shocks re-valved if it comes with the spring rates that the shocks were designed for?

In this particular case I have no idea, Scott will have to answer that one. It's not an uncommon practice, even at stock spring rates people often find they don't have enough adjustment at one end of the range for certain types of driving.

I quoted your post as reference to the standard spring rates, the question was directed at the OP or Scott. Appreciate the response though! :tup:

I believe the cases you refer to are people who want to get the suspension tuning just right for the way they race a car on the track. I don't think that's the case here though..

Umm correction... The standard spring rates for the "off the shelf" BC Racing ER series coilovers is 10K front and 8K rear.

Thanks, and you are 100% correct, Chris. Great explanation.
We don't believe so much in a "one size fits all" coilover package, or a complete suspension package and set up for that matter.

Depending on each individuals needs, wants, feel, etc. We like to set the valving, or split valving in this case (with the ER's) for what would be in the optimal range of valving for both high speed and low speed valving on both the compression as well as the rebound side.

It all comes down to personal preference, supporting mods, wheels and tires used, what percentage of street/ track driving they do, how harsh or plush they want the ride, the intended use of the car, etc.

For example. In this particular case with Kirksters car... We took into consideration that his car is a roadster, that he didn't want to lower his car very much at all under factory height, that the car is mainly a street driven car that will see its fair share of track use, also that the car will see more autocross than longer tracks, etc......

According to BC NA last year the default spring rates for the "BR" is 10K/8K and the ER was 12K/10K. Did they change there default setup for 2010? Not that it really matters, the ER's are all custom orders anyway.

Thanks for the explanations Scott.

I Did the install last night. All I have to say is REALLY. No REALLY. Did they REALLY have to tighten that 19mm nut to 8 bazillion foot pounds of torque??? The drivers side came off with not much of an issue but the passenger side was a different story all together. I did not have a 1/2" 19mm so I was using the 1/2" to 3/8' adaptor. So I twisted off the head of the first adaptor and cursed a bit before I got out the second adaptor... After I got back from Sears with two new adaptors and a 19mm 1/2 inch socket the REALLY nut yielded to my 4 foot breaker bar...

Total install time minus the trip to Sears was 6 hours and 4 minutes.

With the way I initially set up the coilovers I ended up with a 1/4 inch drop after a drive to initially settle the suspension.

I decided that I wanted a bit more drop so in the morning I got started again. One tool that I found invaluable in adjusting the front shocks was a strap wrench. Without that I would have ended up taking the shock back out of the car, with the strap wrench it was a 15 minute job from the time that the tire came off to the time I finished torquing the last nut...

Total time for the full drop was an hour and 30 minutes including fumbling around time.

I will post up a review once it stops raining here, but I did get a chance to give it the boot up to around 60% before I started sliding a bit more that I wanted to given the wet cold conditions.

Initial review: 35° and drizzling:

The car feels firmer without being jarring. As far as I can tell the skittishness that was present in the stock suspension in curves completely gone. It feels even more planted than stock :yum: So far it is money very well spent on Scott's suspension setup for my Roadster.

Going to chip in here for the hell of it.

I have the same set up on my 370z and although ive not tracked the car ive managed to hit up one auto X while i was back in the states and i love the response, feel, and customization i get with the package. I still dont have them dialed in right but thats due to time and the fact im not around to do anything until Feb 2011

All in all its probably been one of the best investments ive made for the car yet.

Sorry Chris, and not that it matters that much or is a big deal, but as some may not know... I talk to Pete (the owner, operator, and manager of BC Racing NA) at least couple times a week, not to mention the many daily text messages. We are good friends and work on projects together. I am also the consultant, director, and driver of their Time Attack cars and race cars (we also build the cars engines).

I asked him in a text message today if the 370Z ER series coilovers EVER came with the 12K front and the 10K rear spring rates as the default (off the shelf).
He replied.......
"No, we did sell many 12/10's ER's (ever since you suggested it), but that is not how they came and has never been the default spring rates. The 350Z, G35, 370Z, G37 have always had the 10K 8K spring rates as the default for the BR's as well as the ER's"

Thanks for the follow up Scott, I had a feeling you were in pretty tight with Pete. I think I just had some old or mis-information from when the ER prototype came out for the 370Z. One of the prototypes was test fitted on Mike Bonnani's car, and at the time he was told the ER would be shipping with 12K/10K springs. But .. that was before it went into production. The UK website lists the spring rates as 10K/8K like you said.

As always, appreciate your support developing for this car as well as the diligence to the forums.

any news of a z34 racecar?

No problem, always glad to help out when I can, where I can. :)

:icon14: Umm, uhh... Where did you hear that from?? :ugh2: ;)

Well I got to drive it today, still cold but completely dry.

The suspension performs very very well. Areas on my favorite test run that would have unsettled the rear end were soaked up effortlessly. The feel of the suspension is very inspiring and so far I am not feeling anything that I want to change as far as the spring rates or height. I am sure that I will play with the clickers a bit in the near future but the I am happy with the initial settings so far.

The only drawback is that the rears are not going to be easy to adjust due to the fact that there is sheet metal above the rear upper clickers. Since it is in an area where water will be an issue I am not sure about making a hole for the external adjusters.

I did make before and after measurements so I know how far things have settled as well as how much I may want to adjust the suspension later. I just need to get my buddies camber checker to get an idea of the camber imparted by the 1 inch drop. I figure that I will want to get an alignment in a week or so once it is all sorted out.

chillax man, it was a question. It would've been different if my sentence had no question marks, do you agree? Sorry for asking a question on a forum...

Oh I understand. A question on a forum is one thing..... but an accusatory question that (once spread around more) can be damaging to someones reputation without warrant, is a whole other thing.
I mean, I hear rumors and horror stories about shops and people all the time, doesn't make it my place to gossip and spread it around to others. I feel it is not my business unless it involves me directly, first hand.
(second hand rumors = gossip)

Now, I'm sorry for being a little sensitive to rumors about me and my company. I take great pride in my company and the great work we do. It just gets old trying to put to rest lame, old, damaging rumors over and over again. I am sure if you were in my position and have gone through as much unwarranted scrutiny with my company the way we have, you would probably understand where I am coming from a little better. Again, sorry for my reaction. Hope you can understand though.

That's great... Thanks so much Mozen, Kirkster, as well as gpa7pk, Wes, Ryan, Erick and all the other forum members here who are running a Relentless Autosports custom valved and spec'd set of coilovers for trusting in me and putting your suspension needs completely in my hands.
Glad you all are very pleased with the outcome, hearing this makes it all worth while. :tiphat: :D

Well it is all settled now.

The suspension settled 2/16ths of an inch in total in the two weeks since I put the coilovers on. It did all the settling in the first week and has not moved in the last week, so I think it is done settling.

I did a final adjustment and the car is lowered 1 inch total in the front and 3/4 of an inch in the rear.

Went out and got an alignment today.
The front camber sits at -1.6° FL and -1.4° FR the caster and toe came back into factory specs. If I get serious about autocrossing this car and the front tires are still wearing on the outside edges, I will get some eccentric delrin bushings made and add a bit more camber to the fronts. I really only want -2.5° up front as a max so I might be able to get some of that by lowering it another half inch.

The rear camber started at -2.8° RL and -2.7° RR which is why I have all that fun wheel spin in the rear right now (that and it is 30°). They were able to get them to -2.3° RL and -2.2° RR. The factory spec is -2.2° max so I am right on the edge there. I ran my 350 at -1.8° on both sides and it was pretty decent. I will have to see how the rear holds up with Hoosier A6 tires and -2.2° rear camber before I go and buy rear camber arms.

The were able to get the Toe and Caster back within factory specs all the way around so it is good there.

The car feels great on the road. Now I just have to wait till spring to see how it feels on the AutoX and local road course. Will also look at corner weighting this winter as I have access to scales.