After a lot of time in development on US-spec vehicles, Tein has released the MonoFlex coilovers for the RX-8! From our website description:

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Now available for the RX-8, the MonoFlex is the latest in a long line of outstanding coilovers from Tein. The MonoFlex coilover kit is designed to provide adequate comfort for daily driving and outstanding performance on the road or track with its full-length adjustment system and adjustable monotube dampers. Tein incorporates separate height and preload adjustments that allow you to adjust height separately from spring preload. This enables you to maintain proper spring preload and optimal damper stroke for maximum performance regardless of ride-height. The kit includes pillowball upper mounts in front and rubber-isolated upper mounts in the rear, and is compatible with the new version of Tein's EDFC. They are NOT compatible with the old version of the EDFC.

The dampers are 16-way adjustable for compression and rebound simultaneously, giving you full control of your suspension system. With the monotube damper and new Micro-Speed Valve (MSV) adjuster, the dampers are able to provide superior control at the softer settings and a greater range of adjustment overall compared to the twin-tube Tein Flex coilovers.

If your street car spends a lot of time at the track and/or you don’t mind giving up a bit of ride quality in the name of performance, these are the coilovers for you. Tein MonoFlex for the RX-8 have a recommended drop of 1.4" in front and .6" rear, and utilize spring rates of 559lbs/in front and 392lbs/in rear. The range of height adjustment goes from +.2" to -3.1" front, and +.2" to -1.5" rear.

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I had the one set I took the pictures of below, and it sold pretty quickly. However, as of yesterday Tein said they had 'more than one kit' in stock. I would estimate a 2-week wait from the time you order until they ship out from DPE, and as always we NEVER charge your credit card until the day your product(s) ship out from us. We are offering them for the introductory price of $1825 shipped. The EDFC can be added for an additional $360, and will also ship for free.

http://www.dpeweb.com/ProductDetails...2&vehicleID=58

Here are a couple of pics:





Email, post or call if you have questions!

 

Ooohhh Pretty!

I wonder how many Flex's we'll see for sale now.
have you tried these on an 8 yet ?

 

Indeed, pretty they are!

Sadly we have not had a chance to try them; we've got a few other projects going right now with a Z brake kit and my own RX-8 suspension (testing out the Tokicos), and tying up relatively expensive coilover kits on our own cars is not in the budget this month. Or next. Part of the reason for that being it's winter, and therefore salt is on the roads and track days are not plentiful (for testing purposes). Plus, running MonoFlex with Blizzaks somehow seems very, very wrong.

I hope to get some customer feedback fairly soon, and as more of them get out into the wild over the next few months I'm sure there will be some good subjective impressions. I'd personally like to do put regular flex on one of ours and MonoFlex on another and go for a spirited drive in the mountains and then do a couple track days, but don't hold your breath for that particular comparo any time soon .

Oh, and for those who might want something a bit cheaper I DO have a Tein Flex kit in stock that's going for $1349 shipped.

http://www.dpeweb.com/ProductDetails...6&vehicleID=58

 

so why are these better than the flex? Sorry for the newbie question.

And yes they do look pretty

 

Pulled from the original post:

"With the monotube damper and new Micro-Speed Valve (MSV) adjuster, the dampers are able to provide superior control at the softer settings and a greater range of adjustment overall compared to the twin-tube Tein Flex coilovers."

Having not driven on them, I can't say for sure, but WHEN ALL ELSE IS EQUAL including the company making the products, a monotube damper is generally better than a twin-tube. It will provide superior damping control, greater resistance to overheating (though it's highly unlikely any quality shock these days will overheat in all but the most extreme track or rally conditions), and in this case it claims a broader range of adjustment. So the soft settings are softer and the firm settings are firmer, relatively speaking, than the regular flex.

Hope that helps!

 

thanks for verifying

 

Strictly speaking on the specs of the new Tein MonoFlex; How might it compare to some of the other monotube sets on the market i.e. HKS Hypermax II, HKS RS etc.?

I ask only because at almost $1850 the MonoFlex are one of the most expensive. Just wondering if there is justification there or if it's just because they're "new".

I would think that if there isn't much difference than I would go with a similar product to save $300-$400.

Thank you for any light that you can shine on the subject.

 

Compared to the HKS, the distinct difference is the spring perch AND lower bracket height adjustability. The HKS models both only adjust for height at the spring perch.

What does that mean? A couple things. If you want to set-it-and-forget it, it won't mean much to you. Just put them at the recommended height settings, align the car to your taste, and you're good to go. However, if you want to properly corner-balance the car, or if you want to run at a ride-height different from what the manufacturer recommends, now you get into some compromises with the HKS design. I'm not going to go into a detailed essay on corner balancing here, but in summary the point of it is to get each corner of the car carrying the 'correct' amount of weight (which can be figured by using scales and a bit of math). To do this, you generally end up adjusting the height at one or two corners of the car to get it all squared away.

Now, if you adjust the height at the spring perch, you are changing both the preload on the spring and the effective length of the damper. So if they were all nice and even before, they probably won't be after corner balancing. This means that the car MAY behave differently depending on which way you turn and conceivably could ride more firmly on one side of the car. With Tein's design (also used on the regular Flex, the JIC FLT-A2, and others I'm sure I'm missing), you can adjust the height at the lower bracket instead of at the spring perch. This means effective damper length and spring preload are unaffected even if ride-heights have to be changed for proper corner balancing.

And of course it also means that if you lower or raise the entire car a notable amount, you can do so and leave the damper length and spring preload unchanged.

In truth, for a street-driven car, this isn't necessarily a reason to buy the MonoFlex. If you track the car often and want a good setup that can accomodate a wide variety of ride-heights as well as corner balancing, that IS a reason to buy the MonoFlex over the HKS models. Additionally, if you want a setup that you can run near the top of its range height-wise, the Flex design generally makes for a better handling car. I can't speak to all of them, but usually when you run coilovers near OEM ride-height that are only adjustable at the perch, the car will feel floaty and somewhat disconnected because the damper is out of its best working range. I have only noticed that on a couple of them, and I have not driven on every coilover, but that's what I can tell you.

Additionally, Tein actually engineers a complete upper mount for the rear of the car (on the Flex and Mono Flex). HKS, JIC and most others do not. I'm not sure it's a real advantage, but if nothing else it makes the install go more quickly and probably adds a bit of precision at the rear of the car that would be lost using the OEM top mount and associated large rubber bushings.

And lastly, as far as advantages, the HKS include rear cables that make rear adjustment a bit easier than Tein, though because of Tein's top mount the top of the damper IS accessible simply by pulling back the trunk liner. And on the flipside, if you get Tein's EDFC, you can adjust the shocks at the push of a button from the cockpit. That's pretty slick .

So that's the long and longer of it. Just from a dealer standpoint I can tell you this; Tein products simply work. I have sold lots of Tein stuff, and not only does it fit and function well, the products actually come with instructions and all of their specs laid out for the consumer. The last set of HKS coilovers I sold had instructions, but they were in Japanese. Which I cannot read. That can be a little frustrating. Same kinds of issues occur with some other Japanese manufacturers. I don't want to start a flame war, so I only name HKS because a previous poster mentioned that name.

That said, customers do love their HKS coilovers, and clearly their products work very well. For the majority of drivers, the HKS would be an excellent upgrade. And that's an important thing not to lose sight of; all of these suspensions are excellent upgrades over stock. The car has such a fantastic chassis from the factory, but it's amazing how much better you can make it just by upgrading shocks and springs. At any rate, for the few that really want to get every last ounce of handling out of the car, and/or the few for whom nothing but 'top-of-the-line' will do, Tein Mono Flex are now available .

Last thing, I promise. I don't make any more money of Tein than anything else, and in fact these Mono Flex have TINY margins on them even compared to their other coilovers. The price on them is not because they are new; every other Tein dealer can get these just like I can. And some may offer them for less money, but that's what I can sell them for. You won't see prices on them fall dramatically in the coming months or anything of the sort. It's not like buying a new car when it first comes out vs. waiting for the incentives at the end of the year .

Hopefully that answers everything that was asked, and most things that weren't .

 

There are plenty of monotubes that can't outperform a Koni twin tube. A cheaply built shock and a well built shock are just that regardless of which design they are.

There's a reason that Koni, Motec, etc. monotube racing shocks cost $1000+ each bare plus any peripheral parts such as springs, mounts, and so on. It's all in the design sophistication, build quality, and material type.

That said, Tein products work satisafctorily for many people and I'm only addressing a not well explained generality statement, not knocking the product.

 

I had a premonition that TeamRX8 would show up in this post . And indeed, he makes a valid point that I didn't explain well enough. The twin-tube vs. monotube thing is somewhat overwrought, and it is patently false to say all monotube dampers are better than all twin-tube dampers. Just in the case of these Teins, in theory, the MonoFlex should outperform the regular Flex from a damping standpont.

 

Anyone has tried the Tein Monoflex yet?

They do really look great in the pics but the key point with any suspension system is how better the car behaves with it.

Regards

jird20

 

Well, I know at least two people have tried them, or have at least purchased kits in the last 6 months or so. But I've yet to hear any feedback one way or another. Anyone? I'd love to try them myself, but I'm in need of new track tires at the moment, among other things such as food and shelter, so it's not going to happen for me this year.