I hate being a noob, but that's where we all start. Best to ask questions and take good answers to heart.

Anyway...

What are the advantages and disadvantages of choosing Coilovers over Springs/Shocks?

I'm looking at getting into racing (in the twisties, not the 1/4) and was wondering if there is enough of an enhancement in performance to get Coilovers over lowering springs.

I'm thinking of getting Stance GR+ springs since those have come highly reccomended by my buddy's shop and Stance's Building is about 10 minutes from my house.

Edit: Read the sticky. Still have these questions.

 

"Coilovers" are just a matter of mechanical orientation. Struts (shocks) with separate coils (springs) vs. an integral shock with a coil surrounding it (coilover).

Then of course there are levels of coilover 'goodness' for different applications (Autocross, Track, Lowering in general, etc.)

As an integral solution coilovers are more expensive, but worth it imho.


Keep asking and you're right, we were all noob's at some point.

 

Springs and shocks allow only for one 'setup', they set the car at a fixed spring height, but the shocks may be adjustable. There is no easy way to corner balance the car.

Coilovers come in several varieties, but better (read more$) have adjustable spring perch, allowing the ride height to be changed, and coilovers always have adjustable shocks, sometimes with extensive adjustment variations such as here http://www.kw-suspension.com/en/30_P...vers/index.php, and occasionaly have remote fluid reservoir and far higher quality and more durable materials contruction that cheap coilovers/shocks. KW's site is a great place to learn about just what a good coilover can do to help you.

Also there are coilovers (Cusco, TEIN, etc.) that have electronically adjustable designs, so you can vary damping rates from the comfortable seat of your car while driving (or racing). Personally (using Cusco myself), I find the electronic adjustability a very helpful tuning tool to find just the right suspension adjustments on my 8, on the fly, to better meet the different tracks I drive on.

More complexity like the KWs equals more work in tuning and adjustment, and I found the tradeoff not worthwhile to me.

 

I am still in the infancy stage of tracking/AutoX my car and i currently have an aftermarket spring/strut (Tein S/Tokico Dspec) setup. To me, this setup seems more than adequate at this stage. As i get more experience im sure i will seek out a good coilover setup, will just have to see how i progress and how serious i become.

I dont think there is any disagreement in that a good adjustable coilover setup trumps a spring/strut setup any day of the week, especially for racing app's. Im just saying its probably best you start out with a simpler/cheaper setup, get use to that, and THEN move on to a more advanced setup should you deem necessary.

 

+1 on spin9k's post...