ZEALS! what can i say. good, acceptable, great? no...... more like SUPERB, FIRST-CLASS, SUPERIOR!!!. Seriously, these Coilovers are the best i have ever ridden in and DROVE in. I have a pretty good idea how coilovers should feel like, not just in my car but in a bunch of other cars. Here's my story, i drove all the way down to San Jose from Orange County just to get a hold of these. I have done days worth of research and just asking many people questions. All i got are the Top 3 choices, HKS, JIC, or TEINS. When i would ask a person about Zeals, they thought it was a major rip off because of how expensive they are. I was REALLY close to just forgetting about the Zeals and going with the HKS's because the PRICE scared me away. I also brought 3 friends along with me who doubted what Zeals had to offer the whole drive up there, and their opinions really affected me and got me very nervous what i was getting myself into. When we got to AutoRnd, it was weird because the installers straight up took my car getting it ready to be installed w/ out me waiting for Rishie so i can test drive the Zeals, i thought that was shady. But let me tell you guys, No one will ever understand how excellent the quality, the Ride, the stifness, the control, the services that these coilovers offer until you get behind the wheel with these things on. Maybe that is why they took the car from me so quickly to be installed, because they already knew i was getting the best, it just didnt hit me yet.

Even if i spent over 2K+ i have no REGRETS because i know I've bought the best Coils on the market for my car. Rishie (owner of Rnd) told me, "no one will ever believe me that these are the best." But trust me, these coils made me and my pestimistic friends true believers in this product. I cannot stress enough how great these coilovers are. My friends i brought along drive an m3, Corvette, and WRX. They love the Zeals now, and i believe i have encouraged my friend w/ the WRX to purchase a set of these ZEALs. What's funny is i let my bestfriend (Made me secondguess myself and being negative on the ZEALS) drive half way home and he drive an m3 with the Top of the Line TEINS for his car and all he could say to me is, "Damn this suspension is Beautiful." Being the first consumer on the boards w/ the ZEALS, i will tell you, take the time to spend your money right the first time.

Do not hesistate for one second that these coilovers are a waste of money and that you can get the same quality for a way cheaper price like i did.

I would recommend anyone to go through RISHIE at AUTORND to get these from him since he gets them at wholesale prices and his team does a great Job
of Installation. They installed my coilovers in less than 45 mins. Rishie is a great guy to talk to if you have any questions and will hook you up with the best prices. He really knows his stuff, and will not BS you.

so if you're interested give Rishie a PM: Endless Rotaries

I drove 712 Miles through the NORcal STorm (hail, rain, Lightning) and back to have the smile of gratification that i spent my money well.

While i was driving back to OC i played around alot and driving around with speeds between 85-100 the whole time. These handle so well, my friends driving in the other car said they saw my car with NO BODY ROLL at all and looked like i was in full control of the road. As for him he told me his car (06 WRX) had a bit of body roll while we were driving back home on the turns of the 101 freeway. Ride Comfort was EXCEPTIONAL! I felt as if these coils were better than STOCk in terms of ride quality. I know no one will believe me on this but It really IS! I also love how you can change the dampening settings in less than a minute for all 4 coilovers! Just a turn of a **** will do it. Oh let me tell you guys, i found this ironic, as i was driving at the speeds of 85-100 on the freeway i got 290 MILES on the freeway w/ just the warning light barely turning on. can anyone explain this, my theory is that since i was so up in the RPMs (around 5ish) that i would be getting torque and that it would reduce the need to have gas burn so rich. Also, probably because i stayed constant in between those speeds. i dunno, someone correct me on this.

ALL in ALL ZEALS are the BEST! So join the Bandwagon! haha j/k!

ps. I'm broke now, but i'm very satisfied on this investment. THANK YOU SO MUCH RISHIE!

Once again, if you are thinking about getting coils, spend the time to save up for ZEALs because they are way worth it.
Here are some pictures i've included From the DRIVE back home! Oh yeah, i got the car dropped down to 26 inches all around if you account the measurement from the ground up to the bottom of the fender. I should have gone a half and inch more, but i still like it at this height, and no rubbing issues. oh yeah, read what the text says in the last photo, i'm a firm believer in that. more pics to come! we'll ENJOY!

 

great write up!

I'm looking into coilovers myself. Although i can't ever see myself spending that much money for the Zeals.... you have piqued my curiosity.

I myself was probably going to go TEIN... but... you've got me thinking about longterm quality comfort, performance, and value.

Sweet .... sweet ride by the way.

 

It ws nice meeting you gary. Sorry for the horrible weather. I would agree with gary with the ride quality for the limited time I was in garys 8 I could definetly feel that the zeals ride a lot better than my jics.

 

nice meeting you too Jason. Yeah that Hail was CRAZY! i feel that you are next to get these coilovers! *wink wink* =)

 

Nice pics. Glad to hear you like the zeals so much.

 

can you explain what your comment means?

They ride better... but how?

 

If you rode on jics before or better yet drive with them is quite uncomfortable, you can feel when you even run over a gum wrapper. Ride comfort is way better with the zeals but handles the same. Get the best of both worlds it feels...

 

so you're saying that the a good coilover in your opinion is one that

keeps a comfortable ride, while providing superior handling?

 

MO yes.

 

I will definately be considering this setup unless someone can convince me the MS setup is better. Great write-up.

 

off topic: gary I forgot to comment how quiet your exhaust was I thought hks would be a lot louder sounded almost stock.

 

The hks exhaust is pretty quiet, add a rp supercat, then it sounds perfect..

congrats on the suspension

 

ahha gary! so you went with those coilovers lol. anyways. congrats mang lol

 

At what damping setting do you have your JICs at, and what were Gary's Zeals set to?

 

For the fronts i had mine set to 2 and for the back i had mine set to 4. (1 being the softest and 6 being the stiffest). I'm still going to play around w/ the dampening to see how all the different settings feel.


yeahh it is pretty quiet. but i still love it. especially when it pops at 5k and up. =)


HAHAHA I KNOW. thanks man.

 

Only six settings on the Zeals? I'm a little surprised. I'm sure it works, but I had 5 settings on my Illuminas, and I'm glad to have 16 on the JICs (although I'm talking about a Miata application here).

You should be careful with the rears being set stiffer than the fronts - this could lead to oversteer during quick transitions.

Still, congrats on the purchase. A good set of COs is well worth the expense.

 

How should they feel? I have a set of hypermax II's sitting in the basement waiting to go on once the weather is decent. I've never been in a coilover car before. I consider the stock 8's suspension to be pretty soft for my tastes with way to much body roll and no where near enough damping in the rear. The 8 is quite a bit softer than the stock suspension on my SPEC-V which I think could be a bit harder. The minimal damping in the rear scared the heck out of me on my first "spirited" drive through the farm fields.

With all the "coilover make the ride terrible and bonejaring" comments all over I'm having second thoughts about putting them on. Hopefully I wont wanna take them off after they go on....

 

yeah you're right George, while i was taking Zoom Zoom on a ride around the block we did experience oversteer on one of the turns. howd you know that. =P


yeahh for the hks i don't know how we'll they are on the Rx8. But most people w/ the hipermax IIs say that the ride does stiffen up but not much on the softest settings. Performance wise, you'll get almost no body roll. For my coils i set a softer setting in the front and a tad bit more stiffer in the back. I'm not going to stay w/ this setting yet, i'm gonna go through all the dampening combinations as for the front and back. If you have anymore questions i would ask DEEXDUB because he has the Hks HipermaxIIs and he seems to love them very much =)

 

The damper settings affect transient balance - which is to say, the balance (oversteer/underseer) of the car when you are transitioning from a straight line to a curve.

Adding damping stiffness to a given end of the car will tend to make that work harder during the transitions, and hence will make that end of the car loose traction first.

So, as a general rule, try to keep the fronts always one click stiffer than the rears. This should create a balance which tends towords mild understeer, if the dampers are set up well. As you get to know the car (I highly reccomend an autocross and/or track days to "get to know the car" again) you may find that equal settings front and rear yeilds a nice balance as well. But I'd be surprised if having the rears stiffer than the fronts is ever a desireable configuration, at least when driven hard.

 

ooohh sounds good. yeah i tried the dampers set at the softest all around and you're right there really is a balance with this, but the reason why i did 2 clicks stiffer in the back is because it felt as if the back would bounce..weird. but yeah ill try the 1 click stiffer in the front see how that works out. thanks alot george.

 

your car looks sexy as hell slammed like that! nice!

 

Hey Gary thanks for the writeup. I'm glad to see you made it home ok.

I must commend Gary you guys. He's got real dedication. He AIM's me the day before he comes, we're joking around about him driving up and BLAM. He leaves LA at 1am to get to norcal early in the AM. We install his stuff at 9AM, i wasn't at the office yet. lolz, and have to get his car to alignment by 11AM so he can leave by 12PM to get back to WORK in LA at 5:30PM.

That's serious dedication. All nighter, driving i would think closer to 800 miles round trip. I mean wow, serious props Gary.

With regards to DAMPER DETENTS, or # of adjustments, more isn't always better.

I've had many many sets of JIC coilovers and can confidently say that all of my setups you could not notice a difference between setting 1 and 2, out of 15 adjustments. I had to jump 3 or four clicks to feel a difference. What this means is you are essetially only getting 3 or 4 "real" clicks anyway.

Now the Function X coil is what I have on my RX8 and it has 30 levels of adjustment. I can feel and notice a valve adjustment with every single detent. I'm moving in single increments right now to dial in the weight transitioning of the car. I'm figuring out settings for grip touge and for highway/wangan, as they are different. I need to stiffen things up on the highway to prevent to much "floatiness", but for touge i gotta soften things up a bit so i can get the rear to lean and grab a line.

Gary thanks for all your support and please don't hesitate to email me with any updates or just to BS. sales@autornd.com

ONE SET LEFT, Function Xs is what gary got.

ONE SET LEFT, Function X what I got.

Thanks, Rishie

 

here's my old write up of the hks hipermax coilovers..

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-wheels-tires-brakes-suspension-55/x-hks-hipermax-ii-installed-x-etc-51616/

if you have any questions just pm me, i'll be more than happy to help you out.

 

I have JICs on my Miata, and I can say with absolute certainty that I can tell the differences between two clicks easily on the street in terms of handling dynamics. Two clicks doesn't have a huge impact on ride quality, but it does make a noticeable difference in wheel and body control, which is the way it should be. The JICs have a range which goes from comfortable on the street to buttoned-down stiff for track/autocross use, and all 16 clicks are useable. Bottom 50% is good for street tuning, and the top 50% is good for track/autocross tuning.

A 1-click difference on the JICs may be a bit subtle on the street, but that's the way it should be. If one click makes a dramatic difference then the system is making too big of a change. When fine tuning a car for track or autocross use, you want small incremental changes so you can dial the car in, getting it to handle properly for the conditions at hand.

Just my .02, but I think it's dissapointing when a $2k set of coilovers doesn't give me this level of tuning precision, especially if the two softest settings result in a bouncy ride (which means you are down to four choices for damper settings). The Zeals may indeed have better internals than the JICs, but at that price point I want to be able to fine-tune the handling of the car, and that requires smaller changes between damper settings, IMO.

But again, if the Zeals are working for you, then more power to you. They sound nice.

George

 

The only way for you to appreciate the difference is to use them. No way do the JIC's compare to the Zeals at any level.

You're talking about a Korean coilover that is not used in any highly professional motorsports like JGTC or N1 Endurance Series and comparing it to a championed Ciruit Racing Professional company, manufactured in Japan. I understand that they are working good for you but without any relative comparison to the Zeals there is no way to make any blanket statements.

The verbage used to describe the "feelings" of coilovers is also very subjective.

Thanks for the info.

Rishie