- Tue Aug 20, 2013 1:22 am
#335664
This is what I started out with. Lotek "short" shocks with a set of Ebay coilovers that were on the car when I got it. The Lotek's gave me a much smoother ride than the KYB's that were on the car before them.
Here's a comparison between the Lotek/Ebay coilovers and the Raceland Ultimo's. Almost hate to put them on the car. They'll just get all dirty and stuff.
Here's the Ultimos installed on the front. I had no idea where to set the spring perch so I just set it around midway. Not a bad guess, just a little higher than I like.
Here's what I ended up with heightwise. The Front and rear are a little high. That front lip looks goofy that high off the ground I'm going to ride on it like this for a week or so while the springs settle. Then I'll lower her a little.
All in all, I like the ride. I've been reading up on Raceland Coilovers for over a year. It's difficult to find any good reviews because most of them are riddled with negative comments. Most of which are from people who have either never heard of them or never ridden on them???
Most of what I have extracted was that the standard Racelands rode like stock or just a little stiffer. That sounded great to me. I drove my car the first 2 years dodging every crack in the road. Another thing I kept reading was that they were a little bouncy. This concerned me, and probably kept me from making the move sooner.
I knew Raceland had a higher level coilovers that they offered the VW and Miata bunch. Those were the Ultimos, but they weren't available for the Civic. I have written Raceland several times in the past asking if they were ever going to offer the Ultimos to Civic owners and the replies were always "Not available at this time".
I was very surprised when I visited their site last week to finally order my new Coilovers. Low and behold, there they were. The Ultimos were now offered to EG owners. Even better, the picture showed a nice beautiful Top Hat. This turned out not to be as they used a stock photo for all models.
Anyway, after calling Raceland and asking about the differences between the Standard Racelands and the Ultimos, I knew the Ultimos would probably better serve me. I was told the Ultimos have a higher spring rate and 15% higher dampening. I was somewhat concerned about the higher spring rate, but I wanted the higher dampening to cut down on the bounciness.
Overall, The ride is a little stiffer than I wanted but not too stiff. I have a lot more control and a lot less bounce over my old shocks/springs. Everything feels tight like a new car. I had no body roll before and don't have any now. I'm very satisfied with these Coilovers.
Thanks for reading my ramblings.
Last edited by dgiles on Mon Jan 12, 2015 5:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.