check these coilovers and review out

[Janner_Sy]

stolen from the yank forums but the write up is really thorough, plus he is quite active on the tracks from what i can gather.

IMO i think the Cross Competition coilovers are the best on the market
It has all the features that most other coilovers do not have

1. Adjustable shock body length
        This allows you to lower your car without sacrificing shock travel. Most other coilovers achieve lowering by lowering the spring, this compresses the shock when the car is motionless, which means for each inch you lower the car that is 1 inch less of shock travel, which is bad for suspension. Without suspension travel there is no damping. You can see in the first picture the min and max settings for shock body length.

2. Camber Plates
        The only way to pick up camber on the mkV is with camber plates, something that most coilover systems do not incorporate on the mkV. Seen in the second picture.

3. Easy access damping adjustment knobs
       Most systems that offer adjustable damping are easy to adjust for the front. But the rear seams to have been a challenge for some manufacturers. Some require you to unbolt the shock from the car to adjust damping. Which is very time consuming. The Cross Competiton coilovers have a easy access adjustment knob on the bottom of the shock that allows quick adjustment without any tools, and takes seconds. Front knobs are in third picture, rear knobs are in fourth picture.

4. Inverted monotube design
       The rear shocks incorporate an inverted monotube design, this allows significant reduction in unsprung weight. Which has proven to increase suspension performance.

5. Bolt down spring perches
      Most coilovers have spring perches that require you to interlock two perches onto each other, by screwing them towards each other. This often can become loose. The Cross Competition coilovers have an allen key on the spring perch to prevent them from spinning. As seen in the last picture.

6. Available custom spring rates
Many coilover systems do not offer the ability to change spring rates. With the cross coilovers, you can purchase any spring rate for your car. Depending on each individual's need. They come from the factory with spring rates of 9k(506 in/lbs) front, and 6k(337 in/lbs) rear. I opted to change the rear springs to a 9k, as I prefer a rear stiff setup. Additionally, you will find that many coilover systems use a progressive wound spring. Which usually is not best for maximum performance. These use a linear rate spring.

go here for more info
http://www.cross-na.com/ViewProduct1.aspx?ProductID=31&CarModelID=150&CarMakeID=19












Edit 1-1-08




great question
im sure others are confused about this as well

to understand this, you have to understand how different coilover systems achieve lowering
most kits ( bilstein, koni, h&r, kw, fk, patec....etc) achieve drop by lowering the spring perch

I will show for example how this is done
in the first picture you see the coilover how it comes out of the box
in the second picture you will see the spring perch lowerd about 2"
this is how the "other" kits would achieve drop
so when the car is taken off the lift and put onto the ground, the shock will compress 2" before it becomes in contact with the sping
Also by doing this you are reducing the life of the shock as it has to work harder to dampen the same amount of force thru a shorter distance
reason why lowering this way is bad? well the shock has about 3.5" of overall shock travel
this will compress a little under the weight of the car, so now you have about 3" of shock travel to work with, now if you lower the spring perch by 2", you now only have 1" of shock travel that you are acutally using, it is VERY difficult for any shock to properly dampen a car with only 1" of shock travel. The longer the shock travel, the longer the duration the shock has to properly dampen a compression cycle.






In this next example you will see how the cross coilovers are superior when it comes to lowering the vehicle without compromising performance of the shock. In the third picture you will see the coilovers taken apart to show how the length of the shock body can be lengthed to maximum height. In the fourth picture you will see how then can be shortened to minimum ride height.  In both settings, shock travel is unaffected. So you have the full 3.5" of shock travel available ( minus droop from the weight of the vechicle).
In the fifth picture you can see the shock assembled with minimum and maximum ride height settings side by side. Again with the same amount of shock travel in both settings. Also by having independent adjustments of body length and spring perch position we can preload the spring. Doing so can make the spring more responsive.








Edit 4-15-08
Street driving impressions:
Car is a lot firmer than stock. On small to medium sized bumps, it is fine. On large bumps it is a tad rough. Also, since the car has metal mounts, instead of rubber mounts (like stock) there is a little bit more noise transmitted to the body. But overal impression is very good. I prefer a stiff car, so for me, its great. I like that these will go higher than my previous coilovers (pss9). So I don't need to worry about hitting my front end on speed bumps or on our sh*tty roads. But these certainly can go low as the adjustment range is huge. If your looking for stock like ride quality, these are not for you.

Autocross racing impressions:
WOW
Car is definitely faster than last year on PSS9
just adding camber front and rear, gives me tons more grip.
and by my pyrometer readings, it shows that i am getting a nice even temperature over the whole tire meaning that i am using the tire evenly :thumbup:
the car reacts a lot faster to inputs due to higher spring rates, and metal mounts ( i need to change my driving a bit, still getting used to it)
since the car is faster out of the corner, it is really showing its new weak point, which is the stock brake pads.
I am carrying so much more speed thru the corner, that when i need to brake for the next corner , I can't seem to slow down enough. I'll get some hawk hp+ pads to remedy that.

on the R compounds the current settings are great
9k front and 9k rear with my 28.5mm rear swaybar on full stiff works great, car handles like how i like to drive it, very point and shoot

but on street tires, it may a bit too much spring in the rear
at the limit, the car can get twitchy, especially at the end of a long slalom
i will play with alignment and swaybar settings, before resorting to changing to a lower rear spring rate. For those that don't have a huge rear bar like mine, 9k may be fine, but the combination of  28.5mm bar + 9k, seems like it is too much for a street tire.

so far , i am very impressed
it has met my expectations of a competition worthy coilover
something the bilstein pss9 could not come close to achieving
I may lower the car a bit more, only because it looked so much better last year, when it was a bit lower.

here is how she sits currently

anyone using these over here??

[Gti Jal]

  Far to good to fit on a car. Suggest wall mounting them to drool over.

[poko]

its an old thread.

they do look supreme.

i really was torn between those and KW Clubsports but in the end choosen the Clubsports.

they seem to be extremly harsh , and i don't think they will be road worthy unless you have a spine of steel.
(not that the KW Clubsports compare to FSD's :)

[RedRobin]

.....

They certainly do look supreme and what's said makes sense. Interesting about spring ratings because that what Volkswagen Racing did for me: Ordered different spring ratings on my KW-V3's.

[poko]

there is no problem in ordering different spring rates , especially if the car is corner weighted.

the thing is  it has to fit also the damper settings.

in my case KW told me they will send me the original clubsport springs and we wil than decide after tuning them if to change or not.

i don't know if i mentioned , but there is a big difference between the Clubsports/JIC and the V3/pss10 - the springs on the CS/JIC are Linear and not progressive , meaning they don't start soft and than get harsher , they begin and end their travel with the exact same spring rate.

[gazbutS3]

They won't look like that after a winter over here

[SteveyD]

I opened this thread expecting some cheep £300 coilies, wow there hardcore and just the job!  how much?, thats a really good write up too, sounds like he knows his stuff.