looking at a set of fk coilovers the highsport edition

any good?

ive been quoted £396 delivered, good price?

Think that was about the GB price so i reckon it was quite good.

Ross

what about the actual product then? good?

I've not run them - but supposed to be very good.

If you can wait for a bit then Gaz will be doing a fully adjustable kit soon, but they will cost a lot more.

What do you want them for? Road use?

Depends what you mean by good.

If you are a track demon, you should be happy. On real world roads they are pants.

The nickel casings rust away in a year too. It's a good basic product but a bit short on engineering. If it was given more time, specifically with the Coop, then it could have been a great product.

Is that Gazella Si?

Looks good, have popped an e-mail stating interest too. Do you know what sort of timescale they are looking at?

Hi Goose i run the stainless fk kit and they can be abit hard and bouncy on the Norfolk roads, but i have got used to it, but on the track they where great, better than i expected, but i would say if you are going for a set make sure you buy the adjustable dampers and height as it would be worth the extra beans, also make sure that you order the uprated spring for the front 100 or 120nm this does make a difference.

They should have the bits to start working on them now, so hopefully not too long. I'm going through Julian at balance motorsport, and will be setting them up + testing them on track with him.

Good man keep me posted mate, suspension is next on my last for the track day beastie.

you have PM.

I didnt get on with the FK's at all, ok on a smooth bit of road but take it anywhere near a B road and they are simply rubbish
If FK bothered to fit a good insert inside the nice shiney damper outers they might be ok but I found I had to back off to a crawl on a bumpy road as it was bouncing out of control.
Save your money and go for the GAZ kit Suba is getting made, it really is well worth spending your money on a suspension setup that works, it will transform the car rather than ruin it like the FK's will !

mine would be used for road with the odd track event.

im not into track days as such but i am partial to the odd session around coombe etc!

they seem to have a raving review elsewhere and theyt are cheap!

how much are these gaz ones going to set a man like me back?

Where have you read a rave review on FK's ? Unfortunately they are cheap for a reason

If the cars driven mainly on the road then honestly its worth spending the little extra on a propper set up.

i have friends who have them on mk2 golf's and on a teg type r

they have said they are damn good for the money!

im used to having hard rides as i have always lowered my cars, sometimes to the extreme of 100mm (for looks)

Goose, the fact they work on the Golf means nothing to how they work on the Coop. Surely this is obvious.

It was also patently obvious from my time dealing with FK that they had done zero testing on the Coop. I suspect the spring rates were derived from a finger in the air calc. For the expected sales it would not have been economic to do so, wheras with VW Golfs the potential market was about 30 times bigger. Mk2 Golf's are also much lighter and less nose heavy than the Coop which is a much more Coilover friendly situation.

i wasnt comparing the cars just the quality of the product

as my friend has said they are really good for the price!

whats a better set up then for around the same price?

Buy Bilstein and a set of Eibach lowering springs and you will be happy for a long time

ive got my heart set on coilovers!

besides that combo costs more than the fk's

I have fk's. With the 80nm springs its quite bouncy. Barbz runs the 100nm springs and says its a lot better. I think someone else was running the 120nm and although it was bone rattling, it was not bouncy and felt very sorted on the road.

Ross

I have KW v2's, much better coilover set than the FK's, there just about tolerable in london and fine elsewhere.

You should wait and see how Suba's plan and product develop, GAZ are a quality brand but undoubtedly you get what you pay for.

£400 is not much for shocks and dampers, std coupe ones are not much cheaper so its very debatable wether a "bespoke" product can actually be that cheap AND good.

im not too fussed about having a bumpy ride (im used to it)! it keeps you awake on the late night drives! lol

all i want is a sorted handling coupe thats good in the corners and on the odd track day!

Okay so you really want coilovers, but the setup, Bilstein+Eibach, will be great on the street and if you add camberbolts you won´t be disappointed on the track.

Why buy cheap fk?
Save some more and go for KW Variant2, H&R Coilovers or Suba´s GAS.

i have fk silverlines,had em on for about 6 months now and still look brand new!, done various track days including the nurburgring and they are a massive improvement over standard, i didnt touch the front hight adjustment (think they are set at a 30mm drop),but on the rear i pulled off the bumpstops and dropped the rear quite a bit, and to be honest its not too bad,i dont used the car every day, but its really fine to drive on the road.and only £420 from german ebay! oh and i put the 100nm springs on the front.

see some good feedback!

my motto is 'you dont know til you try it!'

Im clearly wasting my breath then Goose ?

I've tried every suspension setup for the coupe bar the KW's, the FK's are by far THE WORST suspension kit available.
Yes they look shiney and they come in a nice box but thats where the nice ends, they are crap !

Im honestly only trying to help you here fella becasue I dont want you to have a bad experience or waste your money.

^^^^^^^
Listen to the man.

I run FK's and to be quite honest i think they are Crap,Ill be changing mine very shortly

I run Fk's and been using them since January/Feburary and its as Low as I can go without scraping the evo front mount pipework constantly....

1st off Jimbo knows his stuff as you well know so definately keep his opinion in mind...

2nd I live in a area full off rutted and bumpy roads and lanes plus shed loads of speed bumps. The car is bumpy and just about bearable, I have a problem with speed bumps due to my pipework running underneath too....BUT

It drives extremely well around corners and I mean really good and looks better than most with how low it is. The Mrs said to me today "its well bumpy down to the roundabout before DC but after that its so smooth and just glides round roundabouts"...

So Goose I think it depends on what sort of driving your going to be doing and what are the state of the roads near you oh and type of passengers though to be fair we have had almost a carful on few occasions and its still been spot on plus the 2 front tyres are nothing special at all and rears are on limit to further there case on the handling stakes...oh and I do have an uprated anti-roll bar..!

PS the other coop runs on an unknown at present suspension set up which is a bit more comfortable but handles no where near as well....