Cal Club Autocross Forums

I'm considering picking up a set of Fortune Auto coilovers for my '04 WRX. I guess these guys have only recently begun making stuff for Subarus but I gather they've been popular with Nissans and Evo's for a while now. Anyone know anything about them. Are they a good upgrade for auto-x or are they just another cheap junk knock off coil?

Never heard of them, so I'm going with cheap junk.

Never heard of'm.

The make cookies and have branched off into automotive.

Don't Do It! One of our Club Team Blew Suby guys bought a set of inexpensive chinese coil overs. Just installing them rendered many of the nuts and bolts damaged ... very soft metal. Not up to Auto Crossing needs ... waste of money.

Mako - fortune auto or just "inexpensive chinese coilovers"? I had inexpensive chinese/taiwanese coilovers that worked fine for years ;).

Fortune Auto = fanboy coilover that's been gaining popularity (they're higher end one even comes in orange!). Relatively popular in the 240sx scene now - no one's reported the soft metal or nut/bolt damage that Mako was talking about. They've won xyz, etc races, but that may or may not be solely due to the coilovers ;).

The potential saving grace of the coilover was that they dyno'd each coilover set & offered "custom valving". However, the graphs they provided didn't mean much to people who actually read them. The custom valving details are unknown (i.e. quality of parts, oil, etc compared to known shock revalve companies).

Basically, as far as budget generic coilovers go, they aren't any better than what's already out there. If you are going more for looks, doesn't matter. If you are looking at a set for autoxing mainly, may want to go w/ something proven - i.e. koni, penske, bilstein, etc.

That being said, my Megan Coilovers w/ Swift springs served me just fine while I was running my Nissan.

when I see a damper with a knob that has 30 positions effecting both compression and rebound, my first thought is "run away" ;)

Michael Wood wrote:when I see a damper with a knob that has 30 positions effecting both compression and rebound, my first thought is "run away" ;)

they are only single way adjustable. rebound is adjustable but compression is fixed.

Shocks which are intended to adjust only rebound don't always do a good job of keeping compression constant.

The primary advantages of the shock manufacturers that autocrossers commonly use are:

Many options for pistons & shims to get a wide range of available damping behavior.
Many shops that know how to service and build for specific damping behavior.
One or more shops that service the shocks who also know something about what works for autocross.
Low hysteresis, minimal cross-coupling of the adjustments (compression vs rebound, high vs low shaft speed).

Here is some dyno charts from fortune auto.
I'll be honest I don't know how to interpret most of what I see here.

Underdamped.

It really depends on how serious you want to be, what your aspirations/expectations are, and how much you want to spend.

Back when I had my MR2 (Mike Wood's car now), I had a set of BC Racing coilovers (Japanese-made, I think) that I bought for about $1000 total that worked wonderfully with 6K springs all around. They were actually quite comfortable on the street with valving turned full soft, important for a dual-use car.

However, if you aspire to National/Divisional/ProSolo competition, you're probably better off with Koni 30 series, Penkses, ASTs, Motons, Ohlins, whatever, but then you've doubled, tripled or quadrupled your investment. Maybe you could get them used and have them rebuilt, saving some $$$$.

The BC Racing units were extremely well made in terms of the camber plates, pillow balls, spring perches, etc. But more sophisticated & tune-able valving is what's costly.

I think you know the answer to your own question. My guess, I may be wrong, is that you don't have sack loads of money laying around for expensive set of coilovers like some of the big boys here. Neither do I, but I still manage to have tons of fun playing with what I can afford while still dramatically improving from stock.

Since the obvious has been stated that these are not GC's Here's a review for you

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthr ... ?t=1920286" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Doug Kott wrote:It really depends on how serious you want to be, what your aspirations/expectations are, and how much you want to spend.

Back when I had my MR2 (Mike Wood's car now), I had a set of BC Racing coilovers (Japanese-made, I think) that I bought for about $1000 total that worked wonderfully with 6K springs all around. They were actually quite comfortable on the street with valving turned full soft, important for a dual-use car.

However, if you aspire to National/Divisional/ProSolo competition, you're probably better off with Koni 30 series, Penkses, ASTs, Motons, Ohlins, whatever, but then you've doubled, tripled or quadrupled your investment. Maybe you could get them used and have them rebuilt, saving some $$$$.

The BC Racing units were extremely well made in terms of the camber plates, pillow balls, spring perches, etc. But more sophisticated & tune-able valving is what's costly.

I would agree, the BC's are well made and a good value. But, the "cross talking" adjuster is a deal breaker, for me...

For an inexpensive coilover solution for Solo, I'd go to a SA Koni yellow with a simple coilover sleeve/perch/mount solution (like Ground Control) before buying an OTS "JDM" solution. Cost will be the same (or likely less), performance will be better and you have the option to upgrade/revalve with shops like ProParts.

Michael Wood wrote:For an inexpensive coilover solution for Solo, I'd go to a SA Koni yellow with a simple coilover sleeve/perch/mount solution (like Ground Control) before buying an OTS "JDM" solution. Cost will be the same (or likely less), performance will be better and you have the option to upgrade/revalve with shops like ProParts.

Justin,
Above is a great compromise. I took the compromise a little further.
For my STS Miata, I purchased a used set of Koni yellows, had two re-valved by Proparts to meet what others were running on STS cars, vs. the Stock class car they came off of. I then bought a set of $5.00 (Yes, $5. for the set of 4) coilovers off of ebay. I tossed the springs that came with the coil over kit, bought a used set of H&R springs (again from ProParts) in rates approximately what I wanted... have to deal with slight variances when on the cheap).... and had a complete coil over set up for about $50.00 less than just a new set of Koni yellows would have cost. I can't feel a difference in my setup vs. others in the class... including the car I took 5th at the ProSolo Finale in last summer, that has a much more expensive double adjustable setup.

I'm sure others will chime in the more expensive more adjustable set up is better, and I'm sure it is... but base upon how the two cars are set up I still can't feel a difference. Your experience may differ.