Tanabe 7 Pro coilovers

[stevan]

hey all, my recent trackdays have brought me to want to upgrade my current BC v1 coilovers to something a little more capable, ive seen tanabe 7 pros floating around and from general reading they seem to be quite good and reasonably priced, Sam used them on his j's racing DC5 but i havnt heard back from him about his impressions of them. i cant remember why i discounted buddyclub RSD's but they are on the shortlist as well.

can anyone with knowledge of these post up any relevant imformation/impressions of them in comparison to lets say a tein monoflex damper for example, i want to know about camber adjustability, ride quality, adjustment range, track impressions etc. rates will be around 10/12 desireably

thanks in advance

edit: i noticed they arent on the tanabe site anymore, only the pro 5's anyone know why??

heres a link to pro 7 installed on a car from clubrsx

http://forums.clubrsx.com/showthread.php?t=595593

[DEMON83]

I have BuddyClub racing spec damper and they have been very good so far, still developing the setup for spring pre-load and damper setting. have done a few mt-nebo runs and feels good the more i work on it. good combo of 10k front and 16k rear given its more track orientated.

[plAythiNG]

Are these 7 pro coilovers the one M0nty used in his attempt at superlap?

[m0nty]

Attempt? What do you know about anything on a racetrack?

Stevan, I'll be home tonight to post my thoughts on Tanabe Sevens. Add me on msn if you want.

m0ntys_pyth0n@hotmail.com

[crashprash]

i have monoflex and regret getting it..but at the time only tein and cusco had electronic damping adjustment..so opted for tein..as it was more popular and had agents in oz if something goes wrong...but its way 2 stiff for the street (not the springs but the actual dampers..doesnt compress/rebound at same rate..and the pillowmounts noise makes ppl think my cars a deathtrap :P)..but guess these maybe issues with most coilovers unless u get super pro 1s like DMS or something...

[stevan]

Attempt? What do you know about anything on a racetrack?

Stevan, I'll be home tonight to post my thoughts on Tanabe Sevens. Add me on msn if you want.

m0ntys_pyth0n@hotmail.com

thanks sam i would greatly appreciate that

[stevan]

I have BuddyClub racing spec damper and they have been very good so far, still developing the setup for spring pre-load and damper setting. have done a few mt-nebo runs and feels good the more i work on it. good combo of 10k front and 16k rear given its more track orientated.

thats good to hear, someone turned me off them a long time ago telling me some horror stories they had seen. they are very affordable atm as well, they are roughly the same as tanabes to import from the states which is why i want to do a comparison between the two.

[stevan]

bump for Sam's reply

[m0nty]

OK, here we go.

Firstly, the reasons whey I used Tanabe Seven at Superlap.

1. I had budget constraints. The Tanabe Seven coilovers are $3,000 cheaper than J's Racing Crux and Tein Circuit Master coilovers. After having spent over $20,000 in the 3 months leading up to Superlap this was a decision I had to make otherwise I wouldn't have even made it there. In an ideal world I would've just fitted the Crux and not have any concerns about whether the suspension was right for the job.

2. They were provided by my sponsor. Tanabe is a product distributed by JDM Concept. For me to fit anything but JDM Concept supplied parts would be doing Leo a disservice.

Were they right for my car? In a word, no. Far from it. They were way too soft for my liking. Yes, they are 10/12kg spring rates. The Crux I was planning to run were 14/23kg. The slider damer was a novel idea but really isn't the best method of controlling them. If anyone is interested in getting Tanabe coilovers I recommend the TEAS controller to go with them. The first reason is the fact they can be set to automatically adjust depending on vehicle speed. I didn't investigate fully, but I assume you can also have quick reference settings for different parts of the track. Having adjustable dampers at Eastern Creek would've provided big gains as I had to run hardest setting on the dampers, but there are some pretty big bumps which unsettled the car a little. I also had issues with camber creeping on the front right hand side. After every session we had to readjust camber as the strut top kept moving. I ended up having to baby the car a little as the wheel alignment would change quite dramatically throughout a session. They also wouldn't go low enough for our liking. In any photos of the car you can see the back set a lot higher than the front. J's Racing run their car 36mm lower than ours at the rear.

For a street setup, they're definitely on the firm side though not undriveable and great value when compared to the likes of Tein Monoflex. I just don't know whether I would want something this firm for the street.

So I guess the summary would be, definitely not good enough for race use. But as a track/street setup they're good for the money. They are more skewed towards track but not enough for hard out applications.

[stevan]

so the rear height you had on the car was maxed out on the suspension?? i definately dont want to run my car that high and the camber plates moving through just 1 session is also a bit concerning. teas i believe is around the $700 mark which would make this kit more expensive than monoflex and i think id go for the teins over tanabes if that were the case simply because the teins can go low enough and dont require a controller for accurate damper adjustment.

thanks for the input sam

[crashprash]

im confused with the spring rates of my monoflex. the US and JAP have diff rates? teh US has 14/17 wheras the Jap has 7/10..not sure wt i have..got mine from jdmyard so most likely jap?:S

[stevan]

haha probably should have checked before you spent over 3k on them

[m0nty]

Are the US ones definitely measured in kg and not lb?

[ChargeR]

Any markings on the springs?

[SpoonS]

Are the US ones definitely measured in kg and not lb?

Its in kg, i think