WannaBeGearHead

In the suspension guide it says the Illuminas are the best drag strut out there. I talked to MM a while back about my wants and he suggested D-specs because of the adjustability for different uses and with stock spring location vs coilovers. After reading the suspension guide it got me thinking.

My car will be 80% street driven. I want to maintain/improve the overall ride quality of my car but have it be able to handle the drag strip, not corners for me. I like the adjustability factor of both struts. I'm going to be running coilovers with 12-250 springs.

My question is would the Illuminas work just as good or better than the D-specs for the things I'm looking for from my car?

Plus I like how the Illuminas are a little cheaper.

Jazzer The Cat

Hey, WannaB

[little disclaimer here]
I should probably let you know, that the shock/strut list in the Suspension Guide, was not only written/compiled by someone else, but a couple years old. It is very subjective and several people have voiced some disagreement with it. Since I am NOT a shock/strut/spring authority, I recommend pepes do their research to confirm they are the right set for his/her needs. A buddy of mine has edited some of this list, but on another forum. I will do a copy/paste of it into my guide here, to update it a bit

Hopefully Norm will chime in, as he has VASTLY superior knowledge on this stuff than I (most everyone does... lol) He is very experienced on them and is the key to recommending them for specific applications.

Besides, you already know, that I break out in hives if I don't turn my steering wheel for in a 1320' stretch of road

WannaBeGearHead

Thanks Jazzer maybe I will shoot MM another email.

Norm Peterson

Happy New Year


I have Illuminas on two of my cars, that are/were daily drivers - the Mazda 626 and the Maxima - and I can tell you that in both cases the ride is noticeably harsh going over things like broken pavement, concrete expansion joints, and especially railroad grade crossings where the rails are not perfectly flush with the pavement. With two separate-make data points with significantly differing rear suspension types exhibiting the same behavior, I fully expect that the same Tokico team and shock design philosophy follows across the rest of the Illumina line. Expect the balance of ride vs handling and body motion control to be at least similarly poor in those situations.

Yes, you can dial them back - I had to dial the Mazda's back for a while when the wife had to drive it for an extended length of time (her Subie was in the body shop because somebody ran into her driver's door). But the shock control goes away faster than the ride improves, and you end up with the car moving around on its suspension more than necessary and still don't have a great ride over those road situations. You may or may not notice the extra suspension movement.

Illuminas really are OK over good roads, at least fair at autocross, and ought to be able to control 250 lb/in springs if you dial them up enough. I'm afraid that I can't give you a review regarding any dragstrip behavior either. Not beyond guessing that you'd start full soft up front and toward the firm end out back, anyway. For all-around use I wouldn't buy them again, and probably not even where any mix of DD/competition was expected unless no other adjustable upgrade was available for the car in question.

FWIW, within the S197 world, the D-specs were the favored choice in shocks/struts until Koni entered the fray with their single-adjustable "yellows".


Norm

WannaBeGearHead

So the Koni yellows are a better strut then the D-specs?

Since the D-specs has such a wide range of adjusting I would assume that would be the best strut for my needs...? If I have to sacrifice track performance for better ride quality I have no problems with that. My car will see the drag strip but the way I'm setting up my car DD ride quality is my number one concern. If I can find a strut that isn't adjustable but would be very good for DD and wouldn't break at the track I'm fine with that. But after searching around it does sound like the D-specs are what I'm looking for. I don't know but I'm also looking at the Strange struts since they're adjustable also.

WannaBeGearHead

Well AM.com has the D-spec strut and shock package deal for $500 shipped. I'm thinking I'm going to pull the trigger on those

WannaBeGearHead

D-specs ordered. I'm pretty excited as I believe my struts and shocks are stock -- my car has 140k miles lol

blkside

I know this is post is a little late to the party but let me impart some suspension knowledege in regards to adjustability. Unless there is a shock dyno chart present, the NUMBER of points of adjustability is useless. Example


Simply because a component has a lot of "clicks" of adjustability doesnt mean that those are completely functional. Alot of cheaper components sell their product based on "32 settings of adjustability" when in actuality the first 22 clicks barely move anything and the last 10 make drastic changes whereas you look at other high end components that have say 8 but those 8 make actual changes on a linear scale that can both be seen on a dyno chart as well as felt in the seat of your pants.

I would suggest the next time you are looking at something such as a suspension purchase, that you request a shock dyno of the system. Then you can see their actual range of performance.