Fulton 1

iTrader: (1)

I talked with Justice Pete earlier this year about possibly testing their coilovers, but decided not to follow up on it at the time for various reasons. I've been running Pedders springs among other things on my GTO for a few years now and the "red guys" have always done me right. With all the hype about Pedders coil springs here of late (or so it seems from an outsider's POV) I am curious whether anyone has some seat time with the Xa coilovers that can give any feedback. Doesn't look like they have any caster adjustment, which is still a bummer...

qwikredline

Pedders make an awesome product. Alan Kraska on RLF ( I cant remember his alias) has auto x'd a redline on Pedders coil overs and loves them and has the lap times to prove that.

Stiner

John you should get some and sell me your set up

mkriebs

Are they looking for testers? I thought OTTP had a tester (whom I have yet to hear anything from... I am getting antsy over here!).

qwikredline

dont wanna Pedders+TC struts = the best

steddy2112

iTrader: (1)

I agree with this.

Stiner

Had to try

Fulton 1

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the input, qwik. I like the idea of being able to corner weigh the car and, probably more importantely for my relatively modest, daily-driving needs, set the trim heights like I want them. At this point I haven't seen anything that would convince me that, for the additional money spent, the coilovers would be much better than just using the Pedders coil springs with my TC dampers. That and the OTTP rear bar would probably do me just fine.

My brief conversation(s) about testing the springs were in the context of their Product Ambassador program. This was probably 6-8 months ago. Not sure they are still doing it at this point.

qwikredline

ya get nothing for nothing. The more we say how good Pedders are, (tis true) then why would they discount their stuff? Best prices I find for Pedders is OTTP and Redlines can use the Pedders springs with Cobalt top spring plates and a special spacer...

speedyd

I drove his HHR SS-TC with the development Xa coilovers. It is pretty nice, for a stiff spring rate and poor roads. I did notice some extra bounce (i.e. - not enough damping control for the stiff spring rate). But, we did not play with the damping at all.

FYI... Alredline04 (Alan Kraska - Redline forum) has a set of development Xa Coilovers on his 2004 Ion Redline. He seems to really like them (much better than his old set-up of B&G lowering springs and stock dampers). He takes his car to the autox practically every weekend in the spring/summer/fall and hits a few HPDE days as well. The parts seem to be very durable. It would be nice if Pedders offered a few different spring rates so you could dial it in a little better depending on what you are using the car for.

http://www.******************/forums...uspension.html

Qwik seems to really like the Pedders lowering springs and SS-TC (OEM) damper combination.

alredline04

To add to Qwik and SpeedyD, the Pedders have been great. The xa coilovers held up to a ton of auto-x this season. Between me and my co-driver we have a 100+ runs on them without issue. They even survived an unfortunate off at the track without batting an eye. Both me and my co-driver feel the car is more competitive and the times show it.

The car rides well on all surfaces. The only time it seems to get bouncy is on concrete slabs. The tends to bounce over the expansion joints. The roads around my work place are like this. I have gotten used to it and don't even notice anymore.

As for the adjustment. We started out with a ride hight that was pretty low up front. Almost as low as the adjustment would allow. Worked fine for the street, but the race slicks rubbed at the races. It was easily adjusted. The rear is slammed as low as adjustment allows with a bit of preload dialed in. Never had rubbing issues there. Just for looks, compared to the lowering springs, the ride height it nearly even front to rear.

The damping adjustments are nice and easy to feel. I ended up with one setting almost all season, 24 front, 18 rear. This worked for me because I raced on concrete almost all season on the same type of tire. The car oversteers nicely and controlled. The one time I adjusted the rear settings was an event at the end of the season. It was cold and I was on street tires. Dialing the rear down to 13 got me the oversteer I wanted.

Hope thats good feedback for you!

mkriebs

Are they rebuildable? Thats the only thing I need to hear for me to be sold.

alredline04

Unfortunately, no.

I need to get with Pete to confirm this.

mkriebs

Ahhhh you had to ruin my day didn't you!?

qwikredline

in order to make a shock rebuildable/re-valve you gotta spend a ton of money. Probably the best shock for a hot rod enthusiast also good enough for a pro, is the Penske. But it is a lot more money than the pedders...you get what you pay for. After all my experience, I am of the opinion that a good damping curve well tested non adjustable, is better than an off the shelf adjustable rebuildable shock with someone's idea of a base valving.

All the time at the race track, we would go through a race week end adjusting from one end to the other, that with 4 way Ohlins, 7500 a set for Cobalt, and come back to where we started. We could do better. 7 post rig testing, and a great shock engineer, lots of track testing, and a bench shock dyno.

Or just go with Heinricy's test results, (GM tested and validated at the Nurburgring) you can buy those for under 500 bucks. LNF struts...

Kinda like tunes. I would rather have an off the shelf tune from OTT or Area47 than someones idea of what I should have and then have to fool with it.

mkriebs

Well, the reason I ask the rebuilding part is basically I am down to KW V2's, Tein Basic, or these. I have an LNF right now, I just want more adjustability, really. Or custom spring rates. One of the 2. It would be alot easier to adjust spring pre-load than to change springs 12 times to find the right mix. Ya catch my drift?

qwikredline

adjusting spring pre load will just weight jack the car not always the way you want it wont change spring rate...

If you got an LNF for my money put in Pedders replacement springs, and use spring rubbers to tune spring rate...

but, again for my money your car the way it is with Pedders and the OTTP 1.25 hardcore time attack rear bar will be killah for auto x. A little negative camber by opening up the top strut mount hole in the knuckle, and you are like right there. Some Hoosier A6 on EMK3 Enkei's, well you would rule the roost....

mkriebs

Good advice! I will take that money saved to the bank now! Lol. BTW, what size wheels and tires were you running in the Time Attack Cobalts? And you were running the 114.3x5 bolt pattern weren't you?

qwikredline

yes 9.0 x 17 on 114.3 for time attack the last cars we built that won at three rivers in 06 had 9.5 x 17 on 114.3.

I run 18 x 8 and 17 x 9 on the street/track, use 18 inch R100 pure slick metric Hoosiers which are 2 seconds a lap faster than any other Hoosier slick in equal conditions except auto x. There i find the 17 inch Hoosier A6 DOT slick is the very best...

mkriebs

Very nice. What offest do you run on the 17x9? I am looking to go with that size (if I ever find one in a 5x110 grrrrrrrr). How much fender massaging was needed? I am looking to run street tires... most likely a 265 or 275 Nitto NT05.

qwikredline

on a redline zero fender massaging on Pedders or preeviously eibachs. I run 245 45 17 Yoko S drive very nice tire real good price from Discount tire I really like those guys,...

mkriebs

So what offset is the 17x9? Just trying to figure it out before I go order some custom wheels with the wrong offset. Lol.

qwikredline

38-40 mm will work what you see there has a 5mm spacer to clear LNF Brembo calipers

mkriebs

Ok, I was thinking a 35mm offset. So, I was on the right track.

qwikredline

yessir all good.