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MeisterR vs BC Racing Coilovers

Spykee

Spykee

Messages
235
Just wondering whether anyone has experience of these two brands of coilovers?

I'm after a set for my S2000 and there isn't much on the S2000 owners forum so thought I'd ask here. I know you guys have different cars but I'm interested in length of ownership and how pleased you are with the quality of them if you have either brand? any problems encountered and also their level of adjustability (which looks pretty much the same on paper)

The two coilovers sets I'm looking at are:

MeisterR Zeta-S (front loading is 8kg and rear is 10kg)
BC Racing BR Series Type RS (Front loading 10kg and rear is 12kg)

TIA

Alex
 
I'll let other give their impression of the MeisterR Coilovers and their ownership experiences.
But I'll provide a few info about the MeisterR Zeta-S Coilovers so you can get a better feel to see if MeisterR Zeta-S was the right design for you.

We redesign the Zeta-S coilovers to make it a bit more compliant for the UK rough roads....
What the Zeta-S done is to use a slightly lower springs rate and damping rate to allow a more comfortable daily drive and more compliant handling on the uneven fast road surfaces.

We incorporate enough damping adjustment in the mono-tube dampers so if you do take it on the track, you can up the damping range to limit the body roll a bit.

This way, you are not punished driving the car everyday with a ultra stiff suspension just to have marginally better suspension on the occasional track days.
We actually find slightly softer suspension give better performance on the track as very stiff suspension often load up the tyres too quickly and cause the car to loose traction.

But that is the design philosophy behind the Zeta-S Coilovers.
I'll let other members who are using the MeisterR coilovers to tell you about their ownership experience.

Of course, if you have any questions, I can be easily found and contacted at [email protected]
 
Whichever you decide on, really look into spring rates and what would be the best rate for you and how you use the car, other s2k owners who have fitted coilovers will know alot more than us. The spring rate is very important, if it's too hard you will suffer on the road and softening the compression/rebound will not help as it will jiust make the car more and more unstable..stiff spring+soft damper=rock and roll baby..:cool: will be the same if they are too soft really, but vice versa..
 
newannaive said:
Whichever you decide on, really look into spring rates and what would be the best rate for you and how you use the car, other s2k owners who have fitted coilovers will know alot more than us. The spring rate is very important, if it's too hard you will suffer on the road and softening the compression/rebound will not help as it will jiust make the car more and more unstable..stiff spring+soft damper=rock and roll baby..:cool: will be the same if they are too soft really, but vice versa..
Click to expand...

X2... But I say it is better to use a slightly softer spring rate if possible.

Soft Springs Rate + Adjustable Damping (the long as it is spec correctly) = compliant daily use on uneven road surfaces, can use damping to limit body roll for track surfaces.

Hard Springs Rate + Adjustable Damping = Too hard or unstable for daily use, and marginally better on track surfaces the long as the tyres can grip.

The dampers' job is to control the recoil of the springs after compression, so if your damper force isn't strong enough (like on a soft damper setting), it cannot control the recoil of the springs.
What that mean is after you hit a bump, the force from the springs will "PUSH" the body of the car off the ground, creating an extremely unstable feeling.
However, if you have hard springs and you adjust the damper hard enough to control the recoil, it is now too hard for daily use and it is far too "STIFF" for uneven road surfaces.

This is why alot of the coilovers get the Stigma that it is very stiff for daily use... thats because they aren't designed to work with the uneven road surfaces with hard springs and damper rate.
We try to design the Zeta-S / Zeta-R springs rate to the "softer" side where possible, and of course all the damper valving have been adjusted for the uneven road surfaces.

As for the S2000 springs rate, we revised it from the owners who tested the first generation Zeta coilovers and find them slightly too stiff for everyday road use.
This is why we revised the springs rate and damper rate for the S2000 Zeta-S and Zeta-R.
The revised specification worked very well for the owners who have try the Zeta-S all with very favorable reviews. :cool:
 
If the spring rates are good and you have damping adjustability you're onto a winner...one thing I have found is that huge ranges of damping adjustment really is not needed, or makes much difference...it's always a small window within the total adjustment that is used, dependent on the spring rate I guess. Find out as much as you can about what works best, get the front and rears rated to what you want, and you'll not regret getting coilover'd. :)
 
It will still be stiffer that standard, but this is my point about spring rates, you'll be limited to how "soft" you can adjust the damping to keep it in line with the behaviour of the spring. I.e. if you had a soft spring you would find the very soft settings on the damper work best, with a harder spring you will favour a stiffer setting...I'd bet a 4-8 clicks window within the total damper adjustment..(32 clicks on the bc and meister r iirc)..is all you will use on the road, cranking it up a bit for track work.
 
I see your point. My worry is that the kit for the DC5 is 10kg F & R so will be harsh on UK roads....
(apologies to the OP for slightly hijacking your thread)
 
Right, I did not know what the rates were for the DC5, or the S2K...But on my ep3 the bc racing I had were 6kfront and 8krear iirc and from what I read a better setup was to almost double the rate on the back, so if it's 6k front, go to 10 on the rear...my buddyclub now are a 10k front and 14k rear which works alot better, the car feels much more connected but obviously with the stiffer springs it is a tougher ride on roads, but with the bc racing I found that I was pushing the boundaries with the damper adjustment trying to stiffen things up a bit, it never quite worked out well enough and once I found the ideal setup between spring and damper not much else felt right...too hard on the dampers and it bounced and crashed, too soft and it rocked and rolled...was very difficult to get it perfect. I have achieved this with the buddyclubs though, being rebound only adjustment means I can tune each corner exactly how I want it.

10k front and rear does suprise me, seeing how similar our cars are. I'm pretty sure you could ask for some custom spring rates, they should hold all sorts of rates in stock I would guess.
 
Custom Springs Rate are available in most cases just so you know... of course that are subjected to the design.
The 10/10 would be fine for the DC5 for daily uneven road surfaces... many have tried it and so far none have complained.
Don't forget... the damping is also very important for defining "harshness". Having a very soft springs and a very hard damper will just be as harsh (if not harsher) than a hard springs and soft damper.

As for the adjustments... I found the 32 clicks are needed because it refined the adjustment alot.
The older Zeta have 15 clicks, and what we find is you need that half clicks in between because 7 clicks is too soft but 8 clicks is slightly too hard.... You want 7.5 clicks.

So 32 clicks is really 16 clicks with a half clicks in between them.
Another issue you have with Needle Valve MonoTube dampers (the design most of the performance adjustable dampers use) is that the adjustment "range" get further apart as the adjustments gets harder.
On the old Zeta with 15 adjustments: on the soft range (1-4), each click may change about 25kg of force.... on the top of the hard rage (12-15), each click can change over 100kg of force.

It is just a inherited characteristic of the needle valve piston and so the finer adjustments make not make a huge difference in the lower range, but will give much more control in the middle and hard range of the damping adjustments.
 
sunday_driver said:
Im curious, why does the DC5 kit have 10kg springs F&R while the EP3 is 8kg front / 10kg rear?
Click to expand...

This is one of those where result from testing get put into production.

Our original setting for the DC5 was the same as EP3 (8/10), but some owners feel it doesn't feel as settle as they would like so 10/10 was tested.
Most of the owners who tested 10/10 for the DC5 found that the car feel more neutral than the 8/10... this is something not experienced by the EP3 owners.

The only thing we can think of is the Anti-Roll Bar is slightly different and therefore the DC5 react better to a more "neutral" springs rate.
But no matter what is the theory, the result from R&D + Testing are always the best answer... because alot of time... things don't work according to theory.

Also... you can make the suspension as comfortable if not even more comfortable than the standard DC5 suspensions.
At least that is the reply from most of the customers. The standard DC5 suspension isn't Lexus like comfortable either. :)

I actually got some FN2 coilovers in stock to test, and also made some coilovers for the FD2 because Tom @ TGM Racing ask if I can make something up for them.
The FD2 suspension apparently is so harsh as standard that it is unbearable... so working something for the owners who can have something more comfortable than standard is needed. :D
 
You normally have different spring rate depends on how the chassis are setup as standard.
Normally you have a slightly stiffer springs rate in the front as the car will tend to "understeer" more at the limit with this setup.
This makes the overall handling safer as it will be more predictable at the limits.

Some car will need stiffer rear springs if the car are setup that way by placing a rear springs in different position/angle that create different leverage.

But the general rule is you stiffen the rear if you want the rear end to be more active... and you lessen the rear to make it less active.
By stiffening the front in relationship to the rear on the DC5, it will make the car have a lower tendency to oversteer (liftoff / snap oversteer) as the ratio are now closer front to rear.

This is normally done to combat the standard suspension setting if it is too "tail happy" that some manufacturer makes as they make the rear too active as standard..
So having even springs rate (or stiffening the front springs rate in relationship to the rear), you make the car lean toward the "understeer" side.
This will makes it more predictable at the limit and let the driver have a bit more confidence pushing the car.
 
Yes I do.
Both FN and FD Zeta-R Coilovers are in stock.

Typical Zeta-R Specification
Pillowball Top Mount with Camber adjustment.
32 Stage damping adjustment Mono-Tube Dampers.

Springs Rate FN2: Front 5kg/mm, Rear 6kg/mm
 
I would say around -60mm or so... which is alot and really as much as i can go while keeping enough damper stroke travel in the rear suspension.
To make the suspension any shorter will mean we have to reduce performance in order to achieve lowness... and that is just not really worth it.

Here are a few pictures, not sure if they are at the lowest setting but shouldn't be too far off:

DSC04174_1-1.jpg


nikond5000076.jpg
 
I'd rather die than buy BC coilovers.

MeisterR seem to be getting a good review so far though. Time will tell though once they start to age.
 
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