Skunk2 Pro-C coilover test review

[jrotax101]

Skunk2 Pro-C Coilovers Test Review.

Initial pics can be found here - Initial Impressions
Install – apart from the fact 4mm had to be ground off the bottom of the rear strut, it all went in very easily. The next batch will be the correct size –it’s only because I had the first set of the first batch ( as did another member on here) that there was a problem.
The only unforeseen issue I had was the ABS cable mount on the front shocks is too far back- meaning the cable will have to be tied there.

Now we got round to testing the coilovers on a large area of open tarmac ( didn’t have time to go to a real skid pad). The settings on the shocks and rear struts were set to the softest setting and we started to drive it to feel how it was. As expected there was a lot of understeer, especially on power exits. To combat this we turned the rear struts 2 clicks in. This made the rear stiffer which in return helped the rear end come round quicker, reducing the understeer. This however, still wasn’t enough so we went 5 clicks in on the rear struts.

Then we went to an open parking lot that has some good chicanes, and hairpin, and a sweeper to further dial it in. After that, we took it to the street, and to see how it felt for the street app. Followed by some more testing.

When during fast direction changes, simulating a medium speed chicane, the front had a tendancy to hop slightly, this was cured by going 1 click in on the front shocks. After more testing we felt as though the rear could get away with being one more click in.

The car feels really good, and extremely well set up for an aggressive DD that has capabilities for AutoX with no adjustments – although I would dial it in for autoX if I did participate.
The car is very stable under braking from around 100 - 50, where the front is planted and goes where i want it to, from the apex out the car doesn't push on power (unless it's an extremely tight corner and it is in vtec at the time) but that can be dialed in on a track.
Fast sweepers the car is planted and i have lots of confidence in where the limit is.

The final settings we ended up at were:
Front: 1 click in
Rear : 6 clicks in

I then did some of the most important testing I think overall. I took my mother for a spin!!

Her words were:
“ I really don’t see how people can say this is uncomfortable, it is firm but it feels great round the corners”

For those that say " its a bit rough" or.. "ohh its really stiff" - forget it, its a competition coilover, not an SUV.

Following this I did a day full of aggressive street driving on lots of windy roads and the car feels a lot more planted in the corners, although I can feel the limit approaching, and the car is easy to adjust when slightly over the limit.
By the way, my “handling mods” other than the Pro-C’s are 18”Mugen GP’s and BFGoodrich KDW’s.

So far I am very satisfied with these, and knowing Skunk2 have fixed the fitment issue I would recommend them to anybody who asks.

I would like to thank Mike@ML-Works for helping me setting these up, and taking some cool pictures whilst I was testing them. ( Will be updated on Tuesday )
Also, Tony @ Skunk2 for all the help over the phone, and great customer support. Big thanks to the tech’s at skunk2 as I know you guys spent a while on the phone discussing the various calculations Mike@ML-Works was doing.

Also a great thank you to the nail i got in my tire which put the testing to a premature end.

Mike should be posting his thoughts from an observation POV, as well as a technical one, and I will be updating this post with some pictures of the testing/final product soon.
I will be doing a track day at Road Atlanta where i will give some more feedback on how it does on a track.

*edit* quite a big thing i forgot to say - the car is a FA5

[BlueSi4]

Sounds great, nice to hear a review finally!

Also nice to hear that they are coming with a new batch!!

[x_fg2_x]

Very nice to hear. I been considering these since they first came out. did you say what spring rates you are running? I have heard that these coilovers are available to be sold in different spring rates. The spring rates from king motorsports is 10k front 8k rear. But I heard someone on here running 12k front 10k rear.

[jrotax101]

Im running 12k/10k - which is how they came from skunk2
I may try different spring rates for track use - but this is how i want to keep it for my daily driving

[Harry]

Nice review!...do you know how the Buddy Club N+ coilovers compare to these?

[jrotax101]

Not as of this second- but a good friend of mine has them on his FG2 ( "Ridge" Racer ).
So if i'm nice to him maybe he'll take me for a spin in his car, then i can return the favor in mine..

[Mike@ML-Works]

Good write-up Robert.

I am fairly impressed with the suspension. Performed better than I expected. I actually just did an install of a TEIN SS on a BB6 Prelude and well, I think Robert's car is the better of the bunch. Granted comparing the cars is like apples to oranges, same group but really different.

I digress, back to the Skunk2 setup. Right off the bat we rolled the car out on full soft, front/rear. I wanted to get a good baseline of where we needed to go. Some people set all the settings in the middle, however since it seemed like a lot of people were complaining about the "harshness" of the ride I started from fullsoft to create the best handling setting with the most comfortable daily ride.

The car had quite a bit of understeer from the the get-go. Dialed that out by stiffening the rear. The car is dialed in well, handles really well. But like Robert said, this is also the street tuned setup.

I'm working on getting him out at the track with me in May so we can dial them in for the AutoX and for the 2.54 mile road course at Road Atlanta.

If you were to go with different spring rates, I would not go much stiffer in the front, or rear. I'd keep the rates as close to even as possible. There was talk of a 12k/18k setup, that would be ridiculous for the weigh the suspension is designed. A 12k/12k setup would be an optimal setup to utilize the most adjustability. But thats just theory, I dont have 12k rear springs to test out.

Glad you're happy with the way everything is dialed in, Robert.

If anybody has any questions, feel free to ask.

[BLouIsGod]

pic link is down

[Mike@ML-Works]

Couple quick shots, far less body roll into, and through the exit.

[ryryninja]

Thanks for the review guys. Glad to see even more suspension guru's popping up on the 8th

[Angelsi06]

^^ U car looks great! Nice review

[mattsbobo]

[jrotax101]

Sorry - initial link fixed

Just for reference - my tire pressures were 36F 33R

[Mike@ML-Works]

Another note to touch on. Tire pressures were 36F, 33R at the time of testing. 67 Degrees ambient. I didnt have the pyrometer on me to see what the ground temp was or the tire temp, but the BFG TA KDW's grabbed pretty well. I marked the treadblock to see what the roll over was. The rear had virtually no rollover, whereas the front had a bit of rollover initially. The less understeer we had, the less rollover there was. However, my experience with the KDW's in the past is that the sidewall is not super stiff, especially with all that weight on the front (1735lbs dry, ~2000lbs full) going into a corner.

None the less, one more factor into the overall setup of the suspension. Good tires can make or break the handling.

[x_fg2_x]

Originally Posted by Mike@ML-Works

Another note to touch on. Tire pressures were 36F, 33R at the time of testing. 67 Degrees ambient. I didnt have the pyrometer on me to see what the ground temp was or the tire temp, but the BFG TA KDW's grabbed pretty well. I marked the treadblock to see what the roll over was. The rear had virtually no rollover, whereas the front had a bit of rollover initially. The less understeer we had, the less rollover there was. However, my experience with the KDW's in the past is that the sidewall is not super stiff, especially with all that weight on the front (1735lbs dry, ~2000lbs full) going into a corner.

None the less, one more factor into the overall setup of the suspension. Good tires can make or break the handling.

I was under the impression that on FWD cars, you need less PSI in the front tires than the rear to reduce understeer. Your running more PSI in the front than the rear. Am I mis understanding something here?

[Highrev1]

Moree up front to prevent the inherent rollover of the tires when pushing the car and lower in the rear...

Cause "if you run really high pressures to get the car to rotate, you will find the car will have more of a tendency to snap oversteer. Running lower pressure as a means of getting rotation will afford less "snappiness" at the limit because the tire is softer. Furthermore, the lower pressures in back allow a slightly higher slip angle at all lateral acceleration levels; so the tire has more lateral movement throughout the entire turning sequence (from low g to high g), and that's usually what you are after. High pressures induce oversteer by actual slip of the tread (oversteer), which is a little harder to control and can catch you off guard, especially on by fast courses"

[jrotax101]

Thanks for clarifying that highrev..

Here are a "few" pics of the day











the final product..



and before anyone says, i know the front is slightly higher - that's been fixed since i took the pic :)

[GALAXY~SI]

good write up...i enjoyed

[Highrev1]

Can you get a shot of the undercarriage straight from the back? A wide angle shot..

[Sirbelch]

This is what a drunken ass says before he thinks about what he is talking about or who he is talking too. Beer and Forums don't mix well. .

So you would recomend this set up for Autox and the Track even though you didn't test it at each venue? Please don't guess something will work good. Test and know for sure. On paper, the stock spring rates of 12kg and 10kg are not good for auto x. Those rates will cause way too much understeer on the tight confines of an Auto x course. Also, you didn't mention anything about what alignment settings you are running. A stock alignment is going to make a understeering set up more understeery. From the photos it looks like you have to much negative camber in the rear. That is just going to induce understeer. Can't wait for a real racer under real racing conditions to test this suspension *cough* *cough* Highrev1 *cough* cough*