koni yellows or tokico illuminas?

[sean xiong]

Let me know what you guys think.. As I have some gc coilovers I bought from "honda-farmer", been looking and it comes down to these 2 let me know if any of you guys have similair set-ups, how it rides,and is it bumpy or not, I'm not planning to slam it or anything just drop it enough to have a good stance...plus I don't like ride that's makes you jump like 10 ft. Everytime theres a bump like ebays... Lol...

[picturethis]

Koni Yellows by a landslide

[enders]

I hear nothing but good things about koni yellows.

also, spend that extra $$ and pick up the top-hats.

[sean xiong]

The reason why I ask is because the gc's I bought are to be used with koni yellows but I just want to see if I can use it with tokico since a lot of people said iits cheaper and rides like stock even when dropped...

[Vi3tboy]

Koni yellows 100%

I rock yellows and gc on my s2k.

If the gc are made for the yellows they will have a groove to fit on a press ring on the shocks. go with the konis and you won't be disapointed./

[paulzy]

if their lifetime warranty doesn't lure you in, I don't know what else will

[sean xiong]

So then is the konis and top hats worth the extra $$ compared to the tokico illuminas?

[picturethis]

So then is the konis and top hats worth the extra $$ besides the tokico..

Yes. Koni Yellow + GC combo is probably the #1 most popular Honda suspension, and for good reason. Add the top hats and you're all good.

[JDMB1992EG]

i say yellows too i see and hear everyone using them must be a popular set up

[Arrrrgh]

i have the same setup
yellow konis with ground control

[Charlie Moua]

I was in your situation a few months ago when i still had my gc. My GC were not the KONI style. So my really only choice with Tokico luminas. Map has decent price on them. I think it was like $368'ish for a set.


I'm assuming you have OTC spring rates. Which if I recall correctly are 350f / 270r.

You'll be 100% prefect with Tokico luminas they are well proven shocks and work great as long as your spring rates aren't super stiff like in the 450 range.

For new, they are only about $70 or so cheaper than a full set of koni yellows.


It's EVERY easy to everyone say " just spend $70 more".... but for me it would ONLY be worth going koni if your tracking your car season after season & are worried about the them blowing out. BUT your not going to blow them out with the current GC springs you have, thats for sure... it's impossible. Koni's life time warrantee is a BIG PLUS for guys that have high spring rates & drive the hell out of their suspension race after race. Eventually even the BEST shocks like koni go out. But with soft rates (anything under 400) i doubt you would blow them with just street driving.

Lifetime warrantee doesn't mean shit if your not in a position to every use it.

Since your not into that stuff Tokico would be fine. I would sugguest them all day long to those who want bang for buck with good range of adjustability.

When you pay for koni, you are paying for lifetime warantee & the POTENTIAL of the shocks. So if you are not using them to their POTENTIAL, your wasting your money.

Kinda like saying buying a Hondata when you have no use for half of the options when Crome will meet your needs just fine with out compromise to function, safety, relability, & performance.

Money is money, I try to save where I can without affecting my power/handling goals.

$70 can go towards many things.
I doubt you'll blow tokico luminas in 5-6yrs if all you do is occasional light auto tracking & racing at midway. Learn how to drive fast with good suspension before trying to dump a lot of money on great suspension.

Nobodies going to look at your car any less if you have either or with your GC. I doubt anyone of us on the forms is able to max out the performance of tokico's or koni.

That's my take. I've opted for progress CSII coilovers with 350f & 500r. The work out to be the same price as GC/Koni with top hats. It's something slightly different & does the job well. BTW top hats are ONLY needed if your slamming the hell out of your car or if you have some stiff springs that will see some road racing high speed bumps, which prevent the fronts from bottoming out. They look good but are not need form 70-80% of people.



Charlie Moua

[Charlie Moua]

Koni Yellows by a landslide

for what application?
and on what grounds?

[sean xiong]

Yea that's what I was thinking don't really wanna. Go and buy a set of expensive suspension my first time which this is.. I might just go with the illuminas just for the fact of price, and it still rides like stock... But still gotta figure what these gc coilover kits are for.... That's the hard part for me rite now...

[Charlie Moua]

I could not figure if my GC were koni or non-koni style, but I took picture and emailed it to CF, got the answer instantly.


Also when you say "ride like stock"... they won't ride like stock unless you have stock spring rate. When you feel the harness of the road, that's the spring rates, when your bouncing that's the shock.

hard springs + stock shocks = blown shocks that cause cars to bounce back and forth until the energy/force is loss.

hope that helps

[ej1_ex]

Sean on my coupe i was running tokico illuminas with gc coilovers. They ran ok, didn't bother me too much. If your looking for performance such as turbo or a nice set of suspension go with full sleeve coil-overs. The GC and Koni brand are great don't get me wrong but a lot of people who are slammed are running that setup. I kinda grew away from being slammed. My reasoning was waste of tires, alignments, and really can't do shit when you want to drag race. If i was to do it all over again with suspension, I would buy full coil-overs, such as K-Sports, Progress, Omni, Blox, Function Form. My 2cents go with a nice set of full coil-overs you won't regret it in the future.

[sean xiong]

Yea I'm not into slamming cars that much.. In my opinion it just cost more money if you don't do it right...but I'm just basically looking for some struts to go along with the gc's... maybe in the near future I'll buy the full coilover kits like cou said.. Probably gon do the same thing charlie did take pictures and send it to the main ground-control manufacter...hopefully they'll let me know...

[Vi3tboy]

take a pic and post up here. should be a grove on the inside of the sleeve if it's for koni

[KOUZIE]

GC goes very well with Koni

[Charlie Moua]

GC goes very well with Koni

lol post something people don't know... haha


when your spending 500-750 on coilovers
Full sleeve coil over are over rated IMHO.

I doubt you'll find serious guys who track their car rock ksports or some cheap stuff like that. They know it's better to go with GC/Koni or else some really expensive coilovers that are in the $1100-1600 range.

[KOUZIE]

lol post something people don't know... haha

sorry. I'm just replying to what the title asked lol

[Coots]

Illuminas also have a lifetime warranty:

TOKICO Limited Warranty. TOKICO (USA) Inc. warrants its performance suspension products to the original retail purchaser against defects in material and workmanship and wear-out when used on private passenger cars and light trucks under normal operating conditions for as long as such purchaser owns the vehicle on which it was originally installed, except for electronic components, which are warranted for 1 year from date of purchase.

With the Illumina/GC, I only ran extended top hats in the rear. When I had them on the front, I couldn't raise my car to the height that I wanted.

The Illuminas and Koni Sports are both good, but a little different from each other. Both are rebound adjustable, with compression virtually non-changing. The Konis are more digressive at lower piston speeds which provide good low-speed control. The rebound adjustment has an effect across the entire range of speeds, from low to high speeds. The Konis do have more mid-to-high speed compression than the Illuminas.

The illuminas are somewhat digressive on the higher settings. Their adjustment has the most effect on mid-range speeds, with some on high speeds and little on low speeds.

I would just buy whichever damper your Ground Controls are made for. If they are for non-Konis, get the Illuminas and vice-versa.

[paulzy]

lol post something people don't know... haha


when your spending 500-750 on coilovers
Full sleeve coil over are over rated IMHO.

I doubt you'll find serious guys who track their car rock ksports or some cheap stuff like that. They know it's better to go with GC/Koni or else some really expensive coilovers that are in the $1100-1600 range.

funny, aside from a select few who run baller suspension, almost all the quickest and fastest drag hondas run the "cheap" stuff like blox, omni, PIC, and so forth.

[Coots]

funny, aside from a select few who run baller suspension, almost all the quickest and fastest drag hondas run the "cheap" stuff like blox, omni, PIC, and so forth.

That is because they are DRAG cars, NOT road racing cars.

I highly doubt that anyone here calculates what spring rates are ideal for their vehicle, their damping coefficient, or other useful suspension numbers. A lot of what people use is based on trial and error. It doesn't matter how "baller" a suspension setup is. It's about performance.

[paulzy]

That is because they are DRAG cars, NOT road racing cars. All they are doing is going straight.

when was the drag strip not considered a track?

You think going straight doesn't require playing with dampening, vehicle height, and spring rates?

[ej1_ex]

lol post something people don't know... haha


when your spending 500-750 on coilovers
Full sleeve coil over are over rated IMHO.

I doubt you'll find serious guys who track their car rock ksports or some cheap stuff like that. They know it's better to go with GC/Koni or else some really expensive coilovers that are in the $1100-1600 range.


actually MAP's 8sec Rx7 is running ksports.. Actually Full sleeve coilovers are not over rated. Go look at all the drag cars out there. They are running full sleeve coilovers. Not no GC and KONI GTFOH..

[Coots]

when was the drag strip not considered a track?

You think going straight doesn't require playing with dampening, vehicle height, and spring rates?

1. I didn't say the drag strip was not a track.

2. It's DAMPING. Not dampening.

3. I KNOW it does. But the majority of people who buy that junk for their cars don't calculate what is ideal. They just tune the setup until it performs how they want it to.

4. What is ideal for a drag car is certainly not ideal for a road racing car.

[paulzy]

1. I didn't say the drag strip was not a track.

2. It's DAMPING. Not dampening.

3. I KNOW it does. But the majority of people who buy that junk for their "drag" cars don't calculate what is ideal. They just tune the setup until it performs how they want it to.

4. What is ideal for a drag car is certainly not ideal for a road racing car.

The majority of road racers and autocrossers "tune" it up the same. I am by no means a suspension guru but neither are 95% of the road racers out there. Tell me one guy you know personally who spend hours and hours on a shock dyno? Or who does not do their testing on the track until it performs how they want it?

Very true, what is ideal for a drag car is not ideal for a road race car but a lot of the components are shared. The settings are different.

[amk]

buy my basic tiens with megan lca and call it a day.

[Coots]

Fixed.

I'll agree. Most people in general don't calculate what is ideal. They just tune by feel. This still does not mean that these products are high quality.

Calculations should yield a good benchmark of where to start, though. From there, it's tuning based on the driver's style and preferences.

[Charlie Moua]

haha... my post are not related to drag racing...
my bad... i didn't want to start a huge debate ahaha lol