I'm in, depending what the rear setup might look like.

Should be interesting to see what they do with that twist beam rear.

 

^This.

Tons of space constraints back their. Would be tight running a typical coil-over without using a wheel with much less backspacing.

 

On my Miata boards, the Raceland coils seem to be well-accepted as an UBER-cheap suspension option.

As long as people keep their expectations realistic for a $300 set of coils, I see no reason that these would not do well in the Saab community.

As an aside I have a Raceland header on my Miata:

It was $125.

Shipped.

Obviously, welding some tubes together is easier than shocks, but they do know how to come out with a decent cheap product. Compared to say, a RacingBeat header that's $450, I could go through 3 of these things, and still be looking good.

I'd offer my 9-5 for suspension testing as well, hah.

 

I'd be in for a set

 

I asked them if they would be interested in making some coils for us like a year ago and they basically said they don't care about markets that are too niche (eg not money makers).

Too bad if they even do this is wont be in time for me as my new upper mounts just broke and im not going to throw more money down the drain with new ones again. I'm already planning on buying their jetta mk4 setup (ultimo!) and custom fabbing them/the car to fit (rears dont require too much work at all at least) in less than 2 weeks if I can get the measurements I requested them for soon... I'm not fucking paying $800+time to just custom make the fronts, when I can get a half-way decent full coilover setup for less than $400.

As far as quality, they are great for the price. my buddy had em in his legacy wagon that was slammed and it rode better than my saab ever has. they are perfect for those looking to be low and ride decent...not for hardcore autox/roadracing/etc, but I'm sure those types will come and bag on these all day, in the end its just about value.

 

Here is the c&p of the email response I got back in Feburary:

"David,

Sorry but at this time we do not have plans for any Saab production coilovers. While we have had some interest in Saab coilovers we have not had enough at this time to warrant production.

Thank you for the interest.

Davin
Raceland USA"

How much interest, exactly, would be enough? VW interest? cuz thats never gonna happen.

 

I would definitely be interested. I couldn't guarantee that I would buy a set, but at the price point you mentioned there would be a good chance I'd go for it.

 

Well..

As Palmer states, you gotta keep in mind they're ~$300. And just as the gentleman I was mostly speaking with today told me (Cody), they never said that they were $2000 suspension.

He also explained to me that the management was different before and that they were more interested in just getting products out the door, not so much worried for the nitty-gritty/fine-tuning with development.


When I first went up to them and my friend yelled out, "make some for Saab's for this guy," he did kinda imply that there was no market for it but he's not wrong.

Honestly, I bet if we had 50 people who said they would be interested in some coilovers they would take a closer look. As I said with the Tiburons, there really wasn't more than 100 and that was just gathered up from forums.

I don't know if there are 50 people here, on this board, but if enough people email them and bug them about it then they will listen. That's how he put it to me. They get lots of oddball requests and until there are a ton of us emailing them, we're just another one of those.

 

agreed. everyone just email them to get them to make these, even if you wont really buy.

pwease? :not_worthy:

 

if its a good product id be in. would all four be 300-400? rebuildable? adjustable? im not into slamming to the ground where it rubs/scrapes but im in for a 1 1/2" to 2" drop. what kind of spring rates? i would need daily springs not too stiff but not to soft.


you should try to contact parts for saabs, genuine saab, performance saabs, and maybe JZW maybe raceland would feel better or make them quicker.

if these are equal to or better than koni/vogtlands i couldnt see them not selling

 

if its a good product id be in. would all four be 300-400? rebuildable? adjustable? im not into slamming to the ground where it rubs/scrapes but im in for a 1 1/2" to 2" drop. what kind of spring rates? i would need daily springs not too stiff but not to soft.

you should try to contact parts for saabs, genuine saab, performance saabs, and maybe JZW maybe raceland would feel better or make them quicker.

if these are equal to or better than koni/vogtlands i couldnt see them not selling

And this is the part we manage expectations...

-Since it's a coilover shock, and is height adjustable, you set the height.
-not rebuildable
-Stiffer than factory spring rates, but probably not terrible
-No shock adjustment for rebound or damping.

All of that other stuff you mentioned makes a full set of coilovers cost upwards of $1500.

 

for comparison, the MK4 jetta rates I think are 350lbs/in in front and progressive 100-150lbs/in-ish rear. The jetta has similar weight, suspension layout, and weight distribution (FWD too after all).

the ultimos are 385lbs in front and 240 out back..which is what I really want, but i would easily take the normal units

i also shot an email to solo-werks, they only make 2 models of coilovers and I would love to pit them against RL for first to market with a solution for us.

 

Awesome idea, go for it.

As mentioned though, the dampening and not just the spring rate are factors. A good balance between them and an awesome ride is what we want in the end.

 

I would be interested in some coilovers
Need to do something to the vigs stock suspension anyways

 

I went ahead and made a list on the original post just for the hell of it. I'd really like to see this get started.

I'm sure a lot of you have seen this, but a 3D rendering of a REAL lowered Saab:

By the looks of it, I swear our cars were meant to be lowered more than half the cars that actually are. The Viggen body kit looks just perfect, I think, for a slammed Saab. And that's without adding all the extra shit that most other cars have to add like lips and such.

And I'm not even a stance person. I just like to see different things and stanced Saab's are really low in existence.

 

they're junk..had three sets on three diff BMWs...but i'm in anyways!! put me on the list
97 900 vert se

 

What kind of BMW?

One example, my friend's STI running a prototype of theirs.

 

e36's, one m3 a 325 and a 328. junk might have been harsh, but i was always use to d2's. going to racelands was/is a big step down. they're defin. more for looks then for all out performance.

 

Possibly interested for 9000....

 

9000 would be different. If we could at least get this off the ground for our cars, perhaps they'll be more likely to look into further development on other models.

 

If these are designed for performance, I'm in...

 

Not really.

 

I'd be in, understanding if they don't get it done I'll be trying it anyways....

 

They've got two different models and I assume the more expensive one would be more aggressive than the other.

I'm sure they'll probably have some edge compared to Vogtlands or Koni's, though?

 

I'm in 100% how long before they'd be ready?

 

I'm not sure. It depends on how difficult our cars are to setup and then there's the testing. If this goes anywhere, people on here will definitely know about it.

there decent ride and quality wise. im riden in many vw, bmws, audis, etc with raceland and there not bad. i mean your only paying what 300 dollars for them so dont exspect the best of the best but if i owned a 9-3 i would def buy a set.

Exactly. Don't expect the best coilovers out there. After doing my own reading just on other forums, the general consensus seems to be that they're not the best but they're great for the money.

 

there decent ride and quality wise. im riden in many vw, bmws, audis, etc with raceland and there not bad. i mean your only paying what 300 dollars for them so dont exspect the best of the best but if i owned a 9-3 i would def buy a set.

 

IMHO the best route is a ground control style setup. Otherwise something will have to be made to sit in the strut tube, since the hub and such is all one piece. There's a reason nick went the route he did.

Also look at the coil overs for the rear of an fg civic.

 

the rear would likely be similar to the Jettas, which also have a twist beam rear.

just a adjustable perch with a spring on it.

I am going to meet with my fab buddy tomorrow I think and discuss options. I think he might be able to remove the strut tube in a way that allows the jetta coilover in. thats the first of many rough ideas at least. Hopefully RL can give me the dimensions of the front coils then too..

 

Thoughts:

It's going to have to use the stock strut in some way because of the integrated knuckle/hub. How about they produce a coilover that's just an adjustable coil for over for an existing strut modified to have no spring seat? That way we get the adjustability we want and we can choose our own damper and total costs depending on budget and needs.

I realize that that creates an engineering challenge for how the top of the mechanism is designed. It also might put in some limits that the slammed guys don't like. But, I think it gets most people to where they want to be with adjustable ride height.

It might help if they could provide a couple different spring rates for people looking for more or less stiffness.

 

Eventually what I'll end up doing is sending them the link to this thread so whatever input you want to throw in, by all means do it.