UPDATE:
Ive been on the Yellowspeed coilovers for about 5 months now and I would say I haven't been impressed. The front is way too high, there is no practical way to get the front lift under 2" over factory. I have the rears just about as high as they can go, and they are barely matching the fronts. So unless you are trying to really lift the front, this isn't the answer.
Secondly, and most important, after 5 months, the driver front damper blew. It puked the oil out the bottom and has a gnarly clunk. I reached out to Yellowspeed about this since I mostly drive on roads, and have not done any rallying, and they said they will not cover anything on the gravel setup under warranty. They claimed the reason it blew was because I drive it on road, and that driving on the road is harsher on the damper than rally racing... It will also be $335 to get a replacement. Overall not happy and wouldnt suggest these coilovers.
I have the 1-way adjustable version, and maybe the 2 or 3 ways would be better, but when ordering I asked if there was any difference in durability or performance and they said there was no difference other than adjustability and oil capacity to help with heat.
update and warning on tractive suspension traps
When I bought tractive suspension my aim was to run it at standard height for track use and 1 inch higher for road and gravel. This was to be achieved by adjusting the spring platforms on the struts and the rear platform for the divorced spring and shock.
This was fully discussed with the Australian distributor and the car was duly fitted with tractive suspension and dsc controller with instructions on number of turns to go from normal to raised ride height. Raised ride height sees the spring platforms at the top of the threaded strut body.
All was well for a short time but then I did a track day with the car in high config as a test. The front struts started sticking and knocking and it felt crunchy, for want of a better word.
On disassembly the strut bearings were damaged and the shocks themselves internally damaged. All this for components expected to last year's not days.
The reason for failure is that there are 3 bearings in the strut body for the shock and running it raised takes it out of range of the bottom bearing, leaving it running on two. Usual forces at raised ride height then caused the damage. Given the use had been clearly explained by email and height was set following discussion this was an unexpected failure.
Luckily, the distributor, which is a race engineering shop, has been reasonable about this but there has been long delays with parts from Holland.
the fix
The only fix is to put in top mount spacers. The suspension shop distributor will be measuring up for these soon but expect around 3cm or so. Now the stut is set somewhere near normal height for raised. When set for track the strut platform is lowered from standard. This means the shock is either at standard insertion in the strut or further in when dropped, always engaging bearings as normal.
When run in track mode platform is lowered. This will be the same as lowering normally with compromises on bump travel and hence ripple strip absorption. The engineering trick now is working out from bearing locations and other factors what is a safe compromise position which mitigates this. For example, a spacer where platform up 1.5cm is raised and down 1.5 is normal. I will update when this is worked out.
my suspension engineering shop
They have generally been good but it has taken a long time, They are accepting the rebuild and replace cost and I am paying for the mounts. Maybe tema 4x4 would have been ok but who knows.
general warning
I suspect that all coil over inverted struts of same design as tractive have the same problem. I would strongly suggest that if you are raising your car you use spacers not adjusting coil over. Coil over adjustment can be used and lowering platform is always safe but brings bump reduction issues etc as always. Won't cause damage I described. Slight raising may be fine but extent needs investigation and setting it too high will cause damage eventually.
finally
as
@BigFatFlip says, maybe I should have bought Reigers. More generally, the rs does not perform as I hoped as standard. It is track focused and I'll suited to dirt as standard .
I have had to do many mods to bring it to the point where it is competent, no surprises, and can endure for a reasonable time. This includes ongoing work to disable ABS panic brake and ice mode idiocy. Ice mode is terrifying on lumpy gravel as hard brakes and no stopping. This carries over to track use as there have been severe injuries in Porsches, bmw etc where ice mode detects kitty litter traps and stops braking leading to unimpeded high speed impact with wall. The rs will do this too if you are unlucky.
I'm hoping I am near the end of mods to date. So far I have done
- Sump guard to replace rat fur and save damage on gravel roads.
- Dba 5000 series brakes and ds2500 pads as standard brakes delaminated as not a lot of meat on them and destroyed discs.
- Wavetrac diff to get mechanical torque vectoring and reduce reliance on electronic vectoring.
- Selection of 29 inch rims and cup 2s for track and 17 inch 45 profile kumo extra for road, snow and gravel.
- Laser light bar for decent visibility and driving at night. Great product.
- Tractive suspension so i could have comfort as daily driver but the set good track, khanacross and gravel setting.
- Top mount spacers to fix tractive problem.
- Turbo blanket for enhanced efficiency.
- Underbody hdpe to minimise rock damage on dirt
- Xtreme dual plate clutch because the previous owner must have slipped the clutch a lot. Factory dual mass clutch too expensive so went dual plate to last forever.
- Revo tune stage 1 tune. Not much concerned about power but a bit more good.
- Bonnet louvers to let heat out. Prefer to improve dissipation first before upgrading radiators.
- Nutron drift stick for khanacross and skid pan.
- Steeda clutch spring to improve clutch feel.
- Mud flaps made from hdpe to be more substantial than rally armour and more protective
- Schroth quickfit pro harnesses because things can always go wrong.
I must be getting close to my multi purpose objective but it is a long road.
Hope this info helps
www.focusrs.org
