Thread: GI: YCW Reference Series Coilovers

Hey guys,

just putting this up to see if you guys would be interested in our new line of mid-range coilovers? We have the fitment specifications already in our system, but would need a minimum of 5 confirmed buyers to put them into production.

After countless hours of research into the various coilover setups currently available on the market, we noticed that there is a gap in the market for a mid-range setup that:

1) Offers premium real-world features, at an affordable price point
2) Offers local (North American and European) facilities for rebuild and servicing

Whilst there are a lot of generic (i.e budget) setups available on the market at the moment, they are basically all the same/similar design (i.e generic) and have not changed over the past 15 years, with prices ranging from $1000-2000; the more expensive only being due to the "brand" and the "assembled in XXX label" rather than the design features (the components are all still manufactured in China, Taiwan or Korea). Infact, the top selling Budget Taiwanese Coilovers that are currently plaguing the market at the moment are all manufactured from the same technical drawings!

Of course, we fully understand that, rather than reinventing the book, it is best to stick to tried-and-tested designs (especially for the street car) hence why all the current setups available are very similar. It is because of this gap, we at YCW Engineering decided to design and manufacture a quality mid-range solution that meets our #1 priority; Value for Money. Whilst there is a large demand for premium setups designed for the high-end race car, our aim with our Reference Series Coilovers is to bring some of the more advanced real-world features from the premium setups, incorporate them into a package suitable for the everyday street car, and offer them at an affordable price point without sacrificing on technical support and servicing

At only marginally more cost than a budget setup, you get a higher quality, better performing mid-range coilover solution with an industry-leading warranty, unparalleled after-sales technical support and product servicing

YCW Reference Series Coilovers
- Spec'd for Superior Performance
- Priced for Affordability
- Over-Engineered for Comfort & Safety

Limited Lifetime Warranty on Hard Parts
- Warrantied against Manufacturers Defects
- Non-Transferable. Registration and Proof-of-Purchase Required
- Hard Parts include: Upper/Lower Mounts, Spring Perches, Locking Collars, Shock Body and Piston Rod

Limited 1 Year Warranty on Wear Parts
- Warrantied against Manufacturers Defects
- Non-Transferable. Registration and Proof-of-Purchase Required
- Wear Parts include: Bearings, Springs, Seals and Shock Internals

Local Service Facilities
- North America: San Dimas, USA. Warranty Claims, Rebuild Services and Re-valving Services available
- Europe: Leyland, United Kingdom. Warranty Claims, Rebuild Services and Re-valving Services available
- Asia-Pacific: Taichung, Taiwan. Warranty Claims, Rebuild Services and Re-valving Services available

Specifications:

Forged 6061-T6 Hard Anodised Aluminium Front Upper Mounts
- Strong and Lightweight, our Forged Upper Mounts are Hard Anodised for superior Corrosion Resistance

Forged 6061-T6 Hard Anodised Aluminium Rear Upper Mounts (Where Applicable)
- Strong and Lightweight, our Forged Upper Mounts are Hard Anodised for superior Corrosion Resistance

High-Tensile Carbon Steel Front Camber & Caster Plate with Anti-Slip Coating (MacPherson)
- CNC-Machined High-Tensile Carbon Steel supports more load than lesser-quality mounts
- Camber Angles can be adjusted precisely to your driving needs
- Caster Angles can also be fine tuned (MacPherson)

Oversized PTFE-Lined Japanese Spherical Upper Mount Bushing
- Increases shock articulation and prevents coil-bowing
- Higher load rating for increased durability
- Minimises knocking noise associated with lesser-quality bearings

Forged 6061-T6 Hard Anodised Aluminium Upper Spring Perch with Sealed Japanese Radial Bearing
- Strong and Lightweight, our Forged Upper Spring Perches are Hard Anodised for superior Corrosion Resistance
- High Quality Sealed Japanese Radial Bearing removes rotational stress from the upper mount and is sealed from the elements

62mm ID Cold-Wound Japanese SAE 9254V Chrome-Silicon-Vanadium Steel Linear Springs
- Custom-made for us in Japan from the highest quality Japanese-grade spring steel, using proprietary manufacturing processes
- Not all springs are manufactured the same. Lesser-quality, Taiwanese-manufactured springs offer inferior performance and durability
- Although more expensive, we believe the increase in performance more than offsets the marginal increase in manufacturing costs

OEM-Balanced Spring Rates
- The majority of budget coilovers currently on the market offer default spring rates that deviate from the oem-balanced spring rates
- By not accounting for Motion Ratio Calculations and just replicating race-car setups, this results in a very unbalanced and uncomfortable ride on a Street Car
- All Reference Series Coilovers are supplied with oem-balanced spring rates, offering you increased performance without sacrificing ride comfort

62mm ID Cold-Wound Japanese SAE 9254 Chrome-Silicon Steel Helper Springs (Application Dependent)
- Optional Helper Springs can be used to increase droop travel

52mm OD Cold-Drawn Japanese SAE 1020 Seamless Carbon Steel Shock Body
- Offers superior physical properties and strength-to-weight ratio over lesser manufacturing processes

Black-Zinc Plated Fully-Threaded Shock Body with 250hrs of Salt-Spray Testing
- Offers superior corrosion-resistance

14mm OD or 20mm OD (MacPherson) Forged SAE 4140 Chromoly Steel Piston Rod
- Monotube shocks, although offering increased performance over Twintube shocks, have an inherent weakness; a load-bearing Piston Rod
- Although Inverted Monotube Shocks are touted as the solution, these come with their own set of problems, not least the substantially increased cost of manufacture (Optional: $100/corner)
- Our over-engineered solution to the problem, with only a marginal increase in manufacturing costs, is our proprietary Chromoly Steel Piston Rod
- Offering a substantial increase in tensile strength over lesser-quality rods, not only does this keep costs down, it significantly increases product safety

Oversized Piston Rod Guide
- A common issue with the majority of budget coilovers currently on the market is performance-sapping deflection and shaft-play, even after only limited usage
- Through the use of our proprietary Piston Rod Guide, this minimises deflection and shaft-play, allowing you to reap the performance benefits for a longer period of time

7-Level Rebound Adjustment
- Our Reference Series Coilovers allow 7 levels of Rebound Adjustments, allowing you to fine-tune your vehicle comfort and handling
- Unlike the majority of budget coilovers currently on the market, with their 30+ Level Adjustments, you can physically feel the difference between each adjustment
- In this particular case, more is not better; it's simply an inconvenience and setup-nightmare

10cm/15cm/20cm Length Adjustment Extenders (Optional)
- Designed for vehicle applications with limited access to their upper strut mounts

44mm OD Forged 7075-T6 Hard Anodised Aluminium Digressive-Blow-Off DBO Piston™
- Over-engineered for superior strength, with anti-stiction and anti-friction properties
- At lower shock speeds (Cornering), our DBO Piston™ maintains a higher damping force, offering increased responsiveness and stability
- At higher shock speeds (Bumps), our DBO Piston™ maintains a lower damping force, offering increased comfort and control

Performance Synthetic Damper Oil with High Viscosity Index and Proprietary Additives
- A proprietary formula providing consistent damping over a wide temperature range and superior anti-stiction/anti-friction properties

Viton Performance O-Rings
- Upgraded O-Rings offering better performance and durability than lesser-quality Rubber O-Rings

Forged 6061-T6 Hard Anodised Lower Spring Perch Locking Collar
- Strong and Lightweight, our Forged Locking Collars are Hard Anodised for superior Corrosion Resistance
- 1pc Locking Collars, providing secure and hassle-free adjustments

Fully-Threaded Forged 6061-T6 Hard Anodised or High-Tensile Carbon Steel Lower Mount
- Threaded Lower Mounts allows us to use a longer shock body for increased performance
- Shock Stroke is unaffected by Ride Height changes
- Allows an increased Height Adjustment range

PTFE-Lined Japanese Spherical Lower Mount Bushing (Eyelet Type. Optional)
- Increases shock articulation and prevents deflection
- Higher load rating for increased durability
- Minimises knocking noise associated with lesser-quality bearings

Silicone Lower Mount End Caps (MacPherson)
- High Quality Weather-Proof End Caps for MacPherson lower mounts, preventing water and dirt from entering the the lower shock body

Weather-proof Neoprene Shock Covers
- High Quality Weather-Proof Shock Covers, preventing water and dirt from clogging up the shock assembly

Fully Rebuildable
- Our Reference Series Coilovers are fully rebuildable, with spare parts always in stock and available for purchase




Softest Setting


Hardest Setting


Reviews:
BMW 335i - http://www.n54tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42704
VW Golf GTi - http://www.golfmk6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=105309
Ford Focus ST - http://www.focusst.org/forum/focus-st-builds/27127-practical-enthusiast-s-build-post1081460.html

MSRP: $1499.95
Pre-Order Price: $899.95 inc FREE Shipping within the US. That's 40% discount off MSRP!
Lead-Time: 2-3 Months after confirmation

As mentioned above, we would need 5 confirmed buyers to proceed, and a 50% initial deposit. Remainder will be due upon shipping.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask

Interested List
1) calvin269 (B13)
2) calvin269 (B13)
3) NissanEgg (B13)
4) Kyle (B13)
5) blusteelsr20 (B13)

Will the top be a spherical bearing instead of rubber?

Will they have adjustable camber and caster on the top plates?

Will the part that mounts the strut to the knuckle have provisions for the brake lines, sway bars (for the rear of a B13), and even abs brake lines since some B13 have ABS?

I see the photos above have some of these features but we have been known to see pictures and then receive the product and all of those features are void.

Yes, the upper mounts are spherical, and our upper spring perch also has a sealed radial bearing. This is important to minimise any knocking noises normally associated with spherical upper mounts.

The front upper mounts have adjustable camber and caster.

Yes, there are brackets for the brake lines and sway bars.

Well, I color me interested. I would need to free up the loot. I hope this will work similar to the LSD replacements you brought to our lovely little cars?

I have some Fortune Autos for a P10. I would be interested in looking at something for the B13, since all factory ish options are going away.

Hopefully we can gather enough interest to put this through

Although the images above are generic (from the BMW), the dyno graphs are actually from the Sentra test set we made (will contact the tester and see if he can chime in).

The feature list above though is complete

Ask him what the spring rates are recommended for those graphs above and is there re-valving features that we can exercise on this initial run? e.g. Perhaps someone does hardcore autoX and they want 12 kgf/mm front and 10 kgf/mm rear. THen another person, say likes it comfy and cruises in their car. Could they get softer spring rates like 5 kgf/mm Front and 3 kgf/mm Rear? I would believe the valving would need adjusted and not generic for those two spring rates, but I am no manufacturer nor assembler of parts. Throwing stuff out there and seeing what sticks and knowing what some people here would expect or want. Together, this can be a home run, because the initial price is bat shit insane low.

The sample we made was for the B13, and had valving for 9K/7K. As we use digressive valving with specialised shims (not your typical linear valving), this increases the spring rate range to within +/- 3K

What we done with other fitments is (and which is one of our main points), is that instead of allowing customers to choose custom springs rates, we only make the option available for either our pre-defined "Sports Springs" or "Race Springs" (not really "race", but more fast road/weekend warrior), which are oem-balanced rates. This is the reason why our coilovers ride so much more comfortable than your typical coilover. By allowing the customer to choose custom rates (which we do offer that option at $50/corner, but is typically only for track cars), it is easy to upset the oem-balance, which the customers then need to play around with larger swaybars etc. The end result? They blame the coilovers...

Stock B13 is 2.2K/2K. For the B13, I would probably recommend around 4K/4K for Sports and 6K/6K for race (both offering slight oversteer). Although this may seem "low", because we use digressive valving, low-speed damping is markedly stiffer compared to linear valving, so using excessively stiff spring rates is not recommended. Of course, as mentioned above, if you do want a custom spring rate (at your responsibility), we can offer this at $50/corner. Why the extra charge? Because we need to revalve the damper specifically for your custom spring rate.

Of course, the pre-defined spring rates are not set in stone yet. As this thread progresses, we will work to determine what the most suitable rates should be.

So far, your answers seem great to me and I hope some folks can pick up on this deal if they want. I have been sitting idle with two sets of CSKs for my B13, and the lack of parts is a bummer. Hob-cobbling something together is not my bag anymore. I don't have time for those nuances that can snowball into weeks of looking or waiting for erroneous parts.

Thank you for at least trying to bring something to the table for the market that is so small. That is greatly appreciated.

No problem at all. As mentioned, we only require 5 confirmed buyers, which tbh, isn't too great an ask

Brief feedback from the B13 tester:

"The last parts you sent were perfect and meant i could fit the suspension and we made it to the Nurburgring. the spring rates seemed to work well but sadly i couldn't get that many laps in as the engine started to suffer from oil consumption. I managed a 9 min 27 sec lap on only my second time round which for a car low on power (160bhp), no geometry setup other than toe and my limited seat time broke my expected lap time by over 30secs"