The recent thread on Tein coilovers prompted me to ask about Feal coilovers. I've read several threads on other forums with positive feedback. A few folks in the other thread mentioned them. I'd appreciate feedback as I'm considering them. They are much cheaper than Bilstein PSS10s!
They're one of the 3-4 companies taking the one size fits all stuff from Asia and rebuilding it with better quality internals and oil. Serviceable for the price point, but you're still limited by the compromises made at the starting point to use a universal threaded damper. Keith has elaborated elsewhere on those compromises.
I've got them on the NB, the Goodwin Road Race kit. Because I'm a sucker for marketing I upgraded to "better" springs when I had them rebuilt, and instead of 12k/8k, I'm at 13/8.
I dailied the car for a while on them, and at low settings they're pretty decent on the street. I also avoid bad roads when possible (I do that in all my cars), and if it's a road to Aleppo they're a bit harsh, but everywhere else they do real well.
The compromises are a little overblown, imo, especially if you're running stiff springs and the car on the lower end of the spectrum. I've had zero issues with bump travel, and at least on Miata.net they all cry about not enough "droop" as though you'll fly off the road and die because you're on the cheap chinesium units that have negative droop values. I've watched other, better drivers run my car, no issues lifting a wheel on exit or anything, and on bimmerforums, the dude with the super quick E21 (not stock by a loooooong shot) improved his corner exit and traction by mechanically limiting droop travel.
You are definitely losing available capacity compared to "standard" stuff, but use case and how the car is set up I think can mitigate a lot of that.
At auto-x, I love them, but I've only driven the Feals, Konis, and a guy's BC equipped Miata, so, consider that. I asked lots of people who ran them before I bought, lots of good feedback from guys who used them, including a guy who had one car on Feal, one on Xida (THE kit to get for Miatas of all stripes, best one can tell from the Miata forum, and a couple guys here have run them, too, and say they're all that and a bag of chips), they compared favorably in his opinion.
Turn in is great, the car does transitions well, and the car responds the way I think it should to inputs. When I first got them, took them on a spin up the mountain, and got some tire squeal on a corner I never had because I don't typically drive that hard on the hill. Looked down and I was doing 10mph faster than normal for the same driving effort.
Are they as good as all the big name guys, regardless of design (i.e. Ohlins or similar)? I'd guess not, but my rebuild cost was on the order of $125 or $150 a unit (got about two years, 20k-ish miles, dozen or so autocrosses, and bunch of mountain runs).
I think they're hard to beat for a "budget" brand, and seems like they're the Redshift the West Coast.
In reply to red_stapler :
Feal, yep. Fortune Auto is another, which is what I have on my '23 BRZ. The 8th Gen FA500s on 7k/8k Swift springs. If I had to do it again, I'd go 6k/6k, the rear is a bit looser than I like for a street car, but still completely controllable.
My first gen BRZ had a Ground Control setup, 400/400 with Eibach springs. I'd the FAs are better.
I also ran 3 different spring rate setups of GC on 2 different E30s.
My NA, as mentioned in the other thread started on FM VMaxx with the track springs. Then moved on to 800/500 949 Racing Big Grip Kit and then tracked a friend's NB on Fat Cat Motorsports, but it was on lower spring rates like 600/400 I think.
ГУЛАГ мальчик УР следующий said:I've got them on the NB, the Goodwin Road Race kit. Because I'm a sucker for marketing I upgraded to "better" springs when I had them rebuilt, and instead of 12k/8k, I'm at 13/8.
I dailied the car for a while on them, and at low settings they're pretty decent on the street. I also avoid bad roads when possible (I do that in all my cars), and if it's a road to Aleppo they're a bit harsh, but everywhere else they do real well.
The compromises are a little overblown, imo, especially if you're running stiff springs and the car on the lower end of the spectrum. I've had zero issues with bump travel, and at least on Miata.net they all cry about not enough "droop" as though you'll fly off the road and die because you're on the cheap chinesium units that have negative droop values. I've watched other, better drivers run my car, no issues lifting a wheel on exit or anything, and on bimmerforums, the dude with the super quick E21 (not stock by a loooooong shot) improved his corner exit and traction by mechanically limiting droop travel.
You are definitely losing available capacity compared to "standard" stuff, but use case and how the car is set up I think can mitigate a lot of that.
At auto-x, I love them, but I've only driven the Feals, Konis, and a guy's BC equipped Miata, so, consider that. I asked lots of people who ran them before I bought, lots of good feedback from guys who used them, including a guy who had one car on Feal, one on Xida (THE kit to get for Miatas of all stripes, best one can tell from the Miata forum, and a couple guys here have run them, too, and say they're all that and a bag of chips), they compared favorably in his opinion.
Turn in is great, the car does transitions well, and the car responds the way I think it should to inputs. When I first got them, took them on a spin up the mountain, and got some tire squeal on a corner I never had because I don't typically drive that hard on the hill. Looked down and I was doing 10mph faster than normal for the same driving effort.
Are they as good as all the big name guys, regardless of design (i.e. Ohlins or similar)? I'd guess not, but my rebuild cost was on the order of $125 or $150 a unit (got about two years, 20k-ish miles, dozen or so autocrosses, and bunch of mountain runs).
I think they're hard to beat for a "budget" brand, and seems like they're the Redshift the West Coast.
This post came up at the right time as I've currently got an NB Miata I'm looking for "good enough" auto-x coilovers for. Thanks for the insight!
I am currently running feals on a 94 and 16 Miatas. I have had Konis, tein, and a used set of bc racing. I have found the feal to be much better. To be fare both feals were custom from Goodwin racing based on weight, horsepower, aero, and tire selection (Hoosiers). The others were just off the shelf items. The feals are like ohlins with can be rebuilt if needed. Also I am running 12/10 na and 12/8 nd
I'll add another+1 to the happy customers. I used the "road race" rates Feal for NA miata. I loved mine - mainly used on road courses. They're a great option with the caveats noted above, not perfect but hard to beat for the price and performance.
442s on my E90 love them wouldn't change a thing
Thanks for the feedback so far! Please keep it coming!
I had them rebuild some Ksports many years ago. Good quality and they were quick.
This lap, which is close to the lap record for a BP on street tires, was on Feals. Are my Fox shocks and Xida nicer? Definitely. Would they make a world of difference to a non-pro in lap times? No. Honestly the nicer shocks are - in my experience - just nicer on the street or bumpy circuits mostly. Once you get into the decent options w/ proper spring rates it's more about setup (corner balance, tire pyrometer, blah, blah) - to a point. Obviously all my experience is with miata so, ymmv.
Just a quick follow up on this.
In the 4 years I've had these coilovers, they've never not been on 200tw tires; RT615Ks, RE-71s, and V730s. And as mentioned prior, the Feals are just fine on the street.
But as a result of having the E21 on jack stands in the garage, and the Miata outside with night time temps getting close to freezing, time to swap the nice 15x8s and the 200tw skins out with the all season 195 Hankooks I've had on the the 320.
The car rides really nice with the softer side wall tires! I haven't had it on the road to Aleppo yet (the only time these feel a bit harsh), but it's markedly better on all the other less than stellar roads I've had it on in the last day or two.
So, if you're putting these on a Miata at least, and you plan to keep the "race tires" only for race day, these just became a better value than they already were, in my opinion.
Gratuitous shot of the E21 with (one of the) Miata shoes on it (since I think it looks cool):
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