Dylan,

How much power will this thing make? 245's only faster on a road course if you are above about 200whp.
Describe any aero it will have. Anyway, Bilsteins nowhere near enough damping for 245 anything. So any springs you run will be "wrong", by default.
If you are not going to revalve them, I'd suggest sticking to 205 RS4's on 8" wheels and <150whp.. then 550/350

 

Again, another knowledge bomb! That's exactly what I needed to hear to understand what's going on. Thanks Emilio! The car won'tbe turbo'd, at least for now, so I'll stick to some 15x8 6UL's and 205s! It also may have some aero mods, but we're still planning everything out. I'm advocating for them, not sure the rest of the team's appetite for making/buying them. I appreciate the context setting!

 

I'm having trouble hearing back from Maruha about the tophats. I've emailed them several times over the past 4 weeks but have received 0 responses. I have an NB and posted a fairly standard shopping list of the 450 and 300 spring rates. What are some of the other good tophat brands I should be looking at? I want to eliminate wheel gap but not be slammed. Thanks so much.

 

ISC Racing makes some.

 

They may be shut down. There's some things going on around the world at the moment.

 

If you can find a way to make a bushing for centering a 2.5" hole saw over the top hat you can core it out and get some 2.5" ERW and weld it in place. You can even leave the tube a little long on the bottom and it'll locate your 2.5" springs.

 

Last I checked, they didn't make RS4's in a 205 for a 15 wheel. I can confirm that the 225/15 fits properly on a 15x8 wheel and is pretty fast.

 

They make a 195, which will be just fine on an 8" wheel since RS4s tend to be pretty wide. I remember my 195 RS3s were wider than my 205 street tires.

 

I just had my original Hard-S billies rebuilt and revalved by Whitener Racing. I was running Koni sports with FM springs which was nice and comfortable but felt they weren't quite cutting it when on track and running a 15x9 with 225/45 RS4's. The recommendation from Whitener was 700f/500r with no rear sway bar. I opted for 700f/400r and retained my 5xRacing 14mm rear sway bar. Full list below...

Whitener Racing rebuilt and revalved OEM Hard-S Bilsteins with extended top hats
700 front/400 rear 7" Hyperco springs
Advanced-autosports coilover sleeves and nuts
QA1 roller bearings
Energy suspension spring isolators
5xRacing/custom bushings and bump stops

When I first installed them I did a crappy job with the top hat bushings and they were clanging around. I saw evidence of the spring rubbing against the rear sleeves. Took them back apart and added a spacer at the top of the shaft as well as some washers and different bushings and everything is much better now. The car is more agile and I can feel the undulations in the road and what the car is doing so much better than the Koni setup. The ride isn't as smooth as before but that doesn't mean there are harsh impacts, the suspension is just much more active. It's not comfortable but it's not uncomfortable. I can't wait to try them out on track!

 

Looks great. What did they charge per corner?

 

I can vouch for the Whiteners being awesome, i ran them as high as 850/500 on my car before moving them to my street car with 700/400. Plushy plush.

 

So the pads on the top of the springs, that are centered by the shock shafts are from Energy Suspension? P/N please.

 

Energy Suspension 9.6103G (black) or 9.6103R (red)

 

Those aren't the ones he has. Those have the large holes and the ones above use the smaller holes to fit over the rod.

 

Yes, that’s what it looked like to me. At first I thought, “what a good idea” but then realized that totally defeats extended top hats by not allowing the shock body through.

DNM

 

The red poly isolators on top of the spring are indeed Energy Suspension 9.6103R as DaWaN indicated...but they aren't centered on the shock shaft, they are sandwiched between the top hat and the spring, so I'm not sure if that's what you're referring to? Hopefully this clears things up...

At the top of the shock above the polished shaft is a spacer to reinforce the shoulder, a red anodized washer, and a urethane bushing. These came from the 5xRacing shock mount kit. Sitting at the bottom of the shaft is what I was previously using as the upper top hat bushing (also from the 5x kit) but I am using it as as a bump stop on this setup. Whitener Racing suggested no bump stops and using the ziptie method to set ride height as low as possible without bottoming out, which is what I am working towards, but felt better running a shortened bump stop until I have some experience with this setup.

The way the bushings are positioned in the 2nd picture is because the shock is not bolted into the top hat, if you look closely you can see the this as the threads on the shaft are exposed. The 1st and 3rd pictures are accurate representations of how they sit on the car when installed, and the shock body absolutely can travel up inside of the extended top hat. I included the 2nd picture simply to show all of the components I was using

 

About $160, all four top hats were $150. $800 all in. He had/has a waiting list...contacted him maybe 2 or 3 months before he was ready for them, quick turnaround within about a week.

 

That's good to hear! I know I won't be able to really test them out until I get on track but so far I am loving them. Did you end up upgrading to Xidas?

 

Thanks. The angle of the pics deceived my eyes. Apparently Six's as well.
DNM

 

Finished a set of really cheap one just this evening. They are going on my beater.

$125 set of spec miata takeoffs
$50 ebay sleeves with 8k/6k springs (I will see how they ride/hold up/how low I have to run to not bind them)
$10 set of NB top hats.

Got lucky and snagged the take offs with the top hat adapters and bump stops included. Took the sleeves in to work and carved a small groove to retain the clip. I shouldn't have to run too low with the 5" springs since the weird spring centering things the sleeves came with happen to fit perfectly on the top of the shaft and will hold the springs about 3/4" from the bottom of the top hat.

Yes, I know the 5.5" springs are very short for their rates, going to have to do some measurements to make sure I am into the bump stops before binding them, but back of the envelope calculations say I should be able to make them work with at least stock bump travel.