UPDATE 3 I dug out this comparison of Tein Flex vs Apex coilovers. It was made by an independent customer whos Teins had just failed again. I sent him Apex and asked him to do a back to back test whilst the ride of the Teins was fresh in his mind. We have since worked with the manufacturers to revalve and soften off the overall damping rates of our 5/4s so now pretty much hit the customers needs on the nail:

"Here's an update on the Flex vs Apex Coilovers peeps.
Things to consider here is that fitting new suspension and fiddling around with ride heights messes up the geometry of the car. Therefore, drivability without a re-alignment, is expected to be worse.
What I've written about the Apex coilovers vs the Flex's is purely my opinion with regards to the way I drive. What I may find as being comfortable may well be considered as completely different by someone else. However - I've done my best to make the comparison as fair and neutral as possible.

The Apex coilovers are a great looking piece of kit. The finish on them cannot be faulted. Visual quality looks just as good as the big brand names.
Before fitting them, I loaded the springs by 10mm (thats what I had done on the flex's).
Fitting them on was a walkover. The paint on them is a bit thick, so it took a little encouraging to fit the two lower bolts into place, but nothing major. Its great that they were supplied with new upper mount nuts, both front and rear.
Once on, the heights were adjusted to what they were on the flex's, and the damping setting was set to 16 (halfway).
I took the car out for a spin up the road and the first noticable thing was they were a little noisier than the flex's. Second, they felt a lot firmer too.
I then soften the dampers to number 2 (0 being softest) and went for another spin. This certainly reduced the noise of the springs and the ride comfort was much better.
One thing to clarify about the noises are that the springs make the usual rattle noises that all coilovers generally make when going over bumps. On damping setting 2, the noise is no more than that of the Flex's at the setting 14 (16 being the softest, 0 being hardest) on the EDFC.

I was happy with the comfort of the ride, so I left it like this for the trip to Norwich.

During my travel, I made sure to try and push the car a little harder round corners and turn a little sharper.

The handling around corners is excellent. I felt very confident taking a hard corner, just as confident as with the Flex's.

For much of the journey on the motorway, you really can't ditinguish between the Flex's and Apex's.

When I came off the motorway, the roads were a little bumpier and the first thing I did was reach for the EDFC ......
Unfortunately, I've gotten too used to the feature
But in saying that, the coilovers handled very well without rattling my bones on the bumpy roads.

As a direct comparison - the Apex's on setting 2 feel much like the Flex's on the mid setting - around 8 on EDFC.
The Flex's on setting 14 are able to soak up the bumpy roads that bit better to give a slightly more comfortable ride.
With the Apex's set on 16 (midway), they feel like the Flex's on the hardest setting. Very firm - and in my opinion, a little too harsh for daily road use.
For daily road use, the Apex's need to be set between 0 and 5.
I didn't try the Apex's over 16 as it would be at a firmness that can't be compared to the Flex's - which would probably mean they would work better (firmer) than the Flex's on the track (seeming they adjust all the way to 32).

How to rate them? Let me set a % scale for comfort where standard suspension comes in at 100% comfortable.
Flex's on softest setting would be 90%, Apex's would be 80% - so definitely not far behind - it is literally marginal.
As far as performance is concerned, I can't fault them against the Flex's. Confidence in hard cornering was not diminished at all - even though knowing the alignment was knocked out after fitting them to the car.

In total, I've covered 180 miles on the suspension. Presumably, a couple more hundred miles will allow the springs to settle in, and maybe become a little more comfortable on the bumpy roads.

Having used Flex's for over 3 years and assuming EDFC didn't exist - would I swap to a set of Apex's? Definitely Yes. With a saving of almost half compared to the Flex's, it's not a difficult decision.
However, EDFC does exist, and personally, I'm very spoilt by it

If something like the EDFC for the Apex coilovers could be developed, and sold for £800, I know I wouldn't be buying Flex's.

If EDFC is not a factor to consider, then the APEX most definitely wins it with me.

What would I recommend as an improvement for the Apex's. I think that if they could go 3 - 5 notches softer on the damping, then they would soak up those bumps pretty much just as well as the Flex's."


UPDATE 2 If you buy a set of coilovers then Ill also offer a very good discount on a set of KSport alignment arms if taken at the same time. We have run KSport alignment arms on our 530bhp V8 competition Skyline for the last three years and theyre still working perfectly. And that car has had some serious abuse!

Buy a set of coilovers and save £100 on the alignment set making them just £249! A steal

We only have four sets of these arms in stock and the deal only relates to those four sets, we wont be getting any more at this money.

Alignment kit

Picture of alignment kit

Skyline doing what it does best

UPDATE 1 Theres a nice independent write up here with some good video footage of the units in action and the effect of the damping control plus a comparison of the kit VS the standard set up etc

https://www.scoobynet.com/7991241-post172.html

NOTE: All 2001-2007 have sold out, we only have GC8 now coming in this current shipment. We have yet another shipment following thats due late October. We have the full range of Impreza units on that shipment including 2001-2007 New Age and also the latest 08+ WRX and STi. If you want to put your name down for a set of these then no problem, just give us a ring, just bear in mind that the shipment for these units is due later than the GC8s

STi 05+ are in stock and ready to go at the GB price of £486.75

We have the following guys down for GC8:

1: stoorty
2: scubbay
3: AdamJ
4: G8RDK
5: maydrew
6: Russell

Because of continued excellent demand for these coilovers I can continue them at the great prices based on the numbers people are buying. If we sell decent amounts I can justify the discounted prices and just work on turnover rather than full margins. The last lot of GC8 sold out pretty much immediately so Ive got another big batch on a boat and due with me around the 15-20th of August.

EDIT: There has been a delay with the shipment, theyre going to be a couple of weeks late so are now due late August, early September. The shipment they were due on has landed bang on time but it doesnt contain the Scooby units, theyve been sent on a dofferent shipment hence the delay. My apologies, if it causes any problems for anyone then just give us a shout

Introduction

We have a new batch of Apex Gen2 coilovers due to land in the next couple
of weeks. Theyre manufactured for us by BC and for the first time Ive decided to run them under the BC brand at request of the manufacturers who want to get a little more exposure. Theyre identical to the coilovers we sold in the last GB and have been selling before and after. We still have some of the stock from the last order so you might get gold and black BC branded or you might get red and black and Apex branded. Its the same product

Coilover features

The new coilovers feature:

• New damper units with a wider range of adjustment
• Integrated bearing in front spring top platform to prevent spring binding and smooth out steering
• Lightweight bottom mounts to reduce unsprung weight
• 32 way click damping adjustable
• Modular design allows easy and cost effective servicing
• Various springs rates available, easy to change
• Spring platform adjustable for corner weight adjustment
• Ride height adjustable through bottom mount to retain full damper travel
• Ultra reliable brand, very low damper failure rates with full warrenty and after sales back up
• Pillowball front top mounts
• Camber adjustable front top mounts
• Rubber centred rear top mount for ultimate refinement

What cars do we have running the coilovers?

We have been testing them on various cars for a while now and are currently fitted to, amongst others, the following cars

• Apex EDC/Time Attack V8 Skyline
• Apex Time Attack S13 - SMs (1st rwd in class Time Attack Donny, 2nd rwd in class Time Attack Silverstone, 3rd rwd in TOTB)
• Apex Time Attack S13 - Yaks (2nd in class in rwd Time Attack Knockhill)
• Apex 2007 EDC S13 - Ian Harrison
• Apex EDC Onevia - Kieran
• Apex Test S14a
• Apex Type RA Impreza
• Team DCMS S14 - Graham
• Team DCMS S14a - Pete

Note that the guys running these units are all experienced in motorsport at some level, be it competition, track days, etc. Most of them (SM excluding ) also have a decent degree of mechanical knowledge. My point is that they know their stuff to a much greater degree than most people as they have a larger range of experience on which to base their opinion

Some of the cars:

Team Apex V8 Skyline

Team Apex S13

Another Team Apex S13

Team Apex Impreza

Warrenty and rebuilds:

All Apex Performance coilovers come with a 10k miles 12 months warrenty against manufacturing defects and damper failure. We carry a wide range of spare parts so dont be worried should you nudge a kerb and bend a damper or bend a bottom mounts, we have plenty of spare parts in stock and ready to go. we will slways strip a kit if needs be in order to help a customer out and egt their car back on the road with minimum of fuss and delay

Our Impreza:

Our Impreza is a fully road going car with full standard trim, no cage, just over 300bhp, its a day to day car. I ran it in the first session of the first round of Time Attack this year. I only got half a session out of it (seems to have failed due to damage started at a previous track day at Oulton Park when we had turbo failure) as one of the big ends let go. Despte this the car still ran 13th out of 44 with little more than Apex coilovers, KSport front 330mm brakes and Hardrace alignment arms. Not bad going

Whats available and what cars will they fit:

We have various kits coming to fit the full range of Impreza (bar the latest 2008) with various spring rates including 5/4kg.mm, 6/5kg.mm and 8/6kg.mm. Id recommend 5/4kg.mm for road and occasional track, 6/5kg.mm for a little more hardcore track work and 8/6kg.mm if you do a lot of track work with track rubber (Toyo R888 etc).

ALL THE KITS NOW COME WITH FREE EXTENSION ***** FOR THE BACK TO ALLOW DAMPER ADJUSTMENT WITHOUT REMOVING PARCEL SHELF!

The coilovers:

NOTE: These pics show the INVERTED units, we havent bothered bringing inverted units on this shipment so the GB coilovers will NOT look identical to the coilovers in the pictures below:

Coilover pic1

Coilover pic 2

Coilover pic 3

Coilover pic 4

When are the kits and payments due?:

Ive got another big batch on a boat and due with me around the 15-20th of August.

EDITThere has been a delay with the shipment, theyre going to be a couple of weeks late so are now due late August, early September. The shipment they were due on has landed bang on time but it doesnt contain the Scooby units, theyve been sent on a dofferent shipment hence the delay. My apologies, if it causes any problems for anyone then just give us a shout

We need payment by late August at the latest. Payment details will be taken at time of ordering and payment will be taken some time in August without contact up front unless you specify definate payment instructions at time of ordering. We will not contact anyone before taking payment unless specified to do so at time of ordering.

Carriage charges:

Carriage to a UK destination is £17.63.

International shipping costs. The below prices are through our usual courier. We maybe able to get a better price on large orders by negotiating with our various freight companies but you certainly wont pay more than the prices listed below.

Zone 1:

Belgium, Ireland (Southern), Luxembourg, Netherlands

1 kit £45
2 kits £70
5 kits £125
10 kits £205
20 kits £415

Zone 2:

Andorra, Austria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungaru, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Monaco, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Solvenia, Spain, Sweden

1 kit £50
2 kits £80
5 kits £145
10 kits £270
20 kits £500

Zone 3:

Rest of Europe

1 kit £65
2 kits £100
5 kits £200
10 kits £355
20 kits £675

Prices and payment:

The coilovers retail at £649 a set. If we get 5 people involved then Ill do them with a whopping 25% discount bringing the price right down to £486.75 a set Prices include vat, if you are outside the EU then you will save the vat, roughy 15% off the above price.

You MUST state that youre wanting to get on the GB at time of ordering to ensure you get the applicable discount

Payments are used to help pay for the shipment hence the discount. Please ensure that funds are available for your order as payment will be taken at anytime and we will NOT contact anyone before doing this unless you have requested it.

Please do NOT just stick your name on this thread, that will NOT be counted a an order. Orders are only confirmed when you have phoned with payment details. Please do not pm me with orders, they need to be placed over the phone, through our website, through Paypal or via bank transfer.

Good will ONLY be sent to the address that the card is registsered to. Theres no point arguing or pleading with my staff in an attempt to get the goods delivered to an alternate adress, fraudulent orders with stolen cards had led to a strict company policy of goods only going to the registered address. A pain for some, I know, thank the thieving scum of this world for forcing us into this position

If you want the goods sending to an alternate address then you can pay by bank transfer.

Phone - You can phone your order through to 01274 683633. International customers shouldnt be concerned about speaking to us, all the staff at Apex are more than used to dealing with international customers as a large percentage of our customer base is located throughout Europe.

Website - You can use this blank order form on our website, just bear in mind that it will only accept credit card details at this point, not debit. Just put the details of the required kit and vehicle specifics in the comments box. We will manually process the order in the office. We need the following info in the comments box:

Car model (e.g Impreza)
Car version (e.g. Sti, WRX) This is important, the later Stis run a different rear kit to the WRX and earlier cars.
Car year
PCD if known (5x100 for majority, 5x114.3 for STi 05 onwards)

Details of product being ordered

Paypal - You need to add a 4% Paypal surcharge to the total (goods plus carriage) to cover Paypals processing costs. Just multiply the total by 1.04. Our Paypal address is payATapexperformance.co.uk and we will need the following information including in the Paypal payment to complete the order:

Full name
Full address
Daytime contact telephone number
Email address
Scoobynet username

Car model (e.g Impreza)
Car version (e.g. Sti, WRX) This is important, the later Stis run a different rear kit to the WRX and earlier cars.
Car year
PCD if known (5x100 for majority, 5x114.3 for STi 05 onwards)

Details of product being ordered

Bank transfer

Please pm me if you want to pay by bank transfer for further info and to arrange.

EDIT:

Our R33 GTST (rear wheel drive) Skyline drift car came third at the 4th round at Santa Pod last week, we swapped the tyres, and the car was trailed straight out to Germany from the Pod (I drove through the night). I did four hot laps in total and managed a 7.57 in traffic with a passenger (so 80+ kilo of ballast). Thats on Apex coilovers so it gives some idea of their versitility. Absolutely zero chassis, damping or alignment adjustments, nothing. We changed the wheels, fitted number plates, bolted the original bootlid on and went. 3rd in drifting, sub 8 minute round ring, in traffic! Vid to follow if anyones interested.

Smokey Skyline from 4th EDC round at Santa Pod on Saturday

Then straight to Nurburgring and out on Sunday

 

when will payment be taken please

 

I'll be having a bit of this, will be calling tomorrow.

 

We have normal and inverted in stock for the 2001 model. KYBs dont offer camber adjustment, height adjustment and, unless you go for AGXs, damping adjustment.

this was posted on the last thread, whats the differance ? normal or inverted. what does it do? i want for mainly road use with the odd blast for circuit use. sorry for being a dumb *** here but im not in to the mech side of things , i just drive them

 

Payment will be taken early August.

Id go with normal for road use, I dont think youll notice the difference that inverted give in a road car. Id advise 5/4 spring rates.

 

Big thanks to Bren, Kev and Michael at Apex for gb #2. My write up here:
https://www.scoobynet.com/members-ga...ml#post7991241

Well worth the dosh at the real price, nevermind the discount!

 

are those standard or inverted CW42?
I have the inverted for a classic and the adjuster is at the bottom I think

 

Standard Peanuts.

 

thanks bren for the group buy 3, ordered mine yesterday, cant wait for the parcel to arrive now !

 

i had a smile on my face today, parcel arrived, now that was rapid..... spot on. looks good too.....

cant wait to get them on !

thanks again .......

 

To clarify, we will send whatevere we have in stock immediately which is pretty much everything bar GC8 normal

 

Just ordered mine, can't wait

 

ordered saturday told me we will post out monday arrived tues fitted them yesterday one word awesome
cheers guys top job

 

what should the ride height by for the perfect ride, i mean gap between the wheel arch and top of the tyre ?

and what setting do you recomend for normal road use ?

fitted them today but the back seems to be rather LOW and you can feel the hardness. i have adjusted them a bit !

 

Ride height is down to personal preference, but it's worth seeking advice from a specialist before you slam it to the floor. Over on NASIOC, where bc have been trading for longer, the general concensus is that you shouldn't lower the scooby, in all its forms, too much, as the whole design of the chassis is based on it being a certain height from the ground. (I had a good look and couldn't find any definative dimensions)
As for setting the "hardness" then that's down to personal preference I guess. If you deliver eggs for a living, then you'll be running the softest settings at all times, but if you live in a garage just off Oulton Park race circuit, you'll have it dialed up to "full hard"

When I had mine fitted, I had the springs compressed just a little, so full soft on the adjusters was around stock sti hardness. Then, turning 8 clicks (1/4 harder) would give a real world difference) any more than 8 clicks and I'd really feel the difference!
Hopefully, if it stops raining tomorrow, I'll be out to do some vid of the various settings in real world conditions.

 

what is the standard height of the coilovers when fitted to the car, newage?

i dont want to slam it to the floor, as britian keeps adding speed humps for some strange reason,

its just that i had them fitted today by a mate and i want to work out my settings before i get stuck in to it myself, but id rather work from standard settings just in case mate has had a fiddle..

sorry to keep going on.....

 

Thanks for replying so promptly cw42, much appreciated


measure the bc's against your old suspension, adjust the bc's so they are the same length as your old suspension when fitted to the car. Job done.

 

Bren - are these available for the P1 ?

 

P1 is a classic/gc8

 

Hi Bren,

Just wondering how long i would have to wait for a set (softest springs) to suit a UK MY94 wagon please? Also, could anyone recommend someone to do the alignment in or around the Wiltshire area?

Many thanks,

Roy.

 

i'm very interested but have had some HKS Hyper D's on a GC8 and they were Much Much to Hard.

how do these compare to the HKS please, any ideas ?

Thanks
Chris.

 

m8 these group offers still going yes or no


i need and set of the 5/6 for a 96 thats pre 96 wagon uk turbo 2000 mod

would you ave any ???????

alan

 

I was at Cadwell park today on s et of gc8/inverted/6-5s
awesome

 

Bren - is this just for Subaru's? My friend is after a set for a Skyline GTS.

 

just put my order in due friday

 

6/5km.mm or 5/4kg.mm for a 98 Classic GC8 for maily road use, i dont fancy too stiff a ride on the Mway.

Have any of you guys got experience of these please...... plus standard or inverted coilovers too ???

i might order some this week ready for when my cars back on the road.

 

I got 6/5 inverteds on a gc8.
to be honest I might have preferred maybe an 8/7 or 7/6 combo

 

P1s fine, theyre GC8, as Peanuts says.

94 wagon also runs GC8

If the HKS were on an imported cars then they might well have been fitted with aftermarket springs as the Jap guys love silly rock hard suspension. Makse a direct comparions between our units and the original HKS meaningless Im afraid. Our 5/4 arent back breaking, theyre stigffer than the originals but theyre not bone jarring.

Group buys still going, 1996 are GC8 and theyll be here in August

Id go for 5/4 for a road car doing a lot of commuting type travelling.

 

Just to add, all the coilovers on the new shipment now not only come with free adjuster extenders for the rear but Ive also had camber adjustable REAR top mounts added Both at no extra cost to you guys, weve absorbed the price increase.

Constant improvements in response to customer input, thats what we believe in

 

Ordered mine today .....great bunch at apex very helpful