MeisterR

10 years old, sorry about that. Not the best when it comes to writing things up… just excited about the result. Jerrick

The latest episode from the Ring Banana is out… and talk about shocking (Pun intended). We all know that tyres has one of the biggest influence on the performance of a car, as they are the only thing that touches the ground. The Ring Banana set the base lap time of 9:21 around the Nurburg Ring, then knock 22 seconds off to 8:59 by changing out the 10 years old tyres to a set of semi-slick tyres. The goal of getting a sub 9 minutes lap around the Nurburg Ring with the 90 hp Mazda Miata / MX-5 was shattered on the first try. In an interests to find out how much difference will just the MeisterR coilovers make, they install the coilovers, do the alignment, and put the 10 years old road tyres back on for another go. We expected maybe a 10 seconds improvement, but nothing prepare us for the 27 seconds improvement that the coilovers provided! That is a 8.54 lap around the Green Hell with a set of 10 years old road tyres!!! Shocking performance from the new shocks! Full in car lap video can be found here: Jerrick

That is looking good, how are you finding the MeisterR coilovers? Jerrick

Same as the 370Z kit, so £674 delivered after the 10% discount. Jerrick

Just another idea, we can do a complete coilover kit with adjustable damper for the 370Z at £674 delivered (after 10% forum discount). This will allow you to dial in the damper stiffness so you can find a ride quality you after. And chances are it won't be much more expensive than a set of springs air ship over form the USA, but you get much more. Just a thought. Jerrick

We have Zeta-R for the E82 BMW 1-series in stock. It was a fun exercise, it was great meeting and chatting to the other driver also. There was a convoy of track car to a local Mexican restaurant after the race, it was all great fun. Jerrick

MeisterR Zeta-R, standard springs rate of 10/8. We purposely use the entry level mass produced coilovers in this test, because custom build coilovers like the GT1 will almost be unfair against the Bilstein. After all, it was a comparison of an off the shelve product vs. an off the shelf product. Jerrick

Sorry for the delay, been a hectic week for Lucio and I... and I only want to post things once I have everything in place. The result are in, and it was very close racing! Lucio finish the day 3rd in the SCCA STR class the fastest time of 53.244, only 0.012 second behind 2nd place! The first 3 place in the class was separated by less than 0.2 seconds... Lucio time also made him the fastest S2000 of the day, with a 13th overall in raw time. Pretty respectable considering he is only 6.5 seconds behind the 1st place, and that was a fully prep Racing Go-Kart. Another interesting thing was we had 2 driver that day using the same car. Lucio was number 14 who finish 3rd, and Landon who was number 114 and finished 4th. It was interesting to see as both driver have different preference, so both found the best suspension setting that suit their driving style. They also tired out each other suspension setting to give a comparison but it was Lucio who was just a little faster in the end. The next car down is almost 2 seconds behind, so the front runner are fast compare to the rest of the group. Objective Result As Auto Solo track layout changes at every event, it is difficult to compare raw track time. The best way to compare is to use average time between driver who attended both event, so that is what we will do. In SCCA, each time you hit a cone you add 2 seconds penalty to your total time. Lucio time in round 7 was 55.297 after a 4 second penalty, so his raw track time was 51.297 which would of place him in 3rd place in the STR class. We will use the raw time for comparison. Round 7 (raw time 51.297) STR class average: 53.76 (beat average by 2.46 seconds). Total average: 56.65 (beat average by 5.35 seconds). Round 8 (raw time 53.244) STR class average: 55.90 (beat average by 2.65 seconds). Total average: 58.93 (beat average by 5.68 seconds). Difference between round 7 and round 8 STR class average: 0.19 seconds improvement Total Average: 0.33 seconds improvement So all in all, an improvement but wasn’t catastrophic. The biggest difference was getting 3 clean runs in round 8 vs no clean run in round 7. The clean run make a huge difference to the final result. Lucio was ranked 13th overall in round 8, but ranked 65th overall in round 7 just to show the difference. Subjective Feedback Getting feedback from Lucio after the end of the day, here is what he have to say: The car was tested on the street and the 90% of the set up was clean, the remaining 10% set up are based on driver preference. It was cool to see how Landon and I were able to select different set up to suit our driving preference on the same car, and really show how much difference a few clicks on the damper made to the overall dynamic. My driving is pretty aggressive and I was able to maintain the car ON the track with just one penalty on the first run Vs the previous race where I was not able to obtain a clean run in the all day. Adjusting the suspension to a softer setting for the 45 minute drive home was also impressive. I was not used to have a comfortable feeling in this car and at one point I visually checked the tire's pressure to see if everything was fine. The best proof was my 16 years old daughter in the passenger seat who does not have a lot of experience in sport car felt comfortable enough to take a nap during the driving home. Overall, it has been a big improvement and I am please with the result. Conclusion So that is it, an improvement but not a huge amount as expected. Auto-Solo only give about 60 seconds worth of track time and speed aren’t fast, so a lot of importance are place on the tyres and how much traction it can generate. The S2000 never made it out of second gear on the day, and this type of tight track favour the lighter MX5 / Miata. To be able to keep up with cars that is 500lbs lighter is quite an impressive achievement given the fact that there aren’t enough “straight†to allow the S2000 to use it’s upper power band. I hope this was an interesting read, and we certainly enjoy the experience working with the driver. 3rd place finish aren’t back, but we will hope to see 1st place in the future. Jerrick

Yep, lets hope so. I am off to the track now, will report back. Weather is looking good so lets hope for some good lap time. Jerrick

The GT1 are £1650, and normally a little more once you need something custom but I can always help out depending on what it is. The thing is that you got to build the suspension for the right purposes, so while you can pull something off the shelf you can do a better job if you tailor made the suspension for a specific car for a specific purposes. But let me know what you are after and we can make something bespoke that will work for your need. Just to say I got the date wrong, the auto solo event is actually tomorrow. So i should have some result once everything are updated with SCCA. One thing I do want to mention is that DO NOT TAKE THE RESULT TOO SERIOUSLY… It is meant to be a light hearted fun exercise, I am not out to prove MeisterR or Bilstein. There are still a lot of variable, and it is still subjective one way or the other. Some feel that I was out with an agenda, and really that wasn't the case. I would of wait until the result are in before I post anything if it was to ensure MeisterR is better. I post this up before the event, and will post the result whatever it is MeisterR being faster or slower makes no difference to me. That is it, I will report back once result are in. Jerrick

We can do that with the GT1 spec. And can be a little more involving than just corner weight, because we would need to worry about everything else such as motion ratio, tyre compound, usage, etc. But yes… we can build something specific for your car and for your need if you want that done. Jerrick

The MeisterR Top mount is on centre just as the OEM top mount, so the position should be the same. The Bilstein is under 1 year old as far as I know, as Lucio only started competing in the S2000 this year and mods was done for the competition. These are off the shelf spec vs. off the shelf spec, as provided by Bilstein / MeisterR. From what S2000 owners tell me, the Bilstein springs rate is a bit softer. Bilstein: 6.16kg/mm front, 5kg/mm rear MeisterR: 10kg/mm front, 8kg/mm rear So the MeisterR is a bit stiffer on the springs rate, but then at the same time both kit is being used for the same purposes: A daily driven road car with occasional competition use. We didn't change anything because as soon as you throw in a "custom" element into the mix, then all kind of variable are raise. If the MeisterR isn't any less comfortable than the Bilstein in road use, then it is still achieving the main objective of being a good daily driven road cars. Jerrick

To be honest I cannot say what the outcome will be, we will find out tomorrow. It may be faster, it may be slower… but I want this to be a meaningful exercise. Lucio do have video of the last round, and we will have video of the round coming also. As Auto Solo layout change during each event, the only meaningful way to compare is to take his fastest time vs the average fastest time of all other competitors, that way it won't seems "rigged". I will check alignment specs with Lucio because I know he is using the same spec. But I am not sure if he is aligning the car with a fishing string as he is old school. Jerrick

A common question many owner ask: How does MeisterR coilovers compare to other brands? As coilovers are only part of a car's suspensions, and there are many other variable involved; it is often a difficult questions to answer. So I want to bring up a very interesting "test" that we will be doing. Here in Houston USA, I meet a driver at a local SCCA Auto Solo event name Lucio D'lsep. Lucio was an Italian racing driver back in the early 2000's, and have decided to get back into competitive motorsport after being absent for over 12 years. Here is a picture of him in the former glory days racing with Osella in Rechberg (Austria) back in 2002. Lucio's current car is a Honda S2000 daily driver that runs in the SCCA Auto Solo STR (Street Touring Roadster) Class. The good thing about the STR class is that the rules limit modification you can do as well as tyres you can use, thus creating a class that daily street driven cars can compete with each other. Suspension Issue Speaking to Lucio, he have been having issue with his car. He is using an off the shelf Bilstein PSS9 adjustable coilovers, and he just couldn't get the suspension to work with the car. The tyres just couldn't find grip and the body motion does not feel controlled no matter how he adjust the coilovers, so he is struggling to keep speed through the corners as well as keeping the car on the racing line. The result is lost traction as well as hitting cones, and this put a time penalty on his result. MeisterR Suspensions Change I thought this will make a great opportunity to test the MeisterR coilovers against Bilstein, and will keep things fair as we can get a qualitative (how the suspensions feel on the road) and a quantitative (Lap time) feedback on the same road car driven by the same driver in the same competitive event. So we got a set of off the shelf MeisterR Zeta-R coilovers, and swap the Bilstein PSS9 coilovers out. Initial Feedback on MeisterR coilovers The initial feedback by Lucio is positive after a few days of street use. Here is what Lucio have to say: Both the Bilstein and the MeisterR look like serious tools and not toys. The MeisterR out of the box are ready for the installation, the light weight aluminium top mount included with the MeisterR is the main difference when compared to the Bilstein that need to reuse the top mount from the original Honda suspension. After 12 years out of racing it’s the first time that I see a suspension with springs coil adjustments independent from ride height adjustments. This is a great improvement and it mean no more compromise when adjusting the ride height. Compare to the Bilstein, the MeisterR damping response and compliancy on the irregularity of the street gives you confidence. You are able to feel the grip and trust the car/tyres, and know that when the grip finish there will be space for correction. The accuracy of the steering is what impressed me the most with the MeisterR coilovers. The front of the car is on track followed by the rear even with the non-linear power curve of the S2000 engine trying to mess up your approach to the apex. It is also more comfortable on softer damping setting. If your potential girlfriend has already experienced sport cars, she will not complain about comfort as softer damping setting is not so far from the original equipment. SCCA Result with Bilstein The last round of the SCCA Auto Solo, Lucio finished in 7th place with 13 competitors total. While the lap time of 51.297 isn't slow, the additional penalties from hitting cones brought his result down to 7th place. The next round of the SCCA Auto Solo will be this Saturday 2nd of August, 2015. We will get the S2000 to the track and hope we finish on the podium, because when you race you race to win. We will report back in a few days time.

Well, it is always nice to see race result. And always good to see happy customers. Just to say I had quite a bit of feedback from owners that had achieve positive racing result such as Auto Solo that I didn't know about. So if you are using MeisterR and are winning, feel free to let us know as we love to hear achievement of our customers. Jerrick

One question that are commonly asked: How does the MeisterR suspension perform on track? As owners do throw the MeisterR coilovers into the fire pit of competition, I just want to share some of their exciting result. Drift: A One - Two Finish Congrats to Michael Marshall and Mark Luney; a well fought battle and great to see MeisterR in both 1st and 2nd place on the podium. 1st Place British Drift Championship (Pro Class - Round 3 - Teesside): Michael Marshall - Team MnM Engineering 2nd Place British Drift Championship (Pro Class - Round 3 - Teesside): Mark Luney - Team Lucas Oil Drag: Setting New Records Now mid way through the 2015 season and David Greenhalgh is setting new records along with winning the competition. Resetting the Japanese Drag Series 1/4 mile 4-wheel drive ET record to 8.369s and the 4-wheel drive trap speed record to 166.07mph in 2015. David’s comment on his custom drag specification MeisterR GT1 coilovers: “Funnily enough, we also have to turn the corner at the top too! Who says no turns in drag racing........... Last year the car was all over the place going up the strip. Check out the videos from Jap Drag Series. This year with Meister R GT1 it's been straight as an arrow, good squat, excellent under braking and so far I've always made the corner at the top!†1st Place Japanese Drag Series (Street Class - Round 1 - Santa Pod): David Greenhalgh - Team RIPS Blue Streak 1st Place Japanese Drag Series (Pro Class - Round 3 - Santa Pod): David Greenhalgh - Team RIPS Blue Streak Race: Top of the Podium Quite a few driver on the podium racing with MeisterR this season. Most drivers are using standard off the shelf MeisterR suspension with minor changes such as springs rate. Some are even racing the same set of suspension for a few season, a testament to the performance and durability of the coilovers. Allister Phillips is using the new MeisterR GT1 coilovers and here is what he have to say: “So far I am very impressed with the suspension. I am already beating my previous years personal best lap times despite carrying 50kg+ in ballast, and I expect to improve my times further. The car feels very planted and inspires a lot of confidence to take more speed into the corners.†1st Place Super Lap Scotland (Class E - Round 2 / Round 3 - Knockhill): Allister Phillips - Team TrackScotland AK 1st Place BRSCC VTEC Challenge (Production Class - Round 8 - Castle Combe): Matt Le - Team Racebread 1st Place 750MC 5Club Racing MX5 Cup (Race 10 - Anglesey): James Rogers 2nd Place 750MC 5Club Racing MX5 Cup (Race 10 - Anglesey): Ben Short Again, congrats to all the drivers for the awesome result, racing isn’t easy and that makes winning all the more satisfying. We just want to share our heartfelt excitement with the community. Jerrick / Edwin

There are a few on here that run our MeisterR true coilovers without reinforcement. We haven't heard of any issues to date. Edwin

Just saw this and I thought I'll chime in. The Zeta-S / Zeta-R is entry level performance. It is a good all rounder given it's price bracket. Works well all around but limited by its design. The GT1 on the other hand is a completely different kettle of fish. I almost dare to say it is the most advance suspension you can get within it's price bracket. The fact that you have engineers from Ohlins / AST coming by at Autosport and nodding their head give me extra confidence. All of the internal of the GT1 were engineered in the UK and CNC locally. We actually have a specialist 3-axis CNC machine in our workshop sole dedicated to making the seals that are used in the GT1. The GT1 were design by Black Art Design (BAD), who is responsible for a list of OEM car suspension and podium winning race car, including the only privateer car that runs in the 9 minute club at the Colorado Pike Peak event. So we are very good at vehicle dynamic and the GT1 encompass all of these experience. The major stand out point of the GT1 is the "lifetime warranty". Because we design and manufacture our own CNC seal, the damper actually will last a lifetime. So if the damper ever leak oil, even if you take it to nurburg on a weekly basis, we will rebuild it free. Not because we want to rebuild them, but the damper was engineered not to fail… we are that confident. No other damper manufacturer will give that guarantee, because no one have gone to our length to provide such an advance product. So if you thought MeisterR were a budget… time have changed. We now have the product and the technical backing to compete against some of the biggest name… such as Ohlins. You can always spend more to get more expensive suspension, but we are confident that the GT1 performance won't be beat. Jerrick

We are just back from displaying at Autosport International with the MeisterR GT1 as it's centre piece. Here is a few photo of our "little" stand. A lot of interests from many owners regarding the GT1 coilovers. Many have heard about the GT1 but it was not until they see the internal parts of the GT1 in person that they are thoroughly impressed. We have a lot of data to present so we will bring out more details regarding the GT1 once we organise them. Jerrick

We custom build all GT1 coilovers, so tech spec will depend on "what" you are using the car for. A road driven track car will have different spec to a trailered to track race car. A car on semi-slick will have different spec to a full slick A professional driver will have a different spec to a club driver All that that will depends on what the person want, what the car build spec are like, and what is it's purposes. We have 40 odd different variation of damper valving combination to suit different requirement. True coilover is easy on the 350Z, but you may need to reinforce your rear turret. We have ran it with many cars before without any issue, but we always want to give it as a recommendation. As for mono vs twin tube, there is always an argument and it isn't black and white as you say. Mono tube have less parts, and because of that it is also much easier to "repeat" the build process. However, mono tube need to have very precise parts; throw some crap in there and watch the suspension not work at all. For us, we always go with mono because it is easier to build and yield better performance. The important part is to make sure all the small bits are high quality with high tolerance, because you put in junk you get junk. Another important thing is the experience in the valving specification. BAD have a long history of racing and OEM experience in designing valving to provide the wanted vehicle dynamic. We can easily take a set of BC / D2 / etc and re-valve it to provide speculator result, but you are limited by the piston design. However, using all the simple "parts" but throw in the right experience can achieve a product of great performance… which is what we do with the Zeta-S / Zeta-R range. Jerrick

A quick view of the first few set of the new MeisterR GT1 coilovers. Mitsubishi Evolution X [ CZ4A ] ( Also available for EVO4 CP9A to EVO9 CT9A ) Toyota GT86[ ZN6 ] / Subaru BRZ [ ZC6 ] Nissan Skyline R32 GTR [ BNR32 ] ( Also available for R33 / R34 / R35 ) We will have more technical details for release soon. Jerrick

The GT1 are custom build, but if you are interested we can always work something out. We have been developing the GT1 for the past 2 years and they have been tested for the past year. We have put the GT1 on a road driven sprit car (EVO6 RS), and it finished 2nd place in the MLR Sprint Series Class B Championship. So they do what they say on the box, a package that provide compliant ride for daily that is also competitive on the track. Jerrick

The GT1 really are in the realm of Ohlins DFV in terms of performance, and will also come with a lifetime warranty which I don't think Ohlins would even consider. We are offering the lifetime warranty not because we want to fix dampers, we are offering it because with the advance seal we are using, the damper won't fail unless physically damaged. The same seal design had been employed by BAD for years, they have rebuild suspension on rally car that are 5 year old and the seal look new. In terms of performance, the GT1 are built by Black Art Design (BAD) who is extremely successful within the racing circle, from pro racer to pike peak race car. They also do many OEM application and is the appointed firm for special suspension project by Milbrooks Proving Ground. We have done a few set of prototype GT1 this year for a few race driver, all have come back with podium finish from championship / sprint / endurance races. We done an 8 hours endurance race with the GT1 and finish 3rd, only behind 2 invitational professional driver in pure endurance race car. So we are please with that result, and the GT1 performed faultless for 8 hours continuously under racing condition. The GT1 is quite a big step up from the the Zeta-S / Zeta-R. The advanced engineering allows the suspension to provide very good vehicle dynamic for a wide range of duty over different road surfaces. That is actually more difficult to do than a bespoke race setup, as there are much more to consider. Ohlins DFV is sort of the gold standard to hit. KW V3 / Clubsport isn't really a target I personally feel they don't even stack up close to Ohlins. I personally always prefer Mono-tube damper over twin-tube, and at this price range KW is the only company still offering twin-tube damper It will take time to build the GT1 name up, but we are confident that the GT1 will provide a better performance at a better price if you compare it to other suspension within this price sector. Jerrick

We are just getting the GT1 ready for release now. For the 370Z they will be £1650 inc VAT and delivery. They will be the OEM design and retain the rear inboard springs. Jerrick

A few owners have ask me about more details of the GT1, so I thought I give a little more info. While the outside of the GT1 look similar to the Zeta-R, the internal is completely different. I'll try to name a few parts, but there are quite a lot: 1. GT1 Piston: Precision CNC Aluminium: there are quite a few feature in this piston, I will work put up the details later. 2. GT1 bump stop: Progressive rate bump stop design to come into play progressively to aid comfort. 3. GT1 damper shaft seal: CNC made in house using Ultrasound tested Austrian Polyurethane. A normal damper will never exceed 40 bars of pressure, our shaft seal is rated to 400 bars. This damper shaft seal is one main reason we offer a Life-time Warranty, because it is actually that good. Like I said before, the life-time warranty is for the life of the original purchaser, but no limitation on time or miles. The long as nothing is physically damaged such as a bent rod or a score shaft, we will rebuild it free of charge if oil leak because the shaft seal fail. BAD have use this seal in Rally Cars that come back for a rebuild 5 years later and the seal look new. This isn't something that can be bought off the shelf, that is why we make them in house. We haven't done any back to back testing against the Zeta-R (also it is something difficult to quantify). But we know the GT1 will out last the Zeta (or any other suspension for that matter) pretty much in a test of durability. The GT1 use an ultra high heat index hydraulic oil from Millers, what that mean is the GT1 will not suffer fade issue no matter how hard you push the suspensions (BAD use the same oil in Rally cars). All the internal of the GT1 are made in the UK (most of the bits are CNC machined… in Essex), and assemble at BAD headquarter in Essex also. All in all, we done everything possible to improve the suspension performance and durability. A lot of the engineering are bespoke and way above what are normally seen in the suspensions world; we want the GT1 to be a suspension that will set a new bench mark. Jerrick