KONI GTS COILOVER KIT FOR TOYOTA GR86/SUBARU BRZ

KONI GTS Coilover Kit

Street / Track

The BRZ is already a very good chassis from the factory, so the goal with a suspension kit like this isn't to completely change the character of the car. It's really about adding more control and adjustability for someone who is using the car harder than the factory suspension was necessarily designed around, while still keeping the car enjoyable on the street.

That's where we think the KONI GTS fits well. This is a good option for someone who daily drives or regularly street drives the car, but also does autocross, HPDEs or track days. A pretty normal use case would be running a good ultra-high-performance summer tire on the street and then switching to a 200TW tire for track events. The GTS gives you enough damping, camber and ride-height adjustment to support both without turning the car into something that only works well at the track.

Damping adjustment

For street driving, we would generally recommend staying toward the softer side of the adjustment range and letting the suspension move. The car still needs to deal with real roads, expansion joints, potholes and uneven pavement, and there isn't much benefit in making it unnecessarily stiff just because the adjustment is there.

At the track, you can increase rebound damping to give the car more support during braking, turn-in, acceleration and transitions. The nice part about the KONI adjustment is that it is simple enough that most drivers can actually understand what they're changing and feel the difference without needing to become a suspension engineer.

There are more sophisticated dampers available with separate compression and rebound adjustments, remote reservoirs and more tuning range, but for a dual-purpose car that complexity isn't always necessary. KONI has already done the basic development work around the application, so the driver is really fine-tuning the car around tire choice, road conditions and how the car is being used.

Front camber adjustment

The adjustable front top mounts are one of the more useful parts of this kit on the BRZ and GR86.

For street use, something in the neighborhood of -1° to -1.5° of front camber is a reasonable starting point for most cars, depending on ride height, tire and driving style. That keeps the car sensible for normal driving and helps keep tire wear reasonable.

When you switch to a 200TW tire and start driving the car harder on track, the requirement changes. Moving closer to -2.5° to -3° of front camber can help keep the outside shoulder of the tire from getting overloaded, improve the contact patch through the corner and add front grip. That can also help take some understeer out of the car while keeping the basic balance of the chassis intact.

Those aren't fixed numbers for every car. Alignment always depends on the tire, track, ride height and driver, but having that range available is valuable because the car can be set up differently for street and track use instead of forcing one compromise alignment to do everything.

Complete suspension package

Another thing we like about the GTS is that it is a complete package with dampers, springs and upper mounts. You don't have to disassemble the factory suspension and reuse a bunch of parts to install it.

That matters more than it might seem, especially for someone who plans to keep the car for a long time. The original suspension can stay assembled and be stored away, which makes it much easier to return the car to stock later if you sell it, change direction with the build or simply decide you want the original setup back.

The kit also uses standard-size linear springs, which gives an experienced shop some flexibility later if the owner wants to change spring rates without replacing the entire suspension.

Why KONI?

KONI has been involved in motorsport for decades, including rallying, Formula One and a long history of club-level racing and performance driving. That history is relevant because adjustable dampers for dual-purpose street and competition cars are not a new idea for them.

What matters more to us is that KONI has a long track record of building dampers that are reasonably simple, durable and understandable to the driver. The GTS follows that same approach. It gives the driver meaningful adjustment without adding complexity that most street/track owners won't use.

There are definitely more expensive suspension systems available for the BRZ and GR86, and some of those systems offer more capability. If the car is being built primarily for competition, or the driver is experienced enough to take advantage of independent compression and rebound adjustment, that extra capability can make sense.

For a lot of drivers, though, the better investment is a well-developed suspension like this and then putting the rest of the budget into tires, track time, instruction and actually using the car. That's really the type of product we want to focus on at 1W/car: good parts that solve a real problem without convincing someone they need more hardware than their use case requires.

1W/car Recommendation: Ride Height

Just because the GTS is height adjustable doesn't mean the goal should be to lower the car as much as possible.

For a street/track BRZ or GR86, we generally recommend somewhere around 15–25 mm lower than factory ride height. That gives you a useful reduction in center of gravity and a little more aggressive stance without giving away too much bump travel or pushing the suspension geometry farther than necessary.

Lowering a MacPherson-strut car changes more than just the appearance. Control-arm angle, roll-center height, bump travel and steering geometry all move as the car gets lower. At some point the lower center of gravity stops being the only thing that matters, because you're also reducing the amount of suspension travel available and changing the geometry the car was designed around.

For a mostly street-driven car, we would usually stay around 15–20 mm lower than stock. That keeps more ground clearance and travel while still giving the car the benefits of a modest drop. For a car that spends more time on track, 20–25 mm lower can make sense, especially when the alignment and tire setup are being tuned around that ride height.

We generally don't recommend going lower than about 25 mm on a dual-purpose car unless there is a specific reason for doing it and the rest of the suspension setup is being adjusted to support it.

The point of height adjustment is to put the car where it works best, not simply where it sits lowest.

Corner balancing

The threaded spring adjustment also gives the installer some ability to fine-tune corner weights. With the driver's weight in the car, or an equivalent ballast, and a representative amount of fuel, small changes in ride height at each corner can be used to improve cross weight and make the car more consistent in left- and right-hand turns.

Not every street car needs to be corner balanced, but if you're already installing a height-adjustable suspension and using the car regularly at the track, it makes sense to at least understand what the adjustment is capable of and consider having it done during the final setup.

Our preferred order is pretty simple: set the ride height, corner balance the car if the use case justifies it, and then do the final alignment.

1W/car Autocross Setup

We also offer an optional autocross setup for the GTS that uses a higher rear spring rate to help the car rotate more easily in tight, low-speed transitions.

This is specifically aimed at autocross, where the car spends a lot of time in quick direction changes and the driver may want a more neutral or slightly more rotation-biased balance than we would normally recommend for a street-driven car.

The option adds $200 and includes the alternate rear springs. We do not recommend this setup for normal street use, because the balance change that helps the car rotate at an autocross can make the car less forgiving and less comfortable in everyday driving.

For most street/track customers, the standard GTS spring package is the better choice. The autocross setup is really for someone who already knows that autocross performance is the priority and wants the rear of the car to work a little harder to help the car change direction.