Meister R

Here is a review I done of the GT1 suspension on my own personal 350Z a while back. I just want to post my review of the latest coilovers for the Z. MeisterR GT1 Coilovers I recently purchase a 350Z after being absent from the scene for over a decade. One of the thing I notice in my "new" car was that the ride was a little "choppy" for my liking on the ISC coilovers it had, especially on freeway where you want a bit of comfort. It seems that a new brand from UK have just started in USA, and JTran is a distributor for them. I had a chat with a few other Z owners locally who ran the MeisterR ZetaCRD coilovers on their Z, everyone said it was miles better than what they had before both in ride quality or performance. I decided to try the next level up from the MeisterR ZetaCRD, and that is the MeisterR GT1. The MeisterR GT1 is their advanced 1-way adjustable system designed for fast road & track use. They are designed to compete with top end suspension such as Ohlins DFV, which I thought was a pretty high bar to set. The GT1 is fully height adjustable, 20 clicks damping adjustable mono-tube dampers, using precision CNC machined internals engineered and made in UK at their UK workshop. The GT1 coilovers are all custom build in MeisterR USA workshop, and so it have a 3-weeks lead time for production. They also comes with a lifetime warranty, which is one thing that sway me over to the GT1. First Impression: After a 3 weeks wait, the suspension finally arrives at JTran. Took them out of the box for a few photo, and I think everyone at the shop including myself was pretty impress with the overall package. The first thing you notice right away is the custom made spring cover. I haven't seen something like this on any other coilovers on the market. It was design to protect the damper, which tie nicely to the lifetime warranty. A few unique feature of the GT1 coilovers that are visible on close inspection. A unique progressive rate bump stop that are design to provide better ride quality, and the unique full metal jacket damper seal that are CNC machined in the UK. Those unique parts as well as the internal are what make the GT1 coilovers different from anything else. Installation Installation was pretty straight forward as the entire suspension was pre-assembled out of the box. Also easy as they were unbolting a coilovers off to put a new coilovers on. There is also an extended cable included, so that makes adjusting the rear damper much easier. I put the GT1 against the old ISC coilovers just for comparison, and you can immediately see how much more travel the rear damper have. This should lead to better ride quality as there will be more movement before the rear damper hit the bump stop. Ride height setting After everything were installed, we set the ride height to be a little higher than before. The main reason is I got a big curb leading into my garage, and a little extra ground clearance isn't going to hurt. There are still more room to go lower, just not for me. This is the height I settled with my Z Road Driving Impression - Comfort I started in the middle setting around -10 clicks from full hard on the front and rear and see how it feel. Immediately I noticed how nice the steering feel and how well the damper respond to uneven road surfaces. Especially when you hit a bumps in mid corner, the damper just soaks it up. You feel it, you know you ran over a bump, but it doesn't upset the car in anyway even when under power. On the 1-hour drive home, I did notice the freeway continuously ripple surfaces can get a little "annoying". By no mean it is uncomfortable or harsh, but it feels like more comfort wouldn't be a bad thing. So i start backing the damper to soft, and eventually reach what I like. The setting is -18 clicks on front, -20 clicks on the rear... basically right down to full soft. At this setting, the car still feel very controllable and is not under damped at all. However, you can drive on the freeway for hours and wouldn't feel tired. It is the most comfortable sport suspension i ever been on, and it certainly make OEM suspension from BMW M-Sport or Audi S-Line feel very harsh. While it is comfortable, the steering is still direct and grip is still feel great. Going off freeway onto sharp off ramp feels steady and predictable. The only negative at this setting I can find is if I swerve the steering left and right at around 60mph, at the end of the swerve the car feels like it want to continue the swerve one last time before the car straighten out. It isn't dramatic or dangerous, but something I did feel. Road Driving Impression - Fast Road After a few weeks of driving the Z and everything feels like bedded in, I decide to go down to my local "fast road" to see how the car react for spirited driving. On the comfort setting, the car is still very controllable and that is good. Once I got a chance to pull to the side, i decide go ramp the damping up full stiff to see how it react. Setting is now Full stiff at the front, -2 clicks in the rear. All i can say was WOW! It was like driving a different car in 30 seconds! All the excess movement from the previous setting was gone, the car feel really planted. The front end is direct, turn in was really sharp. The rear also grip really really well under power. You can really get on the brake to put the weight on the front for the turn in, and you can put the power down out of the corner without worrying the rear will suddenly break out on you. I couldn't really drive it hard because it is public road, but certainly the drive was REALLY enjoyable. Also, on this stiff setting the damper still handle the uneven road surfaces really well. It is STIFF without a doubt, but IT IS NOT HARD... if that make sense. Where before when you hit a pot hole at 50mph, you get a sharp "bang". Now, hit the same hole at the same speed, you get a muffled "thud" instead. The tires wasn't even fazed when I was full throttle in 3rd when it ran over that pot hole. Conclusion I got to say overall, the MeisterR GT1 certainly exceeded my expectation. The range of adjustment from high comfort to high response was great, and you can really use the adjustment to influence how the car feel. They certainly aren't the cheapest coilovers on the market, but defiantly a player if you are considering the likes of Ohlins, KW, and Bilstein. Now that I am pretty comfortable with the setting, I will be looking forward to some track days / Auto solo where I can use the car in anger. But the best improvement is that I can have a really comfortable ride when I head out to meet or want to have a nice drive, because bouncing up and down on a stiff suspension when driving in a straight line on the freeway is just pointless. Once I arrive at a track, the car will be ready for some work 30 seconds later. Jerrick

The GT1 coilovers is MeisterR top range 1-way adjustable coilovers for fast road & track use. They are engineered by our in house technical partner Black Art Design located in Rayne, Essex, UK. The GT1 uses CNC made internal that were engineered from the ground up in UK. All internal components are CNC made in house at our UK workshop, none of the internal are out sourced. All GT1 are assembled either at our UK or USA workshop depending on stock and location, but all internals parts are made in UK. Here is a quick picture of what the GT1 44mm double piston assembly looks like: In terms of performance, the GT1 are an 1-way compression and rebound combined adjustable mono-tube dampers. The closest type of suspension to the GT1 will be the Ohlins DFV as both retain the "dual perch" design where the springs are adjusted independent of the ride height adjustment. Other suspension that are in similar mono-tube categories that use more advanced CNC internal are the likes of AST, Nitron, Quantum, JRZ, etc. Mono-tube damper are a lot more consistent as all parts that control damping force generation are located at the valve. What this mean is generally you have much more consistent build result as if the piston, shims, and gas pressure are the same, you get very repeatable result. It also provide faster damping response from high pressure charged gas (no phase delay), more consistent damping force under hard usage (no heat fade), and generally better damping characteristic from the larger internal piston. KW is a Twin-tube damper, so they aren't really in the same performance damper category as a Mono-tube dampers I am not sure about Eibach, they could be either. The only main stream brand that use mono-tube dampers are Bilstein. That is a bit about the GT1, any other more specific questions, please feel free to let me know. Jerrick

Hello, this is Jerrick from MeisterR. I was asked to join in to help provide some technical info and help answer any questions. So if anyone have anything they want to know, I'll be happy to help. Of course, I can only read and write English, so bare with me as I'll do what I can to help get the info across. Jerrick Jerrick