Hyundai Genesis Coupe Coilover Upgrade Guide

Whether packed with the 2.0T or the 3.8 V6 engine, the Genesis Coupe is an awesome and quick sports car. With a few performance engine mods these cars can be quite fast while still remaining nimble and agile from a handling perspective. However, once you’ve tossed all your engine mods on the Gen Coupe you might still be searching for something to put a little extra smile on your face. With respect to handling and overall street and track performance, upgraded coilovers are one of the best Gen Coupe performance mods.

This guide is going to cover the basics of coilovers and the various important items like spring rates, dampening, and tube design. Additionally, we’re going to provide our opinion on the best Gen Coupe coilovers for stance and style, street performance, hybrid street and track use, and dedicated track use.

Genesis Coupe Coilover Basics

If you are looking for stance or trying to fit certain wheels, you might need to consider camber plates and spacers. However, since these items are specific to wheel setups we aren’t going to cover them here. Instead, we are going to focus on coilover tube design, damping adjustability, ride height, and spring rates. And we’ll finish it off by comparing Gen Coupe lowering springs to coilovers.

The “best performance” is also somewhat subjective. A $5k Cusco coilover set is going to offer you the best performance on the track, but it isn’t going to be the best for daily driving, it’s actually going to be quite brutal.

Mono-Tube vs. Twin-Tube Coilovers

Mono and twin-tube refer to the internal structure of the coilovers and how they are engineered. We’re going to stay away from the nitty gritty here but will provide some important highlights of the differences. If you track your car, you want mono-tube coilovers. If you don’t, then honestly mono-tube doesn’t matter and is actually less comfortable.

• Mono-tube is more sensitive to small movements and therefore is more precise from a damping perspective
• Because mono-tube is more precise and sensitive it also provides a stiffer and less enjoyable ride quality (for street driving)
• Twin-tube is less expensive to manufacture and therefore is better bang-for-the-buck
• Twin-tube is also better for the street since they aren’t as sensitive
• If you track your Gen Coupe, you want mono-tube

Mono or twin-tube doesn’t reflect the quality of the coilover. It simply affects the performance. With that being said, twin-tube coilovers are less expensive since they are cheaper to manufacture and offer less performance. However, it doesn’t mean they are lower “quality”, it simply means they offer less performance.

The difference between the two isn’t going to be night and day unless you have spent a ton of time on the track.

Adjustable Damping

Adjustable dampening is essentially a way to control coilover performance and softness/stiffness. Whether you need it or not revolves around preference and function. If you daily your car, you probably don’t need it as pre-set coilovers are optimized by the manufacturer to provide the best combination of ride comfort and performance. If you daily your car but also frequently use it for track days then it is a must. For dedicated track cars you also probably want it, but it also isn’t necessarily if you always race in the same class/style and always use the same wheel/tire setup.

The two options you have when it comes to coilover selection are pre-set dampening and adjustable dampening. Pre-set means that the damping is set by the manufacturer to best match the spring rates of the coil springs used on the coilovers. Adjustable damping suspension has knobs on the top that give you anywhere from 8 to 32 different levels of dampening, from soft to stiff.

Coilovers with adjustable dampening are more expensive so keep that in mind when deciding if you don’t track your car.

Spring Rates

Since the coil springs hold the weight of the car they are also responsible for how stiff or soft the suspension is. If you put some aggressively stiff springs on your coilovers then it doesn’t matter how much damping adjustability you have, the ride will be brutal. Spring rates are measured in the amount of force (in lbs) that is required to compress the spring by 1-inch.

For street driving you want the best combination of comfort and performance. Too soft and you can bottom out or scrape. Too stiff and riding in it will suck. Track cars want very high/stiff spring rates. But most of you reading this don’t.

One factor to keep in mind: the Gen Coupe 3.8 weighs about 150-200 lbs more in the front due to engine size. Depending on your goals it’s possible that you might want a stiffer spring in the front compared to what you would want on a 2.0T. I say this for serious performance/track setups. For the 98% looking to lower their car then just ignore this.

The main takeaway here is you want a balance of comfort and performance.

Ride Height Adjustments

Keep in mind how far you plan on dropping your Gen Coupe before purchasing coilovers. Most street-level coilovers will provide drops up to around 3″. Track-level coilovers usually won’t drop as far since track cars don’t ever need to be slammed to the ground.

Ride height is a preference but the more adjustability the better chance you have of achieving the stance you are going for and fitting your wheel setups.

Lowering Springs vs. Coilovers

The consensus among Gen Coupe owners is that even the worst set of coilovers is better than the best set of lowering springs. The ride quality on these cars becomes extremely poor with just lowering springs. Additionally, lowering springs puts a lot of added stress on the stock shocks which causes them to fail easily. This leaves you having to replace the shocks at which point you could have just bought some coilovers.

Our budget/bang-for-the-buck Raceland setup below is recommended over lowering springs. If you don’t care about ride quality and just want a slight pre-set drop and can’t afford the $500 for coilovers then go ahead and get lowering springs. But if you can afford the coilovers you will be very happy that you did. Lowering springs also offer zero height adjustability in the event you want to change wheel setups or end up scraping up your driveway, etc.

Hyundai Genesis Coupe Coilover Benefits

• Adjustable ride heights (from 0-3″+)
• Improved handling and cornering with reduced body roll
• Adjustable dampening for fine-tuning performance (for more expensive setups)
• Smoother and more comfortable ride
• Great replacement for old and worn suspension

Not only are coilovers night and day better than lowering springs, but they are also night and day better than stock suspension. If you have old and worn suspension then upgrading to a set of budget-friendly coilovers is way smarter than buying a new set of factory shocks/springs.

Whether it’s for stance, street performance, track days, or replacing old suspension, coilovers are our recommendation.

Best Genesis Coupe Coilovers

Just like the “best performance” is subjective, so is the “best” coilover. It all depends on your goals, your budgets, and your needs. For those just looking to lower their car and maybe get some better handling out of it, we recommend setup #1. However, for the other 2% or the people who like buying top-tier stuff because they can, we will share setups best suited for you.

1) Best-Bang-for-the-Buck: Raceland Gen Coupe Coilovers

Tier: Entry-level, stance, moderate street
Spring Rates: 240lbs/in front & 470lbs/in rear
Height Adjustability: 1-3″
Price: $519

Raceland is our favorite entry-level or bang-for-the-buck coilover. We recommend these coilovers for the 98% of people who are just looking to lower their car, add some stance, and get a bit of a handling improvement over the stock suspension. These are twin-tube coilovers with pre-set damping to best match the spring rates and provide an optimal balance between performance and ride comfort.

Raceland has great customer service along with a lifetime warranty making these coilovers a no-brainer for the budget-conscious who don’t need damping control. Additionally, these are some of the most street-comfortable coilovers while still providing enough stiffness to prevent bottoming out when fully dropped.

Raceland also offers Affirm financing so you can finance these coilovers over a 12-month period if the upfront cost is challenging for you.

Overall, this is our recommended setup for anyone looking for stance, basic lowering, and slight performance improvements.

2) Daily Driver / Weekend Warrior Setups

Tier: Best street performance, weekend warriors, people who don’t care about budget
Features: Mono-tube design, adjustable dampening, usually stiffer springs

For those that daily drive their Gen Coupe but also track it from time to time, these are the setups for you. Additionally, if you want or need damping control then this is the setup for you. And lastly, if you want to buy more expensive parts just because for quality purposes then this is also the bucket for you.

Setups in this category consist of mono-tube designs for optimal track performance. They also feature damping adjustability to allow for some control over ride stiffness and comfort. These options will generally have somewhat stiffer springs but most of these brands also let you select different spring rates to control ride quality based on your intended use.

If I were personally just looking to lower my car I would save the money and stick to Racelands. These setups are great for people looking for that extra performance but it really isn’t needed unless you are actually intending on using that extra performance.

Best Gen Coupe High Performance/Weekend Warrior Coilovers

• Stance Super Sport
• BC Racing
• HSD
• ISC N1
• ARK
• Bilstein B14 PSS
• RS-R

3) Dedicated Track Coilover Setups

Even if budget doesn’t matter because you’re a prince from Dubai, we don’t recommend these setups for anything but dedicated track cars. They offer the highest performance but in turn, the least comfortable ride quality when considering street ride quality.

These are inverted monotube struts offering the most grip, best handling, cornering, etc. They have very stiff spring rates and offer damping adjustments. These setups usually have less lowering capabilities since track cars don’t usually need aggressive stance. If you are at this level, you probably know what you’re doing so we’re going to list off the best options and leave the rest to you.

These are the best names in the business with no compromises on price, quality, or performance.

Best Gen Coupe Track Coilovers

• KW V3
• Stance Pro Comp 3
• Cusco Comp Spec Zero-3X

Genesis Coupe Coilover Upgrade Summary

There are three main things to consider with coilovers: tube design, dampening control, and spring rates. You need to factor these three components into your budget and your goals to determine which coilovers are best for you. Coilovers will always be better than lowering springs and stock suspension.

Our favorite bang-for-the-buck option is Raceland coilovers. If you are just looking for lowering, stance, stock suspension replacements, or slightly better street performance without sacrificing ride quality then these are the best in the business. Unless you need serious performance then we recommend saving your money and sticking with the budget-friendly option which is still a significant improvement over the stock suspension.

If you are looking for more advanced setups that are track-able then look to the 2nd bucket of coilover options which feature monotube designs and damping control. And if you want to drop $3k+ on coilovers then look to our dedicated track coilovers while keeping in mind that these aren’t necessarily going to be the best coilovers for street driving.