The pre-release sale is being extended to Noon (Mountain Standard Time) on Monday, 28 April, because the coilovers won't be ready to ship till Monday, and our web site was hacked (but back up now). Get in now on the best price for the best coilovers set ever available for the Maxima/I30/I35, 1995-2003.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I'm very pleased to report that the new Cattman-Progress coilover system will be available on April 23.

We're kicking off the new and long awaited suspension with a pre-release sale and they are available in versions for both the 1995-1999 Maximas/I30s (part #COILG4) and 2000-2003 Maxima/I30/I35 (part #COILG5). For purchases made prior to April 23 ONLY, the price is reduced to $1175 for the coilovers, and to $50 for the camber adjustment kit, a total savings of $200 over retail (regularly $1350/$75). Orders can be called in to our order line, 800.759.9920, 8-5MST, M-F.

The system is complete: purpose-built struts, springs, all hardware, and installation instructions. These have been engineered specifically for the Maxima, I30 and I35, rather than assembled from off the shelf parts like some of the rough-riding and noisy systems from Japan. Springs rates, strut valving and the shortened strut bodies are well integrated to provide both optimal ride and handling on the Maxima/I30/I35 platform. Put them on, set the height (from -1" to -3"), get the car aligned, and they are ready to perform excellently without any further guesswork or adjustment. The coilovers totally transform the car -- more grins per mile than anything we sell.

The new design is an innovative departure from any other coilover system available for the Maxima. Progress Technology's approach emphasizes quiet performance without sacrificing comfort and street friendly operation. They explain and illustrate their approach better than I can at their website, www.progressauto.com (they aren't on our website yet). At the Progress site click at the left on "Competition Series", then select "Coilovers" from the drop-down menu.

Quality control is excellent and they look really sweet too (I'll have photos soon). We developed them on Cheston Chiu's Maxima and he has very successfully tested them on the street and at Button Willow Raceway. These are exactly what we designed them to be, the best coilover system available for the Maxima -- best on the street, best on the track, very smooth and quiet at all speeds and while turning, and backed by Progress Technology, a solid US-based company that is there every day to provide technical support, custom-engineered re-valving services for all racing purposes (drag or open track racing), and warranty support. JIC and Tien can offer nothing like this.

Some customers may also want to purchase the optional Progress camber adjustment kit. Though not required for installation or aligning the car to factory specs, the camber kit is necessary for dialing in more negative camber and allows it to be indexed for re-positioning without putting the car back on an alignment rack each time. We really like this 4-bolt camber adjustment design because it allows more adjustment than traditional camber plate kits (up to -3 degrees, vs a little over -1 degree, which isn't very useful), and it avoids the noise, looseness and potential slippage of camberplate-based designs.

Let me know if you have any questions. We're excited by this opportunity and we know owners of this new system will be too!

Brian C Catts
bcatts@earthlink.net
Cattman Performance

 

Awesome...I cant wait to ride in car with these...I'll need to verify the no noise...level. I have yet to be in a coilover car that didnt have noises from them. Coming out with some great stuff here cattman keep it up!

 

Will the Struts be adjustable? Also will you pictuers of the full 3in drop? Thanks

Best Regards,
JP

 

Performance is always the number one consideration, but you're absolutely right, I've never ridden on, or sold, a coilover set that didn't make noise. I was determined find a design that didn't make noise.

As long as the struts, perches, and most other parts are made precisely, out of durable materials (not all brands are, and I can think of one that rattles all over), the #1 noise culprit is the top mount and camberplate assembly. Metal-on-metal top mounts and other parts will inevitably rattle and usually bind during turning, plus they transmit a lot of vibration through the steering wheel and the rest of the car. [The absence of that vibration is one of the most noticeable differences between these and other coilover sets.] Progress takes a completely different approach by replacing the stock top mount assembly with their redesigned bolt-in mount that features custom-cast eurethane parts and very controlled (for performance) and smooth (for comfort) operation.

Brian C Catts
Cattman Performance

 

Sounds awesome man, I'm starting to save for them now..sick and tired of this B&G sag.

 

No, for two reasons they aren't. They would have been substantially more expensive if they were, but I would have possibly gone for that if it wasn't for the engineers at Progress that talked me out of it.

What they know is that using their development capabilities they can design the shortened-body strut and set the valve rates so optimally -- fully optimized specific to the car, its suspension and integrated with the springs -- it not only would be almost impossible to improve on the ride, many owners would come up with adjustment strategies that actually degraded the ride and handling. I'd rather explain it by saying that adjustable struts are not a significant advantage because the Cattman-Progress coilovers are "optimal", than to describe them as "foolproof", but you get the idea.In short, I wouldn't have gone with fixed adjustement struts unless i was confident that they offered a combination of ride and handling that couldn't be improved upon for the driving habits of 90% of customers.

For those who really are focussed on extreme track or drag racing, Progress Technology is fully set up to do customized valving that can not only increase valve tension, but do it precisely so that the frequencies are compatable with the suspension and spring characteristics. Their rates are very good, and they give each job a lot of personal attention. Remember that these are street and track tested, and they were considered to produce both a better ride and performance than any coilover available for the car.

I think that my first opportunity to get deep drop pictures will be will be on a customer's car. I'm not headed back to the States for several weeks. I'd be very happy to get some digital images of coilover installations from my customers.

Brian C Catts
Cattman Performance

 

Brian, would it be possible to use the camber adjustment kit on my 2k2 with Ground Controls? I am very happy with the quality of my Progress rsb so I would prefer to stick with Progress for this part.

 

Sure, they'll work with your setup. Progress's 4-bolt design (two per side instead of one) is great for dialing in a little or a lot of negative camber with any coilover or lowering spring setup. More adjustability, quieter, and MUCH cheaper and easier to install than camber plates. We've got these in stock now, ready to ship (part #CMBR), they fit 1995-2003 Maximas/I30s/I35s

Brian C Catts
Cattman Performance

 

Alright, I'll give you guys a call later today. Thanks Brian.

 

Hey Brian, any chance they would do a set-up for 3rd gens? The 4th gen front should be almost identical, and the rear should be VERY similar to a Stanza setup (I know Ground Control makes one).

I know I've talked to you about this before, but could you see what they would say?

This is Randy, BTW. hey.

 

yes this is something i can think of quite a few of us would be interested in...

 

yup i agree even though its exspensive it would be worth every penny to third gn owners

 

I'm sure they can be made, but the question is, could I sell the minimum # I have to have made (25) for $1200-1400? That's a big investment to have sitting on the shelf, so we'd need to pre-sell 15+ with 50% or more non-returnable cash down (of course it would be returned if we didn't do the kit or for whatever reason it was not delivered).

You guys might be onto something -- there's not even a decent strut available for the car -- so demand should be high for something decent (among those that want to spend the money). I used to have a 92 SE and I know how much potential it had with that all-independent suspension, but there were no significant suspensions parts then and still aren't now.

Seriously, if someone can get the orders together, and find customers that are willing to wait for them to be developed, about three months, and possibly provide a car for a little while

Brian C Catts
Cattman Performance

 

Thanks for the information Brian. I have a post going in the 3rd gen forum to gather people for the deal. I know where my tax money is going now. I have Koni now, but removing them to adjust is just a pain.



If you could get more information for me, like a specific amount of money, that would be great. I'd like to post a solid $$ number for people. Would this include camber adjustment as well?

Thanks Brian.

 

Brian, I posted this in another link about the JIC's. Can you give us some input compared to your new Progress setup? I am interested, but do not want a bone jarring ride. Thanks, Mike

"Before I can answer the question above, how do the JIC's ride compared to any of the combination lowering spring/strut combos? For example, my Eibach/KYB GR2's. Is the ride firmer, stiffer, harsher, etc., whatever you want to call it. If the ride is stiffer than my setup, my vote is $0. If the ride is less harsh or equal, then $1100-$1199. Since I am in the older minority (46 years young), I would like to see an adjustable suspension that puts ride comfort and LOOKS(lowering), ahead of the ultimate best handling and making the fillings fall out of my teeth on every bump. That kind of ride kills the fun/enjoyable part of the car no matter how good it LOOKS. By other comments/questions concerning suspensions and ride quality from other people, I'm not the only one who has these concerns."

 

Brian, can you explain the difference between this alignment kit made by Progress and camber plates? I was told I need to go up to -.8 to 0 with my camber. Right now I'm guessing my camber is -1.5 with my drop with the Ground Controls. I just want to clear this up before I order from you.

 

Thanks for taking the initiative with these. As far as exact price, cannot be done at this point. Its reasonable to assume that they will be priced in line with the ones I'm selling for the later model Maximas, so just quote the retail price of $1350, but I can't get a precise number until Progress has had a chance to look the car over. I'm not going to ask them to get serious about the project until I have a much better sense of whether or not the demand will be sufficient. Let me know what kind of response you get -- and its better to send me email direct about that. Can't find the time to check the forums regularly.

Brian C Catts
Cattman Performance

 

One of our primary design objectives, and a prevailing feature throughout Progress's coilover applications, is that they ride better than the JICs and Tiens, which have the reputation making the car ride like a lumber wagon. This is the advantage of REALLY designing the system for the car, as opposed to assembling whatever pre-existing parts are necessary to make a system to fit the car.

I don't have the prototype system on my car because I've been out of the country during development, but Cheston Chiu has communicated that the proto system on his car rides better than any coilovers he's ever ridden on. Keep in mind that they have to be somewhat stiffer -- you cannot lower the car 2-3" and not use stiffer springs and struts or it would bottom out constantly and handle like absolute crap.

Progress actually uses some fairly sophisticated equipment to test and design these, its described on their web site under "racing services", wherein they will use the same equipment to set up struts on a custom basis for various types of serious racing.

Hope this answers your question.

Brian C Catts
Cattman Performance

 

Ah, so you're trying to get back to neutral, eh? Most customers want them to permit more negative camber, not less. I can't figure out why you cannot get the alignment closer to neutral using the standard adjustements. Unless there is something about the coilover setup, that shouldn't be an issue. How far did you drop your car? (we might want to go off-line with this, you can reach me at bcatts@xtra.co.nz).

But to answer the question, they should work for that.

Brian C Catts
Cattman Performance

 

I am currently riding on your previous Generation 2 coilover system and was wondering if you had any opinions or experience on ride differences, noises/rattles, etc. that you could comment on. I have my setup at 1.8~2.0" drop and firmness set on max front/6 rear. I feel that the system rides and handles exceptionally well but rattles a little too much for my liking. Would you recommend upgrading for me? $1300 is a lot considering I already have a set of older generation coilovers.... please, your comments are very much appreciated.

Alex

 

Thanks for your time Brian. I'll be shure to keep you updated with emails.

 

I've been on the same set for years and many miles and they are in fairly good shape but rattle quite a bit and I don't feel fully confident with them. Plus I've few replacement parts left. The best thing about them is that they sure show what an incredibly great handling car the Maxima can be with a good setup.

New ones are substantially different -- they can't possible rattle the way the old ones did because the design is totally different, and all the metal-on-metal parts in the old system are now urethane against steel, nice and quiet and with much less vibration transmitted from the front struts to the steering wheel and car overall. They don't use the camber plate approach, but still replace the front mounts with completely redesigned performance mounts and use cambolt alignment kits for people who want to add more camber (at least a full degree more than our camber plates will).

Lets take the discussion offline for your upgrade plans (I'm going to upgrade mine as soon as I get back to the States), click my email on the left.

Brian C Catts
Cattman Performance

 

It's been 1 week since Brian posted. Who's already gotten in and ordered the new ones?

 

 

 

As a matter of privacy policy, I can't actually identify the buyers (and I usually don't know their forum names since the orders are placed with real names), but we've made 4 pre-release sales so far, with a few more commitments for next week (the deadline isn't until 5pm MST on Wednesday). Looks like we'll be exporting at least a couple sets outside of North America, too.

I realize that some will hesitate to be the first to buy a major system like this, and I understand, but will note that these are quite well tested already, they're backed up by Progress Technologies which is a very solid US manufacturer rather than the neighborhood machine shop or overseas-based, and I don't anticipate making them available again to retail customers for $1175.

Brian C Catts
Cattman Performance

 

The Cattman Performance website has temporarily fallen to hackers, but the coilover pre-release sale is still on through tomorrow (23 April). Call 800.759.9920.

Brian C Catts
Cattman Performance

 

The pre-release sale is being extended to Noon (Mountain Standard Time) on Monday, 28 April, because the coilovers won't be ready to ship till Monday, and our web site was hacked (but back up now). Get in now on the best price for the best coilovers set ever available for the Maxima/I30/I35, 1995-2003.

 

Anybody got this in their car yet? I want to know the noise difference between the Progress coilover to the Gen2 Cattman. Since it's not dampening adjustable, how is the ride/comfort level of these coilovers. How much would the retail on these babies cost now since the pre-release sale was $1175.

 

Anything new on these brian ??
Are they available to Purchase

-matt

 

are these new progress CO's just as good handling as the gen2 CO's?
what are the spring rates?

some us who track race find the adjustable struts invaluable as we all have a personal preference on how the car should get around the track...meaning its balance...a lot of us like to take a few laps, pull off into the tech inspection/pit area and tune the struts to induce more understeer or oversteer (in other words how are the struts tuned right now? what kind of balance do they induce? are they stiffer in the front or rear?)...would they ever consider in the future making adjustable ones? I would think they would only be like $400 more as that's what the most other companies charge from their entry level CO's to the ones with adj. struts...it wouldn't have to be seperately rebound and compression adj. just one adjustment for both is fine for my needs! I know they would most likely be the most expensive CO setup for the maxima...but it would certainly be the "cadillac" of CO setups!!! and I think by having this higher end choice...you would attract the kind of buyers who spring for your headers over just the y pipe for a lot more money...people who want the best...

 

Thread resurrected from the grave...

IMO the G3's are designed for the street driver looking for a blend of track performance and comfortability. Far as I know Progress doesn't offer adjustable struts for any of their applications so it's doubtful they'd change for our limited application. As of last year spring rates provided to Catts were 450f/350r. (orig dev with Cheston was 400f). Because they use stock strut insulators and not pillowballs you're sacrificing a touch of performance for comfort. That said, with the beefy strut cartridges and shortened shafts, these these outperform any sprint/strut combo you can find.

My solution for auto-x (which applies to track) was to install into Stillen camber plates and revalve for stiffer springs. My thinking (influenced by many shops and suppliers) was once you have the correct cornerweighting and car balance you shouldn't really need to play with valving adjustments, tire pressures, swaybar adj, etc. Just focus on the course and drive it.

 

so in other words, if I want the ultimate in performance look for CO's with pillowball mounts..?

what would you get? the D2's or JIC FLTA-2's if not the G3 cattmans? I know there is a huge price difference, but I believe the D2's and JIC's have the same stats as far as spring rates and adjustability goes...they even share the monotube design...that said, remove the price difference and just make a choice as if they were both sitting in front of you...

are the G3 cattman/progress CO's monotube design? and do they have shock height and spring collar adjustability or just spring collar like most CO's?
what rate springs did you get from progress that were stiffer? isn't 450 and 350 already stiff?

 

I'm not the mfg or Cattman so my answers may be 90% correct.

Pillowball mounts replace the stock rubber so yes there's an improvement there. Just like control arm bushings, FASB bushings, subframe mounts, engine mounts, etc.

D2 IMO is yet unproven. JIC I've heard good things from but not their ability to revalve/rebuild and in-house dyno. I would consider Tein by all means and almost bought their product myself. Anything Koni or Bilstein makes is top notch but not much for our cars. After I bought I found Don Alexander's book on setup & handling and he uses Progress in many of his examples.

Progress is a twin-tube gas design (similar pic but not exact). Standard shock collar where height effects preload. Easily overcome with different length springs. 450/350 is "fairly" stiff but not for hardcore competition. I'm running 8" 700/8" 450 Hypercoils now.
http://www.import-racer.com/0/progress-comp-strut.jpg

 

Wow...resurrected a 2 year old thread

 

I know if you are really serious about track racing, monotube is the way to go as they dissipate heat a lot faster than a twin-tube design...

if D2 ever gets rid of some of the squeaking and rattling that people complain about on the boards here, then I will definitely consider those...

I know on paper, the JIC's are the most hardcore...but that doesn't mean it would necessarily handle better than the D2's or cattman's, as they can easily be setup or tweaked wrong and make the setup handle worse...which pays "homage" to brian catt's arguements for the progress setup being "optimal"...I wonder if the tein SS's are monotube or not...I should research that more...cause I know they might retail for as much as the FLTA-2's...but they don't have pillowball mounts up top...although I hear you can get a good deal on tein's around the net for a lot cheaper than MSRP...so adding stillen camber plates would be less of a detrement I guess...and would bring them up to the capabilities/adjustability of the JIC's...the only serious downside of the JIC's is I hear they are overly rough and are extremely expensive to have them rebuilt...! not to mention there price is so high in the first place...

I only wish there was a coilover setup like cattman/progress is producing with slightly more spring rate, monotube shocks and pillowball mounts, but with the extensive testing on maximas progress has done and the cheap rebuild-ability of them

I guess it's the D2's without all the noise and rattles...lol or the tein SS's with pillowball upper mounts if they would make such a thing...

 

Another solution to plates besides my Stillen solution would be Ground Control. Grassroots Motorsports recently matched up Progress CO's with GC plates on their '91 Sentra project. Their plates also offer caster adjustmnet which I wouldn't mind having too.

 

if just the cattman/progress CO's were pillowball upper mount with a monotube design shock....I wouldn't hesitate to buy them! even for their high price at $1350...for non adjustable, non-upper pillowball , twintube shock CO's...

 

FWIW, these will be promoted on our new website for $1095 and that price is available now. A new feature on the most recent batch is electroless nickel plating, which looks great and is extremely resistent to corrosion.

Although we believe in upgrading our products over time, you definitely won't see pillowball mounts - Progress and I have had more than enough bad experiences with them. Great example of an "innovation" that has more drawbacks than positive features. First, all that weight on such a tiny bearing surface is a predictable source of noise and rattles as soon as it wears and/or deforms a couple thousandths of an inch. Second, this kind of metal on metal, or at least solid on solid interface between the front suspension and the chassis transmits a huge amount of vibration. Third, somewhat indirectly, the types of mounting/rotational assemblies (between the top of the coil spring and the upper mount) used with a monoball-style strut mounts are frequently prone to excess noise and binding when turning at slow speeds.

Progress's unique design uses the stock upper strut mount, with a large polyurethane bushing underneath that screws into the top of the springs and holds the weight of the car. This way there is no monoball to wear out, no excess vibration, and since the car still uses the very reliable stock front rotational bearings, you get nice smooth turns with out the noise and pinging so common to coilover designs that replace all those stock parts with assemblies that don't work as well when new, and wear out quickly. Yes, in theory you'd get more lateral movement of the strut rod in the stock upper mounts (very heavy-duty rubber bushing), but if they're not worn out, I do not believe that there is any significant practical difference

As far as the other features, I think the quality of the design and execution primarily determines the final result. Worth mentioning that these were initially developed on Cheston Chiu's Maxima, and got several good workouts at Willow before they settled on the final spring and damping combination.

The set Progress designed for the Maxima corresponds with the other Progress coilover applications that have been so well reviewed over the years. Its a serious enthusiasts design, and there are lots of them racing successfully every weekend on SE-Rs and other compacts/imports. A lot of these drivers have worked with Progress's performance lab to custom tune the damping to their driving styles, but this isn't required for enjoyable street use and moderate track use. You could argue that if they had adjustable damping it wouldn't be necessary to get the strut tuning done, but I guarantee that those guys are getting better results than they'd ever be able to tune themselves with adjustables.

Adjustable damping is like an all-purpose telephoto-to-macro camera lense - it provides a broad range of adjustment, but it will not perform any specific function as well as a lense designed for that purpose. I've also heard it argued that with a large # of combinations, few drivers are likely to ever determine the optimal settings for their car or driving style. To some extent, this adjustability is like many features (like adjustable lower mounts, which wouldn't be necessary if the strut bodies were properly sized for each application) currently popular with the JDM-style coilovers - they have more to do with fitting a limited number of components to the maximum # of vehicle applications than they do with actually improving performance or usability.

All of that said, I'm not saying that adjustable damping isn't desirable in some circumstances - if the coilover system isn't designed around that particular car as the Progress set is, they're probably necessary. For anyone who has gone through several sets of Koni front struts because every time they hit a hard bump the adjustment mechanism breaks and freezes up, its just something else to malfunction.

Brian C Catts
Cattman Performance

 

from your well-versed arguements I now feel presuaded to do without the upper pillowball mounts and the adjustability...however, I would be willing to pay more for a monotube shock design...as I feel that is a feature which concomitantly saves weight and dissipates heat much more efficiently then a twintube design--both major positives for those of us that go to the track regularly as I will be doing soon...

does progress design their shocks/struts in-house? if so, maybe I could contact them regarding a monotube design shock with identical valving in place of the current twintube design already fitted within the cattman setup...