If you're looking to tighten up your handling, installing fortune auto coilovers 370z setups is probably one of the best moves you can make for the Z34 platform. Let's be real for a second: the 370z is a fantastic car out of the box, but it's always felt a bit heavy. Nissan built it as a bit of a "grand tourer" hybrid, which means the factory suspension is often a compromise between comfort and performance. For those of us who want to actually feel the road or take a corner without that annoying body roll, the stock struts just don't cut it.
I've spent a lot of time around Z builds, and one name that keeps coming up is Fortune Auto. They aren't just another company mass-producing shocks in a factory overseas and slapping a logo on them. They actually hand-assemble their units in Virginia, which is a pretty big deal when you care about quality control.
Why the 370z Needs Better Dampening
The Z34 chassis is stiff, which is great, but the weight distribution and the sheer mass of the car mean that it can feel a bit "boaty" on high-speed transitions. When you throw a set of Fortune Auto coilovers on a 370z, the first thing you notice isn't just that the car is lower—it's how much more "planted" it feels.
A lot of guys go for the cheapest coilovers they can find just to get the "stance" look, but they end up regretting it three months later when their kidneys start hurting from the bouncy ride. Fortune Auto uses what they call digressive valving. In plain English, that means the coilovers are stiff when you're throwing the car into a sharp turn (low-speed piston movement) but much more forgiving when you hit a pothole or a crack in the pavement (high-speed piston movement). It's basically the best of both worlds for someone who daily drives their Z but still wants to hit the track on weekends.
The 500 Series: The Sweet Spot
For most 370z owners, the 500 Series is the way to go. It's their entry-level flagship, if that makes sense. One of the coolest things about these is that they're modular. If you decide later on that you want to turn your car into a dedicated time-attack monster, you don't have to buy a whole new set of coilovers. You can actually send your 500s back to Fortune Auto and have them upgraded to 510 spec or even 2-way club racers.
When you're ordering fortune auto coilovers 370z specific kits, you also get to choose your spring rates. This is where a lot of people get nervous, but Fortune Auto is usually pretty spot on with their "standard" rates for the Z. However, if you're carrying a lot of extra weight—maybe a heavy trunk setup or a turbo kit—you can customize those rates to match your specific car.
To Swift or Not to Swift?
You'll probably see an option to upgrade to Swift Springs. If you have the extra cash, just do it. Swift springs are made with a proprietary alloy that allows for fewer coils, which means more stroke and less chance of coil bind. More importantly, they are incredibly accurate to their rated stiffness. The standard Fortune Auto springs are definitely decent, but Swifts just add that extra layer of refinement to the ride quality that makes the car feel like a high-end European sports car.
The Rear Setup: True Coilover vs. Divorced
This is the big debate in the 370z community. From the factory, the 370z has a "divorced" rear setup, meaning the spring and the shock are in two different places. Fortune Auto offers both a standard replacement for the divorced setup and a "true" rear coilover conversion.
If you're just doing spirited street driving and some occasional track days, the divorced setup is perfectly fine. It keeps the stress on the factory mounting points exactly where Nissan intended them to be. However, if you want more adjustment or you're really diving deep into suspension geometry, the true coilover conversion is popular. Just keep in mind that if you go "true," you might want to look into reinforcing the rear strut towers, as they weren't originally designed to take the full load of the spring.
Installation and the "First Drive" Feel
Installing fortune auto coilovers 370z kits isn't too crazy if you have some basic tools and a weekend to spare. The Z34 front suspension is a double-wishbone design, which is a bit more involved than a simple MacPherson strut, but it's nothing a decent DIYer can't handle.
Once they're on, the first thing you'll want to do is play with the adjustment knobs. Fortune Auto gives you 24 clicks of simultaneous rebound and compression adjustment. I usually tell people to start right in the middle—around 12 clicks from full soft—and then drive your favorite backroad.
The difference is night and day. The front end feels much more responsive. When you turn the wheel, the car actually follows immediately instead of waiting for the suspension to "set." It's that immediacy that makes the 370z feel like a much smaller, lighter car than it actually is.
Longevity and Maintenance
One thing people forget about coilovers is that they aren't "set it and forget it" for life. They are high-performance parts. The great thing about Fortune Auto is that they are fully rebuildable. If you live in a place with a lot of salt on the roads in winter, you'll want to keep the threads clean and maybe use some coilover covers.
But even if you do blow a seal after 50,000 miles of abuse, you don't have to throw them away. You just ship them back to Virginia, and they'll refresh them for a fraction of the cost of a new set. That's a peace of mind you don't get with the cheap "eBay specials" that are basically disposable.
Fine-Tuning Your Ride Height
The 370z looks mean when it's lowered. A subtle drop of about 1 to 1.5 inches really fills out those massive wheel arches, especially if you have the Sport trim wheels or some beefy aftermarket sets. The beauty of these coilovers is that height adjustment is independent of spring preload. That means you can slam the car (if that's your thing) without losing the travel of the shock. You won't be hitting the bump stops every time you go over a pebble.
Are They Worth the Money?
Honestly, for the price point, it's hard to beat the value. You can find cheaper options, and you can definitely find way more expensive options like Ohlins or Moton. But for the average enthusiast who wants a car that handles like it's on rails without losing the ability to drive it to work every day, fortune auto coilovers 370z setups sit in that perfect "Goldilocks" zone.
You're paying for the research, the hand-assembly, and the fact that they actually test these things. They don't just guess what the 370z needs; they've put in the track time to figure out the valving profiles that actually work for this specific chassis.
If you're tired of the factory body roll and you want to finally unlock what the Z34 is capable of, pulling the trigger on a set of Fortunes is a choice you probably won't regret. It transforms the car from a quick cruiser into a legitimate corner-carver. Plus, let's be honest, seeing that perfect fitment every time you walk back to your car in a parking lot is a pretty nice bonus too.