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I had a bit of an epiphany last night. The TEIN upper mount design does not necessarily mean less useable travel. With full length adjustable coils, like my flexes, the upper mount has nothing to do with shock travel as I have separate adjustments for pre-load and ride heighth. On a coilover that only has adjustment at the spring perch it could mean less useable travel, but it could not also. The REAL question is: What runs out of travel first, the shock or the tire? If the tire hits metal before the shock bottoms then the extra travel gained by using a shorter upper mount is un-useable and dangerous. It is much better for the suspension to bottom than for the tire to bottom as it can damage the tire or jerk the wheel in a direction that you don't want to go. My guess is that that is the reason why the TEIN's eat up some travel, to make sure that the tire does not bottom in the wheel well. Of course this depends on the wheel/tire combo that the user has. If the user is running 15's or 16's then bottoming is probably not an issue. If the user is running 17's or 18's on the other hand it may be an issue. What do the tanabe upper mounts look like? If the tanabe's are spaced down similarly to the tein's then you may not want a shorter mount as the suspension is designed for either a stock (which eats up some travel too) or an upper mount similarly designed as the tanabe one. This might be an issue and it might not, but it is something to consider.
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