hey guys whats up. i am getting a new car, and i just cant decide what dampers i want to run on it. im not afraid to spend allot, but no more than 2500 preferably. im just looking for track day/ auto-x/ mountain road/ street coilovers. but i am searching for a set that have decent spring rates (7-9kg/mm) and are seperate rebound and compression damping adjustable. anyone have any suggestions? ive been looking at ohlins, but im not sure if they make a specific set for this car (which is to be unnamed). any help is greatly appreciated guys. thanks
Ryan

EDIT: i also forgot, i would really really like a set that the spring preload is adjustable seperate from the actual ride height of the car. i was also looking at DMS 40mm golds, but they are 1-way comp/rebound and i believe they dont have independent preload adjusment. K-one makes a set for the car, which are basically ohlins, but its the PCV model which is the base model, and i cant find any info anyways. i cant afford Zeal's or DMS 50mm so thats out... basic info about the car: its around 2800lbs and AWD, if that helps. any vendors have any suggestions? thanks a bunch.
Ryan

 

For seperate bump and rebound adjustments under 2500 (price is well under 2500), your really only looking at the KW Variant 3's. Very solid, long lasting, stainless steel coilovers. Hugely popular with BMW, Porsche, Subaru, and now Mitsubishi .



obligatory, too large pic:



Ohlins are also very good...what kind of car is this going on? Not sure i understand the unamed car comment....




- Drew

 

how are the ksport coilovers

 

i was definately looking at the KW's. a buddy of mine has them on his GTi. (variant 2's). ksport, never heard of it. are they seperately adjustable?

 

Forgot, has anyone heard of Kei Office? my brother is a subaru guy and he has his heart set on these, i guess they perform incredibly well.

 

here check this out

http://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1297604

 

Isnt Kei Office the Drift King's own line of parts?

 

yes kei office is drift kings parts. i always thought it was catered to the drift cars like s13 to s15s to ae86s. but i could be wrong.


Carlo

 

while i like the adjustability of the shock body (which is what im looking for) i have heard that these are made in korea by the same people who make SSautochrome . Kei office is the "drift king"'s performance line yes. apperantly they make stuff for allot of cars now, and its really quality. any other suggestions?

I found a dyno graph for the Ksport's with 11.2 Kg/mm springs. its slightly digressive, but im not sure how they perform compared to others:

It also seems the struts are made by Tokico...

 

Not to jump shotgun but I have two friends that tried the KW on their Mini Cooper S, one of the guys is even on this forum(Evofunk) and I found two discrepancies on them.

One, despite the manufacturer claims life time waaranty and no rust, the coilovers were stuck and partially rusted.

Another guy with a Mini Cooper S had one of the front KW V 2 shock leaking after a few months of use.

I am not trying to ruin the reputation of these Coilovers because I personally think they are one of the best or the best in the market, I am just saying that they are not excempt from failure, it happened to two different people in the same car(Mini Cooper S)

And , yes , i have read a lot about them, I know that a independent University from Ggermany tested them for months NON-STOP for rust, leaks, corrosion, etc.

I can only guess that the new V3 versions are a bit superior than its predeccesor

my .2c

Carlos

 

thanks for the imput. c'mon guys, i know where are a bunch of suspension guru's on here, give me your ideas. ive narrowed what i want down: Adjustable spring preload / seperate height adjustment, Rebound and compression, either in one adjustment or in seperate adjustments, i can make sacrafices for that. and i also want to be able to choose spring rates, no pre-determined ones here, i will be doing allot of research reguarding how the car behaves and what spring set-up would be best. so, i just need some suggestions on what strut is best, best valving, digressive vs progressive, and has some of my preferences as features. man, if the DMS 40mm's had seperate ride/preload i would be all over those...

 

since you want to choose your rates, i would check out the Ohlins kit that works offers...I am hoping to get these sometime, but for now i will rock my swift springs

 

Hi guys,

Here is an overlay of a 04mm unit from an STi comparred to OEM. The evo curve is the same pretty much, but I can not seem to find it. As soon as I do will post it up.

This is just the dampner tested, no spring. We do offer a range of double progressive springs with our units. The graph demonstrates the rebound changes that are made when compression is adjusted. We do not offer the double adjustable in the 40mm model for a few reasons.

1) Trying to keep the cost down and affordable without sacrificing overall performance.

2) Rebound adjustments are easy to offset the handling of the car and in-experienced drivers can set the car up to a point that it is a very poor ride, or bouncy characteristics if you will.

3) The 40mm system was meant to get the longest service interavals as possible, so that means the least things that go wrong the better. And when parts do need to be replaced, the costs are signifgantly less.

ROBISPEC and SRM can help you guys out with installs and Setups. SRM currently has a 40mm system in stock for install, and ROBISPEC will be doing some track testing of their own very shortl (before the end of the month)

-mark

 

wow so they really are allot more progressive than even a stock setup. now, a shock thats progressive like that, it creates good ride around town while still keeping good handling, but i have read a few places that they can be a bit more unpredictable than a digressive system because the damping rates ramp up more? or am i talking out of my a@@? haha. also, what is the difference between damping rates for the 40mm vs the 50mm? and which would you reccomend for what i do?

 

wow that a nice looking coilovers