I'll play devils advocate here. My Bilstein and GTworks (unavailable anymore) rode better than any coilover I've used. But the primary reason there is lower spring rate and the GTworks keeps a higher ride height. But once you want to add spring, you can not beat the Ohlin for the price.

 

What do you mean by stickier tires?

I have my Ohlins on 12.5K/15K springs. Works well for autocross on 255 or 265 RE-71Rs.

If I was going to Hoosiers I might go even higher.

 

I run NT01s right now. If I went to something with more grip ,I'd probably up my spring rate.

 

That's the price if you call them directly for factory spring rates and valving. $2,100 shipped including CA tax

 

I hear a lot of good things about the Ohlins.

What about KW? I had them on my Evo X and my GD STi and I loved them. Anyone running them on their Evo 8/9?

 

KW V3 is cool for daily driving. They aren't valved for racing, though. The ClubSports work really well, on track. I've never heard of either doing better on the street then Ohlins. Not bad coilovers, either way.

 

The $2100 price quoted is the same number I got from PSI a year ago. Not to say the pricing can’t go up, but it didn’t seem like some special pricing they were having for a short period of time. Just some info.

 

I have to say that my V3's were more comfortable than stock and my Ohlins. Not to say that the Ohlins are not comfortable but the V3 was smoother than stock with much better control.

With that said I've switched to Ohlins 12k/14k setup which I bought through PSI for $2,300 with the re valve, tax and shipping included.

On another note I have my V3's still and they are in excellent condition other than needing to be rebuilt since they are leaking. If you are remotely interested I would sell them for dirt cheap and you could have KW rebuild them for around $1,000. They even have swift springs already.

 

Said it before but will say it again

How can any of us objectively compare one brand vs another w/out examining the Dyno plots?

I can only imagine how enlightening it would be to see a real, non bias, Dyno plot test comparing the all the big hitters (Moton/ Ohlins / AST / Stance / Feal / FA / etc, etc, etc)
Ill continue searching, but have not found any YT Vids tackling this type of comparison

 

We're comparing how they drive and ride. Plots can say what they want, but *most* people only car how it "feels".

 

This. I guarantee most of this forum(including myself) wouldn't know what to do with a dyno plot.
I certainly agree that it'd be awesome to see an objective shock dyno comparison, but that's no reason not to ask about peoples' experiences. Sure it's subjective, but comfort falls into that category anyway.

 

Comparing shock performance is the most vague thing we do on the boards. No data, no real way to compare one brand over another. Different driving conditions, diff tracks, etc, etc.

Now, compare shock opinions to motor performance. We have chassis dynos to discuss no.s. We even know the diff between Mustang vs Dynojet vs Virtual. When we add a component / increase boost, we can measure that. (With shock comments, its all factless opinion)

Have a damper shop tear down a series of shocks, compare components, valves, shafts & dyno plots

 

To be fair, even chassis dynos of the same manufacturer will vary in how much they read. You're meant to compare results from a single dyno, not compare to numbers you find online.
With that said, I don't disagree that it'd be awesome to see shock dyno plots across many of the available shocks. But that requires quite an investment from whomever does the test, I'm not surprised no such tests and exist and I'm definitely not holding my breath. If people want to start sending me shocks I'll happily drive up to PSI or Works in Sonoma and post dyno plots :P

 

I think a camparo would be cool and I'd like to see one...but I'm still more concerned with how a shock feels while driving (regarding the OP, not performance, etc).
Now, if you could look at all the charts and objectively pinpoint the one that will ride (or perform) best ,and it actually does, that would be better than basing a decision on public opinion ,especially if you are a "numbers" guy.
But when you have a shock that is unanimously chosen...It's probably a safe way to go.

 

It was nice to be able to walk into PSI because they offered to show me and educate me on different shock dyno graphs for pretty much every major brand of damper that has been discussed in length on this forum. With that said I wasn't able to absorb it all but they tried to help me understand the gap in damper performance at a motorsport level when we are talking about sub $4k 2 or 3 way setups. They only have certain brands listed for sale on their website but when walking through their facility I saw that they service, modify and revalve just about every brand ever discussed on this forum.