I agree build quality and valving design are way more important than twintube or monotube. That is why I can't in good conscience recommend any of the cheaper brands.

While I have no doubt twintube shocks will probably work great for auto-x, where heat and the possibility of cavitation isn't an issue, during longer road courses, the superior ability of monotube shock to desipate heat and remain relatively consistent would probably be a bonus. Generally, monotubes are also known to be slightly more sensitive to bumps just due to the nature of its design ...

All of them have their pros and cons .... At this price range it will always be a compromise in one area or another ....

 

Thanks alot guys...I really appreciate sharing your experience. I have been really stuck on the Ohlins DFV and how successful they are in other motorsports (just have been wanting coilovers). The KW's use stock tophats which I dont like much (aftermarket ones alot of times are noisy). It is appealing though Robispec will come set them up. The ZZYZX I like but I haven't seen any real pictures of them or seen much true data from them. The Ohlins by far are the most tried and true set of coilovers in the business in my opinion. So I will probably save for them. One questions since I see alot of the Norcal guys swap the springs on them. So are the front and rear springs the same height, basically can you swap the 10k to the back and the 8k to front?

 

Go post in the threads where they are being discussed. There are lots and lots of pictures floating around. Go to the vendor website.

http://zzyzxmotorsports.com/home

ZZYZX makes more than on coilover product for the evo. There's the EM Sport, the Competition, a Koni 28 product, and a Penske-derived unit. It's all dependent on what you want and how deep your pockets are. The EMs start at about $2500 and the top of the line Penskes will quickly get up to $10k.

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Keep in mind the ZZYZX EM's use Koni inserts. Koni is more popular and supported in AutoX then Ohlin. Any questions you have can probably be answered by people reading this thread.

 

Well see I have looked alot about the ZZYZX and I haven't really seen anything but solidworks images (which is funny because I use that daily at work) Anyways todays post on them was the first real finished pictures I have seen for an evo application. I know the Koni inserts are some of the best. I would still like more feedback from more than a handful of people that run these. I know with Ohlins I get something that is quite proven (not saying that ZZYZX aren't) and the finished product looks pretty damn good. If I am going to spend $2500-$3000 I want it to look damn nice and be proven over time. Ohlins are that to me atleast...I do see more people trying these ZZYZX so I will keep a close eye on them. They are somewhat the quite winner right now.

 

Well, there is this thread:

http://www.iwsti.com/forums/vendor-a...coilovers.html

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I just found some of your pics on there and a few on the recent ones that I didn't see before. So you are deciding to switch to the Tein plates? So the base price is $1850. So if I left them single adjustable plus Swift springs and Tein plates would I be looking at more or less ($$$) than the Ohlins ($2600)

 

Almost certainly less. It's greater value too since you get to choose the springrates YOU want.

There are other reasons to get the ohlins, such as availability. Some folks need to be able to order tomorrow and get the parts next week. There's a wait with the zzyzx units.

I'm switching to the Tein plates because I have he ground control plates right now and they...um...suck.

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Yea that is one thing I notice that is it would take awhile to get. But one person designing that quality of a part is quite impressive. If they become more available by this summer I will definately consider them. I will probably run a couple more events on my Bilsteins and Swifts then summertime pull the trigger on those or Ohlins. The Ohlins come with good springrate its just they put the 10k in the front and the 8k in the rear. I am wondering if you can swap them around...the front and rear springs look to be different lengths to me though. Thanks for all the help donour.

 

That's why KWv3s have an external reservoir.

 

Another nice thing about the ZZYZX setup is that Steve really knows what he's doing and will work with you to make sure you get the right spring rates for your application. For instance, 8k/10k is low for autocross. The more successful guys are running around 12k/16k with stock swaybars. You might be able to get away with the lower rates if you run bigger bars, but they'll make sure your spring rates work with the rest of your suspension. With the ZZYZX setup you're not getting an off-the-shelf part, you're getting a custom designed coilover.

Plus I think the DA inserts are only $100 more per axle than the SA inserts. I see no reason to not spend the extra $200 for the DAs.

 

I think your spring rates are somewhat defined by how much grip you have. More grip, higher spring rates. In STU I would expect everyone to run quite a bit softer than the BSP and SM crowd. . .

Maybe I'm wrong, but that is the way I understood it. . .

 

Basically true, but the whole situation gets complicated quickly. The A6/V710 gets you the most in the quick transitions, but in that case you need to be looking at low speed damping forces more than spring rate.

At HPT last year, I was getting 1.05G steady state on the west course. I happen to have the datalogs from Frank Miller/Tage's BSP car. They got about 1.15G. That's a real difference, but it isn't huge. It's not like you can run half the rate on street tires. I see folks running 6-8k springs in STU. I think they aren't using their tire well enough. I'm running double that and believe me, the full travel of the front end gets _worked_.

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I answered in the other thread but will answer here as well. The front and rear springs on the Ohlins are the same dimension. They are Eibach 2.5' ID, 8' (200mm)length so they can easily be swapped. The Ohlins are corrosion resistive due to their aluminum and stainless steel design while I believe the ZZYZX EM series are just regular steel with some sort of special coating (unlike the ZZYZX race series Aluminum ones). So if you live in a place that sees a lot of rainfall or snow it may be something you want to consider. The Bilstein PSS9s are also only made of regular steel and do rust, one reason I stayed away from them.

The Ohlins, come with camber plates and rear pillow ball mounts and the front of the Ohlins are inverted McPhereson struts. Which means you don't have to get seperate camber plates and look for correct size nuts. The quality of the construction is very high and very little effort is needed to put them together. I drove on them during winter and noticed no corrosion.

It is true that the KONIs are very popular in SCCA Auto-x but except for STU, as far as I know the class winning BSP and SM EVOs are/were on Ohlins. Ofcourse, for the price of the ZZYZX race series coilover the Ohlins Flags 3 way adjustable coilovers could be had. How competetive you make your car comes down to how much time, effort and money you can invest, in this "sport".

At the budget entry level there are always going to be compromises to be made. Regardless of which brand you choose in the end, they are all very good affordable choices.

 

The external reservoir has more to do with displacement due to travel and little to nothing to do with heat dessipation.

As Evolutionary eluded to, spring rate sway bar combo has more to do with the level of grip on the tires. In STU we use non R-compound street tires thus the necessary spring rate/sway bar combo shouldn't be as high as BSP or SM ...