New Ohlins DFV Review!!!
 

First off I would like to thank Ohlins USA for kindly supplying us with one of their new redesigned Road and Track DFV coilovers for the Evo VIII/IX. Ohlins had contacted us several months ago to start conducting business with us. During one of our conversations we were informed about the plans to redesign these already impressive coilovers. We jumped on the opportunity to test out one of their new sets.

Out of the box we were able to tell that the new Ohlins were nothing but pure quality. This came to no surprise after seeing some of their previous products. The DFV's come with absolutely everything you need out of the box including adjustable camber plates. We decided not to go with custom spring rates so we could give our best impressions of what an out of the box setup would do. The standard spring rates are 100 N/mm Front and 80 N/mm Rear.

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Ohlins come disassembled, so a little assembly is required before the initial install. This was fairly painless as everything is laid out and instructions are included for anyone who may not have done this type of install in the past. Once the car was up on the lift we began to remove the HKS Hipermax III Sports that were currently on the car. We immediately noticed 3 differences between the 2 coilovers. 1st, the Ohlins do not have a bracket for the brakes lines. 2nd, the Ohlins are significantly lighter than the HKS coilovers. We noticed such a difference just by holding them in our hands that we decided to throw them on the scales. We were shocked with the results. The Ohlins DVS's weighed in 12 pounds lighter than the HKS Hipermax III Sports! The 3rd difference was the craftsmanship between the 2 sets. You can see why the Ohlins are thought of so highly.

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After we had the new DFV's installed on the car we began to set the ride height. Our previous setup on the HKS's was fairly low, but had no rubbing issues. We decided to set the Ohlins as close to our previous ride height as possible. The ride height out of the box was fairly close in the rear, but we dropped it a considerable amount more in the front. Ride height adjustment is done like most other coilovers on the market. The special wrenches are included by Ohlins and make adjusting the ride height painless. Once the collars were set to our liking and locked into place we were ready to set the shock settings. We set them 2 clicks away from full stiff in the rear and about in the middle up front (slightly in the soft side). Once this was done we were ready to corner balance the car. In most cases we would advise waiting for the springs to settle in before this is done, but we wanted to go ahead and do this while we had the car up on the lift and had access to our scales.

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The wheel/tire combo is:

Volk RE30s 18x9.5 +28
Bridgestone Potenza RE-11 255/35/18
Rear fenders are rolled

Impressions

After switching from the HKS to the Ohlins we were excited to give these a shot on the road. I expected a noticeable improvement in handling. As anticipated the Ohlins felt much more composed. The turn in feels slightly quicker and the ride quality somehow feels softer while still holding better through the corners. All of our testing so far has been done on the street. I can honestly say I must now run much higher speeds to push these tires to the limit. The harder I pushed the more grip this setup provided. We decided to push them any harder we need to go to the track. We have been trying to get these out on the track, but unfortunately we have been rained out twice now. As soon as we have a chance I will chime back in with our track impressions.

In conclusion the new Ohlins DFV's have proved to be the ultimate road and track coilover. They do not have a harsh, painful feel to them on the street. They are surprisingly soft on the street when compared to some of the other street coilovers we have driven on (HKS, Tein, KW, etc). The price tag of the Ohlins comes in much higher than most of the road and track coilovers on the market, but we feel they are well worth the extra money. The quality of these shocks are second to none and the performance is astounding.

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Retail cost is $3499

For additional information or evolutionm member pricing on these feel free to call or PM us!

770-792-0202

You can also find these for sale on our website here:

http://www.forgedperformance.com/sto...cat=399&page=1

I can't imagine the Ohlins being anything less than perfect. I'd have to get a ride on this setup to give a more informed opinion. ;)

One of my friends has those on his Evo. He is an instructor and runs Nasa. His evo is lightning fast! He ruins BMW's, Porsche's, and Ferrari's days! You can not go wrong with those coilovers! {thumbup}

see what happens when you listen to me Ryan ;)

CB

did you get those custom CBRD spring rates? ;)

Haha, you know I always listen to you ;)

As for the spring rates no, the set we tested we wanted to see what the out of the box setup would feel like. I will likely change to the custom spring rates shortly though :)

awesome ryan,

you definetly got the right setup on there,

the ohlins are shocking as far as their competence on the track and ride quality on the street!

CB

great review, I might be looking to step up from PSS9's this spring.

Great review, Ohlins has always been top notch stuff.

Wow, awesome review!

what did you do with the brake lines if there were no brackets?

Wish there was a review for Evo X!

We had to zip tie them :( That was the 1 feature about the HKS that was nicer than the Ohlins. The Ohlins have no bracket for the brake lines.


I would imagine them to behave very similar {thumbup}

Nice Ryan.

Sean

We will be doing some great deals on these for the next couple of weeks as well :)

Feel free to call or PM me with any questions you may have on these coilovers!

Curious do you have measurements of your ride height from hub to fender? I am not quite as low but have a few problems in the back. What is the preload set at on yours? Mine seem to have hardly any droop travel and I easily lift an inside tire on sharp low speed corners. Although I have 12k springs in the back that shouldn't matter I wouldn't think.

Btw I have almost the same wheels specs do you rub the front fender liners at that height over sharper bumps?