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This is a bit of a tricky review because besides installing Ohlins R&T coilovers, I also made several other changes to the suspension. And my review is daily drive centric rather than track centric. Back in mid-2015, I installed a set of Ohlins R&T coilovers with 7k/7k springs, Whiteline bushings in the front control arms, Whiteline trailing arm pivot bushing at the rear suspension, Whiteline roll center correction kit, and a Whiteline 24 mm rear sway bar. Front and rear were both dropped by about 1.25 inches. At this ride height, the front control arms were about 1 inch "below" parallel making for a very unfavorable front roll center. Preload on the springs was about 0.8" front and 0.6" rear. This put the shocks at about 35-40% travel used at ride height.
I started with a very light spring rate because I was looking for a setup that could be used for true daily driving with my entire family (wife + 2 kids) while still providing some performance improvement when I'm driving by myself. I started with firm damping settings (6 clicks from full stiff at front and rear), and even with 7k/7k springs, the ride was brutally uncomfortable on any bumps, especially square-edged. I'm sure the front control arm Whiteline rear pivot bushing contributed to this. After backing off the damping to around 23 clicks front and 21 clicks rear (from full stiff), the ride became pretty reasonable, but road noise inside the cabin was noticeably louder than my stock setup. I'm sure many of you are thinking, "hey, its an Evo, who cares about ride quality and cabin noise", but there's no point in me owning an Evo if I can't DD the family in it. Handling was somewhat better than the stock setup, but not hugely. With the Whiteline RSB in the stiff setting, the car was an oversteer monster. Switching to the medium stiffness provided a nice amount of power oversteer. My ****ty all-season tires contributed to the ease of oversteer. I drove around like this for a few years.
In mid-2017, I decided to try for better handling while not giving up ride quality. I switched to 8k/8k springs and swapped out the Whiteline front control arm bushings for the SuperPro bushings, including swapping to the Duroball rear bushing that consists of a ball joint embedded in urethane (rather than the Whiteline unit that has a balljoint embedded in a full metal housing). As described in a separate thread in more detail, the Duroball noticeably improved ride quality without an obvious loss of steering precision, and I was able to increase damping by several clicks front and rear while still obtaining better overall ride quality on 8k/8k springs. Handling was also noticeably better with 8k/8k springs. I was quite surprised at the improvement. This was a pretty good compromise between ride quality and handling, but the setup still had more roll than I expected at higher speeds. The light damping certainly contributed to the ease of roll during steering input at higher speeds, but the horrible front roll center kept bugging me, especially with Dallas producing a roll center correction upright, albeit with it designed to compensate for a 2.25" drop rather than my 1.25" drop.
After a few discussions with Dallas, he finally decided to make a more street-centric roll center correction upright designed to compensate for a 1.25" drop, so I got inline for one of the first sets. Installing these along with a set of Dallas' camber plates markedly reduced the amount of roll (covered in a separate thread), and ride quality was still very good. In fact ride quality was so good that I felt compelled to try stiffer springs because switching from 7k/7k to 8k/8k caused no loss in ride quality. However, swapping up to 9k/9k made the DD ride somewhat beyond comfortable. Whereas with 8k/8k the car would still maintain a reasonably level ride over uneven roads, 9k/9k caused the car to follow every undulation much more strongly. I was quite surprised at the substantial difference. It was ok for myself, but my wife immediately began complaining, so I had to do something.
After contemplating my options which included calculating the Whiteline RSB spring rate in roll and finding that even the soft setting was much stiffer than the stock RSB, I decided to try 8k/9k and change the Whiteline RSB from middle to soft position. This took care of the ride comfort issue while still providing some improvement in roll reduction over 8k/8k with the RSB in the middle position. As it turns out, the effective spring rate in roll for 9k rear with the RSB in soft position is just slightly stiffer than 8k rear with the RSB in the middle position. However, what I gained was more squat resistance when exiting a corner under power. This made for an incremental improvement in handling while still maintaining good DD ride quality.
So the current setup is 8k/9k, 19 clicks front, 17 clicks rear, ~1.0" drop front, ~1.0" drop rear, 35%/65% droop/bump travel, Whiteline 24 mm RSB in the soft position, SuperPro front control arm bushings (rear bushing is the offset version), Whiteline rear trailing arm pivot bushing, SSB Designs 1.25" roll center correction uprights, and SSB Designs front camber plates. I recently had a chance to drive an Evo 9 MR that had drop springs with otherwise stock suspension, and my setup rides just as smooth if not better for 99% of the road conditions. The only area where my setup gives up any ride quality is on square-edged bumps. Still tolerable, but not like stock. Handling is definitely much much better, but the mid-level damper settings are not ideal for high speed cornering. Its easy enough to tighten the damping by 5-8 clicks to resolve that issue when out having fun. With the more grippy tires I have on my Evo now, handling is pretty neutral. At lower speeds, trailing throttle entry will understeer, while neutral throttle on entry will be balanced. Power-on exit is neutral to slight oversteer.
So that's my rather complicated review of the Ohlins R&T. My general feeling is that a strong improvement in handling is possible with just the Ohlins R&T install alone, but firm springs will be required to deal with the poor front roll center, perhaps requiring 10k/10k, and this will reduce ride quality a bit. Best combination of handling and ride quality is likely achieved with lighter springs along with several supporting suspension mods such as what I have done.
good read, thanks. i actually run 3 clicks from full soft on "daily driving" 8/10, which has been fine for me, and i run about 5 clicks from full stiff for track stuff.
With only lowering the car an inch, wouldn't it have made much more sense to run some Bilsteins and GTWorx or Swifts? That would be a lot simpler and also would've saved a lot of money as well.
With only lowering the car an inch, wouldn't it have made much more sense to run some Bilsteins and GTWorx or Swifts? That would be a lot simpler and also would've saved a lot of money as well.
I had GTWorx with MR Bilsteins for several years. The GTWorx + MR Bilsteins on otherwise stock suspension was an ok setup for slower speed stuff but was pretty hairy at higher speed with 500+ whp on tap. For 300-400 whp, it would have probably been fine as a DD setup.
I had GTWorx with MR Bilsteins for several years. The GTWorx + MR Bilsteins on otherwise stock suspension was an ok setup for slower speed stuff but was pretty hairy at higher speed with 500+ whp on tap. For 300-400 whp, it would have probably been fine as a DD setup.
Still feel this way after having them for a while? I'm at~450+whp. I've been on stock KYBs and GTWorx for a while and finally blew a shock at 110k miles. In the next day or two I'll either be ordering Bilstein's, FA500, or Ohlins R&T's but I was heavily leaning toward the bilsteins for cost and comfort reasons as I'll rarely get to a track or autocross and the Ohlins are really pushing my basically nonexistent car budget. I have in the past but gotta wait until the kids are old enough to ride along now.
Still feel this way after having them for a while? I'm at~450+whp. I've been on stock KYBs and GTWorx for a while and finally blew a shock at 110k miles. In the next day or two I'll either be ordering Bilstein's, FA500, or Ohlins R&T's but I was heavily leaning toward the bilsteins for cost and comfort reasons as I'll rarely get to a track or autocross and the Ohlins are really pushing my basically nonexistent car budget. I have in the past but gotta wait until the kids are old enough to ride along now.
I continue to be very pleased with my Ohlins R&T setup. It is an impressive combination of firm yet tolerable ride. It definitely rides better than did my Evo MR Bilsteins with the GTWorx springs. Handling is good, although to get the best handling requires increasing the damping over street tolerable levels. My understanding is that the Bilstein H8s or whatever they are called are more firm than the MR Bilsteins, so if you are considering those, be sure that you focus on reviews of those and not the MR Bilsteins.
IMO the Ohlins ride better than Bilstien H8's. My car has 10/12k springs with appropriate valving and if I turn the dampers down it's pretty compliant on the street, way more than liveable, more like it rides pretty nice. A few guys in town have 9/10k springs and those cars ride just as good as my friends Q50 red sport.
IMO the Ohlins ride better than Bilstien H8's. My car has 10/12k springs with appropriate valving and if I turn the dampers down it's pretty compliant on the street, way more than liveable, more like it rides pretty nice. A few guys in town have 9/10k springs and those cars ride just as good as my friends Q50 red sport.
default is 90N/mm (9.18 kg/mm) now so hopefully that'll be good enough for comfort and handling for me. Ill get a stiffer rear in a few years if it sucks too much running a square rate. I've got plenty of other suspension things to upgrade in the meantime.
default is 90N/mm (9.18 kg/mm) now so hopefully that'll be good enough for comfort and handling for me. Ill get a stiffer rear in a few years if it sucks too much running a square rate. I've got plenty of other suspension things to upgrade in the meantime.
They come 9/9 now? That's good. Should ride really nicely with that.
They come 9/9 now? That's good. Should ride really nicely with that.
I think it will depend on the road. I briefly tried 9/9, and while bump absorption is very good, roads with a lot of irregularity subject the occupants to a lot of car movement, and big square-edged bumps are pretty harsh. Driving downtown Portland where there are lots of old roads that have a combination of broken and warped asphalt was at my tolerance limit, and it was certainly more than my wife could handle. Even my daughter who would generally rather go in my Evo than our true family sedans was not having fun. Dropping the front to 8 kg/mm made it manageable.
Interesting to hear that Ohlins is now doing 9/9 from the factory. It could be argued that 10/8 was better because it cost $0 to swap to 8/10 whereas any changes from 9/9 require buying springs. I wonder if Ohlins also changed the shock damping when they went to 9/9.
I think it will depend on the road. I briefly tried 9/9, and while bump absorption is very good, roads with a lot of irregularity subject the occupants to a lot of car movement, and big square-edged bumps are pretty harsh. Driving downtown Portland where there are lots of old roads that have a combination of broken and warped asphalt was at my tolerance limit, and it was certainly more than my wife could handle. Even my daughter who would generally rather go in my Evo than our true family sedans was not having fun. Dropping the front to 8 kg/mm made it manageable.
Interesting to hear that Ohlins is now doing 9/9 from the factory. It could be argued that 10/8 was better because it cost $0 to swap to 8/10 whereas any changes from 9/9 require buying springs. I wonder if Ohlins also changed the shock damping when they went too 9/9.
They will do any combination of 8K, 9K, and 10K springs. I ordered mine 9/10 when I bought mine.
The guys at PSI said the factory Ohlins valving can change 2K without needing a revalve.
Well WTF. This was going to be a great weekend to install these and I made my decision to get them based on immediate availability and then this ****... i only looked after seeing the spring rates where 10/7 instead of the 9/9 advertised. I was looking forward to getting them installed so I could get my car back on the road and this weekend we're having freakishly low humidity so it wasn't going to suck complete butt being outside trying to wrangle kids and work on the car.
EDIT: MAP is 2nd Day air shipping the correct ones which is awesome. I hate that I didn't get to install them this weekend but I'm appreciative of the quick and painless correction of their mistake.
Dec 25, 2018, 03:23 PM
