I prefer the Zeals. I drove (and spun out) with Jamie in the Ohlins and they felt more numb when compared to the Zeals.

 

Would love to hear the specifics of what Pete, Chris etc have to say...

 

I have heard that the Zeal setup has better ride quality and handling than the normal Evo setup. How do the Zeal setups compare to the stock MR Bilstein setup in ride quality and performance?

 

I'd say the Ohlins are on par with the Bilsteins from the MR. So a comparison of Ohlins versus Zeals would essentially be the same as comparing MR Bilsteins vs Zeals.

 

Jan, I was under the impression that the Zeals and the Ohlins would be a significant step up from the Bilsteins.

 

From my experiences, the Ohlins and the MR Bilsteins feel the same. Perhaps someone from WORKS should chime in on this since they have a lot more experience with everything mentioned above.

 

This will vary depending on spring rates and dampening adjustment. However, our WORKS/Ohlins Stage II feels much like the Bilsteins when simply cruising. So similar that I drove home in the MR one day thinking the Bilsteins were still there when, in fact, I completely forgot the Ohlins were on it. It's not until you begin to toss the car around that the difference between the two becomes apparent.

The WORKS/ZEAL setup is currently on the car and ride quality is still there. I have yet to push the MR with any of the three setups (OEM, Ohlins, ZEAL) for direct comparison.

I have tracked the silver car with the ZEALS and my car with the Ohlins and found them both to be significant improvements over the stock KYBs in performance (and driveability).