Koni/GC to Ohlins DFV review
 

So I made the jump to Ohlins DFV from my Koni/GC setup. I have an extensive review of my Koni yellow / GC 9k/9k setup here:

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/s2000-br...-long-1133298/

Considering where I have been, I will base my review of the Ohlins as a comparison. My car is a MY00 with factory swaybars and is stock other than Megan toe rods. I setup the Ohlins to spec with the exception of using 6mm of rear preload instead to 2. So far I have only street driven the car which is where I do most of my driving. I ran through a range of damping adjustments and will comment on each setting below. I am not actually sure what the softest setting is, but i started with 25 clicks out and went stiffer from there.

25 Clicks: The car rode excellent (no surprise), better than stock and as good as the Koni with their best settings but the Ohlins has a bit more control. I live on a dirt road with high frequency studders, and as soon as I pulled on the road I could feel the DFV working. The performance handling was a bit vague and sloppy. Still decent, but the front felt like it drifted around while the suspension was trying to set.

20 Clicks: Basically it drove the same as 25 clicks except the front end vagueness was gone. It was like the suspension was more alert on this setting. Performance driving was more composed and the ride did not suffer.

15 Clicks: Now things are starting to get really good. The ride is still excellent but now firm. The car has sharpened quite a bit. I would say at this point the Ohlins are as sharp and responsive as the Konis on their track setting. The suspension is very "alert" as in it is ready to handle all obstacles. The grip is very reassuring. This was the first setting where I noticed I was driving the car faster than usual almost trying to upset it. I am also noticing the car requires less re-active inputs to the steering wheel to keep it where I want. Simply, I was making small adjustments with the Koni setup I really did not notice until I had the Ohlins. Now you really do point the car where you want to go and it sorts it out. At this point I think this is as good as it will get. Until...

10 Clicks: Now here is were things get particularly interesting. This setting stiffens the car up a bit but without a big penalty on ride. Two things I noticed on this setting. First is the reduced suspension oscillation compared to the 15 click setting. Especially in the rear I feel the increase in damping is keeping the shock off the bump stops and decreasing the springiness. The second thing is at the stiffer shock settings you can really start to feel the DFV working. It actually makes you want to drive faster over rougher roads. The chassis is well controlled yet sharp impacts do not bother you or the car as much. Also, of interest this is the recommended setting from Ohlins.

Next up is five clicks out.

How do you feel about the spring rates on the Ohlins? Also do you think the rear toe is needed more to correct bump steer, less, or the same with the DFV?

On paper the 8k rear seems too soft. In reality it works with the damping rates pretty well. However the limited travel does come into play with the lower damping settings 15+ clicks. You can feel the extra rebound from the spike in spring rate as it contacts the bump stop.

I think the DFV shocks do an amazing job considering a very limited amount of travel. Because of the limited travel I would think rear toe changes would even be less of an issue. I spent quite a bit of time on setting up the rear BSK, so for me it was dialed in with both the Koni and Ohlins setup. Before and after the BSK, I am happy with about .30* total rear toe.

Thanks! I will stick with the standard spring rates then, obviously it is what Ohlins felt best paired with the shocks.

So I have never had a rear BSK and I want to say I run less rear toe. The only time I felt issues were wavy back roads, I never had an issue on the track. So should I toss the rear BSK on or skip it? I bought one, but it was when I was going to run my GC/Yellows

I noticed an increase in the cars predictability after I dialed in the rear toe. However that was with the Koni shocks and I was using more wheel travel. The Ohlins manages to do a somewhat better job with even less travel. Considering that I would skip the bump steer kit for now.

On another note, one of my takeaways from the Ohlins is the realization my Koni setup worked pretty damn well. Especially considering the cost. It took more effort, I had to mod the rear shocks a little and the BSK was a solid improvement. They still had their faults but then again so do the Ohlins.

The Ohlins damper is clearly better. The combination of increased sensitivity, relative compression damping and the DFV blow-off are impressive. But the short travel design limits options. The Ohlins should have more travel or a stiffer rear spring stock. But then again I have never found a shock I could not find something to complain about.

Well now your making a case for stiffer springs :)! Your input has been valuable and I still may toss the reader BSK on, I just hate changing too much at once, that said I hate wrenching multiple times when I can do it all at once. I am sure I will hit you up for more advice on getting this car setup properly.

No try it with the 8k springs. From my experience it works very well with 15 clicks or less. Remember this is also on the street. I would expect to use less travel on the track.

Above 15 clicks it feels like the ratio of compression to rebound damping is changing. I attribute this to a relative increase in spring rate from the bump stops. It is not "bouncy" at any setting. However there is just a bit more cycling, especially in the rear. It reminds me of the Konis before I cut the bump stop.

Could it use stiffer rear springs, maybe 9k or 10k would be better for a wider range of damper settings. But I guarantee you will love it even with the 8k.

This move may be in my future as well except I'll be going from Konis / CR spring to the Ohlins DFVs.

Skip the CR springs and go straight to the Ohlins. :thumbup:

Had my Ohlins 10R 11F from full stiff ,out of the box 2mm preload 10kg/8kgs for months and am very happy after many configs 04MY :D