SakeBomb Garage

Going over the specs for this kit:
Front shock stroke is actually shorter, rear is the same as the original kit. The rear stroke is not able to support an 8kg spring (without massive preload and losing droop travel), it definitely can not support a 7kg which is what it's valved for.

I don't know why they are saying this is done to fight understeer.. the issue with these cars (especially with square tire setups and stock bars) is oversteer. Nothing done here on the new kit makes sense to us and we've gone over all of the changes made. You just can't do everything you need to with a "generic" kit on the S2k because of its stroke/spring rate requirements, and anything less is a compromise.

SakeBomb Garage

This is correct... for all of the years and options there is no "correct" generic kit... they should be made per application. Hence the FPSpec kits we produce.

B serious

Maybe they figure more rear bumpstop = more over steer.

JagoBlitz

The statements don't add up - I totally agree. I think the people that answered me, did not know all details abotu the new coilovers.

It seems like performance was sacrificed to cut costs by using carry-over-parts.
If the HOS MI21 will not be changed again, I will not recommend this to anybody in Germany - KW is the better choice.
We need TUV approval for street use and that is not so easily done, if you want to modify the coilovers.

Berni

I just got my HOS MI21 and at the same time a long explanation on the differences between old kit and this new kit from one of the engineers at Öhlins that developed this kit.
They havent just changed the springs. According to him they spent countless hours developing this kit to make the s2000 faster around the track and the car handles a lot better around
the track than with the old kit according to their testdriver.
Has anyone of you that are criticising the kit even tried it? It's easy to criticise something before you even tried it..
I will be replacing my KW V3 with theese and I'm really exited to se the results.

B serious

Well...in order to price the kit, they would need to count the hours they spent on it.

But, you're right. On paper, the change seems daft....but who knows how they actually perform? Let us know your impressions when you try them out.

Unfortunately, you're not comparing them to the 10k/8k Ohlins kit. But comparing them to a completely different set of coilovers with "countless" miles on them.

Barnburner3

Could you elaborate specifically on the changes and/or results?

I'm highly considering switching from my KW V3's soon as well and unfortunately there's just not a lot of info on these yet.

JagoBlitz

I heard that story too, but some statements did not add up in my case.
And I would really like to know what kind of S2000 (year) they use for testing.

I got the impression that this kit (HOS MI21) was a the result of cost cutting and streamlining.
The S2000 is an old car and the market is quite small compared to other cars.

But I am really interested what you think of it compared to the KW V3. Will it understeer?

JagoBlitz

Hi,

why are you switching from KW to Ohlins?
And do you already have tested the HOS MI21?

Ricky_Flowers_

Straight From Ohlins

"Honda S2000 Kit update – HOS MI21

Background
The previous Honda S2000 kit, HOS MI20, was developed in 2009. After a while we received
feedback that the kit was in need of some improvements. Since 2009 our development process,
setting tools and test procedure has improved and we have now an even more thorough development
process with a focus more towards track use.

The feedback we got from customers was that the car was too oversteered. With that in mind we
decided to bring in a test car again to investigate the handling and performance with our test drivers, at
our test track.

The result confirmed the customer opinions, – The car was oversteered and there were several areas
for improvements.

Conclusion
The main reason for the car being too oversteered was that the compression stroke from ride height
position in the rear was too short. There was approximately 35mm of available compression stroke
from ride height. Our bump rubber height is 30mm, so we only had 5mm stroke left before entering the
bump rubber. In other words, hitting the bump rubber will happen a lot at the track making the car
loose grip in the rear. Main reason was not that a too stiff rear spring was used. During the
performed tests, we also found some other points to improve on the kit.

We made a complete evaluation of the test car (motion ratios, corner weights, roll center height, CoG
height etc.) and with this information we used our latest setting tool to calculate new damper settings
and spring choices to test at the test track.

Another thing we noticed when evaluating the car with the old kit, was that there was a risk for the
front springs to coil bind with the current damper stroke. That can be dangerous if it occurs, and shall
be avoided.

HOS MI21 updated kit
After some new tests at the test track, and fine tuning of the new setting, our test drivers was 100%
satisfied with the handling of the car and how it behaved. We then continued with road tests to verify
that the car would still offer enough comfort for public roads, which it did.

To avoid hitting the bump rubber due to the short compression stroke from ride height, we increased
the spring preload (raising the car) but decreased the length of the damper (lowering the car again) by
adjusting the length adjuster cup keeping the same ride height as before. This way we were able to
gain 20mm more compression stroke without changing any hardware on the shock absorber.

The result is that from ride height we now have approximately 50mm of compression stroke and 50mm
of rebound stroke.

To avoid coil binding of the front spring we limited the compression stroke on the front shock
absorbers by 20mm. Even though limiting the compression stroke, we still have 80mm available
compression stroke from ride height which is more than enough!

Summary

The HOS MI21 update improves the handling of the car in several areas. With the new springs, setting
and stroke redistribution, the car has now much less oversteering tendencies, better turn in, less roll,
better balance and more traction.


Thank you for reading and good luck with the usage of our products!

Best Regards
Development team, Road & Track
R&D Öhlins Racing AB"


Hope this clears things up =]