San Diego Ohlins DFV Daily Driver
 

I'm long overdue on my review of the Ohlins DFV Shock setup and Patrick with Urge Designs. To start off I am not stating anything other than my opinions and I imagine I will get some trolling and negative feedback but, again, I am only stating my opinions.

I drive a 2007 AP2 with approx 100,000 miles. We reside in San Diego and the car is predominantly used for daily use on Southern CA freeways. My job requires a lot of travel and I often drive up to LA/Santa Barbara/OC etc. When I bought the car I was rolling around on 17x9 square Weds Sport TC105N with mismatched garbage tires and Swift Spec R springs mated to OEM shocks.

I contacted Patrick (many times) to discuss how to make the car more livable. It was crashing over bumps and so low I scraped on almost all speed bumps and frankly hated driving it. I had a lot of experience with Ohlins from many years of motorcycle racing and figured it might be the best options to gain more compliance.

Patrick was world class in his knowledge of the car and ways to help. I picked the Ohlins up and installed them with fresh 255/40/17 Bridgestone RE71R tyres. Wow. Big difference. Now to the fun part.

Patrick and I set the height to about .5" lower than stock (higher than Ohlins recommended setup) with the suggested 2mm of preload. This was excellent in gaining much needed ground clearance and travel.

Over the past 2-3 months Patrick and I have been playing around with the dampening level. Honestly I am still not completely happy with the on road stiffness but there has certainly been no lack of support from Urge Designs. I am using the dampers on full soft front/rear (33 clicks from stiff) and for the most part I'm happy but the spring rate is high enough that it is still jarring over certain pavement.

Call me picky and this is where I assume the trolling will come but I would like the S2000 to feel more German GT car than road race roadster. Patrick and I are now looking into Swift Springs at possibly an 8k/6k or 8k/7k rate to better help the ride quality.

On to the race track. My previous cars were E46 M and recently Integra Type R. I do enjoy track days. I told Patrick I wasn't going to publish this review until I have the setup a fair shake at a track event and due to work I have had the suspension much longer with no track time than I'd like to admit. So here it is, Streets of Willow time.

I now realize why people usually mate the Ohlins with higher spring rates. I ran 4 sessions in pretty abnormal weather for SoCal. The temp was about 40-45* all day with tyre pressure and rapid cooling of the rubber making the first two sessions really difficult to set up the car to drive how I like. Again, to compliment Patrick and Urge on amazing service, I call him mid day (Saturday) and he helps me out with setup ideas. Truly a credit to the s2000 community!

Trying to keep pressures around 33-35 (hot) I ran the dampers on 7/8 clicks out from full stiff. This really made the car a joy to drive. I could feel some roll and movement in the suspension which I assume is why many go with stiffer rates but it was quite fun to drive with. If this was purely a weekend or track car I would certainly up the rates myself however due to the main purpose of the car I will have to enjoy the controllable movement of the car.

One track is certainly not enough to give a solid review of these coil overs and I will update this review as further changes are made. I will most likely seek Patrick's help, yet again, to move to a softer spring to help soften my commuter up. I realize my needs and wants are very specific and may not match your goals. Again these are my opinions and hope they give more insight on this amazing product and incredible partner.

The Ohlins has always and still is an incredibly well made product and I feel it is probably one of the best on market; certainly prettiest! Once I find my desired spring rate I assume I will be very very happy. Already I am worlds better than where I started and look forward to more fine tuning. Patrick - thank you. I have yet to see a negative review about you or your company and trust I never will. You have gone so far above and beyond making this car more enjoyable for me. Please keep doing what your doing so we have a source like you to work with.

I doubt anyone is going to troll you for this. I think a large faction the community has shifted toward making the S2000 more comfortable for daily use.

I wonder if PSS9's would have maybe been a better system for your uses. As good as the öhlins dampers are, a system will softer rates will inherently crash over bumps less.

You might also try stiffening the dampers a click or two to see if it helps. Under damped shocks can be crashy as well.

I certainly hope I don't get trolled but the last time I put a review up some members just went off. Unavoidable online sadly.

Overall I'm very happy with the Ohlins. Once Patrick and I soften the rates I think it will be mustard :)

I would try some different tires before swapping springs.

Makes me wonder what you would have thought of the stock shocks and springs for your commuter comfort, since you never got a chance to try that configuration.

Sent from my SM-G920P using IB AutoGroup

When I first installed my Ohlins it took some time to find the right combo for daily driving. Eventually I settled at 21/23 clicks from stiff as going full soft all around bounced way too much. Now that I'm back on the stock suspension I can tell you that the Ohlins damping really makes the most difference as the ride quality is worse IMO with the original shocks. I'd try staggering your clicks with a stiffness bias towards the front before swapping springs, only takes a minute!

Appreciate the feedback guys. I have driven a few stock s2000s and they are definitely more harsh. All in all I'm pretty happy but I think I can do a bit better. Patrick and I have been talking a lot about the Swift springs for these coil overs and Inherently their design is probably softer and will absorb more shock.
I may end up going a bit softer but not by much. I have a few other projects to tackle on the car first before I go back to suspension but will keep all updated.

You're at full soft, and can tolerate driving it like that? I found my car almost undriveable on the road with anything less than about 10 clicks from full soft. I'd stiffen up the shocks a bit just so they're actually controlling the spring. As for the ride comfort you're looking for, how low is the car set? One issue with the Ohlins is that the rear doesn't have a whole lot of travel, so if you're super low I could see the shocks bottoming out.

I ride 5/5 from full stiff both on street and track. Love it and I personally think it rides way better than stock. I was at 7/8 and the car felt too soft for my liking.

I have the ride height about .5" lower than stock. I adjusted the Ohlins higher to get more ground clearance. There is no way I could go 5 clicks from full stiff on the streets in SoCal. It would rattle the car to pieces.
I did stiffen up the front a tad and will test that out for a bit

Yeah I haven't gone that stiff, even on smooth tracks. I have dynos and I wouldn't ever go much below 5 clicks on these shocks unless you want hysteresis. When going for comfort, I have found that you can go stiffer in front without impacting ride quality too much. The rear is really what determines comfort in this car. 24/28 rides pretty nice with my spring rates (12K rear). Of course it's not as settled as stiffer, but comfort over large bumps that create a lot of travel is still best when you go softer. Past 28 clicks, I can feel the adjuster "let go" and I doubt it's changing anything beyond that. I'm guessing if you valved these shocks for stock spring rates, they would be luxury-car smooth.

UPDATE: I contacted Patrick at Urge and we moved forward with Swift Springs. 9k front and 7k rear. The goal is to gain more comfort on the road and try to keep as much for the track as possible. I have to make compromises somewhere. The plan is to test out the new rates and if needed look at Eibach sway bars next. The springs should arrive today so hopefully I can get them on before a track day this weekend. More to follow...

I think the S2000 paired with good shocks can still be plenty fast with 9K and 7K springs. Though...I'm not sure how big of a difference 1K will make in ride stiffness.

UPDATE TIME:
So Patrick really came through in getting the Swift Springs out to me ASAP. They managed to make it before the 2016 Bimmerfest show/track day. I threw them on the second they arrived and was able to feel out the road manners on way to track day, at the event and on the way home. Overall I am very happy and despite only loosing 1K/mm on each the ride is noticeable. Details below.

2007 AP2
NO aero
OEM sway bars
Ohlins DFV
Swift Springs 9k front
Swift Springs 7k rear
255 40 17 all 4 corners
RE-71R
-1.75 front, -1.75 rear
1/16 total toe (rear)
Ride height and shock/spring measurements on attached image [the number in parentheses "()" is the post Swift Spring install number]

ROAD USE:
Overall the goal was to keep the same ride height or close to it due to speed bumps, bad roads, etc for daily use. I figured there would be a slight settling since the springs are lighter and softer but overall the quality of Swift is incredible. Only about .5mm of lowering to the Eibach's. The road manners are vastly improved with this setup. I feel much more comfortable driving fast and I can tell the tyre is in better contact with the road. I am running the dampers on 20 clicks from full stiff and the reflectors and cracks on the freeway are completely softened up. The Eibach's were already pretty good here however with the Swift they take out even more bite. When crusing up to Fontana for the track day the ride reminded me of my old E46 M3. Sure there was noise from the soft top but the chassis is very controlled and soaks up the bumps very nicely.
The real shine of the new Spring is in the low speed pothole/rough road condition. Sure the car will crash over the big bumps but most of the road is soaked up better. All the while the chassis control seems unchanged. I really cannot tell a difference in body roll or control moving down in rate on the road.

TRACK USE:
The Bimmerfest track event was help CCW at Auto Club Speedway Roval Course. Dampers on 1 click from full stiff. This is where the body roll was noticeable. And by noticeable I mean very slight. The car would keep excellent composure in the medium speed corners and in the slow & fast corners there was just a bit more roll than before. Certainly this is not a huge difference but it is slightly there. The upside is that the car attacks curbs like a mother effen monster!!!!! I was using a fair amount of curbs (especially trying to hang with a GT4) on track and I would barrel over them like I was in an SUV. Jesus it was awesome. Like the road feeling the car appears to be in better contact with the road. The softer rate just soaks up the defects and keeps tyre stuck. A few things to comment on however. When the tyres were warm the car was very neutral with a slight hint of understeer surprisingly. This was easy to deal with and car preformed very well. As the session went on the tyres seemed to overheat and the car would get looser. It was fun as hell to keep the rear in check however I was giving up a few tenths.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
I am very happy with this setup and I am confident it will meet my main target of keeping a decent ride for daily use and enough stiffness to make it half way decent on the track. I am going to probably pick up the Eibach sway bar kit and move to -2* all around however. The 2007 has the softest OEM roll bars and I would like to see if I can dial in some changes on track. Hopefully they won't damage road use too much. Feel free to comment or ask questions. I hope that this will helps others in my situation looking for reviews.

Thanks for the thorough review. I think I have similar expectation as you do for my S2000 thus making this that much more valuable for me.

I am split between Eibach Multi Pro and DFV.

Would you share your rational why you went with Orhlins vs Eibach or any other?

I only had my s2000 22K miles on it for a month but it is a track duty car but I like it to ride smooth on the way to the track.

Thanks for all the time and money spent research and writing.

I went with the Ohlins because of their quality and dampening expertise. I used to race motorcycles and always used their products. They really stand apart when it comes to their engineering. These shocks offer a huge range in dampening ability. The change in the spring rate just took car of the extra jarring I was getting with Eibach Spring. Swift has a really unique product specially suited for the high frequency spring movement.

A spring is pretty much a spring. Some have a slight barrel in the middle to add stability. Depending on the material and the design, some use fewer coils with a thinner wire for the same rate. They weigh a very slight amount less and have slightly more travel, possibly allowing a shorter spring. Hypercoil and Swift use a thinner wire. In the old days fatigue in racing springs was common, causing a loss of rate and unloaded height. Coil spring testers were common racer tools to detect the failure. They were also useful because of the spring-to-spring production variation in rates. The better springs avoid that but in 2016 pretty much every spring is pretty failure resistant and are made with tight rate tolerances.

The Eiback is a popular shock in general, but the S2000 version is only available by special order in batches. I believe Evasive may be the only source, selling them with 16kg/mm springs. On paper, it is a lot of shock for the money: a 46mm monotube double adjustable canister shock of high quality. It also has pretty clever mounts for the canisters included. Downside? To the best of my knowledge they don't have any alternative pistons and it is unclear if any shop revalves them (although Anze, a major Penske dealer, will and has revalved just about anything). There are only a few reviews for them on an S2000.

The Ohlin DFV is their "road and track" shock. Ohlins doesn't market it as a racing shock. Urge and Sake Bomb may do some revalving, but neither are specific online. Oddly, the shock is a canister inside a lower mounting tube. That would limit rebound a little, but should have little adverse affect on a street driven car. It is probably a bigger issue in the rear where the OEM engineers felt the need to add an external piggyback nitrogen canister. There are other shocks that are also popular that also use a cartridge design. There seem to be quite a few happy customers, both with the DFV and with Urge.

The DFV's are simple to adjust and have lots of range for all types of driving. I feel they are very well refined and there aren't many situations where you are left wanting more.

That being said....its a bit daft to buy them just for street driving. They are a road AND TRACK coilover. The AND TRACK portion adds quite a bit of expense.

PSS9's are $1K less. They ride almost as well. They also work on a track.

If you read my post I identified my track experience with these. There will be more track days rest assured however this car is my daily and sees 90% of its life on CA Freeways and B roads. Softening the rates was to help create more compliance on the road. I am not at all disappointed with my choice.

If one is looking for a track specific setup I would suggest revalving these or looking at the more aggressive Ohlins TTX. They have independent compression and rebound adjustment and higher valving and rates straight out of the box.

If you're using the R&T's for track and street use, you bought the right system.

My comment was for people debating on using these for a car that is purely daily driven.

Debating myself which system to get. I'm not sure how much track time my car will see. The Ohlins do seem to hold their value well so its an asset but, not just an expense. My $0.02.

BSerious - gottca. My bad. They are a great dual purpose.

ChiHonda - even if you do not track the car these are fantastic. Maybe not the cheapest option but they do have great road manners. When I softened up the spring rate it made it that much better. I recently drove an e63 amg (NA 6.3 v8) and I feel my car rides better than that did. The Merc is much quieter obviously but the way my s2000 with ohlins and swifts handles bumps I felt the dampening was much more refined

Any shock can be used on the track. The DFV package is a very good street package out of the box. Both the DFV and Bilstein PSS9 date from when the S2000 was new. The Bilstein has a much softer spring out of the box. Bilsteins are very good street shocks and typically what I use on my street cars (a pair of Bilstein 5100s are about to become the front shocks of my QX56).

The Bilsteins can be revalved as I believe shops are doing with the DFV. The DFV has a extra blow-off feature that is supposed to limit the effect high frequency impacts. Standard MB shocks claim a similar feature, as do the Koni FSDs. The Koni FSD's are on my wife's E-class.

The Koni TTX is a racing shock, although versions are sold for street motorcycles and mountain bikes (Cane Creek probably has the best video showing TTX operation).

There is track use and then there is track use. Some S2000s are dedicated track cars running in competitive wheel-to-wheel classes or time trials. Races where speed counts. Others, not exactly on a race track, are run in highly competitive autocrosses. In these situations details that might not be obvious in a HPDE track day become very apparent.

My guess is most DFV buyers are very happy with their purchase, whether they are on the street or at an HPDE.

DavidNJ - fyi the TTX is a branded Ohlins product.
The KONI FSD's are awesome shocks for the money. Not made for all makes/models but for the cars that fit it, buy it! =)