thomsbrain

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.

Mccormick009

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...

B serious

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.

Mccormick009

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.

DailyDrivenS2000

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.

Mccormick009

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.

DavidNJ

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.

B serious

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.

Mccormick009

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.

B serious

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.