My damper at a 13" ride height, this is how much travel I have left and I still managed to use it up.

 

^If you could get that upper spring perch sitting closer to the actual top hat it looks like you could get at least another 1/2" of travel. If I remember seeing correctly it's the pin design of the Ohlins that keeps that from happening though? That would also make me believe that your rears could possible benefit from the GC race tops if that's the case.

 

I would agree with your first statement if things weren't so tight but let's say you have a nice two inch or even a one inch stop. That stop is going to have a block height (a point where it can't really be compressed further. That block height removes precious travel.
My video shows me just touching the stop in a corner after increasing roll rate with the Eibach rear sway bar. Before the bar installation the car was unpredictable so it really depends on where you're at in the stop.
The best thing to do is run o'rings without stops to see where you'd be at and slowly work up to speed checking where the o'ring is and how much bump is left, pick a relatively smooth corner with good asphalt for the most grip then go to RE Suspension and pick a stop that is a quarter inch less than the measurement from the o'ring to the top hat.

Look at how quick this stop ramps up


This stop is at least 2" long but it's useable length is like 1.25" at most


Hope this makes sense.


Some people consider me a fairly smooth driver but bumps are not in your control.

 

From what I could see it's really only a 1/4" or so difference between GC and AST top hats. PSI shortened the dampers by 30mm so it was quite a bit. The picture I posted with the damper at 13" ride height is the shortened one and I'm totally happy with it. Bottoming isn't an issue as long as its occasional and not sustained.

 

It really isn't that big of a difference. Maybe if the upper perch was more flat and less dome shaped there would be a little more room to suck it up closer. That's about the only way I see it making much difference.

The KW tops have a very flat top. The actual top with the bearing looks very very similar to the AST but the spring perch is a lot different and lot more compact. Too bad they are ridiculously expensive. I was kind of hoping I could source some kind of super flat upper perch like that and make them work with the GC tops having the lower boss milled all the way down.



I might actually try to use the GC tops without using an upper perch and doing it more like how the OEM tops are. There would still be room to mill the boss down a bit but I think I'd have to find a way to keep the spring centered. I'd pretty much have to make a top hat hubcentric ring


I do now understand the whole block height thing about the bumpstops and it certainly makes a lot of sense to me. I will say the stops that are from GC are much softer than anything else I've felt. I feel like I can squish them down to half the height just by hand. I can't get that close with any other stop I've felt. With that said they probably have a taller block height than I think they do.

 

What's a shame is our Hondas have smaller tophats and we can't do something similar to the real nice fancy GC tops you can get for the Subaru that actually put the top above the strut tower. I had some of those on my STI and man where they nice pieces.

Maybe it could be done with a lot of creativity but I just don't see how there would be enough room.

 

Here are a few more pics of the GC tops. I'm not sure if you can tell anything different from them. I will say compared to the urethane bushing extended tops the bumpstops that came with these are a LOT stiff and more on par with what I've had on most other suspensions.

 

Macr88,

Sorry for the newb question....How do you pick the stiffness of the bumpstop? There are multiple choices with variable durometer readings...is it a trial and error process? Just go for the "medium" one?

Thanks.

 

Steve, did you cut the stops down to that size?

 

Nope. That was the size of the stop out of the box. I think the ones I got with the urethane centers was a bit longer and a lot softer. That's why I suggested not cutting. Down it's height at all.