Oh yeah, the Z in JRZ (the current owner) worked for Bilstein for 20+ years, too.

I have very little experience with the Konis, but from their company background and what their description is, it looks like they are similar in application to the Comptech S2000 Ohlins, and I'm guessing they're less expensive. Because of how they're manufactured and because of SCCA's somewhat strange rules book, the Koni 2812/2817, and Bilstein PSS and PSS9 kits are technically not legal for IT, but then none of the other shocks I've mentioned in previous posts are either.

I'm more surprised that no one is running the S2000 in Grand Am Cup than I am with SWC. I have seen a couple in the track here running T2 in SCCA Nationals, and saw one run very quickly at Lime Rock last year. The problem is because of how good the chassis is for the S2k and the amount of power it makes, there's not really anywhere good to race it. In T2, they're running against 305HP Camaros, which have enough more power to make them faster at most power tracks (i.e anything in the northeast except Lime Rock). But I think GAC ST I would be a great home for the S2K where it could do very well.

 

The Koni 2812/2817's are about $950/shock. There's a low-friction/low-weight version of the 2812 called the mk2 which is about $200 more, so they seem pricier than the Comptech Ohlins. According to Koni, they're used in CART, F1, etc., tho I dunno how true that is.

I never thought about GAC for the s2000...yeah, it'd be nice to see one in ST1.

Thanks for all the info.

 

Konis are used in CART and F1, most notably by BAR, but there's something else to remember. With open wheel, high downforce cars, the spring rates that are being run are WAY higher than you find in sports cars. The primary reason for this is that the suspension is set up to work with a car that changes it's effective weight a great deal over the course of a lap. Because of the downforce effect, at 35 MPH (the Hairpin at Long Beach) the suspesion load is about 1700 lbs. At 190 MPH, at the end of the following straight, the suspension load can be as high as 6000 lbs in a high downforce setup. There are a lot of other strange things that have to be taken into account with a high downforce car, but the net result is that the valving of the shocks usually puts them much stiffer in compression and insanely stiffer in rebound than anything you could consider running on a race prepared sports car, never mind a street car. A lot of the technology carries over, but that's why you see different companies in F1, CART, IRL, Atlantics, and ALMS prototypes than you see in the various sports car series. Even if you could get the shocks for the official Honda F1 team on your S2k, it would not be a comfortable ride.

 

Good to have Turner on board. I hope the Bilstein's pan out well for the S2000. I have run H&R coilovers on my past car, was told the shock itself is a Bilstein, and I have nothing but great things to say about them.

P.S. Siper2, STi uses Bilstein dampers on a lot, if not all of, its models, so the quality is definitely there.

 

Yeah, I guess the versions used in open-wheel cars are different from the 2812's for normal cars. Those are probably trickled-down technology made to work w/ sports cars. My friend was looking for dampers before for his Elise, which could fit eye-bolts both top and bottom, and looked into Konis and Bilsteins. He couldn't find much offerrings from Bilstein for just shocks, aside from their "street rod" shocks. I lost touch w/ him, but I believe he ended up w/ Koni 2812's.

Yup, it's definitely good having kfoote(TMS) here!

 

I just installed my Ohlins. I get the car corner weighted tommorrow and head off to Buttonwillow on Saturday for some test and tuning.

I wish they were externally 2 way adjustable as I plan to change my springs out for a somewhat higher spring rate. But the 1 way (Reboung control) is very linear and offers a wide range of selections. The compression is internally adjustable which means I will need to have them revalved for more compression, but right now they seem to have them tuned very well.

Not to mention the single adjustment makes it WAY eaiser for the non-suspension guru (like 99.9% of us out there) to tune these shocks ourselves.

-Ry

 

Is it a fixed compression rate or is the compression adjusted simultaneously w/ the rebound (as in most JDM brands)? I would think that the bump would go up proportionally with the rebound at least.

 

Per the docs, the compression is only slightly adjusted with the rebound. But only marjinally. It's basicly fixed.

 

Did it come w/ a shock dyno printout? That'll tell u how much compression's being adjusted per turn/click of the knob. Bump's always less than rebound anyways.

 

Nope they didn't give one.