Corner Weighting in Hertford

Wait - I'm confused...

(Easily done )

Are you strapping your shopping to the bonnet? lol

Or are you saying that adding weight in the passenger compartment drops the front?

Yes, putting a bag in the bonnet levels it, obviously not recommended for driving....

It wasn't a dig at your choice, I'm sure they work great, I made an observation thats all, it's just odd how they added height adjustment into the newer ones when the damper travel hasn't been extended to allow for a lower setting. Maybe its a bad design choice (or a flaw) if by using the adjustment available to a lower ride height it has you hitting the bumpstops? I'm sure a lesser brand would get ripped for doing that but the Ohlins name has the clout and the damping quality (at the right height) to make up for it I guess.

I also bought the car to drive it, what else would it be for? Is it so much to ask that if I was dropping £2000 on (new) dampers it allows me to run a little lower ride height than the factory dampers that came on my car without issues? I think not, again call me shallow but a modest drop in ride made a difference to me, no need to put me down, I'm certainly not alone in that view. The guy with that car I posted switched to XIDAs in the end so will see how they fare in comparison (his focus is doing timed track events in Aussie land, we are not talking about "stance points" here).

Didn't take it as a dig, just describing what I've got  Also, not putting you down at all, hence the winky emoji 
 If set to Ohlins recommended height, they're 20 - 30mm lower than standard (there's a whole range of standard heights, depending on model and year).
Goodwin Racing do extended rear top mounts for the Ohlins, apparently this allows it to run even lower without running out of travel. I'd be interested to know which Xidas the Aussie guy went for - there's 4 different types, catering for different uses and ride heights. Sadly not available in the UK, otherwise I might have considered them. The great thing about the Ohlins is they are serviceable at any Ohlins outlet, including motorbike ones, of which there are many in the UK.

Zed. I love an immense Sh.itpost I just had the hump yesteday I think


Sorry, I think someone pissed in my cornflakes yesterday, its been a long week. I left the house once in the last 10 days so probably me being tetchy lol . I wasn't suggesting their performance was bad, its well documented they have excellent damping quality in the correct range which surpasses that of most of whats available for the NA as well as the options to be rebuilt, revalved etc. Its just a shame the travel is lacking in the rears for some people.

The standard heights do vary, this is where the car sat on the OEM Bilsteins:



As you can see, which is relavent to the setup chat here, the rear is considerably higher than the fronts but overall this appeared to sit some 15-20mm lower than OE (my Dad has a mk1 Eunos, same year, on OE dampers).

Yep, when I was looking at options the extended travel mounts came up as I was half expecting to need them, these from Maruha were the ones I was looking at (you will need to view in chrome with translate on), they add 20mm. Heres the diagram on there, as shown, the effective stroke is added by pulling up the tip of the shaft that is lowered by the lower spring.



Left: Standard suspension structure
Middle: When a lowering spring is attached to the standard suspension
Right: Lowering spring + high-stroke upper mount installed

If you order through the right channels you should be able to get hold of these from Maruhamotors, they state "It is set for MARUHA / BC suspension, but you can expect the effect by using it together with other suspensions."

This is the thread Chaste White NA8. He has just unboxed a set of XIDA race (not sure on specs yet) which he intends to run.

The problem I had when researching dampers was everyone tends to hard defend their purchase and its difficult for them to be objective and also, some people just like changing things, and some people have very different driving styles/locations that affect their reviews. In the end I decided on a cheaper option in the interim which had very little online reviews but has been widely used in Japan, in the view of, I can always change these down the line. So far they ride way better than I anticpated but I need to put more miles on them in anger to give an overall review of them.


I saw a number of posts mention it (some in that thread above but I didn't bookmark any just general browsing) who have actually used them on the road as well as timed track events, but sometimes its hard to get anything objective out of most people who've spend more than the cars worth on dampers lol, especially when they intend to sell them on to someone else. Oh the suspension trolls, thats another problem, there can often be an agenda, especially if there is some "influencer" vibes going on. You see it on youtube a lot, theres usually a meme product that they suddendly all start using and praising and dropping perfectly good products and replacing it with the new meme (because they are being paid to use it). You'll see a lot of US channels running "Fortune Auto" coilovers at the moment but its been other brands over the years.


He certainly didn't want to be running a standard height, the guy in that thread wanted to run 4.5" from ground to pinchwelds but the rears were pretty much on the bumpstops and running out of travel, the 3rd pic in that series was a compromise of a lower ride height without riding the bumpstops (as that would prove and issue for him on track lol). This is Ohlins recommened settings from the installation book:

Rebound 10 clicks
Spring preload 6 mm
Shock absorber length 438 mm
Spring
Spec H200, ID65, 80N/mm

The height adjustment works the same as mine, you wind the coilover sleeve into the shock body to adjust ride height so the overall shock length sets the height and you move preload seperately this design "should" allow for full stroke length at lower ride heights apparently.


Well I totally missed that if they do, however, I doubt it would have moved given the condition of them after removal




Again, certainly not questioning their damping quality and heritage. I'm not suprised they react how you suggest, most people won't notice the extremes of their dampers which is where the top end ones shine. Its consistent damping, its not hard to get a car to "ride smoothly" but to get a damper to provide accurate, consistent damping for extended periods of time under extreme compression is where you'll see the difference.

I also have spherical-bearing top mounts which yeah, are pillow ball, so that is something to look out for (I think its mostly unavoidable).

Previous coilovers I've bought with my own money are KW Clubsport 2 ways, these whilst not as good on the road as Ohlins in terms of ride (but still better than most), they surpassed the offering from Ohlins (which was only the Road & Track option) for what my goals were (I nearly went full 2 way competition dampers but thought better of it). I switched from a set of Bilstiens B14s and the Clubsports were a litte more in cost compared to Ohlins at the time, but it was worth it. A lot of people only just scratch the surface of what a real quality damper can do on the road/track which so something cheap like BC, Tein, Miester, vmax etc will often suffice if you know its limit of capability. Its the main reason I went cheap in the interim, they work perfectly for now but I know the limitations of them, people expect far too much from their £500 coilovers these days and end up dissatisfied

I was looking at new prices and they were all £1800-2100 from the places I looked but I didn't widen my search enough and look for discounts. Then theres the added cost of the extended top mounts as I would need them at my current ride height

Those are the specs for the front, for the rear it's:
Rebound 10 clicks
Spring preload 12 mm
Shock absorber length 351 mm
Spring: Spec H180, ID65, 60 N/mm

The Goodwin Racing extended top mounts are available from Racing Beat Europe (based in UK). They use a rubber bush in place of the pillow ball. Pricey though, Jass do a much cheaper one, don't know if it fits the DFVs though.

The dual perch design is bound to reduce the length of stroke, but as I say, the reality is that set to Ohlins specs the suspension works better than anything else I've tried apart from the P5 Sportdrives. If P5 had still been in business and could rebuild my Sportdrives, I probably would have kept them.