NC KONI RACE COILOVERS!

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NC KONI RACE COILOVERS!

Post by Brian »

A project percolating along on the back burner just might see the light of day before this year is over. Back in the day our friends at KONI did a motorsports Koni Race valving setup for the NC for GrandAm Racing. They sent us a set of fixed length shortened body KONI RACE shocks with that valving for the first round of testing and we LOVED IT. We loved it because it rode amazing and yet it handled race sharp. But we wanted it in a height adjustable shock body in addition to the magic damping and the adjustable damping feature of the first test set sent to us. Prototype of this second stage of development is on the way for testing.
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EdwardC507
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Re: NC KONI RACE COILOVERS!

Post by EdwardC507 »

I was really hoping to see something related to this setup at Koni's SEMA booth. The free stickers sorta made up for it, ha!

Until more info is out on the product launch
for dates/prices, can you tease us with some development pics; wheel droop on an NC? :wink:
I'll be interested as an early tester next year
2008 Marble White, NC1
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Brian
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Re: NC KONI RACE COILOVERS!

Post by Brian »

Had our friends from Grassroots MotorSports Magazine drive and photoshoot the project NC that is featuring the new KONI setup. Picked a favorite canyon road for fun charging up and own the curves. Development takes time, production takes time. My hope is new setup on shelf by late Spring.

Our Maverick was photo chase vehicle today.
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Re: NC KONI RACE COILOVERS!

Post by Brian »

Our Ryan Passey with his best James Bond face.
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Re: NC KONI RACE COILOVERS!

Post by Brian »

More Picture Fun
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Re: NC KONI RACE COILOVERS!

Post by Brian »

Shot featuring the CarbonMiata Lip
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Re: NC KONI RACE COILOVERS!

Post by Brian »

Tim from Grassroots MotorSports in the SNOW with our NC.
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Re: NC KONI RACE COILOVERS!

Post by Brian »

Another shot...
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Re: NC KONI RACE COILOVERS!

Post by Ryan @ GWR »

Pic of the Koni Race shocks for use in a few places. Getting close to these being available :D
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Re: NC KONI RACE COILOVERS!

Post by Brian »

Took the car for a good romp this morning before the next storm arrives and I love the final results with the custom springs you see here. I was just not totally happy with Swift Springs on these Koni Coilovers, including what the purely linear rate Swift springs did to both ride and cost of the final setup.
KoniCoiloverSpringsFinal.jpg
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By going with 'better' swift springs we made results actually less satisfying for me with this Koni Race coilover, and custom top hats also made it less satisfying for me. So we ended up going back to our friends at Progress for a dual progressive rate custom spring designed to work with the stock top hats. These springs keep costs WAY WAY DOWN while also getting us the mix of ride and handling we wanted in this setup. Now we have the budget under control AND we got a great mix of ride and handling that matches what we had at the original prototype stage that I loved so much at the start of this project. Sometimes must do one step back to get two steps forward.

The final springs you see here get us back to the maximum joy I found in this setup we had at the prototype stage long ago. Ryan suspects it is something about the transition rate from the helper part of the custom Progress springs that becomes dead coils to the higher rate portion of the spring. I agree that is likely a big part of the story, because over really rough undulations of the road the car is so much more compliant than it was on the same Koni with Swift and harder top hats, particularly when I get some air under a wheel and then land it again. This thing now rides nearly as good as our standard Progress Springs on Koni Sport Shocks but handles MUCH FASTER when you push on it. The damping profile in this setup is derived from shaker table work Koni did on the NC chassis for GrandAm Racing. It has the control now to work as a really nice sport touring setup that is much faster than any lowering springs with Koni SPORT shocks, and customers get precise height control of real coilovers, and the Koni Race shock damping control adjustment goes far beyond what is in the Koni Sport shocks. This is not a hardcore race setup by any means, our MeisterR Coilovers that come standard with 10kg front springs and 6kg rear will leave this setup in the dust on track and autocross days, but this is a super fun sport touring setup that rides better and handles great for backroad fun, daily hooligan driving, and can still do track and autocross work.

Thus, my recommendation for those interested in getting a ton more performance than available with lowering springs on Koni Sport Shocks is use this setup with our custom higher rate springs shown here. Spring rates same as our standard Ohlins Coilovers, 7kg Front and 4kg Rear. In pounds that is 390 front/225 rear. Standard Progress Lowering Springs are more rate than stock but just 126 lbs/in front and 116 lbs/inch rear. So here we have doubled spring rates from the standard Progress Springs, yet delivered similar ride, and MUCH more performance. As usual we set heights to our recommendation for NC coilover customers, which is 13.25 inches front center of wheel up to fender lip, 13.5 center of wheel rear up to rear fender lip, precisely the same as we had heights for all the pics you see here. Since this is a real coilover customers can go as much as an inch lower or higher from here. Now and then we get customers that want a stock height car with upgraded suspension rates and coilovers, this will do that. Even have some customers in snow states that raise for winter and lower for Summer, you can do that with these.

Here is the final setup with my old stock NC top hats. At the price we will can offer this setup I really think not much will come close to the combo of both quality ride and handling and performance. We have decided to call it our Club Sport Setup, it's the budget road and track coilover for those that don't have the budget for our Ohlins, or even MeisterR CRD. Not as fast as our MeisterR ClubRace or FEAL 441 Road Race, but rides real world busted up roads much better and is far faster than stock setup or any standard lowering spring setup.
KoniFinal1.jpg
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