NC KONI RACE COILOVERS!

[Ryan @ GWR]

Pics for use in various places

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[ChadY588]

I think you're on to something here. I believe the NC needs a good street coilover setup with adequate travel (especially in the rear) that competes with koni/springs and doesn't break the bank like Xida's.

I thought i read in another post about the travel of these. It seems like the fronts will have plenty of travel but the rears listed as significantly less than the Xida's, is that right?

Will you be offering these with different spring rates? I'd be interested in more of a 5k front, 4k rear setup. 7k/5k or 7k/4k splits porpoise and pitch too much and require extra rear damping to calm the car.

If this gets a green light, will you be publishing shock dynos? I take it in typically koni fashion it'll be rebound adjustment only?

[Brian]

Glad you like the direction we are going here. Indeed we are going to be less than half the cost of XIDAS so we don't see that setup as competition with this setup. WE see our new setup here as ultimate budget coilovers, hope to have the retail for what you see here at about $1199.

For pure race cars the linear Swift springs are the way to go for most predictive control at the limit on the track, but that serious track customer is likely going to spend at least two or three times as much for another coilover solution anyway. I drove this setup home from the shop yesterday and it is smooth down the freeway over expansion joints in the concrete in a way that nothing else is beyond the standard KONI with standard Progress Springs, yet this setup sticks in high speed corners with mega confidence and is much more predictive at the limit than something as soft as our standard lowering springs from Progress or TEIN or Racing Beat, etc.


I have two sets of tires for this car, 235/40 on 17x8 and taller 225/50/16 on 16x8. Both those combos hit the car if I lower it under 13 inches all around. Thus, we could give a ton more travel but I don't see it being actually useful for typical customer, most NC owners working with performance suspension are using bigger than stock tire/wheel sizes. And letting those upgraded wheel/tire combos brake against the metal of the car is not a good answer in my opinion. For our OHLINS coilovers we always have to add packers for Laguna Seca or the car can't make it down the corkscrew, having even more travel would just make that situation worse. Picture of the 16x8 combo, can't go lower and can't do any more travel and actually have it work.

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Yes, I will put the shock dynos up. Already have them somewhere but will get them posted. Product already got green light, all bits are in production and hope to have it on the site as the ultimate budget coilover NC setup in about a month.

Picture of the 17x8 and 235/40 combo. Heights 13.25 front and 13.5 rear. Everything clears with current heights and current travel.

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[ChadY588]

Thanks for the detailed reply. I have to agree, travel for travels sake isn't necessarily a good thing as you described. However, "adequate" travel is critical. That's the problem I've run into personally running the traditional adjustable shock body coilovers (BC's in my case). There just isn't enough pure travel in the rear so I have to trade off either bump or rebound, regardless of ride height. It dramatically affects handling. The question really is how much travel is "enough"? Having an OEM amount of travel only works if you're at a spring rate and ride height to allow it. I'd be curious where some of the other manufacturers are at in terms of travel.

In the defense of Xida, they are at a sort of compromise to provide a setup that racers can use at very low ride heights with high spring rates AND for people who want to have a street setup at high ride heights. As far as I know, if you run reasonable ride heights, the packers aren't necessary.

Why do you suppose the custom progress springs ride so much better than a standard 2.5" spring w/ helpers? Maybe your helper springs are just too weak in relation to the main spring. Maybe a higher rate helper is the ticket?

[Brian]

Yeah, trying a helper/assist spring with the swifts might make for interesting results. Perhaps there is a nice middle ground. There is likely some combo there of stiffer helper or assists and mains that would be really fun. I was concerned about feeling the shoulders of transition in a setup like that and Progress was able to make the transition super smooth from the helper to main section of the spring, and do it at super reasonable costs compared to any combo we can do with Swifts. Thus, given the budget build we sought here, that's where we are for now. Hopefully customers getting just the KONI threaded body Race Shocks from us will find something interesting with swift assists/helpers.

[Brian]

Shock Dyno!

[ChadY588]

Is this a front or rear shock? What spring rates are these valved for? If using the same shock front/rear how are you accounting for the large difference in spring rate? I'm guessing you'll be overdamped in the rear if using the same shock.

These shocks show quite the bump/rebound ratio. Do you experience any jacking down on these? I'm guessing they feel very glued to the road.

[Brian]

That's the front shock, rears are softer but I don't have the dyno handy. My recollection at this moment is that we aimed damping at full soft to control at least 400 lbs when set full soft at front, and a bit softer 300 lbs set full soft at the rear. We ended up 390lbs front rate with Progress springs, 225 rear (so we are a bit overdamped at full soft rear but not significantly). I have test run as much as 12kg front and 7kg rear and they could reasonably control even more. On my ND2 we use jacking down for the rear Koni Sport set full stiff for fast slalom performance in CS but I have not played and measured jackdown near full damping on these Race units yet. I really see this setup as a Sport Touring Coilover, Competent Compliance was the goal, speed without jarring over B roads with potholes, etc. Today on the way to the shop I took some side roads that our record breaking winter has left dotted with potholes that are 6 inches deep and two feet long and bigger and this setup soaked it up nicely.

8241 1320RACE NC Front Koni Race
8241 1321RACE NC Rear Koni Race

[Brian]

Tossed the keys today to Luis in our Shipping Department and Ryan in Sales. They both disappeared long enough to make me wonder if they had decided to run the car to Vegas and back to San Diego. Luis is a younger NC owner and racer and mechanic and it was high praise when he got back and said that he would put this setup in the next NC he gets.

[Brian]

FIRST KITS SHIPPED THIS WEEK!