Koni Special Active dampers

Technical Area Steering & Suspension
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  1. My model of MX-5 is: __NC1
  2. I’m based near: __
  3. I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: __

I’m interested in these dampers for my car. Has anyone found them in the UK? According to the video I’ve flagged they are only just appearing in-the US for my NC but have been available for the NA/NB for a while.

The problem I foresee is they are recommended with standard, not lowered springs. The Nc1 is silly high so I don’t want to refit those. The 30mm lowered springs I have fitted make the car look like a standard NC2> so logically I should be able to use these springs with the Special Active dampers? But the lowering springs were sold as fitting all NCs even though the car got lowered when the NC1 was superseded.

My other concern is I’ve installed RX8 yellow spot ARBars which I really like. The SP dampers are mostly activated by time: ie in a corner they react to the roll of the car(which is a relatively slow event in suspension terms) so I may not reap their potential benefits here?
Hope you are not as confused as me :slight_smile:

My car with 30mm lowering springs

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Although I’ve never seen them spoken about for the MX-5, I use the Special Active dampers on my daily driver. They’re a good OEM replacement option in my book. Good compliance and ride comfort.

They can be used with lower springs upto 30mm, so you’d be fine.

I wouldn’t over think the ARB angle, they’re not that clever. I ran the previous revision, the Koni FSD on other cars with revised ARBs and they worked fine.

Hope this helps,
Steve

1 Like
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I think the Sport dampers would be the ones to go for
1 they are available
2 they are adjustable and work with lowered springs

My experience of them is that they are excellent for the road or occasional track use.

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Yes, that’s the conclusion in the Flying a miata video too. Still don’t seem to be availiable in the Uk. I don’t want the sports Koni for the same reason I don’t want coil-overs: too harsh for what I hope will be a touring car in the future.

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It depends on the springs that will give you a harsh ride not the dampers. The Koni dampers were better than the oem Bilstein dampers in my experience.

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I’ve got the BBR Koni suspension with their progressive springs and I would say the ride is at least as good as the standard sport suspension, probably better. The car also rides a lot flatter without the need for updated ARBs. I would try and give it a test before ruling it out.