@Holly1: If you wish to stick with Ohlins then you could have a look at these ones:
MiataSpeed’s version have longer front and rear stroke than Ohlins’ own standard Road & Track offering despite using Ohlins’ own dampers:
Front Stroke Length: 111mm
Rear Stroke Length: 135mm
They include with a few other things that the standard Ohlins do not have, such as:
Comes fully assembled (standard Ohlins are partially assembled)
Floating top hats (do not have to re-assemble factory Mazda top mounts)
Swift springs (one of the better quality brands and a bit lighter than others)
Optional helper springs
More spring rates to choose from
MiataSpeed are offering 10% off their Ohlins products this month.
Despite the above, they’re still quite expensive after discount and having to source them from the US, you’re liable to pay for stamp duty and VAT. The total works out to be approximately £3,600 including delivery, stamp duty, and VAT
KW is another good option if you really want a track focused fully adjustable suspension.
Flying miata also do their own fully adjustable suspension (can remember brand but its something american) if you want to spend 3k on a suspension
Imho a fully adjustable suspension is not required for road use and we are splitting hair here.
The personal reason I don’t rate meisters much is because I have seen the springs literally rust to crumble within two years in a mates car, and no I’m not going to put socks or try do anything to prevent the meisters from rusting. Compared to the Bilsteins, I had on my car, the KONI I had in previous cars and the Ohlins the meisters are rubbish. The Ohlins I currently have in my NC and have owned a few on bikes I’d buy Ohlins every single time over some other brand. In the NC I had to re-use the rear top hats not sure what’s the deal with the ND’s and different options.
To be fair, MeisterR’s ClubRace GT1 appear to be competitors to Ohlins’ Road & Track based on similar features with the former costing just over two grand. Still quite a bit cheaper than £3,600
If @Holly1 wishes to consider brands other than the ones mentioned on this thread, there are the following I came across when I did my research:
Sorry ive been researching suspension units, and im just glad that im not equiping an f1, five hundred thousand to a million pounds for suspension units only.
Gulp…
All suspension units are not the same, and its not always about price either… So im still reading…
George thanks for your input i remember a fun day on the twisties we had in Germany and that uphill blast the two of us had, both of us were running upgraded suspension, you ohlins me wp at the time and that ohlins looked very stable from the couple of metres back that i was
I examined both units afterwards, zero corrosion on either unit. Most of us ran quality suspension adjusted to suit our riding style and weight.
It makes a difference on bikes, and by what ive read so far on cars too.
This is from fat cat,and why im spending so much time and money on making my mx5 suspension, which is pretty great as standard, to an adjustable state that suits me.
Why focus on suspensions?
Most races are not won by the car with the most horsepower, but the car with the best overall grip and handling. If you concentrate on making the tire-to-ground interface as efficient as possible, you will maximize the available grip. With more grip comes more confidence and usually more ride comfort. You know the feeling of being in a big car on the freeway and not thinking you’re going all that fast, but the speedometer reads well above the legal limit?
Rightly or wrongly, I have always thought of Ohlins as the “Gold Standard” by which all others are judged.
Back when I was riding bikes - Ohlins were always at least as good as other brands such as WP, Showa and Kayaba.
As I have said before, I have Koni dampers and H&R springs on my car. In the interests of science and comparison, I would love to try a car with Ohlins and Meisters.
Sport bikes are different because the rider is a hefty proportion of the sprung mass (bike + rider - wheels & brakes) and the suspension that comes as standard is fairly basic. You really have to get springs and adjust preload and damping both front and back to suit your weight so that the bike moves evenly over bumps and doesn’t bottom out during braking.
Cars are different though because they are heavier so total weight doesn’t change that much from driver to driver when compared to the vehicle mass. Also cars are made to consider comfort and absorb irregularities and road bumps. You don’t really have to change the suspension on a car unless its broken or you need/want to focus a lot on track use. Imho whoever tell me they want to lower the car because it looks cool i really want to say back something rude but i hold back and grind my teeth. Its your car after all but I just wonder how many have been ruined because of the owner not knowing what they are doing…
Honestly put some new tyre if you not got something already (Michelin ps5 I can definitely say it works). Get a sporty alignment done and thats it. Go drive it… Unless you decide that you actually going to track it you don’t really need either the ohlins or whatever else.
The only thing I know that there’s something on the ND you got to change on the suspension or the hubs or gearbox can’t remember what that is (because i don’t own one) but someone will chip in what that is. Just drive and enjoy the car. I took mine on track quite a few times with stock suspension and it was absolutely fine.
If in a year you decide you want to do some serious track time then you will know what you need yourself.
My main experience has been with MeisterRs, on NA, NB, and NC.
CRDs have been really good for dual use.
ClubRace are excellent on track and bearable on the road.
Opinions on Ohlins seem to be that they are better still in performance, but not in longevity. And the increase in performance is nowhere near as big as the increase in price.
I’ve had Ohlins on my NC for nearly two years and I’m a bit disappointed. Let me explain.
When I got my car it was on stock suspension, it was very high and body roll around corners was very noticeable. I had no problems with speed humps or potholes. I then got eibach springs fitted which lowered the suspension by 35mm. I then had to be very careful with some bigger speed bumps but potholes were by and large easily dealt with by the car. The car no longer rolled and was as a sport car should be. After some time the shocks were getting a bit tired, so I decided it was the perfect opportunity to fit coilovers.
Like you, my background is in motorbikes, so the only really good suspension company I knew by reputation was Ohlins, the gold standard for motorbikes. So I picked their set up for an NC. At the same time I had the suspension bushes replaced with polybushes and had the ARBs uprated and made fully adjustable. WIM then set up the suspension. The results have been disappointing. After about a year the suspension suddenly dropped by quite a bit and I then had to get it adjusted and set up again by WIM. I think they’ve settled again, so another trip to WIM is on the cards.
In terms of handling and holding the road, the car is superb! I can’t fault it or the set up done by WIM. However, it really is a firm ride now, sometimes, depending on the road, uncomfortable. Speed bumps are still a problems but the biggest problem is pot holes and general road surfaces. It feels that the car bounces over these rather than soak them up which is what it should be to my mind. If the roads in perfect condition everything is fine, my trip to North Wales last year proved that!
Perhaps I’m being picky, or just reflecting on he current state of our roads. I have seriously been thinking of going back to stock because of the state of our roads!
This is just my own personal view, others may have had a different experience with Ohlins.
I think that’s primarily where the difference is. I have stock bushes and antirollbars. The rubber bushes do provide more compliance so its less firm compared to polybushes (and I also use 26.5 psi). However I cannot understand why the suspension dropped onto your car. I don’t think it matters but did you have the car weight balanced when installed? If so you can check if the weight distribution has changed.
It is also my opinion that you change one thing at a time and assess the difference. Since the suspension change in my car and the alignment I did not feel there was a need to change the antirollbars to the adjustable type in order to change the front/back oversteer/understeer bias.
With hindsight, I probably should have just changed one thing at a time to see how it affected the car. The car wasn’t weight balanced when the suspension was installed, I’m not sure if that would really explain the suspension suddenly dropping.
My reasoning if you had the values you could check much it has changed and what has changed.
It wouldn’t tell you the why per say but if you went to the expense of going with ohlins getting them fitted by someone who perhaps know what they are doing and knows how to tune the suspension based on your requirements. (Blatant advert for Paul roddinson btw. He knows his stuff)
Yes, I’ve played around with the damping adjustment and got it to my preference now. Its on the soft side but that’s how I prefer it. It still doesn’t explain why the suspension dropped! Even on a soft setting the car is still very firm and on the worst of our roads you do feel it! I don’t think I can fully blame the shocks (although I do blame our thieving Govt. for not spending the money they raise in car taxes on road maintenance!)
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