ebdavis

The oem are very good. If you actually want to upgrade then you need to save up a little and pay attention to the R&C for sale forum and try to pick up a set of quality monotubes like Mcs, Moton, Penske, JRZ, Ohlins (these may not be considered monotubes). A custom valved set of Bilsteins would also be a good choice. Do some homework and understand what the job of the shock is. Also, watching the quality shocks change hands is a good indication of how they hold value. A quality used shock will sell whereas junk will go in the trash. Buy it nice or buy it twice.

s2000sccaracer

I have used ISC coilovers for the last 3 seasons on my S2000 and they have been great. This is a race only car. They are single adjustable and you can't beat the price. They seem more popular with the Subaru crowd. We have done 1:00 laps at Lime Rock (this is a naturally aspirated 2 liter car) and set an EP class lap record for the Watkins Glen short course. Yes, with $5000 worth of shocks we would be faster, but for racing on a budget, the ISC coilovers get it done.

bdo

Thanks for posting. I had never heard of these and the pricing on them looks pretty attractive.

S2000_916

seems like the budget new ones would be...

Koni Yellow with GC or Swift R
HKS Hypermax IV SP
Fortune Auto 510
Buddy Club race spec coilovers

All seem like they will work well for me, but will most likely ride out the upcoming year in stock form and just bite the bullet because the thought of removing them and doing it again is not what I want to do. It'll be overkill for sure, but oh well.

Apex1.0

You know my thoughts already, but I will add. There are strong and weak points to the oem damper curve. At 1200 there is no perfect option, but you can reprioritize what is important to you in a shock. Bilstein pss is the only cheap monotube I would consider. It has a better rebound ratio and more digressive compression curve than oem. However they are valved and sprung for the street. If the pss9 adjuster was any good, this would be another option. Konis have decent valving and can handle significantly stiffer springs. However a twin tube builds resistence different then a monotube. You may or may not like this. Cr shocks are a good option if you like the way the oem base shocks are tuned. For me the list is pretty simple for shocks.

Oem (base or cr)
Bilstein
Koni
kW
Ohlins
H&R (bilstein)
Penske
Moton
Sachs

And maybe fortune auto, maybe....

Apex1.0

One other thing... What makes a great street/track shock is not always the same as what makes a great race shock.

Recommendations from the hardcore race crowd may not apply best to your situation. You want the car to go fast and feel right to instill confidence. Racers want lap times, period.

nissanfanatic

They are overrated for most. A quality damper is most useful on a track with a lot of surface irregularities as it keeps the tire in contact with the road as much as possible IE absorbs the majority of a bump rather than sending it to the chassis and through other suspension components. It will also recover quickly after taking an impact placing the tire back on the road for traction with minimal oscillation from the suspension/tire assembly.

Most of what people interpret as "going faster" after installing coilovers is roll stiffness and increased camber gain under suspension travel from lowering the car. Stock ride height does not allow for much camber gain under travel. I would like to map out the suspension components to find out where the instant center is on stock ride height and where it migrates throughout the range of motion of the suspension assembly.

S2000_916

So I have decided to spend a little more and look between the KW V3 and Ohlins Road & Track.

Of these two, which one has a better quality dampener and which one will generally last longer before a needing a rebuild?

Cheers!

Ohlins I feel are higher quality than KW.

Apex1.0

Imo the service life between those two shocks shouldn't vary enough to affect the purchase. You will get strong opinions for both camps. Basically it is twin tube vs mono tube and double adjustable vs single (dual) adjustable with 3rd stage valving.