CoralDoc

There's a lot of good information about shocks in this thread. I wanted to add that if you change the springs on the car to anything but OEM, it will put you in BSP for autocrossing instead of the stock class AS (assuming that you're not already there for other reasons). You can change the shocks to anything that keeps the OEM mounting points and stay in AS.

Koni Yellow shocks are a common, effective and relatively inexpensive replacement shock when the OEMs finally do wear out.

S~Factor

My rear left shock has develop a leak at 59k miles.

SpitfireS

jyeung528 Posted on Jun 17 2007, 10:37 AM
Very true!
OEM's are a LOT harder to compress by hand.
With the rebound valve closed the Koni's stay compressed (almost).
It's the rebound that matters most during driving, I guess.

During the Koni install I was getting worried I was making things worse with aftermarket parts, having the OEM's out and comparing them with the Koni's.
At first I closed all rebound valves completely, that gave a very bumpy uncomfortable ride.
After opening them up a little it became a lot better, under certain circumstances better then OEM in my opinion.
IIRC the fronts are now half a turn open, the rears 3/4 of a turn.

Close to where I live is a long (1200 meter) left hand turn in the highway.
It has some "waves" in it.
At speed (lets say 100-110mph, and NO that's not legal!) I found the rear a bit unstable with the OEM shocks, now with the Koni's its a lot better.

CoralDoc Posted on Jun 17 2007, 12:09 PM

And they are rebound adjustable
Not to mention they (Koni) are Dutch

RED MX5

True. Honda doesn't seem to be able to figure out whether the problems are due to aero or mechanical grip issues, and my uneducated guess is that it's a bit of both, interrelated, and causing lots of confusion. In any event I can't see their problems as a function of the shocks Showa is providing, because I'm sure they're giving Honda exactly what they ask for.

Since Honda is having a hard time with their race cars right now maybe we should look at bikes. I never saw a set of Showa forks or bike shock that was anything less than first rate.

If there is a problem with Showa it's in their technical support (for small timers like me ). It's easy to find reams of information about their motorcycle products, but I have not been able to find any direct contacts for automotive support. Admittedly, I haven't looked that hard yet, because I'm not ready to start spending money yet (and support never comes without the potential of money changing hands), but from what I have seen I may not be able to deal with them. Eibach doesn't make the same kind of hard core suspension components Showa does, but one of the reasons I went with their springs is because they were the only company willing to supply me with the kind of product information I needed to make a decision. With a full up competition coil over system I expect support in determining optimal valving and every other aspect of the suspension setup, and I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to get that from Showa. LOL, now I'm talking out of school, because I have absolutely NO experience in dealing directly with Showa.

Are any of the guys racing or autocrossing on aftermarket Showa's? If so, are they getting good support?