Koni FSD's?
 

Anyone try these?

I'm wondering if they could be just the ticket for those of us with sport packages on run-flats.

There's very little anecdotal info out there, save a Roundel review and a couple of mentions here and there.

I'm willing to give 'em a try this spring on the Z4.

Ed

Dunno Koni, I sell KW. What in particular as you try to change with the potential addition of this change?

If you are looking for a replacement to the OEM shocks they look/sound perfect. FSD type shocks have been around for a long time, Edelbrock makes them for truck applications and people rave about them.

Reading up on the Tirerack, they make it sound as if they are just like S/A shocks but they do the adjusting on their own.

hmmm... I dunno.

OT: If the Koni S/A's are adjusted to their softest setting, how do these compare to the stock shocks? Also the front seem to be easily adjustable from inside the hood. What about the rear ones? Do you have to pull out the wheels? Worse?

Sorry for the hijack.

Adjustment depends upon the car. Fronts are pretty easy in general rears can be a pain. SAs on max soft are a bit stiffer (less than 25%) compared to a stock shock

You have to pull the shock off the car.

"SA" means single adjustable. All that you can adjust on off the shelf SA shock is low speed rebound. It has the largest effect on how the car responds to driver imput and the least effect on how the car responds to road surface irregularities and, thus, ride quality.

If you were to put Koni Yellows on your ZHP, you cna probably expect to notice a substantially firmer ride due to a combination of the high speed compression being a little more aggressive than the OE Boge dampers and the fact that the OE ones are also worn to whatever degree. Then, if you notice significant changes to ride quality due to adjusting the low speed rebound, you probably made the adjustments yourself. ;)

I'd still like to know what issue(s) Sharp11 has with his car and what benefit he's looking to gain from the Konis. This will help us make a more informed response to his question.

Thanks clyde. So as far as daily driving comfort, both FSD's and yellows would be a firmer setup. Interesting. Removing the rear shocks to adjust them seems like a royal PITA for my application.

Anyone know a good source for me to read up on performance suspension essentials? Thanks!

or at least unhook one end

There's better stuff out there than this, but the good stuff is scattered.

There's a book called "How to Make Your Car Handle" by Puhn which is pretty readable.

The Carroll Smith books, Tune to Win, Drive to Win, Prepare to Win and Engineer to Win (in that order) should all be on your bookshelf.

Thank you.:)

Edit: What about the Speed Secrets books?

On my old E46, I installed a set of Koni adjustable sports with a spring package. These Konis were adjustable without removing them, front and rear.

The ride, on full soft, was firmer then the standard Boge suspension, but the front of the car was lowered 1.5 inches, rear .75 in tandem with the new springs, so as less wheel travel was the order of the day as well it's difficult to say how much the shocks alone contributed to ride quality. However, I quite liked the ride and I never needed to turn the shocks more than halfway for autox.

Ed

Doug,

The Z4 3.0's sport suspension, with its heavy-ish (25lbs each) 18 inch wheels on Bridgestone Re50 runflats provide not only a bone-jarring ride on CT roads, but a lot of skittering and scampering as well.

I'm currently, for winter, running non run flats on 17's, the scampering is gone and the ride is better, but the shocks seem to have a tendency to snap on rebound, especially in the rear - also, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of wheel travel with this suspension (the car IS low, really low).

Since most of the problem (and my objections) seem to occur on washboard surfaces, FSD's seem like a good solution.

Ed

Sounds like a combination of non-run flats (not a high performance tire by any means) and a rebound rate more tailored to what you have will make you happy, but you already knew that.

I haven't read 1 or 2 (although I do have them on my bookshelf), but IIRC, they are more about driving principles, racecraft and the like as opposed to car setup/theory. #3 is about using mental imagery to enhance driving performance and #4 is about driver coaching.

I'll wait on those. I'll just get the "xxxx to Win" series for now, I guess.

Speed Secrets 1 is more about driving better, SS 2 is more about being a race driver and the stuff it takes to sell yourself. If I remember them correctly, it's been years since I read them

If you don't have any driving/racing books, I would highly recommend Keith Code's "A Twist of the Wrist Vol. I" as the first thing to read. It's about road racing motorcycles, but the principles will serve anyone very well that ever controlls any sort of moving vehicle (car, motorcycle, bicycle, snowmobile, plane, etc)...or even any other task that requires, or should require, a modicum of concentration and planning ahead (should be right your alley ;))

The next book I would suggest is "Going Faster!" by Carl Lopez which is a Skip Barber School book. It gets into performance driving, line and the rest of the theories and application of them just like all the other how-to driving books, but does so in its own way and it covers weight transfer from the driver's perspective better than anything else out there. Smith's "Drive to Win" is a close second, but it's a more difficult text to read.

The rest of Smith's books are great once you get into building, preparing and setting up cars, but understanding the driving part before you get into modding makes the modding a lot more efficent and effective, IMO.

Cool, thanks.

If you want a copy of Going Faster I'll send ya mine (if I can find it)

PM me a mailing address

dibs to be 2nd in line.

EDIT: That makes no sense. I'll just buy it.

Sorry, he got it.

I do also have Speed Secrets 1 & 2 as well as BMW: M series and Performance specials

I'll be happy to pass along.