Are we talking street cars, track cars, or dual duty machines?
Actually, never mind. Here's my short list on dampers:
Direct-Swap Dampers (for lowering springs)
Top two for street cars would be AGX and Koni Yellow. They're both cheap, readily available, and the adjusters on both actually work. The AGX has less low speed rebound, which is actually more comfortable if you're driving on relatively smooth roads. Konis are nice because they're cheap to rebuild and can be revalved relatively easily. Both are of similar quality and are relatively cheap.
If I was building a track car, I wouldn't use either of them. AGX's can't be rebuilt or revalved, and there's not enough low speed damping overall. The adjuster range on the Yellows is too narrow for a serious track car, and the base valving for the off-the-shelf Yellows won't support the kind of spring rates I'd want (i.e.: 800 lb-f/in F/ 700 lb-f/in rear to start in a B14). That and they both exhibit terrible hysteresis and they both vary vastly in damping between batches (and even between individual dampers). If I had to choose one of these, I would choose Koni Yellows - it's the only damper we have in this category that can be readily rebuilt.
Height-Adjustable Coilover Dampers
For a strictly street-driven car, I would actually choose Tein's entry level twin-tubes (BASIC, SS, FLEX) over anything else. On the street, I would prioritize damper travel and consistency between the dampers on the left and right side of the car over heat dissipation and damping in the sub-60mm/s range. All of Tein's dampers are shortened to maintain as much damper travel as possible, and they have a dyno at the end of their production line (rare for a mass-production damper). They also exhibit far less hysteresis or cross-talk (in the SS and Flex) than many other options in the same price range... which I just realized isn't all that important in a street car but it sure sounds cool.
The sky is the limit when it comes to track-car dampers, and when I say "sky", I mean your wallet. My wallet tends to be very empty most of the time, so I would most likely find someone to build me coilovers using Koni 8611's. As far as "race car" dampers go they're pretty entry level. But you really can't find double-adjustables (independent compression and rebound) for our cars for that price. That and Koni is everywhere, so you can always find someone to rebuild & revalve them for you.
If I was more confident in my understanding of race car dampers, I would call up HotBits and have them build a set of DT2's to my exact specs. Those guys will do anything you ask them to, for surprisingly little money. Just don't expect them to have any direct experience with B chassis track cars.
As for dual-duty dampers, it's a toss-up for me between Koni Yellows and the Tein twin-tubes. They're far from perfect, but if you can compromise a little on both ends, neither is a particularly bad choice.
Be the first to like this post.
Originally Posted by Andreas
. Koni's, see what Veilside said....CSK's with whatever insert is appropriate. 
Back to top
