KSport Coilovers: All About 'Em

[Topless]

Thank you insite.

Another fine in-depth analysis by a skilled driver with a well tuned Boxster chassis for all of us to see. Penske has been doing this stuff forever on all their competition suspensions but they keep the results under lock and key. Nice to have our own forum race tuner who clearly understands that getting your suspension dialed in requires math, measurement... and testing. Definitely not a bolt-em-on-and-go proposition. It looks like you are getting close to hitting your ideal numbers. The car should feel great. Thank you again for sharing.

I found the ride height differential very interesting. Something Porsche figured out a while ago that I would not have guessed. Have you compared dampener performance at different operating temps? We wrestled with this doing prototype suspensions on motocross bikes. Shock fade was a big problem on early long travel systems during a hot day at the track.

[Brad Roberts]

Insite,

can you help me better understand the monoball uppers you posted pics of?

Are these FLAT plates that mount to the stock shock mount for the Boxster?


I'm HIGHLY concerned you are running flat plates in the rear of your car.. as this can cause the shocks to BOTTOM out. The Boxster mount is XX inches taller than any flat plate mount we have. We tried the flat monoball plates from the 996's in 2000 or so.. and had to RAISE the ride height to keep the shock from bottoming out INSIDE the tube.


I know you have the super whammy shocks that adjust ride height independant of the spring perch (from what I gather) so maybe the flat plate works well??


B

[insite]

Originally Posted by Brad Roberts

can you help me better understand the monoball uppers you posted pics of?

Are these FLAT plates that mount to the stock shock mount for the Boxster?

these replace the factory round strut top mounts. they are indeed flat monoball plates.

Originally Posted by Brad Roberts

I'm HIGHLY concerned you are running flat plates in the rear of your car.. as this can cause the shocks to BOTTOM out. The Boxster mount is XX inches taller than any flat plate mount we have. We tried the flat monoball plates from the 996's in 2000 or so.. and had to RAISE the ride height to keep the shock from bottoming out INSIDE the tube.


I know you have the super whammy shocks that adjust ride height independant of the spring perch (from what I gather) so maybe the flat plate works well??

the application for the boxster does NOT use a setup w/ ride height adjustable independant of the perches (i was mistaken); most of their applications allow independant adjustment, but not for the boxster.

i'll have to take a pic friday when i put my street pads back in; KSport chose a very short shock body for the rear to deal with the problem you're talking about. the shock body is actually matched to the monoball plate, so it works well. at a fairly racey ride height, the shock still has a few inches of compression travel. additionally, these dampers have internal and external bump stops (although i don't ever really hit them).

[insite]

Originally Posted by Topless

I found the ride height differential very interesting. Something Porsche figured out a while ago that I would not have guessed. Have you compared dampener performance at different operating temps? We wrestled with this doing prototype suspensions on motocross bikes. Shock fade was a big problem on early long travel systems during a hot day at the track.

the ride height thing is interesting indeed. i figured i could shift the weight around a bit w/ ride height since it's the sprung weight that matters for purposes of harmonics. i figured i'd try the M030 solution: 1/2" higher in back. works like a champ.

as for shock fade? i'll know on thursday. for those interested, here's some background on what Topless is referring to: dampers absorb kinetic energy. this energy has to go somewhere; that somewhere is heat. when the dampers heat up, the fluids inside change visocity and the gasses inside increase in pressure. this causes the damping charicteristics to change with temperature. in some dampers, this effect is pretty dramatic; the car won't handle.

thursday, the high at little talladega is only supposed to be around 82; they'll still get a good workout. i'll post my findings after my testing day.