My KONI Sports (yellows) will be here friday!

[airjor13]

With just the rears on, wife reported that the car is more playful and easier to drive. It was very playful and easy to drive at the limit when stock, but adding the big front bar made the car faster, but harder to drive and less fun. Adding the rear konis (1/2 turn from full stiff) brought back some playfulness and mitigated the downsides of the bigger front bar while keeping the advantages.

I'm excited to get the front Konis on the car, set to the factory position (soft) and see if we can get even more front grip out of the car. I'm very optimistic that the reduced compression damping will bring more benefits up front.

Good to hear! Keep up posted once the fronts are on! This is definitely on my list of next things to get!

 

[aballphoto]

Interested to hear some results.

 

[re-rx7]

In for results and fitment.

 

[Mightymango]

Why are the rears a pain in the ass to adjust? They sound stupid easy to install (looking at them I know why)

So do you think that the shocks with out any bar would actually be...better? You said it was less fun with the bigger front bar until you put the rears on.

 

[justgotFiSTed]

Why are the rears a pain in the ass to adjust? They sound stupid easy to install (looking at them I know why)

So do you think that the shocks with out any bar would actually be...better? You said it was less fun with the bigger front bar until you put the rears on.

The rears are a pain to adjust because first, you have to remove them from the car (the easy part), then you have to remove the strut mount and bumpstops, then compress the shock all the way and try to turn it while it's fighting you the whole time. It's more of a pain than it sounds, believe me. I need to get a beefier vise with soft jaws for sure.

As far as the Konis with no bar...I don't think so, no. Our cars are SO camber challenged and under sprung up front, so under load our front suspension geometry really compromises our front contact patches. Additionally, the front is pretty floppy through slaloms....It's SO much better through quick transitions with the front bar.

With the Eibach bar and stock shocks, the car is better through transitions but you have to be careful overloading the front on turn-in and use careful trailbraking.

With the Konis set toward the stiffer end and the Eibach bar up front, the car is just as easy to rotate as stock, MUCH more predictable and precise, easier to drive, incredibly fast through slaloms, and more forgiving.

I have no ego invested in developing a car, I will try anything. We will add the front Konis Thursday (set soft/faster rebound) and see what that feels like, and then play with them at the next couple events, as they are super easy to adjust with a knob under the hood. After that, we will likely put the stock bar back on and try cranking up the rebound damping up front and see how that feels. I will settle on whatever works, not whatever I FEEL SHOULD work.

I really do feel that a larger front bar will be an important aspect of setting this car up, as cranking up the rebound damping (slowing the rebound) helps control the speed of weight transfer/body roll, not total body roll. If the transitions are fast enough, yes, body roll will be reduced if the suspension is rebounding slower than you are adding lateral transitions, but at the expense of jacking down the suspension. In a long enough slalom, you could end up jacking it all the way down to the bumpstops, and things would get exciting quickly!

We will see...like I said, I will try every combination. I just want the car set up as well as I can afford, I don't care about proving any specific theory. I will report back for sure!

 

[justgotFiSTed]

Also, to address your first question, an otherwise stock car with the Konis on the rear set like they are now would be an absolute handful. Too tailhappy to be useful I think.

 

[Mightymango]

Interesting......I'm really curious now. The front bar is cheap enough so that it isn't a big deal. I'm going to be removing the rear bar when I put the shocks in.

 

[justgotFiSTed]

I think that's a good idea for sure. I'd also try WITH the rear bar you have, but with the rear Konis set soft, like they come from the factory. Remember, "soft" doesn't mean softer than stock, just the softer end of their adjustment spectrum.

 

[Mightymango]

I think that's a good idea for sure. I'd also try WITH the rear bar you have, but with the rear Konis set soft, like they come from the factory. Remember, "soft" doesn't mean softer than stock, just the softer end of their adjustment spectrum.

That was my plan for the test in tune we have before spring nats. The rear bar is stupid easy to install/remove.

 

[justgotFiSTed]

Fronts are on! Install was easy and smooth. Took lots of pics, working on chopping them down to size
!

 

[Mightymango]

Fronts are on! Install was easy and smooth. Took lots of pics, working on chopping them down to size
!

Pictures and tips would be awesome.

 

[re-rx7]

In for info and feedback.

 

[justgotFiSTed]

Okay...so there's 3 things that make these different from the OEM struts:

#1: There is no provision to retail the harmonic damper (silver metal box) bolted to the strut. As far as I'm concerned, it's part of the strut, and I'm replacing the strut for a reason.

#2: The bottom of the spring perch is a different shape. Unlike the OEM strut, it ACTUALLY FITS the dang stock spring, do you don't need to re-use the rubber that's found on the base of the stock strut.

#3: The ABS wire bracket is different. The factory clip will NOT fit into the new Koni strut. I knew this going in. Improvise, adapt, and overcome.

Tips: two of the 13mm upper strut mount nuts absolutely SUCK to get to. Be patient. Also, one of the 10mm nuts that secures the brake master cylinder ALSO sucks. Be patient again. Use a spring compressor (duh), and get a pass-through socket (18mm) for the stock strut nut so that you can hold it in place with an allen.

Also, in order to use the Koni knob to a adjust the driver's side damper, I'd leave the rear-most bolt on the brake master cylinder off, and leave the other one hand tight. It won't be going anywhere.

I will post more thoughts as I remember them, hit me up with questions!

 

[Chris G]

Those are sexy. Looks great!

 

[stuntdoogie]

I want those with H&R springs. I see tirerack sells the rears. Waiting for your test results for street and i will be ordering for the spring. Thanks for being the guinea pig.

 

[re-rx7]

So these are basically Koni's for all fiestas that fit the st.

 

[airjor13]

Thanks for review these

 

[justgotFiSTed]

So these are basically Koni's for all fiestas that fit the st.

Yes. The info is in the thread.

http://www.stranoparts.com/partdetails.php?PartID=1207&CategoryID=0&ModelID=41

 

[FocusMike]

Great job [MENTION=934]justgotFiSTed[/MENTION] and thanks for doing this, I've always been curious to know if the regular Fiesta suspension fits on the ST.

 

[re-rx7]

Looking forward to review on setup.