Suspension is a true black art. To know what kind of improvement a turbo kit or exhaust makes, take it to the dyno. A couple of pulls and a graph later, and you'll see how much power your paycheck just bought. But suspension systems, even stock ones, are far more mysterious to most people.
So we've decided to make ourselves the medium through which eight of the most popular suspension tuners-Buddy Club, J's Racing, JIC, KW, Moton, Ohlins, Spoon Sports and TEIN-can channel their wares. Trust us, if you don't see your favorite brand here, it's not because the list of invitees was too short, they just couldn't make it out.
Using the Honda S2000 as our base, we've lined up a stock second-generation S2000 and Honda has loaned us a fresh factory hot-rod S2000 CR. And if you don't own a S2000, don't worry, the information here still applies. Spring rate choice, MSRPs, shock valving philosophy-all these concepts apply universally.
Because this is designed to be a suspension test and not a project car test, we've set a few ground rules. No forced induction, ECU tuning, aftermarket limited-slip differentials, shorter final drives, or roll cages. And no widebody kits or fenders. Even though the cars will run through Buttonwillow's infamous 'time attack' configuration #13CW, each tuner must come with a set-up that can be recommended and sold to the average buyer. This means street cars, not stripped-out track machines.
Leveling the playing field is the choice of spec rubber, the Continental ContiSportContact 3 maximum-grip summer tire. We could have allowed racing slicks, but the 280 treadwear-rated CSC3 is more indicative of a sticky real-world tire, one where consumers balance overall grip with longevity and civility. By choosing a true street tire, we also forced each company to pick suspension kits with acceptable spring rates-and thus shock valving-for a street car.
Since the racetrack isn't the only place you'll be driving, we decided to carry out a few other tests as well. With all the data gathered and presented here, it should be possible to figure out each tuner's style and judge what combination of stiffness, speed, price and feel fits your needs best.
Shock Dyno
As one of the requirements of our comparison, we had every company submit one off-the-shelf kit for independent testing on a shock dyno. While understanding and correlating handling and ride quality to a shock dyno plot requires a trained eye and a lot of experience, most SCC readers should at least be able to compare damping curves and ranges. Each chart is plotted on the same linear scale, with damping forces and speed values omitted for confidentiality reasons.
In the case of the S2000, understanding the car and reading the dyno plots can tell many things. The car's near-50/50 weight distribution means that, ideally, the front and rear spring rates are about the same. The only difference might be on account of the shorter rear suspension stroke. The front and rear damping profiles for each car should be fairly similar, any difference would be down to how each company wants the car to handle in terms of front and rear grip, as reflected by the compression and rebound settings.
For the S2000, even Honda's engineers decided to use a fairly linear damping curve, meaning that damping force increases in proportion with damper piston speed. Many race and sport applications use this type of profile for consistent suspension response over the entire range of piston speeds.
The sacrifice with a linear profile is the greater damping force at high speed, which contributes to a harsher ride. Many street cars use a digressive damping profile where, at low piston speeds (which govern body roll and pitch), damping force increases at a steeper angle. At mid-speeds-like driving over a pothole, speed bumps or FIA curbing-a digressive profile will decrease (similar to the Ohlins front damper profile). Damping forces decrease proportionally, allowing the suspension to soak up larger bumps and dips.
By SCC Staff
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