Konis or Spax Shock Absorbers?

I am currently looking at upgrading my shock absorbers to either a Koni setup or a Spax setup for my GTD40. I plan to use it on track days, for GTD compettive events, as well as occasional road use.

From what I have found at present, the Spax have the advantage of being easily adjustable at circuits, whereas the Koni's are a better product. I understand that the old Spax absorbers were pretty poor but that a new version came out in the past year or so and that this was a vast improvement over the previous version.

Do any of you have experience of using both setups and which with hindsight you think is best? How often do you need to adjyust the shock absorbers in practice anyhow?

Appreciate your thoughts.

Regards


Martin

Hi Martin

I have 4 Spax shocks, 3 good and 1 snapped. I replaced them with AVO's, with the spherical bearing's.
The Spax have a 1/2" piston shaft that reduces to 3/8" threaded where it attaches to the piston. The AVO's are 5/8" on the piston shaft.
I also understand that the amount of static spring pressure that the spax spring seat can stand is around 400lbs and remember that if you compress the spring seat by 1" you double the spring rate.

Chris

We've used Spax on our GTs and Cobra replicas for almost 20 years and never broken one - although our highest spring rate is 400 lb/in (but mostly 350s). Almost all our warrantees have been from units that have been sitting around for years causing the seals to deteriorate.

Konis are excellent units, especially for HD use, but I would always get the externally adjustable damping style for a GT. I think they're around US$500 each.

Bob, are the SPAX rebuildable? If so do they have to go back to the UK? I have an older set that will probaly need a refresh at some point. Brian

Track Spax are factory rebuildable but I don't know about some of there other products. They can be contacted at: http://www.spax.co.uk/

My opinion for what its worth...

Originally I had just adjustable spax dampers but these "went off" with track work.

Upgraded to Trak Spax. These needed an awful lot of maintenance ie each year needed to go back to the factory for a re-condition and they didn't last long after that. Leaks etc. Unimpressed. Also costly to recondition at about £70 plus parts for each damper.

Went to Koni twin adjustables. These were specially designed for the GTD as I took my car to their unit and there is a special job number for GTD40s being (I think I remember it correctly but check first!) D100. It is still a valid job number from what I was told two weeks ago. Never had a problem with the Koni's but if I did, the cost of refurbishment is meant to be about £20 plus parts. Just the initial cost is about twice that of Trak Spax. However most of the GTD competition boys also experienced problems with the Trak SPax similar to me and most now run Koni's with the same lack of problems.

No question in my mind that of these two types of damper the Koni is better albeit more expensive to get initially.

Malcolm

Malcolm,

How often do you adjust the settings on your Konis and how easy is it to do at the track?

Regards

Martin

To be honest now I have set them I do not adjust them. Lets see if I can remember how I was told to set them up...

Firstly wind off the rebound setting completely. Then set the bump settings to your liking. Only once that is done do you then wind on the rebound setting two clicks at a time. Once the car feels like the dampers are "crashing" (you will know this when it happens!) wind back off one or two clicks so it doesn't "crash" any more. Then you are set to go for general use.

No-one I know of changes settings for diffeering days ie road, track or hill climb. Bit like a holley carb, set and forget!

However the ease of seting is not that straight forward. The bump setting is easy and can be done in seconds trakside. To set the rebound you need to take the damper off the car which is a pain. It is done by pushing in a button and rotating the piston. Spend more money (!) and you can go up a version of damper that has both adjusters on the outside & easily got at.

If you wanted these units, someone out there should (?) have the initial settings that you could plug straight into to save a lot of time.

Malcolm

Hi

We at gtd now use a shock absorber which is in our opinion better than both Koni and Spax shocks for the same price! Our shock are rebuildable and have more adjustment than Konis or Spax versions. They also look much better. They are Gold anodised with black spring seats. For more info contact GTD.
01675 465888
email - [email protected]

Sounds interesting. Which manufacturer is it and how much do they cost?

Martin