St-xta coil overs? Opinions???

[white86hatch]

In two years I've gone through two sets of Koni yellows. The struts just won't last apparently. So I'm looking for a replacement/upgrade. I was wondering if anyone has real world and track experience with the st-xta coil over kits? How was the daily driving characteristics? How do they hold up? Any posts telling me to buy $3,500 kits will be dismissed, that's definitely not in my budget.

 

[NDSP]

I don't have any idea, but I'm curous too. When these where brought up in the other thread I went looking and couldn't even find a state side seller of the damn things, let alone a listing for a S197 mustang.

 

[sheizasosay]

In two years I've gone through two sets of Koni yellows. The struts just won't last apparently. So I'm looking for a replacement/upgrade. I was wondering if anyone has real world and track experience with the st-xta coil over kits? How was the daily driving characteristics? How do they hold up? Any posts telling me to buy $3,500 kits will be dismissed, that's definitely not in my budget.

The struts break, but not the rears? What doesn't last exactly?

 

[SlowJim]

o2sys has them, I sent him a PM about them awhile ago and this is what he said:

They are great coilovers. The ride is super smooth and comfortable.
I sprayed wheel paint clear coat to prevent any surface rust and so far its been holding up great.
The rears dont go as low, wish it went about 1/2 lower but the fronts can slam the car.
But based on other coilovers I had (Tein, JIC Magic, BC Racing) <- on other cars though, these are perfect for what I wanted.
On the softest setting, its like stock but it can get a little bouncy on the highway.
I have not tried full hard, and currently on their recommended setting which is about little more than half stiffness.
They don't make any noise as of yet.
The camber plate could have been designed better, it has no markings so adjusting yourself would be nearly impossible. But it got the job done at the alignment shop so no gripes there.

 

[white86hatch]

The struts break, but not the rears? What doesn't last exactly?

Something internal goes out and they lose dampening ability.

 

[o2sys]

I got my set through jayman (hypermotive) he gave me an awesome deal. At the time they were also having a $150 rebate so a jumped on it.

They are basically the KW V2 in disguise. You are getting German engineered stuff if that has any merit or meaning to you.

Like slowjim posted, all I've told him still hold true. I recently raise the front end due my splitter scrapping everywhere and they Still looked like new. I've hit some pretty bad pothole and still holding up fine. I do track my car but haven't since the coilover install.

 

[mike4.0]

I got my set through jayman (hypermotive) he gave me an awesome deal. At the time they were also having a $150 rebate so a jumped on it.

They are basically the KW V2 in disguise. You are getting German engineered stuff if that has any merit or meaning to you.

Like slowjim posted, all I've told him still hold true. I recently raise the front end due my splitter scrapping everywhere and they Still looked like new. I've hit some pretty bad pothole and still holding up fine. I do track my car but haven't since the coilover install.

Can you post some pictures of how low these go ?
I've been waiting to see reviews on these as well. Tirerack has them also I've seen

 

[o2sys]

This is at the lowest

 

[claudermilk]

The camber plate could have been designed better, it has no markings so adjusting yourself would be nearly impossible. But it got the job done at the alignment shop so no gripes there.

While my Vorshlag CC plates have markings, I don't really use them. Since the lower plate also moves around, those markings are kind of useless--really my only complaint about these & it's really minor.

What I do is use a small steel ruler. I don't recall where I got it, but it's a nice, narrow one, black anodized with English units on one side & metric on the other. I had the alignment shop run both a street and track setup, and give me the measurements from the inside edge of the hole in the tower to the strut shaft. Then I just lay the ruler & measure as I wiggle the strut into position. I can get it to within 1mm which is more than accurate enough.

 

[shark tales]

not low enough lol

 

[sheizasosay]

not low enough lol

This ain't the show-car section.

 

[claudermilk]

not low enough lol

This is corner carvers, not pimpin'!

 

[Vorshlag-Fair]

This is corner carvers, not pimpin'!

Couple of quick observations:

1. Yes, Konis fail, and often very quickly. Most people don't know when these shocks have stopped damping because they are so blah to begin with. Stock length Struts with lowering springs leads to lots of impacts with the bump stops, becuase when you lower a car you also need to shorten the shocks, otherwise the amount lowered is all lost in Bump Travel.

Our order desk manager put some brand new Konis on his 2006 GT this past Spring, autocrossed in Texas for 5 months, and when he pulled them off at the end of the season to sell them... two were dead. No gas, leaking fluid, DEAD. Yes, that's typical. People that tell you Konis are great are not doing you any favors. He bought them right before he started working here, cannot sell them now, and has a set of proper MCS TT1 coilovers on order to replace them.

2. To "Dampen" (aka: dampener) is to moisten, and that is shown above at left. Above right is a "Damper" (Damp as a verb is different than Dampen). Sorry, its a pet peeve. If you cannot remember just use the word "shocks" as the noun and the word "damp" as the verb. Moisten = Dampen

3. "How low" a set of coilovers gets has almost nothing to do with the handling/performance/reliability of a set of dampers that would be discussed in the corner carvers section. While lowering the CG is beneficial, there is always a compromise with everything in racing. Ride height depends on a number of outside factors (street use percentage, track conditions in your area, aero loading) but mostly it has to do with the length of the dampers you have chosen. Within the total shock range you need some rebound travel (up) and some amount of bump travel (down) from ride height. We like to use this rule of thumb: about 2/5ths travel in rebound and 3/5ths travel in bump. Konis with lowering springs on an S197 are about 4/5ths rebound and 1/5th bump (and that's a big reason why they ride so badly).

If you autocross, time trial, HPDE or otherwise "carve corners", we can help. If you just want "that stance", we are no good to you.

 

[shark tales]

This is corner carvers, not pimpin'!

trueeee

 

[csamsh]

Terry pew-pew-pew

Nice to see Jon getting cool stuff....now only if I had some front dampeners!!!

 

[jayman33]

We've ran the ST XTA's over here in Germany along with the AST 4150's and Bilstein B12 kit all three did great. Ran on a few tracks, ring and all over the country. For the cost I really do like the ST's, I don't have anything over here to test spring rates and whatnot. Only thing I can show is I've tested them over here, at least these 3 sets. All performed as expected and handled great, I had the ST's on the longest and never ran into any issues. But just like the KW's the ST kits are made here in Germany, only reason I know is because they called me from here and shipped me a set of ST's directly from KW. Seems Koni QC measures have been laxed lately. 50% of the issues we've had with Koni was directly from the factory, which to me, is scary... and bothersome.
There are better kits out there but like you said, you're not looking to spend 3500.

Give us a shout if you have any questions!

 

[white86hatch]

Couple of quick observations:

1. Yes, Konis fail, and often very quickly. Most people don't know when these shocks have stopped damping because they are so blah to begin with. Stock length Struts with lowering springs leads to lots of impacts with the bump stops, becuase when you lower a car you also need to shorten the shocks, otherwise the amount lowered is all lost in Bump Travel.

Our order desk manager put some brand new Konis on his 2006 GT this past Spring, autocrossed in Texas for 5 months, and when he pulled them off at the end of the season to sell them... two were dead. No gas, leaking fluid, DEAD. Yes, that's typical. People that tell you Konis are great are not doing you any favors. He bought them right before he started working here, cannot sell them now, and has a set of proper MCS TT1 coilovers on order to replace them.

2. To "Dampen" (aka: dampener) is to moisten, and that is shown above at left. Above right is a "Damper" (Damp as a verb is different than Dampen). Sorry, its a pet peeve. If you cannot remember just use the word "shocks" as the noun and the word "damp" as the verb. Moisten = Dampen

3. "How low" a set of coilovers gets has almost nothing to do with the handling/performance/reliability of a set of dampers that would be discussed in the corner carvers section. While lowering the CG is beneficial, there is always a compromise with everything in racing. Ride height depends on a number of outside factors (street use percentage, track conditions in your area, aero loading) but mostly it has to do with the length of the dampers you have chosen. Within the total shock range you need some rebound travel (up) and some amount of bump travel (down) from ride height. We like to use this rule of thumb: about 2/5ths travel in rebound and 3/5ths travel in bump. Konis with lowering springs on an S197 are about 4/5ths rebound and 1/5th bump (and that's a big reason why they ride so badly).

If you autocross, time trial, HPDE or otherwise "carve corners", we can help. If you just want "that stance", we are no good to you.

This set of Koni's has been on the car since May. Just daily driving. No events as I haven't had time. Pretty disappointed to say the least.

 

[mike4.0]

This is at the lowest

Thank you, any shot of the rear?
Let us know how they do on the track when you get them out!

 

[jmauld]

Couple of quick observations:

1. Yes, Konis fail, and often very quickly. Most people don't know when these shocks have stopped damping because they are so blah to begin with. .
.
.
.
Our order desk manager put some brand new Konis on his 2006 GT this past Spring, autocrossed in Texas for 5 months, and when he pulled them off at the end of the season to sell them... two were dead. No gas, leaking fluid, DEAD. Yes, that's typical. People that tell you Konis are great are not doing you any favors. He bought them right before he started working here, cannot sell them now, and has a set of proper MCS TT1 coilovers on order to replace them.

I'm glad to see a vendor post this. After seeing countless failures, three sets on my own cars, I will never buy another KONI. In fact, they have almost ruined twin tube shocks for me, period.

 

[Lucky_13]

Put me in as another whose Konis died, quickly. Three months on NY roads. Running KW V3s now, much happier.