How do Ohlins compare to Moton shocks ???

 

All I know is that they both cost a lot of $$$. The ex-DC sports ITRs were running them in WC.

 

Humm.... NO idea... Is it even relevant for us? I guess if they're true full race shocks, they're all about as good. Koni 28 series, Moton, Ohlins, Carrera...

 

I wouldn't way that they are all the same. From talking to people in both car and motorcycling racing, the Ohlins seem to be the best. But, if you don't know what your doing, in terms of setting them up, they could be a big waste of money.

 

..that Ohlins and Moton have their respective niches of racecars. I recently attended the ALMS/Speedvision WC races @ Laguna Seca, and found that nearly evey LeMans team was running the Ohlins suspension [maybe for sponsorhip reasons , who knows?] and nearly EVERY Touring Car team was using the Moton suspension, case in point, a privatter BMW team:


And, the Audi ALMS car:


Personally, for road use, I would suggest the H&R coilovers, Apexi, Tein HA's [which I have], Zeal, Koni or Bilsteins. The Motons, Boge-Sachs, and others use finer materials and conversly have MUCH higher costs, as well as much less N.American customer support. All in all I would find a company that has US customer support and rebuild facilities, TEIN does not, and Im kicking myself for it sometimes! And as far as I know Ohlins is not yet commercially available [for cars that is] yet in the US.
Also, I have ridden Ohlins shock and sterring dampner equipped Ducatis, and I had the standard Boge-Sachs/Showa units as well, and did notice a difference in overall feel of the Ohlins unit, but it was only dramatic after proper set-up!
So, if your an amatuer, you dont need such fine tuning..


[Modified by bb6h22a, 8:57 PM 10/4/2001]

 

Actually, Motorsports Spares is the official Ohlins service center in the U.S. I think I read somewhere in their web pages that a rebuild job is around $75 per damper. Not bad, IMHO. The manual also has detailed instructions on servicing, revalving, and rebuilding the dampers.

Also, there seem to be engineering differences that are partially responsible for the high cost of these high end dampers. For example, Ohlins uses the thermal expansion of the aluminum in the valving to maintain the same damping force at different temperatures. That difference even results in a varying click range in the adjustment ***** at different temperatures! I find that amazing.

I agree that the setup of Ohlins dampers is intimidating. I have no idea what I will do with mine, but I am going to be asking around among all the experienced racers I can. In the limited searching that I have done, I haven't really seen any really good information on procedures for setting up 3+ way adjustable dampers. It's as if it's black magic!

Particularly vexing is the fact that the reservoir actually acts as an additional damper in series with the main damper. That means the overall damping is the "sum" of the two, and you can adjust either one. I am guessing the damping force is similar to springs in series: (1/Fd1) + (1/Fd2) = (1/Fd) or am I totally wrong? And I wonder how this affects the behavior of the car.

It will be fun to experiment and find out!



[Modified by Gansan, 11:19 PM 10/4/2001]

 

I have OHlins on my JDM Integra Si and it's very good on track in cornering but definately not suitable for road use .. it's very very stiff