01-25-2014
Ohlins DFV / Stage II Driving Impressions (Street/Touge):
Summary: 
Initial impression
After I picked up the car from the shop I took it out for a quick testing session and was immediately pleased with the results. A stock S2000 has very little roll compared to most cars but there is still that small amount that requires the driver to compensate for the slight delay that can occur between inputs. On the new setup I noticed I was turning in a bit too early since I was used to compensating for the roll. In fact I noticed that most of my inputs were a bit too early now. My habits changed very quickly though and after a few runs I was turning in later and later and the car reacted beautifully. Even better, all of my other inputs were slowly adjusting. With less dive I was now braking later than ever before. With increased overall grip I was getting to full throttle earlier and taking corners flat I never could before. And with the improved damping all of these inputs are always right in sync with what the car is actually doing at the time. These are the types of differences I was expecting but I was pretty shocked at just how big of a difference it has made.
Ohlins DFV impressions
The Ohlins DFV are at their recommended ride height (25mm lower than stock, 330 ride height from wheel center to fender F and R) and were setup at 11 clicks from full stiff F and R (I meant to use 10 per the Ohlins recommended setup but realized later I had miscounted). This was an extremely compliant setup and I immediately noticed how much more compliant the car was compared to the stock suspension, even though the springs are significantly stiffer and the ride height is lower. In some of the more technical sections with a bunch of linked up tight and narrow corners I felt the damping was a bit too soft. Keep in mind this was when I was really tossing the car back and forth and it was reacting over roads that camber back and forth. Whenever making a drastic change of direction the car felt like it wasn't quite in sync front to rear. Not terrible but noticeable. Still great to drive and massive improvement over stock but I knew I wanted to try them a bit stiffer. I felt already that the spring rate was perfect for the type of roads I like to drive. In no way is it too stiff to enjoy the really tight, twisty, bumpy, and narrow roads I often like to drive. If anything the car just handles them much better than stock, even with the lower ride height. Even when getting the car slightly airborne I am reconnected to the road in a way that is just dramatically more staple. A high speed corner with a pretty harsh dip right in the middle that I always had to do a little lift for I can now take flat and the car stays completely composed. I can't wait to test them out on Bumpy Ass Buttonwillow.
(The measurements in these setup sheets are adjusted from the recommended Ohlins ride height settings to account for my J's roll center adjusters)
The next morning I set the dampers to 8 clicks from full stiff (F and R). I wanted to try 2 clicks stiffer than the recommended setup and as I was adjusting I realized they were actually set to 11 not 10, so this was technically 3 clicks stiffer than the setup I drove and felt it was a tiny bit to soft (which was 1 click softer than what Ohlins recommends). I drove my usual route to work (the same route I had tested them set to 11 clicks) and I honestly didn't feel that the ride was any more harsh. There is a section of freeway that I have to drive over that is very wavy and the car feels dramatically better than stock over this wavy section. I also drive over a few railroad tracks on my way to work. After installing the Spoon Rigid collars there was a noticeable improvement in how the car reacted but this time driving over them I actually started laughing at how much better it is. The only indication of going over railroad tracks that I really sense from the car is the vibration through the tires and the sound. I found myself swerving at bumps in the road just so I could enjoy how compliant the car is.
Later that evening I went on my usual route up into the mountains to give the car a thorough shakedown with the adjustments to the dampers. This was a much more thorough test and I was driving with a person that I frequent the mountains with. With the dampers now adjusted it took me about 4-5 corners to realize just how much more potential the car now has. INCREDIBLE. As I started to get a feel for it, I started turning in later and later and with more speed. It was then I started to realize just how different this setup really is. The car is an absolute turn-in monster now. I specifically was testing on some very tight corners where the stock car would exhibit a bit of understeer. I purposely tried entering these corners too hot and not once could I get it to understeer. It just turn turn turns. Many times I was telling the car out loud how much I love it after each corner, hahaha. Of course there is a limit to what the tires can do, but now when that limit is reached the car just goes into a 4 wheel slide in an incredibly smooth way. I have complete control of the rear end with the throttle now that just wasn't quite there with the stock suspension. It's almost magical the way this car turns in now. I gave a good friend of mine a ride along (who I consider to be a much better driver than I am) who drives a highly tuned Audi S4 touge monster with Ohlins 2-way dampers that blew me away when I went for a ride and drove it. He has driven my car as it was stock and gone for a ride along with me driving on the same roads. This is the first time (since my rental car bandit days
) that I have properly scared him in a car. It took him many runs to adjust to how far I could brake into corners before turning in. We were entering corners at speeds that would cause his AWD monster to start understeering and my car was now eating up. He just started laughing as we did more runs and I just kept entering corners faster and faster. His impressions were the exact same as mine. Complete control of the rear end of the car with the throttle now and the turn-in is something his car can just not hang with. His car should definitely be able to exit corners much quicker and leave me in the dust on straights but he couldn't stop talking about how amazing it is under turn-in.
The new improved alignment plays a very large role in making the car the turn-in monster it has become I think. One whole degree more of negative camber than my last setup and -0.2 offset from the rear. (-2.6 F -2.4 R, 6.0 Caster, 1/16th total rear toe-in). As mentioned the car is 25mm lower than it was stock (at 330mm wheel center to fender) F and R. It also has a slightly wider track F and R with the CE28N's compared to the stock wheels. All of this combined with the excellent Ohlins dampers and I have a setup I really couldn't be happier with and was able to get comfortable with almost immediately. I was really afraid that I might get slower trying to relearn the car but it is just dramatically quicker. I can't wait to get to the track to see just how much faster! I was getting some very minor rubbing on the middle fender liner tabs when the car was under really heavy load through some low speed corners but this should be a pretty simple fix that I will get taken care of before hitting the track in February. The type of roads I drive in the mountains aren't really so different from the track, but I will definitely be posting up with my track impressions as well.
Driving back home I couldn't stop thinking about how the car felt entering a corner. When a car understeers I am always sort of taken out of that world where I have become "one with the car". When a car has snappy behavior when going into oversteer I feel like I am fighting with it a bit. Now this car just feels like it wants to do exactly what I want it to do and is actually begging me to drive it faster. What more could I ask for? :thumb up:
Again I would like to say thank you to Patrick at
Urge Designs for the Ohlins, Anish at
Speed Freaks for getting me the camber joints, and Jei and everyone else at
BlackTrax for the great work on the install.
Same angle as before testing out some light painting methods.
I do have the data log though from my lap timer. No biggie though, I just wanted a really good benchmark for the close to stock car and now I've got one. More disappointed that I didn't catch a couple of the glorious 4 wheel drifts that went down. I will definitely be shooting for 2'03s-2'04s for part II of my cars life, which will still be on 225/255 tires. I switched to using close to 0 rear toe-in now and I think it is a good match for the staggered setup.
