KONI Sports for Classic Z's

[Diseazd]

Safari Gold......great color choice!

[Jason240z]

On 2/22/2019 at 3:13 AM, Joseph@TheZStore said:

Koni Test Drive Z Owner Ian Stewart’s Impressions

 

 

"Hello everyone, my 260Z was used as the test vehicle for the new Koni struts. The car was the perfect candidate as I had already rebuilt the suspension with new ball joints, Urethane bushings throughout (both front and rear), stiffer springs and Illumina struts. The only change that was made for the testing was replacing the Illumina’s with the Koni’s. 

 

 

The Koni’s are an improvement over the Illumina’s in my opinion. You need to get used to not having a way to tell where you are at as the Koni does not have an indicator, but the adjustment range is much wider and you can really feel the difference when you make a change. I never really noticed differences when I adjusted the Tokico’s, whereas I can definitely feel the difference when I adjust the Koni’s. My car is fitted with 160in-lb front and 180in-lb rear springs that lower it about 1.5 inches from stock. Note that these spring rates are similar to most aftermarket spring sets for Z-Cars, at roughly 2X stiffer than stock springs. At full stiff on the Koni adjustment the car is too harsh, but at full soft, it is comfortable (to me) for street use, I like the ride. I have not auto-crossed the car yet, but expect the full stiff setting will work very well." Ian Stewart.

I don't see how your car would be the perfect choice, you've large wheels, small tyre profile, hard bushings everywhere and used springs.

[KONI Lee]

 

1 hour ago, Jason240z said:

I don't see how your car would be the perfect choice, you've large wheels, small tyre profile, hard bushings everywhere and used springs.

It is a good example of how these cars are regulary upgraded with more modern wheels, tires, springs, bushings, etc. that many people use today.  Each of those steps takes some compliance out of the suspension's motion and sharpens the feedback up to the driver and passenger.  These cars will normally use a slightly higher initial rebound damping adjustment setting than will a truly stock car with softer springs, taller sidewall tires, etc. might.  The stock cars will normally be adjusted to at or near the full soft adjustment setting and the modified car will likely have a higher initial setting however it will rarely be even halfway into the full available adjustment range. 

This helps show that the new KONI Sport option meets its goal to cover a broad range of enthusiast Z-cars, whether fully stock, upgraded with modern parts but still needing a very streetable characteristic, or for even more aggressive cars for autocross. track days, etc..  If we had fixed damper valving with no damping adjustment to help work with a range of stock or upgraded performance parts, then there would be greater concern about needing multiple strut part numbers to cover the range of cars. Being adjustable lets the car owner match to his own upgrades, handling and ride preferences, local road conditions, weekend competition goals if any, and also compensate for long term wear.

[Joseph@TheZStore]

Our Test Pilot Hector Cademartori got back from Daytona and finished his write up about the new Koni Sports (and for you racing fans, a bit about Daytona). Apologies to Hector, he finished it weeks ago, I finally just caught up to him (which is far easier to do while NOT on the racetrack).

The article is fairly in-depth, so instead of posting the whole thing here, I'm just including a link to the Test Pilot Page in our store.

As a reminder, 70-8/74 Koni Sport Struts are in stock now. We hope to hear the arrival date of the 74.5 to 78 Struts from the Netherlands any day. There should be plenty of time to get your Z ready for all the fun you'll have this summer on track or at your favorite mountain pass.

Thanks Hector!

[Joseph@TheZStore]

@KONI Lee just let me know that the 9/74-78 260Z-280Z KONI Sport Struts have arrived in the U.S., are being processed, and will be on the way to California soon. We want to publicly thank KONI for meeting their production estimates. We wish more of our manufacturers were like this!

280ZX owners, we believe the original estimates (240Z before end of March, 280Z before the end of April, 280ZX before the end of May) are still good. We're glad KONI is spending as much time as necessary to make sure they get the 280ZX rear spring seats/shocks correct. They obviously take a bit more work than the simple early cartridges, and getting them right sure seems to be one of KONI's prime directives.

Great job KONI, and thanks Lee !

[Joseph@TheZStore]

Hey late 260Z & 280Z owners, look what showed up in our warehouse this week!

If you pre-ordered your struts, they are already on the way. If you didn't pre-order, get yours from the first batch so you don't miss out on adding these in time for the summer driving season (the huge box of 240Z & early 260Z struts we posted previously, for instance, is half empty already).

280ZX owners, we'll update you here as soon as we have more info. Thanks for your patience!

[Joseph@TheZStore]

Any of you already have these installed, and have some driving/racing feedback yet? (Hopefully all good feedback)

[Nils]

I ordered the new Konis for the 240Z, but thet they won't fit in my front strut housings. They are just a little too long for the gland nut to reach the threads in the housing. Reaching the 1-4mm required gap is not possible.

The part numbers stamped on my front strut housings are 54303-E4151 and 54302-E4151. My car is from 05/71. I'm 99% certain the housings are original to my car (it was 100% stock when I bought it), but they're not on MSAs list of standard strut housings for the 240Z.

Can anyone shed some light on my strut housings? Are they stock? Does anyone have a complete list of strut housing part number for the 240Z.

Also, has anyone successfully modified strut towers to make room for a slightly-too-long strut?

My old KYB Excel G's are aroung 10mm shorter than the new Konis.

The rear struts fit nicely.

[jonathanrussell]

Any chance that a previous owner put some sort of spacer in the bottom of your front struts to make the KYB struts fit?

[Nils]

1 hour ago, jonathanrussell said:

Any chance that a previous owner put some sort of spacer in the bottom of your front struts to make the KYB struts fit?

I put the KYBs in 4-5 years ago. When I bought the car it had the open-type struts that (from what I've read) the cars came with originally.

[HS30-H]

3 minutes ago, Nils said:

I put the KYBs in 4-5 years ago. When I bought the car it had the open-type struts that (from what I've read) the cars came with originally.

What was the original market of this car? You are in Norway, but I'm guessing it isn't an original Scandinavian/European model car, right?

There *might* be a date code stamped into the strut tubes along with the part numbers. That might be a clue as to whether they were on the car when it was new.

[Nils]

15 minutes ago, HS30-H said:

What was the original market of this car? You are in Norway, but I'm guessing it isn't an original Scandinavian/European model car, right?

There *might* be a date code stamped into the strut tubes along with the part numbers. That might be a clue as to whether they were on the car when it was new.

Correct, it's a US model, 05/71 HLS30-30267. Norwegian/Scandinavian model 240Zs are extremely scarce.

Strut tubes - thanks for the tip, I'll check that.