(Note: LONG Overdue) FIGS Ohlins Coilovers for ISF REVIEW
06-13-16, 08:00 PM
#1
(Note: LONG Overdue) FIGS Ohlins Coilovers for ISF REVIEW
First off, let me say I'm sorry to FIGS that this took me so long. I volunteered to write these up a while ago and am just now getting around to it, eek (Don't worry, well worth it, I believe)
Anyway background had kwv3s and top hats but sold before install because these came out .
http://www.shopfigs.com/v1/index.php...product_id=326
I have a 2010 so it has the harsher early suspension not the one that was revised in 2011 and beyond. And lemme tell you you FELT IT! Don't get me wrong the stock suspension is really good from a handling perspective on smooth pavement but road irregularities were always met with a quite harsh thump!
So priority number one had to be improving the ride. Second, wanted cars focus to have a track capable nature without sacrificing its ability as a DD.
So little bit about my car. Wheels are miro 111s 8.5" front , 9.5" rear. Tires RE-11 255/35/19 F, 275/30/19 R. (which IMHO IS THE tire to beat in the street-track category. 200 tread wear and it sticks like glue and puts down power like a much wider tire).
Rear end is all solid link figs end links and front has figs front lower LCA bushing. Also I've got two piece BBK rotors on all fours and rear has f-sport rear anti-roll bar.
Last piece is that I've installed the '42 steering ecu from the the '13 model ISF.
(Sorry for all the detail but I think it's necessary so you know where I was coming from and what I hoped to achieve)
So I track only 1-2 times a year but put a good 12k miles on doing regular driving chores on some very mixed quality roads ( trending mostly to roughshod or perpetually "under construction" which seems to the norm round here.) so I really didn't want to sacrifice ride quality. That drove a couple of design choices.
I went with the figs LCA bushings because I wanted just that tad bit of isolation from road surface irregularities. What I really like about them is what one user described as a very "progressive" feel. You do feel a bit of feedback In the steering wheel as the shaft moves around but that very quickly "tightens up" as deflection increases. You really get best of both worlds ,good kind of isolation while simultaneously greatly reducing bump steer, tram lining and deflection during hard cornering and breaking. I don't have the RR USRS, and so this won't be a comparison I'm afraid. But there are two very good videos ( one from FIGS on the LCA bushing and another from RR Racing on the USRS).
I would say that because I desired to preserve some isolation from road harshness I think I made the right choice for my goals. I read one member state that although the steering and braking feel of the USRS was superb, that he missed some of the isolation the stock set up provided and had a bit too much of a good thing on really bad roads. I'm happy to report that the steering and braking feel of the figs LCA is a huge improvement over stock while still providing a useful degree of isolation on rough road surfaces. The deflection that your DO feel under load is very progressive and you can feel a very positive return. If you're asking yourself why a classify this as a "positive" attribute rather than a negative one it's because you'll feel a sharp pull communicating the road irregularity but it won't "jerk" the steering wheel from your hands. Very desirably in my experience because you good get good communication and feed back from the road surface while at the same time not having to "fight" against the steering while trying to control the car while driving aggressively on suboptimal roadways.
I've seen the word "balance" used a lot by others to describe the biggest challenge in terms of getting everything right and I can definitely. Picking trade offs that you don't mind living with is a lot harder than you think it's going to be esp when it comes down to track "hardness" vs "street able " daily driving.
So BALANCE is how I'd describe the choice of the Ohlins coil over set up.
The best thing about them is the absolutely HUGE IMPROVEMENT in ride quality over the stock 2010 setup. Like the KWV3s, the Ohlins have dual flow valving with two different thresholds of operation which velvet it or not provides BETTER compliance and ride over rough roads with the slow speed valves and SIMULTANEOUSLY BETTER PEFORMANCE HANDLING thanks to the high speed valving. This to me is their greatest asset. I think the Penske Coilovers from both figs and rr share this design characteristic as do the aforementioned kwv3s, so it's by no means exclusive to the Ohlins set up , but the implementation (which I'll go into shortly) definitely pays dividends on the street and at the track equally).
Before I go there though I wanted to address the seeming contradiction from being "soft" vis-a-vis LCA bushing vs USRS up front and the seeming disconnect of having all spherical metal bearings on the figs links (upper, lower, camber,castor, and Mega LCA).
That's accepting a whole lot of potential rear harshness while allowing a lot less up front. I can speak to this from two angles. First, subjectively I experienced that front end harshness feels subjectively worse than from the rear and is the more objectionable of the two. And second and most importantly the rear end is where the power gets laid down and you know what? The solid rear end does absolute WONDERS in keeping the rear contact patch intact to lay down serious lower consistently and reliably. I often had problems putting all the powe down on the stock set up with the rear suspension components and now I can quite honestly say I can be an absolute holigian with the power deliver and never get any complaints from the rear end and have now problems consistently putting the power down no matter what I'm doing with the car. Carefree and reliable , that's exactly how I'd describe the rear end behavior when it comes to power delivery and handling. Consistent, reliable and predictable regardless of how bad the road conditions are(yes including bumps and all).
Sorry for the Segway but I think it's important for you guys to understand the implications of the setup I have for the suspension components before talking about how the Ohlins Coilovers fit into the puzzle.
So to summarize trade offs I sacrificed a tad bit of precision and feedback at the front in order to keep a very useful amount of isolation from road harshness and did the OPPOSITE with the rear of the car, maximizing performance and powe delivery over isolation from harshness. I should add that I also chose to keep ride height as close to stock as possible to provide as much ground clearance as possible from road scrapes and damage. (Even doing so I recently lost a rear C clamp that bolted the mufflers to the rest of the exhaust when I hit some low sunken pavement that had a wicked "widows peak" of broken asphalt in the dead center of the lane. Luckily, damage was limited to replacing a broken 2.5" V band clamp, so my worries were well founded,abut too well I'm afraid).
Anyway, tieing this back to the main purpose of this thread, why did I choose the Ohlins over the In hand kwv3s and why didn't I go for the Penske set up , one of which is priced very similar to my current Ohlins set up.
I'm gonna use that word again , balance. I needed to desperately improve ride quality AND wanted to improve handling on the street and at the track and I DIDNT want to accept a downgrade in street drive ability and ride quality in order to do so! Enter Figs engineering and Ohlins . I had purchased my KWV3s and top hats BEFORE the Ohlins became available. When they did finally come out I gave Mike a Figs a call and talked at length about what I'd already done to the car and what I wanted to achieve and the best way about going about. Based on his extremely knowledgable responses I decided that the KWs Were not the right way for me to go .(damn the timing)
Muke explained that I could get all the benefits that the KWs provided and as an added bonus achieve what I really wanted to in the performance department as a result of the heavier spring rates (16-12 street, 18-14 track), much lighter undsprung weight and still have the ride quality enhancements that the dual valve setup provided and also have all the adjustability I could ever require from independent ride height and preload to compression and rebound. This sounded EXACTLY LIKE WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR so I elected to sell the KWs (didn't want to mount and then unmounted and remount different Coilovers) and purchase the Ohlins Coilovers instead. And, let me just state upfront In retrospect best decision and best choice I could have made!
Now a bit on the differences vs the penskes , first soft mount bushing for suspension caps and bushings on the lower connector to the the spension vs hard hat and spherical bearings for the lower connector for the Penskes. I'm extremely happy with the performance improvements that the Ohlins provided me and I think that these "soft mounts" similar to the stock setup combined with the dual flow valve technology has yeilded what can only be described as s REMARKABLE improvement over stock and I'm not sure it's something that the Penske setup could replicate. This was really important in my case because of my all "solid" spherical bearing rearend and taming the harshness that that introduced.
So checked the box fully on improving the ride, what about the performance? I'm very happy to report that in thrilled with the gains there as well. Big reduction in pitch and roll and return to flat attitude after upset is extremely quick positive and extremely well damped. Front end corners and carves very positively and is a lot more responsive. For the rear much of the same with the added benefit of being much more able to reliably put down aggressive power inputs because the rear end just stays planted so much better. I used to have the TCS making inputs all the time when laying down power in hard corners or going over whoops dips and bumps. Huge reduction in this behavior with the Ohlins out back and as a result I can CONFIDENTLY HIT THE POWER NOT ONLY HARDER BUT MUCH EARLIER AS WELL. Carefree is how I would now classify power delivery of the car. Rear end is extremely communicative and provides great feedback at the limit. If you want throttle on oversteer , you NOW know exactly when and how it's going to get done and exactly how much power input you are required to make it happen at the limit. Breakaway is so progressive it just
Inspires a mountain of confidence because you not only know exactly when, you ALSO know exactly how much!
I can honestly say I now have WAY to much fun because the confidence this gives you about knowing how the car is behaving and more importantly IS GOING to behave, even on less than ideal road surfaces, including some real CRAPPY ONES! I know we SHOULDNT DRIVE like the track on unprepared public roads so I'll just say that these ABSOLUTELY GIVE YOU THE ABILITY TO DO SO! (And that you'll just have to take my word for it for fear of laying down incriminating public statements
)
Anyway, hope this is a worthwhile read and worthy of your time. I'd just like to point out that I purchase both from Figs and RR (love my titanium intake pipe and oil catch system, absolutely first rate products both , and a worthy upgrade for any ISF on the road, and hope to give that new tune and intake a shot after I install my shorty EL headers from PPE). I also hope that the background info about My set up wasn't too much, I included it because it seemed important for appreciating how important these coil overs were in bringing everything in my cars handling department together.
Thank you to ALL the great vendors we have catering to the ISF community. You help us love and enjoy our great cars even more than most of us thought possible!
Anyway background had kwv3s and top hats but sold before install because these came out .
http://www.shopfigs.com/v1/index.php...product_id=326
I have a 2010 so it has the harsher early suspension not the one that was revised in 2011 and beyond. And lemme tell you you FELT IT! Don't get me wrong the stock suspension is really good from a handling perspective on smooth pavement but road irregularities were always met with a quite harsh thump!
So priority number one had to be improving the ride. Second, wanted cars focus to have a track capable nature without sacrificing its ability as a DD.
So little bit about my car. Wheels are miro 111s 8.5" front , 9.5" rear. Tires RE-11 255/35/19 F, 275/30/19 R. (which IMHO IS THE tire to beat in the street-track category. 200 tread wear and it sticks like glue and puts down power like a much wider tire).
Rear end is all solid link figs end links and front has figs front lower LCA bushing. Also I've got two piece BBK rotors on all fours and rear has f-sport rear anti-roll bar.
Last piece is that I've installed the '42 steering ecu from the the '13 model ISF.
(Sorry for all the detail but I think it's necessary so you know where I was coming from and what I hoped to achieve)
So I track only 1-2 times a year but put a good 12k miles on doing regular driving chores on some very mixed quality roads ( trending mostly to roughshod or perpetually "under construction" which seems to the norm round here.) so I really didn't want to sacrifice ride quality. That drove a couple of design choices.
I went with the figs LCA bushings because I wanted just that tad bit of isolation from road surface irregularities. What I really like about them is what one user described as a very "progressive" feel. You do feel a bit of feedback In the steering wheel as the shaft moves around but that very quickly "tightens up" as deflection increases. You really get best of both worlds ,good kind of isolation while simultaneously greatly reducing bump steer, tram lining and deflection during hard cornering and breaking. I don't have the RR USRS, and so this won't be a comparison I'm afraid. But there are two very good videos ( one from FIGS on the LCA bushing and another from RR Racing on the USRS).
I would say that because I desired to preserve some isolation from road harshness I think I made the right choice for my goals. I read one member state that although the steering and braking feel of the USRS was superb, that he missed some of the isolation the stock set up provided and had a bit too much of a good thing on really bad roads. I'm happy to report that the steering and braking feel of the figs LCA is a huge improvement over stock while still providing a useful degree of isolation on rough road surfaces. The deflection that your DO feel under load is very progressive and you can feel a very positive return. If you're asking yourself why a classify this as a "positive" attribute rather than a negative one it's because you'll feel a sharp pull communicating the road irregularity but it won't "jerk" the steering wheel from your hands. Very desirably in my experience because you good get good communication and feed back from the road surface while at the same time not having to "fight" against the steering while trying to control the car while driving aggressively on suboptimal roadways.
I've seen the word "balance" used a lot by others to describe the biggest challenge in terms of getting everything right and I can definitely. Picking trade offs that you don't mind living with is a lot harder than you think it's going to be esp when it comes down to track "hardness" vs "street able " daily driving.
So BALANCE is how I'd describe the choice of the Ohlins coil over set up.
The best thing about them is the absolutely HUGE IMPROVEMENT in ride quality over the stock 2010 setup. Like the KWV3s, the Ohlins have dual flow valving with two different thresholds of operation which velvet it or not provides BETTER compliance and ride over rough roads with the slow speed valves and SIMULTANEOUSLY BETTER PEFORMANCE HANDLING thanks to the high speed valving. This to me is their greatest asset. I think the Penske Coilovers from both figs and rr share this design characteristic as do the aforementioned kwv3s, so it's by no means exclusive to the Ohlins set up , but the implementation (which I'll go into shortly) definitely pays dividends on the street and at the track equally).
Before I go there though I wanted to address the seeming contradiction from being "soft" vis-a-vis LCA bushing vs USRS up front and the seeming disconnect of having all spherical metal bearings on the figs links (upper, lower, camber,castor, and Mega LCA).
That's accepting a whole lot of potential rear harshness while allowing a lot less up front. I can speak to this from two angles. First, subjectively I experienced that front end harshness feels subjectively worse than from the rear and is the more objectionable of the two. And second and most importantly the rear end is where the power gets laid down and you know what? The solid rear end does absolute WONDERS in keeping the rear contact patch intact to lay down serious lower consistently and reliably. I often had problems putting all the powe down on the stock set up with the rear suspension components and now I can quite honestly say I can be an absolute holigian with the power deliver and never get any complaints from the rear end and have now problems consistently putting the power down no matter what I'm doing with the car. Carefree and reliable , that's exactly how I'd describe the rear end behavior when it comes to power delivery and handling. Consistent, reliable and predictable regardless of how bad the road conditions are(yes including bumps and all).
Sorry for the Segway but I think it's important for you guys to understand the implications of the setup I have for the suspension components before talking about how the Ohlins Coilovers fit into the puzzle.
So to summarize trade offs I sacrificed a tad bit of precision and feedback at the front in order to keep a very useful amount of isolation from road harshness and did the OPPOSITE with the rear of the car, maximizing performance and powe delivery over isolation from harshness. I should add that I also chose to keep ride height as close to stock as possible to provide as much ground clearance as possible from road scrapes and damage. (Even doing so I recently lost a rear C clamp that bolted the mufflers to the rest of the exhaust when I hit some low sunken pavement that had a wicked "widows peak" of broken asphalt in the dead center of the lane. Luckily, damage was limited to replacing a broken 2.5" V band clamp, so my worries were well founded,abut too well I'm afraid).
Anyway, tieing this back to the main purpose of this thread, why did I choose the Ohlins over the In hand kwv3s and why didn't I go for the Penske set up , one of which is priced very similar to my current Ohlins set up.
I'm gonna use that word again , balance. I needed to desperately improve ride quality AND wanted to improve handling on the street and at the track and I DIDNT want to accept a downgrade in street drive ability and ride quality in order to do so! Enter Figs engineering and Ohlins . I had purchased my KWV3s and top hats BEFORE the Ohlins became available. When they did finally come out I gave Mike a Figs a call and talked at length about what I'd already done to the car and what I wanted to achieve and the best way about going about. Based on his extremely knowledgable responses I decided that the KWs Were not the right way for me to go .(damn the timing)
Muke explained that I could get all the benefits that the KWs provided and as an added bonus achieve what I really wanted to in the performance department as a result of the heavier spring rates (16-12 street, 18-14 track), much lighter undsprung weight and still have the ride quality enhancements that the dual valve setup provided and also have all the adjustability I could ever require from independent ride height and preload to compression and rebound. This sounded EXACTLY LIKE WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR so I elected to sell the KWs (didn't want to mount and then unmounted and remount different Coilovers) and purchase the Ohlins Coilovers instead. And, let me just state upfront In retrospect best decision and best choice I could have made!
Now a bit on the differences vs the penskes , first soft mount bushing for suspension caps and bushings on the lower connector to the the spension vs hard hat and spherical bearings for the lower connector for the Penskes. I'm extremely happy with the performance improvements that the Ohlins provided me and I think that these "soft mounts" similar to the stock setup combined with the dual flow valve technology has yeilded what can only be described as s REMARKABLE improvement over stock and I'm not sure it's something that the Penske setup could replicate. This was really important in my case because of my all "solid" spherical bearing rearend and taming the harshness that that introduced.
So checked the box fully on improving the ride, what about the performance? I'm very happy to report that in thrilled with the gains there as well. Big reduction in pitch and roll and return to flat attitude after upset is extremely quick positive and extremely well damped. Front end corners and carves very positively and is a lot more responsive. For the rear much of the same with the added benefit of being much more able to reliably put down aggressive power inputs because the rear end just stays planted so much better. I used to have the TCS making inputs all the time when laying down power in hard corners or going over whoops dips and bumps. Huge reduction in this behavior with the Ohlins out back and as a result I can CONFIDENTLY HIT THE POWER NOT ONLY HARDER BUT MUCH EARLIER AS WELL. Carefree is how I would now classify power delivery of the car. Rear end is extremely communicative and provides great feedback at the limit. If you want throttle on oversteer , you NOW know exactly when and how it's going to get done and exactly how much power input you are required to make it happen at the limit. Breakaway is so progressive it just
Inspires a mountain of confidence because you not only know exactly when, you ALSO know exactly how much!
I can honestly say I now have WAY to much fun because the confidence this gives you about knowing how the car is behaving and more importantly IS GOING to behave, even on less than ideal road surfaces, including some real CRAPPY ONES! I know we SHOULDNT DRIVE like the track on unprepared public roads so I'll just say that these ABSOLUTELY GIVE YOU THE ABILITY TO DO SO! (And that you'll just have to take my word for it for fear of laying down incriminating public statements
)Anyway, hope this is a worthwhile read and worthy of your time. I'd just like to point out that I purchase both from Figs and RR (love my titanium intake pipe and oil catch system, absolutely first rate products both , and a worthy upgrade for any ISF on the road, and hope to give that new tune and intake a shot after I install my shorty EL headers from PPE). I also hope that the background info about My set up wasn't too much, I included it because it seemed important for appreciating how important these coil overs were in bringing everything in my cars handling department together.
Thank you to ALL the great vendors we have catering to the ISF community. You help us love and enjoy our great cars even more than most of us thought possible!
06-14-16, 09:36 AM
#6
I know both RR Racing and FIGS are very helpful and approachable in this regard!
Trending Topics
06-14-16, 01:12 PM
#8
Lexus Fanatic
great review buddy. Choosing the right suspension is not easy because we need to reach that " balance ". Then on top of that its all about setting up the coils the best fo balance again. When I had coil overs on my GS I was always fighting to get the car to handle like I wanted. The adjustability is great but it can also make it a chore to get it dialed in the right way .
06-14-16, 02:12 PM
#9
great review buddy. Choosing the right suspension is not easy because we need to reach that " balance ". Then on top of that its all about setting up the coils the best fo balance again. When I had coil overs on my GS I was always fighting to get the car to handle like I wanted. The adjustability is great but it can also make it a chore to get it dialed in the right way .
In my case, I was vey fortunate. Started with FIGS recommendations for settings and it was ONE and DONE. Having the "right" settings to start with made it much EASIER. I totally agree with the above , could have been a real pain having to trial and error my settings to find the right ones.
Luckily, I didn't have to.
01-22-17, 09:39 AM
#10
Lexus Fanatic
I am thinking more and more that I am going to keep my ISF rather than trade it like all the others. I really enjoy this car and although investing another $3500 into ana ging car but its my toy and I track the car pretty heavily so she deserves the best. I am going back and fourth between the RR Racing Penske set and the Ohlins. I absolutely want that balance in the car so I dont want to go off the deep end and I actually dont think Im going to even lower it over the current stock height. Just better dampers and higher spring rates is what I am after but I still want some isolation from harshness. Seems like KWs are quality but maybe a bit more for comfort than track
01-22-17, 09:52 AM
#11
I am thinking more and more that I am going to keep my ISF rather than trade it like all the others. I really enjoy this car and although investing another $3500 into ana ging car but its my toy and I track the car pretty heavily so she deserves the best. I am going back and fourth between the RR Racing Penske set and the Ohlins. I absolutely want that balance in the car so I dont want to go off the deep end and I actually dont think Im going to even lower it over the current stock height. Just better dampers and higher spring rates is what I am after but I still want some isolation from harshness. Seems like KWs are quality but maybe a bit more for comfort than track
So on topic here, I'm in the same boat as you; debating between the ohlins and penske. They both do cost 3 arms and 7 legs though !
01-22-17, 02:41 PM
#12
I am thinking more and more that I am going to keep my ISF rather than trade it like all the others. I really enjoy this car and although investing another $3500 into ana ging car but its my toy and I track the car pretty heavily so she deserves the best. I am going back and fourth between the RR Racing Penske set and the Ohlins. I absolutely want that balance in the car so I dont want to go off the deep end and I actually dont think Im going to even lower it over the current stock height. Just better dampers and higher spring rates is what I am after but I still want some isolation from harshness. Seems like KWs are quality but maybe a bit more for comfort than track
01-23-17, 08:04 AM
#13
01-29-17, 10:47 PM
#14
If anyone is interested, please let me know as soon as possible so I can secure inventory in April. We have sold out of the shock bodies and will have a limited run in April when more come out of production. IredSF can attest to not only the shocks performance, but the true system performance with our other suspension geometry corrections and how it all works together(mega arms, toe links etc.). We have spent more time with shock testing that anyone out there on this platform and feel that for the street driven car, this delivers on all points of performance, longevity, and maintenance. The Penske setup we offer is a peak performer but it has its downsides when it comes to rebuild and service intervals, environmental seals and high gas pressures. High performance comes at the expense of service and maintenance. The Ohlins system has been developed as a street shock first and a track capability as an added bonus. The HKS looks to be on the soft side of spring rate, which they might handle with valving, but it all depends on use case and the track will push the limit on those springs rates I feel, especially in the rear.
Mike
Mike
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Redefining Lexus Aftermarket Parts Since 2001
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Redefining Lexus Aftermarket Parts Since 2001
-- We are your Lexus suspension experts--
BCR - KW - PENSKE - OHLINS - HKS - GREDDY - STANCEPARTS
Links - Arms - SuperPro Poly Bushings - Solid Bearing Conversions - Motor Mounts
RB BBK's and 2P Rotors, G-Loc pads, Radium Fuel Systems
Custom Fabrication Design and Machining - Industrial 3D Printing - Laser Cutting
2018 USTCC Sportsman Class Champions - 2018 NASA ST5 National Champions
05-07-19, 11:29 AM
#15
Pole Position
Decided to bump this thread for people not familiar with the Ohlins setup from Figs engineering