Thanks for the positive feedback! Glad our rants and raves are useful to at least a few of you .

Enrico, you have a PM.

As far as what I think, I very much believe the Konis with MS springs will make an outstanding combination for performance. For ride, maybe not so much, but I doubt it'll be overly harsh. MS springs, as many know, are notably stiffer than most (if not all) of the other common aftermarket springs for the car that aren't part of a coilover kit. And the Konis can certainly handle a much stiffer spring such as the MS without any issues.

So, you combine a stiff performance spring engineered by Mazda with the most sophisticated performance damper (mass produced, that is) made for the car, and I think you'll have a winning combination. I think that so much, that I recently ordered a set of MS springs for my own car; though I'll be happy to sell them to someone if they order them before I install them . I'm going to put them on with my Tokicos to see how the DSP shocks react to a spring that stiff, but I suspect they'll be able to handle them in the upper half of their adjustment range. Only one way to find out though .

First of course, we've got to thaw out around here and do more comparing with mine and Tom's car, which has the exact same setup as my car but with Konis in place of the Tokicos. Once I feel like we've got a good handle on how the shocks work on the road and track compared to each other, then I'll be able to start mixing and matching a bit more and see what combos work well.

And as far as what's in stock, there's one set of unsold Konis that should arrive in the next few days, and I'll have the MS springs within a few days as well. I've also got another Tokico DSP kit on the way, and one of their DSK kits which includes springs that should be well-matched to the DSP dampers.

 

Yeah I took one of the 2 sets of Konis he had in stock...Muah ha ha ha haaaaa! (Dr. Evil lauh)

 

got the stechs and konis from dpe at the package price. Awsome combo

 

DPE,

I must compliment on the quality of posts you've put together in various threads, they definitly say a lot about yoru knowledge and willingness to help.
I've got a bad case of the "Mod Bug" (again) and I might be in the market for some suspension upgrages.

Here's my individual situation: I want something that will give me an agressive look / feel (without making it super stiff), and I'm looking for something that I can just install and forget about it. As tempting as those HKS coilovers seem, I just don't see myself ever really needing something like that as my car will most likely NEVER see a race track.

From what I've read, it looks like Koni + S techs?

 

you know how i feel about s techs...

 

Jedi,

Thanks for the kind words. You'll have to pardon my brevity as I'm on vacation right now and am several states from home (and on dial-up, yikes!), but I would agree that Konis and S-techs would give you what you are looking for. I think Tokicos and S-techs would do the same, but as it stands right now Konis are a bit cheaper and I believe are a slightly better shock. No reason not to go that route, especially if you want to set it and forget it.

And since you bring up Konis, I got three sets on Tuesday that also went out on Tuesday; more will be ordered on Monday, and I'll have them available sometime in early March assuming Koni has them in stock. Which I think they do. I'll update this as soon as I know.

 

Posting late at night while on vacation, kudos to you once again. Thanks for the quick update.

Shinks: haha, thanks!!! you're the best. (even if you stalk me through different threads, just kiddin')

 

 

tracking down jedi's. ha ha must be a bounty hunter....

 

got my konis and s-techs in a couple of weeks ago, did the install, works perfect. fast shipping too!

thumbs up!

 

Grats Coldfame! What setting did you go with?

 

Phil, sent you a PM. Anyone have on the Tokico/Tein combo? Im more leaning towards that combo but with the lifetime garauntee with the Konis is hard to pass.

 

What are the spring rates?

 

Maraku, you've got a PM. Know that the Tokicos have a lifetime warranty as well

Cromax, which springs did you want to know the rates on? There's a list on this thread: https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-wheels-tires-brakes-suspension-55/spring-rates-other-basic-suspension-info-79096/

Note that the MS spring rates are under review, as a forum member with a spring tester has tested them to be significantly lower than what was previously thought. I don't believe it has been resolved yet, and I'm still trying to get something concrete out of Mazdaspeed as to what they are supposed to be.

Also note for those reading along that I still have my Tokico/Tein H-tech combo on. I believe I said I'd switch over to MS springs, but I kept getting a set in and then selling them before I had a chance to put them on my car. And now with them possibly being notably less stiff than previously thought, I'm waiting to see what the final verdict is before trying them out on my car. That, and the simple fact that I don't have time to work on my own car lately; sad but true .

Anyway, I'm hoping to have more interesting reading for you guys by this weekend, as Tom and I will be at the track (weather permitting) with the two RX-8s that are essentially the same except for tires and shocks. Finally will be able to REALLY compare the Tokicos and Konis when used at the limit. Like I said, weather permitting .

 

How did the track day go?

I <3 this thread!

 

The MS springs definitely lower the car more than .8" front and rear. As far as the rates, the rears felt remarkably soft under compression when I pushed down on them out of the box (probably due to being progressive). They are pretty stiff but still tolerable on the street, I'm happy with the performance paired with the Konis at 1.5 turns front and rear for autocross.

 

Ah yes, finally called out on the track day writeup! I promise I'll have something posted in a new thread on that very soon. We had a great day for it, and have a lot to share. The difference in tires was fairly pronounced, which had some impact on our 'study', but we still managed to get a pretty good feel for what the shocks were doing.

If you're wondering why I haven't had time for a write-up, you may want to have a look at our site. It's not a dramatic difference, but the layout is a bit different and we roughly tripled the number of products shown on the site. Not to mention we built in international online ordering capability, and made the checkout page function a bit more smoothly. That's what I've been working on the last few weeks, and now it's mostly done .