Ohlins Coilovers Review – Are They Worth the Hype?
When it comes to suspension, Ohlins is a name that you will hear often mentioned among the best coilover brands in the world.
Having a long history of building suspension components for both cars and motorcycles, and being heavily involved in motorsports, Ohlins have been making quality suspension components since the 1980.
The question is, just how good are they, and are they worth the high price tag? Let’s find out.
About Ohlins
Ohlins is a Swedish company that was started by Kenth Öhlin in 1976. They had their first motorsport win in 1978, a victory in the 250cc World Motocross Championship. They proceeded to win all the way up to 1982, where they also won the 125cc and side car championships.
In 1986, Yamaha Motor Company purchased a stake in Ohlins and became co-owner, however Ohlins continued to operate independently.
Since then, they have had a long history of motorsport success including championship wins in MotoGP, Superbike, Indycar, EC Snowmobile series, WRC, Le Mans 24 hours, Indianapolis 500, DTM and countless others.
They have subsidiaries is North Carolina, USA, a Nurburgring test and distribution center, and Ohlins Asia in Thailand, and distribute their products to over 50 countries, which accounts for 97% of their sales.
In 1984 they patented their first CES (Continuously Controlled Electronic Suspension) which they have continued to develop for both road use and motorsports. This system allows supercar like handling while maintaining a very comfortable ride, which is not possible with conventional suspension. This system began mass production in 2003 when they partnered with Tenneco and produced it for the Volvo S60R.
Kenth Ohlin bought the majority ownership (95%) back from Yamaha in 2007, and in 2018 sold the majority stake to Tenneco.
In 2015 they sold a total of 5 million CES valves, which was a big milestone for Ohlins.
It’s safe to say that Ohlins know a thing or two about suspension, and currently make suspension for cars, motorcycles, ATVs, snowmobiles and mountain bikes.
While they do make a wide range of suspension kits for cars, their most popular is the Road & Track coilover kit, which is available for the wides range of car models. Let’s take a look at these coilovers in detail.
Ohlins Road & Track Coilovers
As I mentioned, the Ohlins Road & Track coilovers are the most popular kit Ohlins make, as they are made for the widest range of road cars out of all their kits.
Ohlins have designed this kit to be the perfect balance of both comfortable street use and amazing handling on the track, without having to compromise on either.
The ride height adjustment on these is done at the shock base, which means that the whole coilover winds up or down as opposed to the spring perch lowering the spring. This system allows you to retain full suspension travel no matter what height you set the coilovers to, and it also allows you to corner balance the car as well as adjust the spring preload settings.
The dampers are monotube and feature 20-level dampening adjustment which adjusts all four parts of the damper – low and high speed compression and rebuild – using Ohlins Dual Valve Flow (DFV) technology.
The DFV technology allows you to quickly change the stiffness of the dampers between road and race settings, either stiffening or softening the ride. However, it does more than that.
During compression, at low shaft speeds, the oil flows through the shaft jet bleed, and at higher speeds, oil flows mostly through the compression ports of the piston. At very high shaft speeds or during sudden acceleration, the oil can escape through the ports on the DFV, which increases ride comfort.
During rebound, at low shaft speeds the oil flows mostly through the shaft jet bleed. At high speeds, the oil flows mostly through the rebound ports of the piston. At very high speeds or during sudden shaft acceleration, the oil can escape through the ports in the DFV, which maintains tyre contact with the road and increases grip.
The DFV is designed to open more quickly on minor road imperfections in order to create a surprisingly comfortable, almost OEM level ride comfort, while still maintaining excellent handling characteristics and maximum grip.
Ohlins have also designed the dampers to deal with heat, by making a unique needle bleed valve which expands with temperature. Because the oil gets thinner when it gets hot, the valve closes the gap that the oil travels through, maintaining an constant dampening rate no matter the temperature. This maintains extremely high consistency, despite the fact that the dampers may be getting hot, which would usually cause damper fade and suboptimal performance.
The shock bodies are salt spray tested against corrosion to ISO 9227 standards, which means these coilovers are suitable for all weather conditions, excluding harsher climates with snowy winters.
These coilovers can be used either with OEM strut mounts to increase ride comfort or with Ohlins aluminium camber adjustable strut mounts, which are available for applicable models.
Ohlins offer a 2 year warranty on these coilovers, which are also fully rebuildable.
Basically, Ohlins has put a lot of effort, R&D and technology behind these coilovers to make them the perfect balance for road and track (and given them a fitting name).
Features include:
- Ride height adjustment by the shock body, usually up to 40mm lower than factory depending on the model
- Monotube dampers with 20-level dampening adjustment
- Special DFV technology for maximum ride comfort and handling performance
- Special damping needle valve to maintain consistent dampening even during high temperatures
- Salt spray tested to ISO 9227 standard
- Aluminium strut mounts with camber adjustment on applicable models, or use OEM mounts for more comfort
- 2 year warranty
- Fully rebuildable
Are Ohlins Coilovers Worth the Money?
While Ohlins coilovers certainly are on the upper end of the budget scale, you do get a lot for the price you pay.
If anyone has proven that they know what they are doing with suspension, it’s Ohlins. Just their success in motorsport alone is enough to prove that they know how to make a good suspension system.
Add to that the fact that their coilover kits are extremely highly regarded, with many good reviews from happy customers all over the world.
Their dampening technology is really impressive and shows that they put a lot of effort into making a quality kit that really does what it says it will do.
The only instance where these are probably not the best coilover is if you are looking to go super low. This kit won’t go super low, as max lowering for most cars is 30-40mm. So just be aware of that if going low is your priority.
Other than that, is kit is perfect if you are going to be using your car on the street and the track and want to maintain comfort while also having excellent handling.
Cars owned: Mk2 Golf with 1.8T swap, BMW E28 with M30B35 swap, BMW E36 328I Mtech, BMW 750IL, Nissan 300ZX, Honda Civic EF
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