Kim and Per installed a set of four Koni FSD shock absorbers on the MINI Cooper last night. The FSDs are a new line of damper that is frequency selective (hence the acronym) and will change damping depending on what the frequency of the shock travel is. If you encounter an expansion joint, the shock is soft, while a slalom manuever will actually the shock in a very firm mode.
The install took a hair under three hours. We’ve had some experience tearing apart MINIs so we knew some of the tricks of the trade. The rear shocks like to be loosely bolted at the top before the bottom bolt is hand threaded in (otherwise you cross thread the bottom bolt) and the front shocks are best installed with both front wheels up in the air so there’s less tension on the front anti-roll bar.
Back on the ground, we drove our MINI to the office today and while the differences are subtle, there is a noticeable improvement in ride comfort, yet the car still turns in like gangbusters.
We’re hoping that this unusual shock choice will work for hardcore Solo II action. The thinking is that the shock can actually smooth out spikes in g force as the car is cornering at the limit, leading to higher cornering speeds with less effort on the part of the driver. We’ll let you know how it goes!
The Koni FSDs are priced in line with the rest of the Koni line, figure on less than $700 a set for most applications. They’re available through The Tire Rack or by visiting Koni’s Website for a dealer near you.
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