[ooWRX_STioo]

Im thinking of picking up a set of Ohlins for myself but kinda having cold feet about it. If you didnt go with those FPStruts, what would you have considered? and why.

[blindfold]

Look at this dusty place, haven't updated in quite some time but no major changes on the car so far, a better update should be up in a few days.

here is a more detailed review copied over from a thread where I answered few questions

I'm running Ohlins FPS with Swift R-spec springs which are quite similar to RCE blacks in terms of spring rates. I am also running PDE front camber plates and Ingalls rear camber bolts plus group-N top hats, currently -2.0F and -1.6R which clears a 255/40/17 Advan A048 on rolled rear fender, so if you are worried about tire clearance, these struts will give you plenty.

Now onto the subjective review how these perform, well let me say the rear group-N top hats are exactly copy of OEM top hats with slightly harder rubber, and by slight it is quite minimal so I would skip over them and go for a set of Vorshlag camber plates both front and rear. Moving onto the springs, the Swifts barely drops the car so if minimal drop is what you are looking for, these are perfect, I have roughly 4 fingers of wheel gap front and 2 fingers of gap in the rear. The struts has very good dampening to my butt dyno and it also seems that with a better set of seats and these struts, you will ELIMINATE the ever so annoying "bobble head" syndrome. So with that said I believe with a proper alignment and the right setting of struts, overall performance and comfort will be gained over stock struts which are nice but mismatched to the OEM spring. During certain long sweeping corners on a curvy road, I suspect there is also gain of overall grip because the struts do a better job of dampening or absorbing of road imperfections versus gliding over the rough surface as some highly sprung poorly valved coilovers tends to do.

I had a set of EVO recaros installed before I installed the swifts and Ohlins. Going from OEM seats to EVO recaros with solid spacers, I can feel much more of the road on OEM suspension than ever, meaning every little bump and dip is translated and introduced abruptly to my spine and neck muscles. It was both annoying and unpleasant to drive through some imperfect roads. After the new suspension installed, less forces are transferred into the seats therefore allowing me to draw the conclusion that the new suspension is doing a better job of dampening without sacrificing suspension travel.

Lastly you wondered if I would buy this again, maybe, maybe not depending on what goals I had mind at the time of purchase. My original intention was that the car is going to be mainly a daily driver with sparse track duty. I also required minimal drop since I am running a front lip. I picked Swifts because of their spring rate, minial drop and small spring diameter which should yeild even more travel (think less spring height at full compression). If you even have the slightest thought about going more serious into autocross or HPDE, then I would suggest a double adjustable Racecomp T2s coilovers. or slightly less adjustable AST Turninconcepts-spec coilovers. If I had to pay the price for a new set of Ohlins FPS, I would’ve gone for a set of coilovers without hesitation.