AMR engineering coilovers

[Stevil]

ekslut if you dont mind me asking, what spring rates did you settle on ? Im keen to give em a whirl too, bit probably not til later in the year.

[ekslut]

ekslut if you dont mind me asking, what spring rates did you settle on ? Im keen to give em a whirl too, bit probably not til later in the year.

Andy suggested F:10kg/mm and R: 8kg/mm at the start, and he assured me that wouldn't feel too stiff as the shock is a lot better quality than a lot of the coilovers out there. But I wanted comfort more than handling so I went with F:8kg/mm and R:6kg/mm, and I think these rates will do nicely.

I will let you know how they feel once they arrive!!

[Hondarally]

Thread revival.

Any feedback on how the AMR's performed? I have a set in the race car, but also have a set of Konis and am tossing up which will be better for a dedicated track car (ie don't care about street comfort). Just trying to decide which ones to set the car up with (haven't driven the car yet, obviously, so have no data to look at). The AMR's have much softer springs than the Konis, so I think that they are more of a street setup (no markings on the springs to determine what the rates are though - Konis have 750/550 lb/in springs on them, which is getting close to what will work on the track, although probably too soft at the back)

On the other hand, the AMR's are height adjustable in 2 places, giving more tuning options for setting ride height, bump / droop etc. The Konis look too tall to work properly on a race car unless I make up different top mounts to lower the car that way.

Might just have to sell the lot and take the car to Murray to sort out for me (and hand over a cheque for $10k)

[Super-DA9]

These look really good, I'm currently tossing up whether to get a set of these or MCA reds.

It would be great if someone who's owned them for a while and or used them for track work could chime in!

[Hondarally]

They do look good, but don't seem to be that well known around here. 2 Race suspension / chassis gurus I spoke to recently had never heard of them (including Murray from MCA). No, he wasn't trying to sell me his gear, in fact he was talking me out of spending any money until we know what the car needs. He suggested that we could probably make something work with what I have, and maybe get the right rate springs to suit the existing hardware and the rest of the car setup. He is very good at talking people out of spending money where it doesn't need to be spent.

I'll be taking the car, with the AMR's and Koni's to MCA in the next few weeks, and I'll get Murray to have a good look at them, and dyno both sets so I know what I have. Will report back if he says anything interesting. The fact that the AMR's are fully rebuildable, and come with a lifetime warranty give you a little comfort, but the warranty doesn't say much if you have to ship them to Canada for repairs.

Of the AMR's and MCA reds, I'd say you can't go wrong with the MCA reds. Not necessarily saying they're better, but they are a known quantity, and MCA have proven themselves in competition for many years now. With the weak Oz dollar, I'd think that the MCA reds would be better value too, and much better local support

I worked out that my AMR's have 600lb and 650lb springs in them, and according to AMR, the valving has been built to handle 1000lb (they said they will go to 1100lb but that might be a stretch). That, and the fact that they are height adjustable in 2 places is making me lean towards using these in the car with uprated springs (800/900 or 900/1000, depending on the session at MCA). The Konis I have might be too tall to allow enough travel on a race car at racing height, so might not be the best option for me. Perfect for the street use, though, specially with slightly softer springs.

I will update once I have a bit more data to report on.

[Super-DA9]

Really looking forward to the test results. Interesting about the valving on the AMRs as I understood they were valved for the specific rates you order?

[DreadAngel]

What Koni's are they? Cause if they're just Yellows revalved etc, AMR's should outperform them if setup correctly for your car.

[Hondarally]

Really looking forward to the test results. Interesting about the valving on the AMRs as I understood they were valved for the specific rates you order?

Yeh I was under that impression, but they told me that in mine, the 600-650's are at the lighter end of the valving, and they will cope with anything up to 1000. Could be marketing, or could be truth (or possibly somewhere in the middle). The rebound adjustment seems to have a fairly big impact, so I might find that screwing up the rebound will cope better with stiffer springs. I can't see any big need to play with bump adjustment with stiffer springs - as the stiffer springs will actually help bump control (compared to a softer spring in the same application)

Dread Angel - not sure - I can't find any numbers that mean anything on these units. They have the threaded height adjustable sleeves, with externally adjustable rebound damping. Not being an expert on Konis, I don't know how these sit in the overall Koni scheme of things. Hence I'll get Murray to have a look at both and hopefully be able to make an educated decision.

both sets came with the car, and the seller told me to use the Konis as they'd be much better than the AMR's (I recall him saying something about the Konis being recently overhauled too, but can't find any documentation to prove that - the spring perches and hardware look unused - just the shock bodies have chipped paint and have obviously been used). I'm not sure whether he had some engineering reason for his comments, or not. I found a problem with the AMR's (fitted to the car at the time). One of the rear units was missing the steel washer under the rubber bush, which allowed the shaft to slide through the bush. I sourced a new washer to properly clamp the bush onto the shoulder on the shaft and all's good. Maybe that was why he was telling me not to use the AMR's - he thought they may have had a problem??

[Hondarally]

Also, running the Konis at their lowest setting still has the car about 10mm higher than I'd like (obviously the optimum ride height is more than just a visual thing, but comparing to other IPRA EK's, the Konis still look a bit high). Not too worried about springs popping off the perches, as if I have both wheels at one end of the car off the ground long enough to drop springs off the perches, then I have bigger things to worry about. Definitely leaning towards running the AMR's - just want to put some science behind my decision.

[Super-DA9]

Do your AMRs have separate bump and rebound adjustment? If so I didn't know they did that but that's awesome

[Hondarally]

No, they are rebound only. I probably should have been a bit clearer above.

My point is that going to a stiffer spring actually helps the bump control, as the stiffer spring resists bump better than a softer spring. Think about the front of the car diving when you jump on the brakes. Putting a stiffer spring in there will reduce the dive, as will increased bump damping. They complement each other. However, a stiffer spring will need high rebound damping to control the rebound. Hence the rebound is adjustable to cater for different spring rates. I'd say that's why many dampers only have adjustable rebound damping, since that gives the most flexibility.

That's a bit of an over simplification, but until you're starting to chase the last hundredths of a second lap time, I think that fixed bump damping (as long as it's roughly matched to the car and springs) won't be the limiting factor. Not saying that bump damping doesn't help, I just think it has less of an impact when you're playing with spring rates.