types of konis

The Reds are gas pressurized, the yellows are hydraulic only. The yellows are infinitely adjustable on rebound only. On compression, they are not even stiff. They would make the ride feel more taught on a stock car and make the most difference here. When you ahve stiffer spring rates on the car, the Konis leave you wanting more IMO. For daily driving, I don't think there is anything wrong with running yellows. If you are looking for used, buy yellows, they have a better chance of being in good shape, the Reds are no longer available and haven't been for some time I believe.

I also think shocks can make a big difference, more so than springs! When I had yellows, on the soft setting, the ride would be quite nice. But if I bumped up the rebound to be more in line with the spring rates, I could even over do it and make the ride jiggly. Now, I'm running bilsteins and the ride is very harsh but performs better on the track.

Good luck.

And as far as I'm aware of, the konis dno't have 3 settings, you twist the shaft as much as you want. There are no steps or stages.

No, nothing Alfa specific in that link I provided. But I think the information on the Koni Yellow's is worth while. Especially that a guy who wins SCCA Solo championships at the National level finds them to be a good choice for an adjustable shock on a budget.

I don't think I'm 100% with you guys on the thought that somehow the Koni Yellows are an outdated design that's not up to the task. I think the entire line of Koni's products has likely been updated as technology advances and that the really important bit is in the quality and consistency of the manufacturing and quality control. Koni seems to produce a fairly consistent valving that is dyno tested (though perhaps not as rigorously as humanly possible) and their adjustability seems to have little cross-talk. So as long as that valving suits the natural frequency of the Alfa, you're good to go. Far North's thought though is that since the Koni isn't self-service revalveable, you're stuck with their valving....so if it isn't 'right' for the Alfa, you're kinda stuck with it.

NP Grant, I figured you'd like that one.

He did mention the Koni's a lot. I think there's two main reasons for that:
1. They're probably one of the biggest names out there with a fitment for almost every vehicle and many of those constitute the best "budget adjustable" shock available.
2. He used to be a Koni reseller.

You're exactly right that the Koni Yellows that are available for the Alfa might not be perfectly valved....but that issue is tied intimately with spring rates, and unsprung mass. Thus they may not be identical for every GTV6 out there once people start putting on different wheels and tires, or upping their spring rates. There's also no promises that a Bilstein or a [insert brand here] is properly valved, but Far North makes the point that Koni doesn't really allow the purchaser an easy way to revalve and I don't believe they're too open to the thought of custom valving.

Now....how many people are going to go to the lengths necessary to buy Bilsteins, measure all their suspension bits, calculate the required valving and then either learn how to personally revalve or take them to a person who can? Probably only a handfull of us would even think about it, so it might just be academic....but very interesting to think about and might have you choosing a non-Koni brand if you're going to seriously attempt to build a competition car.

This all makes me wonder about the numbers RSR uses. I believe that there's a range of spring rates, and as far as I'm aware the non-adjustable option shocks are all consistently valved. Or are they valved uniquely for each spring rate option? As a setup oriented towards competition, are shock dyno plots for the individual units available at the time of purchase? Are the non-adjustables easily revalved? It would be great if RSR was open to working with people on all this stuff....it would mean the Alfa world (specifically the transaxle guys) would have a suspension guru really helping tune to the degree needed for an honest attempt at fully sorting the suspension!

And Grant, his comments on the non-linearity of the ends of the Koni adjustment spectrum reminded me of your comments about the rock-hard nature of the Koni's rebound once you'd maxed it out.

....I think we're getting a bit away from the intent of the original question....sorry.