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Helix DNA Sport Coilovers are designed to suit the average vehicle enthusiast. Unlike race coilovers which often exhibit harsh ride characteristics, high cost, and sometimes excessive noise, Helix DNA Sport Coilovers are designed primarily for street service with mild track service in mind. Featuring excellent ride characteristics and lower cost, these coilovers are a fine balance of street function and track service. Fully rebuildable and available in multiple spring rates.
- Light aluminum shock body
- 16 pt. dampening / rebound adjustable
- Full upper pillow ball mounts
- Camber adjustable (most applications)
- Inverted design available (2005 STi to be announced...)
Author
mcowger Registered User
Registered: December 2004 Location: San Francisco Posts: 1736
Review Date: Sun October 30, 2005
Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $999.00
| Rating: 7
Pros:
Body lean, understeer improvements
Cons:
Height adjustment technique
So, I finally had some time to get my new Helix DNA coilovers setup correctly, get a decent drive under them, and get a race under them. I feel that I can now give them a decent review.
The Good:
Like any decent suspension, they are of course firmer than stock, but that was goal, so it goes in the \'good column\'. As expected, the car no longer exhibits the annoying tendancy (esp. in quick maneuvers such as those found in autoX) to \'Lean, Turn, Unlean\' on quick L->R->L or RLR steering inputs. Granted, this should be case for any coilover, but its worth confirming true for these.
The ride is not harsh except on the roughest SF streets (for those of you from the area, think if Mission St. in the SOMA area). The valving is just about right for the springs included. The commonly referred to \'NVH\' is increased slightly. Noise I would give about a 20% increase, most noticeable at 30-40MPH. By 60MPH, wind noise has overridden all tire noise. Below that, there\'s not enough noise be noticed over the stock noise. I might actually argue there is less vibration than there was stock. At least the difference is so small small for me not to notice. There\'s not really any of the \'jounciness\' I was afraid of unless i set the damping to its minimum, and I have yet to hit the bumpstops.
Adjustability: The preload and damper settings are easy to access/change. They DO require removal of the wheels (for preload) and removal of the rear seat for damping in the rear, but thats expected with a noninverted design. For height, I was able to get the car low enough to have about 1\" of clearance to my 3\" exhaust, and all the way back up to about 0.5\" over stock. I chose a final setting of 16.4\" hubcenter to fender in the front, and 15.5\" hubcenter to fender in the rear, which gives a good combo of lowered stance, closer (but not exactly) to even fender gap, and reasonable clearance to get into my hellacious drive way.
The Bad:
Repeating features on the free way can cause an annoying bounce that was not present stock. This occurs at the fully stiff settings, the fully soft settings, and the medium damping setting. Think of the freeways that are built with the 8 ft. \'plates\' of concrete (880 through Oakland, for example). Its not bad enough that I feel that the car isn\'t under control, but just enough to be annoying.
Height adjustment. Sure, it works. I have adjusted mine twice now. Its a PITA. The design is such that you have to loosen the locking collar, loosen the preload all the way, then grab the threaded shock body and just turn with all your might. There\'s no place on the body that is not threaded, and so you cannot use a tool to turn it. It can be difficult to get enough grip on the body to turn it. I hate to think what it will be like to do this once they\'ve been on the car for more than a week. I really which Helix had taken the time to put some sort of nonthreaded section on the shock absorber that could be grabbed with a tool to turn.
Conclusion:
Overall, these were well worth the $1000 I spent on them. I would recommend them to some who needs what coilovers offer (improved suspension feel w/ height adjustability). I\'m pleased with the significant improvement in turn in and reduction in understeer they have offered, and look forward to playing with the settings in my future races.
Some tips: Do the install yourself - if you have even the slightest ability, these will be cake. if you can do a TBE, you can do these. I got them installed by Gruppe-S, but removed one and reinstalled without issue. Oh well, thats what I get for being a wuss.
damawill115 Registered User
Registered: January 2006 Location: san leandro Posts: 50
Review Date: Thu June 21, 2007
Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $500.00
| Rating: 9
Pros:
cheap well build
Cons:
none
this is my frist set of coilovers for my wrx -1.5 all 4 wheel 1000% better then stock love them
03_Impreza_Al Registered User
Registered: November 2006 Location: "Streets Closed, Pizza Boy" Posts: 7583
Review Date: Sun August 5, 2007
Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 10
Pros:
Reduce Body Roll Improved my stance
Cons:
Don't know where to rebuild
Picked these up used but they are in excellent condition. I love the drop I was able to get from these coilovers. I would of gone lower but it would of been suicide considering how awful san jose streets are and I have a steep driveway.
I got -1 Camber all the way around with 0 Toe. I love it! Now I need some better tires..
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