In February this year GTspirit were flown over to Spain by Shock Absorber specialists, KONI. The cooperation has an illustrious history having worked with some of the most prestigious manufacturers in history including Bugatti, Lamborghini and Ferrari on cars such as the EB110, Diablo and F40.
The event was held at the astonishing Ascari Race Resort and Circuit just outside of Ronda, a small historic city where we were hosted by the KONI team that included distributors, racing drivers and shock absorber specialists that shared remarkable stories and memories of testing some of the most legendary cars in last 50 years.
The day of testing arrived and the sun burnt away the clouds hovering over the private circuit, leaving behind remarkable views and a bone dry track to explore in cars varying from a Volkswagen Polo to a very cool looking TRD Toyota GT 86 and two race spec SEAT race cars.
The aim of the exercises that we were presented with was to feel and experience the difference in handling, feel and ride quality on cars fitted with and without KONI Shocks.
The track was magnificent and the fast swooping sections combined with the short sharp technical parts allowed the differences in damping and suspension travel to be accentuated. Surprisingly the most obvious difference in feel was experienced in the very modest Volkswagen Polo! The roll in the standard car resulted in loss of traction and a remarkable level of understeer on the limit, something that was reduced considerably with the KONI equipment in the second Polo.
The other comparison we were able to experience first hand was in a pair of ISUZU D-MAX off-roaders that again allowed us to feel the differences between OEM and KONI Shocks. The off-road course at Ascari highlighted the differences once again. The steep gradients and testing muddy terrain proved a tough test for the OEM fitments that had to sacrifice ride quality to make it up and down the hills something that was comfortably shrugged off by the KONI replacements.
A huge thanks to KONI for hosting GTspirit at Ascari!
