Fishey

I am not a huge fan of cheap-monotube coilovers. There are certainly upsides and downsides to a cheap mono-tube over a KoniYellow + Spring solution. However from what I have found on a street car that sees very occasional autox or track use the koni + spring solution is usually better for a few reasons. Let me explain mono tubes design its not as durable as a twin-tube design. The reason comes down to there large sealing surface that deals with some very high pressure. To counter this problem most low end mono-tubes have some seriously tight seals and impressive machining to stop the loss of pressure so the shock is durable for street use but still last on average about 3 years before they start falling off (yes you can send them in but its a pain). However, these tight seals cause high stiction or static seal friction and this is a problem because it works against piston motion and is unpredictable resistance. It hurts the shocks ability to deal with small amplitude and high frequence response. Another side effect is that it also has extremely high gas reaction force meaning that inital shock response is poor. This is why we see such a poor ride quality out of many of the cheap coil-over setups. Most high end shocks have a nitrogen port not only to allow us to make pressure adjustments but to keep pressure in the shock. On a high end shock it will loose pressure over time the seals are not built for street car durability but also keep in mind that these shocks have far far far far better machining on internal components that will provide a good seal and reduce stiction but clearly this cost some serious money. This pressure loss is not the same issue as a street shock we can just re-pressure them and if you ever taken a ride in a car with Motons, Penske, Ohlins, Dynamix, Racing Konis you will notice the ride quality is actually quite nice compared to cheaper solutions. They also loose pressure at a much faster rate then street monotubes for example over a week at the track usually a shock with motons or JRZ's that I have used are down nearly 10lbs of pressure. I see this pressure loss problem alot on ACR Vipers as the Dynamics they came with are often times extremely low on pressure or don't have any pressure now even 10,000mi cars.

So what you find is usually a higher level of comfort and a higher level of durability out of a Koni + Spring setup then you do on a cheap coil-over setup. Now, that is not always the case but for me Koni + Spring is usually a good street car go to solution. When it comes to outright performance of a coilover vs a spring-shock I could sit here and argue that as well but really it comes down to what you like and where you are driving.