Everyone wants to know, "The Öhlins TTX are the best, right?” Well, yes... and no. It really depends on how the car will be used and what level of driver and trackside experience is available.
How will the car be used?
We recommend the Bilstein/Öhlins shocks for any car that will be driven on the road. The adjustability of the Tier 2 | Performance shocks will provide the trackside fine-tuning that is appropriate to most people while the Tier 1 | Enhanced shocks are a wonderful upgrade to the stock dampers.
The Öhlins TTX shocks are recommend for dedicated track cars driven at either higher-performance driving events or in competition use.
…but Lotus uses the Öhlins TTX on the GT430 road car?
Yes but that does not make the shocks appropriate for extended use on the streets. While certainly capable, the GT430 is not intended to be a daily driver. You'll see why below. And for most owners, Lotus has wisely chosen to omit them on the new U.S. Evora GT.
Do shocks need maintenance?
Common shocks do not but performance shocks do. Our Bilstein/Öhlins shocks are designed for the street & track and should last 30k miles before a simple rebuild will restore them to their peak. Öhlins TTX are a pure competition shock and race teams will have theirs rebuilt every season which may be as short as 3,000 miles. Street use may seem less severe but noticeable degradation of TTX shocks may be felt within 5-10k miles. Of course, in most cases, shocks do not absolutely need to be rebuilt but performance will suffer at an exponential rate.
If single-adjustable shocks are good, 2-way shocks are better, right?
Most drivers that can “feel” what a car is doing should be able to tune a single-adjustable shock fairly well. There are also lots of educational resources available to help setup, and since the single adjustment is straight-forward, trail-&-error is not only practical but enjoyable for most drivers.
2-way and 3-way adjustable shocks are a completely different animal. The seemingly infinite adjustment combinations and the counteractions of each setting can really only be learned through years of intense experience. We have been around race cars since the mid 1990’s–we have raced, built cars, and been submersed in the racing world. We have meet thousands of people that build, tune, and compete. Of those, there are about a dozen professionals that have the experience to competently tune a multi-way shock properly.
In fact, it is very common for hobbyist cars with 2- or 3-way adjustable shocks to actually perform worse than setups with a single-adjustable shocks simple because the settings are wrong.
For hobbyist looking for a better handling car, to drop lap-times, or even just to tinker with suspension settings, we recommend the single-adjustable Bilstein/Öhlins. They are a drastic improvement over stock, enjoyable to tune, durable, and affordable.