Nearly every automotive enthusiast’s journey involves KONI Sports – and even if those famous adjustable yellow dampers weren’t on one of your cars at some point, one of your friends likely had them. KONI Sport dampers offer quality performance with a quick access knob allowing for easy rebound adjustment. The problem is that if your hunt was for coilovers for a production-based sports car with high-performance driving in mind, you were either piecing together a setup matching KONI Sports with third-party threaded sleeves and springs, or you were leaving the brand entirely. But that’s about to change.
Announced at the 2023 SEMA Show and with sales slated to begin early this year, KONI’s GTS coilovers build upon the ease of use, adjustability, and durability of the Sport dampers, but now in a threaded body and attached to matched springs, top hats, and camber plates. Just don’t mistake GTS coilovers for repackaged Sports.
“We’ve been looking to do new coilovers for 10-plus years,” KONI’s Allen Briere explains. Briere, a New England Region SCCA® member who has been competing at SCCA events for about 17 years and has been a KONI employee for nearly 10, was heavily involved in the process of bringing the GTS coilovers to market.
“We wanted a single adjustable to keep the price point down while also keeping the quality up,” he says. “We wanted a 2.25-inch spring instead of a beveled OE-style spring, and we wanted it to go as low as it could possibly go – so if there was room on the body, we wanted it threaded.”
KONI’s GTS coilovers will come equipped with springs, although Briere notes that the GTS coilovers will be valved to handle higher spring rates due to the range of adjustability KONI is known for. He adds that the valving range should be good enough for spring rates needed for many SCCA amateur motorsports events.
Controlling these high spring rates is possible because the GTS coilovers are designed for motorsports while building upon some of KONI Sports’ best features.
“A KONI Sport has 100 percent range of motion, meaning from minimum setting to maximum setting, it’s 100 percent firmer,” he explains. “Many competitors are 30 to 50 percent range of motion on their coilovers. They might have two adjustment knobs, but the forces that they make are not as broad as a KONI Sport. We’re going to have the same range of motion on the GTS coilovers [as the KONI Sports]. We wanted to wake the vehicle up – we want people to know that they bought a performance vehicle.”
While some think the GTS line is KONI’s first coilover for production vehicles, they would be mistaken. The 1150 model offered height adjustability, but the lowering range wasn’t as broad as the GTS, and the springs were softer and progressive, with damping tuned accordingly.
“In the previous 1150 kits we made for coilovers, the spring rates were made more for comfort, so you were adjusting for ride height and comfort,” says Briere. “For something like a VW Golf, we would supply a spring that was generally on the conservative side in the front and back; the GTS kit is going to start with a linear spring and sporty spring rates – it’s a performance shock.”
With that came ride development to establish new valving. “It’s not taking a Sport, throwing it in a threader, and painting it a different color,” he says. “It has its own unique DNA because of the construction of the product.”
The GTS coilovers are a twin-tube design in a steel body. The threading will have a corrosion resistant plating, and the bodies will be powder coated. The coilovers will also be serviceable, which comes with the ability for the coilovers to be revalved, allowing the coilovers to grow with the person’s competition type.
KONI’s initial offering of GTS coilovers will include six applications, with more to come. In all, Briere hopes to have a dozen applications by year’s end. He also expects development of new fitments to come quickly.
“Because these use race springs instead of the stock spring where we have to develop the stamping for the spring seat, this program should help us fast track new applications,” he says.
Pricing for a set of GTS coilovers should begin around $1,600 for certain models, with GTS coilover kits including front camber plates where applicable.
Find out more on KONI’s website.
Photo courtesy KONI
