Welcome to our official comparison for our newly designed Öhlins DFV FPSpec coilover for the C7 Corvette chassis, engineered exclusively for Kraken Performance. We’re especially excited about the release of this kit because it is our first published work for the domestic car scene. After installing it on our C7 Corvette, we delegated the real-life driving test to various employees. After weeks of daily driving, backroad testing, and long commutes, we are able to synthesize the driving experience and driveability of the car through these reports and compile an in-depths comparison for you guys.
Product Features Include:
- Custom Long-Stroke Öhlins DFV Damper Bodies – Exclusively Valved for Kraken Performance
- Available in Various Tailored Stiffness Options – Tuned to Meet Your Individual Use Case
- Swift® Main Springs in SBG Exclusive Ohlins Gold
- Swift® Helper Springs in SBG Exclusive Ohlins Gold
- Fully Floating Billet Aluminum Top Hats with Teflon Lined Aurora Bearings
- Custom Billet Lower Mounts (with Aurora Bearings)
- High-Torque Non-Marring Aluminum Adjustment Spanners
Billet Floating Aluminum Top Hats and Billet Lower Forks and Mounts – Featuring Aurora Bearings
Floating aluminum top hats eliminate bending loads on the spring and damper, reducing friction on the damper and providing a perfectly parallel spring platform. This reduces hysteresis to ensure consistent, predictable damper performance in all conditions while extending the life of your damper. The only choice of top race teams, Aurora’s stainless steel, teflon lined spherical bearings provide high strength, silent articulation and will never rust. Fully billet machined upper and lower mounts, made from aircraft grade 6061 Aluminum, super strong and very light!
Swift Springs
A world leader in performance springs, Swift springs are made in Japan and are THE choice for leading race teams. Swift Springs feature a proprietary metallurgy which allows springs to be manufactured with a smaller wire diameter, more useable compression stroke, longer life, and lighter than your average spring. Swift produces all of the springs used in our custom suspension kits – we use nothing but the absolute best hardware to maximize performance and consistency.
Same Dual Flow Valve Technology That You Have Came to Love
Derived from Öhlins Racing heritage, the DFV is uniquely able to provide the damping support needed to snake through a slalom at an autocross yet being silky smooth while attacking the apex curbs at the track. The Öhlins DFV has become the de facto road & track damper choice for many other platforms due to its impressive combination of body control during aggressive driving while maintaining ride comfort on rough roads. The simple fact is: no other damper near this price point has the ability to keep up, and we are excited to bring Ohlins technology and handling capabilities to the Corvette platform!
High Torque, Non-Marring Adjustment Spanners
When it comes time to make adjustments, we’ve designed an exclusive non-marring high-torque adjustment spanner to avoid damaging the spring perches. With multiple engagement teeth, it provides positive engagement to avoid slippage and protect your knuckles from the wrath of punching a control arm. A 14mm open end wrench is provided for quick removal of the gold damper adjustment knob. Also includes a 3/8” breaker-bar attachment for pesky long-stuck jam nuts, and finally a bottle opener to keep you refreshed while you’re working in the garage! Cheers.
Assembly and Installation Services Available
For customers in the San Francisco Bay area, we offer suspension installation, alignments and corner balancing out of our Fremont California service center. Please contact KrakenPerformance via email (info@krakenperformance.com) for more information.
For customers not in our area, your FPSpëc Kraken Performance Suspension will arrive assembled and ready to install, simply bolt in the suspension, adjust ride height, and make a visit to your local alignment specialist.
Daily driving experience and review.
The experience of daily driving the C7 on Ohlins is a fantastic experience. While handling is improved, ride quality and compliance over bumps, dips, broken pavement, and potholes does not upset the chassis and is soaked up with poise. Firm but supple is the best description of the Ohlins DFV thanks to their patented Dual Flow Valve – essentially a mechanical version of active suspension basing damper force off the shock shaft velocity. Temperature Compensation, buttery-smooth Ohlins 1304 Race Oil, Aurora Spherical Bearings, Mil Spec Anodized 6061 billet lower and upper mounts, and Swift Springs.
Better ride quality, enhanced grip, and composed handling is what you can expect from a set of Ohlins coilovers. Driving through a city ridden with potholes and rough roads, we are very pleased with how the C7 absorbs bumps and broken pavement. Although the coilovers’ spring rates and unique valving curve are, on paper, much firmer and performance-focused, the ride quality is incredibly comfortable and holds similar characteristics to its stock suspension counterpart, if not better. The DFV technology from Ohlins enables the coilovers to soften up when going over speed bumps and potholes, resulting in a much smoother impact and rebound.
From a performance perspective, the Ohlins DFV is second to none! Ultra-low hysteresis shocks allow bumps a fraction of a millimeter to be taken up with ease. Maximizing lateral grip, eating up mid corner bumps, curbing, and berms are the Ohlins DFV’s strong suit. This makes this the most complete package for a road and or track Corvette with both total grip and ride quality.