Koni Special Active shock set with bump stops, 1990-1997

The Koni Active is aimed at the driver who wants good handling but without any sort of ride penalty. It’s not a track setup, although you certainly can do autocross and track days on them.

Similar to systems used on some high-dollar coilovers, there’s a secondary oil passage inside the shock that allows the shock to have higher damping with slow wheel movement and softer damping for rapid movements. Koni calls this Frequency Selective Damping, since the shock is actively adjusting the damping level depending on the frequency of the movement. It’s almost a self-adjusting shock. This means that the shock can move quickly and easily to absorb bumps, but helps resist the slower body movements that are involved in handling. The idea is that you have good body control with the best ride possible.

They’re not intended for higher rate performance springs as they don’t have enough damping to control the higher spring rates, and lowered cars will find themselves on the bumpstops too often. Think of them as a higher end self-adjusting alternative to a set of Koni STR.T shocks. Depending on how much damping you like in your suspension, you may prefer the Koni Sport with its adjustable damping – in our head to head testing, the FM staff were split on their preference when matched with stock springs. If you’re going to run a higher spring rate like our FM springs, you will want the Sport.

These have a 12mm shaft, but they’re 10mm (with a flat) at the shock mount – this means that they fit your stock shock mounts with no modifications required. 

As with all the shocks we offer, we include a set of multi-cellular urethane bump stops that  are a good upgrade over stock. This is particularly important with the Special Active, as they don’t like hard and long bumpstops.