Guardate cosa scriveva Keith Tanner nel 2009 a proposito di ammortizzatori 
Yeah, an interesting history there. The Illumina was FM's standard shock in the mid to late 90's and we were happy with it. Then KYB came out with the AGX. It was rumoured to be a copy of a high-zoot GAB, it was cheaper and it had 8 settings instead of 5! At the same time, the awful Tokico HP had reliability problems and this hurt the reputation of the Illumina. So sales of the Illumina dried up to the point that we simply removed it from the catalog.
But we didn't remove them from our cars. A couple got the AGX, but we never removed a set of Illuminas from one of our cars to run the AGX instead. The cars that got the most miles were on Illuminas. When we developed our new generation of springs, we did all the testing on Illuminas.
I'd always preferred the Tokico, so I convinced the boss to put the Tokico back in the catalog so we could sell them side by side. They were still a bit more expensive, but we could let the market decide.
After a while, we realized that nobody at FM would actually recommend the AGX over the Illumina when somebody asked. So we decided to simply drop the AGX, even if it meant raising the price of our suspension kits. It took an amazingly long time to get the paperwork done and the change completed, so we kept selling the AGX as the "default" shock for longer than I would have preferred. We haven't regretted it.
In my opinion, the Miata Konis work really well with stock springs. I'm not as impressed with them on stiffer springs personally, and if I remember correctly they have a shorter stroke in the rear which costs some overall suspension travel. Their altered geometry also make them more prone to coil bind problems when used with components designed for a standard length shock, so that's something that needs to be taken into account.
It's important to note that there's nothing wrong mechanically with the AGX. They seem to be just as reliable as any other aftermarket shock - well, other than the HP. It's just the damping curves aren't well suited to the Miata. They might be spot-on in other applications, that's a generalization you can't make.
Too much information? Probably But there's a peek into the sort of stuff that goes on behind the scenes at aftermarket shops, in case anyone's interested.
Yeah, an interesting history there. The Illumina was FM's standard shock in the mid to late 90's and we were happy with it. Then KYB came out with the AGX. It was rumoured to be a copy of a high-zoot GAB, it was cheaper and it had 8 settings instead of 5! At the same time, the awful Tokico HP had reliability problems and this hurt the reputation of the Illumina. So sales of the Illumina dried up to the point that we simply removed it from the catalog.
But we didn't remove them from our cars. A couple got the AGX, but we never removed a set of Illuminas from one of our cars to run the AGX instead. The cars that got the most miles were on Illuminas. When we developed our new generation of springs, we did all the testing on Illuminas.
I'd always preferred the Tokico, so I convinced the boss to put the Tokico back in the catalog so we could sell them side by side. They were still a bit more expensive, but we could let the market decide.
After a while, we realized that nobody at FM would actually recommend the AGX over the Illumina when somebody asked. So we decided to simply drop the AGX, even if it meant raising the price of our suspension kits. It took an amazingly long time to get the paperwork done and the change completed, so we kept selling the AGX as the "default" shock for longer than I would have preferred. We haven't regretted it.
In my opinion, the Miata Konis work really well with stock springs. I'm not as impressed with them on stiffer springs personally, and if I remember correctly they have a shorter stroke in the rear which costs some overall suspension travel. Their altered geometry also make them more prone to coil bind problems when used with components designed for a standard length shock, so that's something that needs to be taken into account.
It's important to note that there's nothing wrong mechanically with the AGX. They seem to be just as reliable as any other aftermarket shock - well, other than the HP. It's just the damping curves aren't well suited to the Miata. They might be spot-on in other applications, that's a generalization you can't make.
Too much information? Probably But there's a peek into the sort of stuff that goes on behind the scenes at aftermarket shops, in case anyone's interested.
Ex Mazda Miata - 1991
Mazda MX-5 1.8 - 1994
Mazda Miata M Edition - 1996
Mazda MX-5 1.8 - 1994
Mazda Miata M Edition - 1996