KONI Special Active Miata Shock - ND FRONT

DESCRIPTION

NEW from Koni!!

Ideal Upgrade Shocks for customers on stock springs seeking best possible ride quality with those springs, AND an upgrade in handling too. Koni has said these are NOT suggested for lowering springs, because Koni calibrated the function of this shock to stock springs. Nonetheless, a few customers are running these with the super mild Progress Springs and reporting good results:

"ChristopherM360 wrote: Wed Oct 22, 2025 1:15 pm I've been running this combination for 3 months now (along with the Progress sways) on my '21 ST GT and love it... all of the harshness of the OEM Bilsteins is gone. Perfect mix of comfortable and planted. Using the soft bump stops in the rear and it's on the upper spring perch."

The next generation of premium shock absorbers that offer superior handling without compromise. It is the latest advancement in the KONI product portfolio. Utilizing the most recent generation of KONI's patented Frequency Selective Damping technology, it controls large body motions and cornering forces but smooths expansion joints and rough roads for improved comfort.

Koni has offered this type of shock for other platforms under the "FSD" (Frequency Selective Damping) name for a while, so some of you may have already heard of these in other circles. Koni also provides this technology to several of the big OEM manufacturers to get that performance handling that also retains a luxury ride that modern day buyers expect. Proven on over 1.5 million factory equipped vehicles, this technology rivals expensive Original Equipment electronic systems. BUT they have never been available for the Miata... until now! Now labeled as Special Active to better articulate what these offer, this technology has been brought to the Miata chassis for the first time ever.
In other circles like the Mini Cooper world, these became THE shocks to put on your Mini to get an unrivaled blend of sporty handling while being able to soak up harsh hits in the road.

Price is PER shock. If you need two, order two!

Pic below is of GWR team member Greg holding the first Special Active shock for Miata in the US at SEMA!

Brian's Notes: The new Koni Special Actives are a great new choice for customers looking for something a lot better than other stock replacements, and they will both ride better and handle better. However, once we get into lowering and increased spring rates then KONI SPORT is our first choice for best handling.

These are a twin tube low pressure nitrogen gas design. When compared to a brand new factory shock these tend to ride a little bit lower when compared to new factory high pressure shocks. Compared to brand new factory shocks these Koni typically ride at least half an inch lower because of the low pressure design (part of the reason KONI are popular with our autocross customers is gain of negative camber from that lowering in classes where factory height springs are required). But old leaking factory shocks suffer loss of pressure over time and your ride height on old shocks may already be much lower than the car was originally from the factory. Thus, despite Koni shocks generally giving slightly lower heights than new factory shocks, we have seen cases where folks replace their old tired shocks and the result is an increase in ride height because their original shocks were so far gone. Consequently, whether you will see a change in ride height with the installation of Koni shocks is not something we can get too precise about because the answer depends on the condition of the shocks in the car that you are replacing.

INSTALL NOTES:

If you want car level when empty (like our 2019 was from factory), then ignore the Koni instructions and put rear clip on lower position. If you want to be able to support putting two full size drivers in the car plus a weekend getaway bag collection in the trunk then use the higher position in which they ship and once loaded that car will ride level since we all sit on the rear shocks.

Brian's Feedback: DRIVING the Special Actives! These will not make your Miata ride like a Cadillac, or even a Camry. You still have a short wheelbase sports car in the ND. What these will do is give you the BEST possible ride quality with a stock replacement shock. It rides better than factory black standard tokico shocks, and MILES better than the factory Bilsteins. Yet the car still is a lot of fun in the turns. Much softer than KONI SPORT but these control the car in the twisty bits of road enough to be cushy-fun-fast.