As soon as men started to build cars, they realised suspension was needed to improve the road holding and to prevent the cars from breaking down due to the bad roads. In the beginning of car history friction type dampers were used. However, the friction damper, although easy to adjust, gives poor ride and handling. Also with the friction damper it is difficult to arrange asymetric damper forces and is sensitive to water and oil contamination. To improve this situation KONI invented the adjustable telescopic shock absorber. This was the first damper to combine the superior damping characteristics of the telescopic damper with the possibility to adjust the damper characteristic externally, without the need to remove it from the car.

The KONI damper was called 8211 and was used a lot on racing cars in the sixties. The 8211 was made of steel, but later this changed to high quality aluminium to lower the weight. This damper was called 8212, introduced in 1967 and used till 1990. In the 60’s and beginning of the 70’s, downforce was still unknown in Formula 1. The spring rate therefore was still relatively low (approximately 30 N/mm) resulting in a reasonable amount of suspension travel. The dampers were operated by different link sytems, but always in a near vertical position. During the 70’s wings appeared on the Formula One cars, but it was in the late 70’s when the big change came.

During the late 70’s ground effect cars were introduced. To resist the enormous downforce and trying to keep the pitching of the car as small as possible, the spring rate went up to 300 N/mm. Due to the stiffer springs, it was also necessary to increase the damper forces. Unfortunately, with the twin tube construction of the 8212 it was not possible to keep up with the increasing damping forces.

Therefore, in 1983 the 3011 and 3012 shock absorbers were introduced. These dampers were mono tube dampers with an increased piston area, making higher damping forces possible. As the mono tube is pressurised with gas, it also prevents aeroation of the oil and cavitation. Further it is possible to position the damper in any position you like, making new link mechanisms possible. Adjustment of the bump forces is only possible by dismounting the damper from the car.

At the end of the 80’s a lot of research of the F1 teams went into active suspensions. But in 1993 the active suspension was forbidden and KONI introduced the new 28 series damper in 1994. This damper was specially developed to operate at low piston speeds which made it better suited for the latest formula cars. One of the other improvements of this damper was the adjustability. From now on it was possible to adjust bump and rebound independently without the need to dismount the damper.

Of course, especially in Formula 1, there is a continuous development. So after introducing the 2812 there are now special lightweight and low friction kits. For example, the latest F1 double adjustable racing damper weighs only 450 gr. When this is compared to the 2300 gr. of the 8211 this shows the improvements made in these 40 years.