XYZ Racing Gravel Rally Coilovers — Honda CRV I 1995-2001

The first-generation Honda CRV is an odd thing to find on a rally entry list, but the RD1 chassis – tall, light-ish for a soft-roader, with that B20B four-pot and a viable Real Time 4WD system – has quietly become a working tool on UK club gravel and historic-class stages. What the chassis lacks is travel control: the factory struts run out of damping the moment the surface turns loose, and the body rolls through every bend long before the tyre has loaded.

The XYZ Racing Gravel Rally coilover for the Honda CRV I (1995-2001) is built specifically for that problem. This is the rally-bias damper in the XYZ range, with long stroke, long springs and an inverted-tube layout intended to survive sandstone, snow and silt without packing down.

What this coilover does for your 1995-2001 Honda CRV

On a loose surface the RD1 wants two things: travel to keep the tyre on the floor over crested gravel, and enough low-speed damping to stop the body pitching when you lift for a corner. The long-stroke construction here gives the suspension room to actually work – the wheel can extend into a dip and compress over a stone without the damper running out of shaft. Spring rates have been set on the bench by XYZ’s own rally team rather than guessed at, so the front end keeps weight on the inside wheel through a tightening hairpin instead of dropping onto the bump-stop.

Day to day on tarmac you will feel a settled, planted CRV that rolls less but does not crash, because the inverted tube carries the cornering load through the bigger upper section of the strut rather than through a thin shaft.

About the Gravel Rally coilover

The Gravel Rally is XYZ Racing’s dedicated loose-surface damper, developed for rally stages and rallycross rather than circuit or fast-road use. It is the most demanding brief in their range – rallycross surfaces shift between sandstone, snow and silt inside a single stage, and the shock absorber is the part that has to absorb every one of those impacts. The build answers that with an inverted-tube design, where the larger-diameter outer tube sits at the top and the inner shaft works from above, which adds rigidity and resists the side-loading you get when a wheel slams into a rut at speed.

Long stroke and a long main spring let the chassis absorb high-speed bouncy sections and carry serious G-force through committed corners without bottoming. Every spring rate in the kit has been signed off by XYZ’s rally racing programme, not specced from a catalogue.

Fitment for the Honda CRV (1995-2001)

This kit fits the first-generation Honda CRV, chassis code HN27, covering model years 1995 to 2001. Check your build plate before ordering if your car sits on the cusp of the 2001 facelift.

What buyers also search for

• Honda CRV I rally suspension for gravel and forest stages
• HN27 long-travel coilover replacement for clubman rally use
• First-gen CRV B20B rallycross damper upgrade
• Inverted-tube coilover for 1990s Honda 4WD platforms
• Honda CRV historic and clubman rally suspension parts

The configurator below lets you set spring rates and ride height for your stage car – build yours below.