Kwazii

Scale

H&R, H&R (ecstuning.com), H&R (carid.com), H&R (achtuning.com)

I'd like to delete the torsion bars and run coilovers on my '86 turbo. It's not a track car, but I prefer a firm suspension. There are many threads on coilovers but I haven't seen any Scale or H&R reviews for the 944, unfortunately.

I've used H&R Race Springs on a different vehicle and really liked them, but have no experience with their coilovers. My main concern with coilovers in general is the rear LCA bolt/adapter issue (I'm paranoid about it snapping). It looks like the H&R rears have an offset lower eyelet, so maybe theirs use a shorter spacer/adapter (the shorter the better). What I don't like about the H&R set is how they don't give any real info about them, like spring rates.

Scale, on the other hand, gives plenty of info and offers custom spring rates (even upgrade options like Swift springs). This set is a little cheaper, has adjustable dampening, and comes with camber plates. However, I haven't come across any 944 reviews.

So do any of you run either of these? What do you think? Please post pics of the rears mounted if you do. Thanks!

V2Rocket

prefer a firm suspension...how hard are you looking for?
torsion bars are blown way out of proportion to how hard they actually are to work with and you can get big bars with up to around 300 lbs/in rating.

i have 200# front springs and ~190# equivalent torsion bars and i wouldn't want to go any stiffer on a road car. it's hard, IMO.

MAGK944

+1^^^
I’m a big opponent of recommending any sort of coilover suspension on a purely street driven car. Like Spencer points out, there are ample torsion bar options and on a street car you will only have to set them up once and that’s it. Actually it’s the same with coilovers on a street car, you’ll set them up once and then never use the height feature ever again, so why bother. Plus coilovers require regular maintenance, you need to clean them and protect the threads or they will corrode and they add considerable unsprung weight whereas torsion bars add none. That’s why imo coilovers on a street car are a downgrade rather than an upgrade.

Dan Shea

I have no experience with the two options listed above, but if I was going to take a swing, I'd try the Scale ones. If you're removing the rear torsion bar, the rear shocks should be mono-ball and not rubber bushings. It's too much force. Rubber is fine if it's being helped by the torsion bar, but not taking the load alone. It will displace/fail in short order.

Second, I've found that the shock/coilover industry is flush with a lot of manufacturers that utilize the same designs with varying quality. So fresh out of the box they all preform well, but not for long. I think the spring rate that we have to run in the rear is too high for "cheap" coil-overs to handle.

I started with Koni yellows with stock springs/torsion bars. That was ~20 years ago, but like they've said above the street impressions were 200% better than stock. IIRC I went from there to QA1 coilovers (look identical to the H&R but with an adjuster for comp/rebound and monoballs). Those blew after 2-3 years, so I stole my dad's 3012 Koni's for a few events, then went with Gaz Gold coilovers on all 4 corners. The Gaz units looked almost identical to the QA1s, and the rears on those blew after about 4 years. I still have the Gaz on the front of my car, but switched the rear to Motion Control System's 2-way. Night and day difference with the MCS units, and I'll eventually switch the fronts when I can afford to.

If I could rank the brands it'd go:
MCS - Remote and 2x adjustable allows you to fine tune comp/rebound and run stiffer springs without a rough ride, I'm honestly amazed at how well the car eats up bumps now without going to softer springs.
Koni - Adjustable, but need to be removed from the car. My pop's has had his on his turbo for prob 15-20 years, with no issues, set and forget.
Gaz - Adjustable, but I don't like the fixed Comp/Rebound adjustments. In order to have the rebound not floaty, the compression is rock hard = rough ride. Didn't handle 650# rear springs for long.
QA1 - Adjustable, same issues as Gaz

FYI I'm running 450# fronts and 575# rears now, I was running 450/650 before going to MCS. I should to soften the fronts to ~350lbs to balance, but I'm waiting to replace the coilovers too.

MAGK944

I don’t think the op will have an issue with rubber bushings on a street driven car. I ran a Bilstein Escort Cup setup with rubber bushings, no torsion bars and quite aggressive springs for a long time on my track car, worked great, zero issues.

Absolutely agree with your assessment of MC’s, best I’ve used for tune-ability, but they are somewhat overkill in this case.

Dan Shea

Mike, I agree they probably won't be an issue. But given the option between the two I'd pick spherical over rubber everyday.

Here's a sample of what happens with rubber over time.

Rear Bushing Failure

MAGK944

I get your point but that was a Bilstein design issue not a rubber issue. When I ran mine about ten years ago Bilstein had already fixed that issue by upping the rubber density and fitting slightly thicker metal sleeves.

Spherical bearings also have their issues on a road car such as nhv and the requirement for regular cleaning due to dirt ingress. While on a track car you are not worried about nhv and you get to inspect suspension components on a regular basis anyway.