Drmark

Just had new Bilsteins all round on the GTS to try and tighten up float that I had on the original Boge. Difference is amazing .. and not all good.
They work superbly - despite widespread belief that they don't mix well with stock springs, I would beg to differ. Body control is much tighter - even the steering feels crisper - and my Boge had only done 36,000 miles so were far from knackered. The overall feeling is that the car has shrunk and is far more nimble - 100mph feels like 80- used to on agently twisting road.
They also look superb - the latest ones are unpainted with what looks like a stainless steel / nickel type finish. And they come with new height adjusters and mounting plates. Very smart (if you can get low enough to see).
Now the bad news. They cost £135 a corner (around 240 bucks) and the car is definitely more noisy - more NVH transmitted up into the back despite the later sound proofing on my car. Er.... that's it.
Cheers
Mark

Lagavulin

Nice write-up.

I'm thinking about doing Bilsteins myself; the extra noise is ok with me!

bigs

Actually, I also recently installed new Bilsteins all around. And at the same time put new Potenza's on the rear. My road noise is significantly less than before. I suspect road noise was due more to the tires than the shocks in my case.

moon928

Bigs- I love that shot of your car it looks like a magazine photo. ---slight highjack.

I have to swap out my rears soon but I am going back with Boge.

bigs

Thanks. I took the pic in front of our condo in St. George, UT. It was early morning, and the condo is down one level. So we were climbing up the stairs to start the day's activities, and I noticed that I had a pretty nice angle shooting actually from below street level.

Sorry about the hi-jack. Back to your regularly scheduled program.

drnick

i think the bilsteins are a good match with the sport springs but that the stock springs are way too soft for anything serious.

Lagavulin

Ok thanks; I will need springs too.

drnick

lag, and its about time too! your car must nearly be criminal with all that power and stock suspension!! have you ridden with anyone who has the GT springs? what about the eibachs? its a usefull comparison and may help you decide what to do, if you havent allready.

slate blue

Hi Dr Nick, I have billys with stock springs, ride is all I could tolerate on the street. I don't know how hard it would get with sport springs? I also have 30 series tyres, so maybe that is another factor, please give me some feedback.

Cheers Greg

drnick

greg, the ride will probably improve going to sport springs as the bilstein shocks are that stiff anyway but what you will gain is much improved body control, so no loss there. if you move up to the eibachs then the whole ride does become noticeably firmer but IMO not unreasonably so, i guess it depends on what kind of mileage your putting on the car but i do enjoy driving my 86 with bilstein/eibach combo and poly bushes front and rear, so much that the SE gets neglected! to me this is now at a 'sport' level, i think the GT/sport option should have been the standard arangement. the bilstein/eibach combo could be stiffer for the track and agressive street driving, IMO.

Lagavulin

It's not too bad really. Replacing the 16" flats with the 18" HRE's made a HUGE difference in the ride and handling of the car.

Well, I haven't driven any of those combos yet, and that's what I really need to do versus just being a passenger. I've ridden in a Koni-equipped GT as a passenger, and my Z06 feels much firmer. However, I would like to sport-drive the GT to make a fair comparison.

Excellent information; thank you very much!

DoubleNutz

Pretty close to my experience with the Bilsteins in "The PRDATR" ('85S)and I added Eibach springs.

Koenig928

I installed the Bilstein/Eibach coilovers on my 87 S4, it made a huge difference in ride quality. Much better than the stock boges, they do transmit more road noise but its a small price to pay (for me) for better handling. I was tired of the car "floating" around at speed.

Drmark, you guys have lots of nice twising roads overthere in your part of the country! I remember Fairford was quite beautiful when I was there a few years ago.

slate blue

Hi to all, Nick I heard on this forum that the Eilbachs will make it softer. The reason given for this was that they are a progressive rate spring. Which is the stiffer spring? The GT or Eilbach? The springs are certainly what I would change to improve handling, I don't like the idea of big sway bars, incidently I do think your approach to lightning the car, it THE best way to improve the handling.

If you have ever seen the McLaren F1 driven at speed around a course you will notice it has plenty of body roll, but low unsprung weight, and sticky tyres do a lot. The other thing my friend did was to put bearings in a few of the joints, e.g. all of the shocks and drop links, much like the Ott links but in the original factory alloy. I think I will do this as this proved worthwhile without sacrificing ride comfort.

So what should it be GT or Eilbach please some feedback.

doug928

I second Bill's remarks - I just installed the Eibach and Bilsteins and it's a great difference over the stock suspension. Overall I'm very pleased. .