so i've recently blown out what must be near my 10th koni shock, this time on my 951. how the hell does koni stay in business? most of them have been on vw's in the past and i've learned my lesson and switched over to bilsteins. the result: way, way night & day difference between the 2. bilsteins are better in every way. better ride, more sophisticated and sensitive to smaller road imperfections, and better or at least equal handling to konis. so do i miss the adjustability? nope, not at all. that BS adjusting on konis has never impressed me at all. it's basically pretty worthless with a setting somewhere in the middle for the life of the shock.

so what i want to know is how are the bilsteins for the 944? one thing i notice is that bilstein offers no Sport models, only HD, although bilstein seems to use HD & Sport to differentiate whether a shock is for stock ride height or lowered whereas koni uses it also to signify a stiffer valving. not sure if bilstein is the same way.

anyways, tired of going through konis. (this is my 2nd set of 944 konis.) any comparisons or bilstein facts appreciated.

thanks.

 

I have an Bilstein Escort Cup setup on my car. It has been on the car for 4 years with zero issues. The ride is a bit rough but handling was dramatically improved over stock. I have had no experience with Konis.

 

yeah, i'd love to go with something like that but i'm really asking about the standard bilstein replacement shock. it's much more tame than what you're using. just the average bilstein replacements which run around $100 per corner like the koni sports.

 

No experience with koni but I had the standard bilsteins on my 944na and really enjoyed them. When I got my 951 I was a bit unimpressed with its new factory replacement sachs compared to my 944.

 

i have all koni adjustables on my car and havent had a problem. My old n/a had original konis and they were still in great shape. Drove Sam's car w/ bilsteins and the same spring rates as my car- handled good but alittle stiffer-almost too stiff- i believe he was having them re-valved for lighter duty-street use-

 

I am running HDs in the rear (as replacement for Konis that had come to the end of their useful life - just age and wear no complaints). They seem fine, but I will be adapting to coil-overs at some point with Koni or Bilstein - depends on the total value of the package when I start to shop.

 

Dude just run the escort cups you will love them i know i do

 

haven't run Bilstein's on the Porsche, but I've put Bilstein's and koni's on several other cars/trucks and I have to agree, Bilstein >> Koni. I haven't blown any of the Koni's out, but the Bilstein stuff definitely rides and handles better in my experience.

 

I've been a long time Bilstein fan, and have run a variety of them on various 944's. Go with the HD's if its a street car, you love them.

 

thanks guys for the bilstein info. i would love to go with the escorts but out of my price range at this time. those of you with the HD's, are they stiff enough? i don't want to give up any performance but as i've already stated, i think the HD in bilstein refers to if you plan on lowering or staying with stock height. i'm assuming this because one of the premier tuners of VW handling is Shine racing and they only use the bilstein HD's. they also tend to insist on keeping near stock ride height rather than lowering and riding on bump stops. also, i believe the HD's are also able to handle slight lowering. my car is stock height but i have some 26mm torsion bars i hope to put in one of these days and also i want the paragon/ground control front coilovers for the front. when that time comes, i'll probably lower a slight amount but probably no more than an inch as these cars are already pretty low.

hmm, i think i might try the bilsteins. they're cheaper too!

 

a bit off-topic. I have the koni-adjust's and i think they are ok. But I had Tokico gas shocks with Neuspeed Race springs on my old Honda long ago. They were the best damn shocks i have had period. Blows away the koni's. http://www.hitachi-hap-la.com/Tokico...cts/index.html

It's too bad they don't have an application for our cars.

 

If you are dead set against the konis, you might want to read up on the ground control coilovers...

"reduced droop and Koni strut inserts specially valved by Koni of Holland for Ground Control."

http://www.ground-control-store.com/.../II=672/CA=159