RallyDogRacing

Ok, there's been lots of threads about which is the best suspension for track and handling and such, but each time I search on something more akin to a "comfort" suspension - I'm coming up with minimal results. So I'll ask the question outright.

Does anyone have a) good experience living with, and b) comparisons between setups of suspension that were intended more toward comfort - than say outright track performance?

OK why would I want to know this? Well since moving to Houston from Chicago - I've not been able to go to a track-day, and the type of roads that I drive on for a daily basis have (amazingly to me) gotten crappier. Houston seems to have VERY rough roads with LOTS of patches, expansion cracks and other crap that is shaking the crud out of me and the car. I'm running a low-miles set of stock dampers and the M030 USA spec springs right now. Things are even bad on some highway sections where I can feel loss of contact with the ground over the gentle rolling "whoops" in the concrete.

What I would like the best of all worlds where the first x% of wheel travel is tuned very much for comfort and muting of the vibration/harness/sharp impacts of the crappy roads here - while giving me some ability to still hold the road when I get aggressive. I am absolutely willing to trade body roll/dive/squat to get more comfort.

So I welcome thoughts. I suspect some of my harshness comes from still running the stock dampers - so let's assume that I'm going to replace them. Is there a known mix of dampers and springs that yield the most comfortable ride, like one that is even acceptable to wives/girlfriends? I am NOT looking for a further reduced ride height, as my car is a little lower than stock right now, and I will occasionally bottom out on a few off-ramps when driving aggressively.

ilko

I can only speak from my personal experience which is a set of Koni adjustable shocks and Eibach springs. The Eibach springs are softer than H&R and the Koni shocks can be adjusted to be soft or visit-your-chiropractor-tomorrow stiff.

I have a stamp of approval by my wife who hasn't complained about ride quality (as opposed to the fire extinguisher attached to the passenger seat). And she's used to the air suspension in the station wagon, so that speaks for itself.

Hope this helps.

last toy

Thought you couldn't use MO30 springs on 90 C4's without a lot of modifications. That could be your issue but someone more knowledgeable can address that. According to Adrian's 964 bible, 1990's aren't set up for M030 springs, maybe that's just for ROW M030 spings. I would change out the existing shocks for the HD Bilsteins first and keep the M030 springs if the car is properly set up for them. If you are losing contact when you go over a bump, you got bad shocks, it's not the springs. You should be able to go over a good size bump at 60mph with your hands off the steering wheel and the car should still hold the road and direction. If not, I'd question the shocks IMHO.

RicardoD

I'm curious about this as well. I have the original springs and shocks on my car and I have read many comments about how the shocks fail stiff. That is the ride gets worse, more specifically I should say the impact harshness increases, as the shocks age. My shocks are 17 years old and have 50k miles on them.

I've only driven my 964. So I have a data point of one and nothing to compare against. Many other rennlisters have commented the ride improved once they changed to Bilstein HDs.

hawk911

ricardo- RallyDog helped me change to the HR/Bilstein setup 18 months ago. We can do it in a day if you get the itch.

RicardoD

Hawk,

You need to drive my car then and tell me how it feels compared to mine. Although you have a convertible and I am sure that impacts the ride feel somehow.

hawk911

With the top up, it's more rigid, but still not as tight as the coupe, but now we're stealing Bob's thread.

CraigC

Houston roads are very bad. In the 6 years I lived there I was always amazed how bad they are considering they have have no frost like the northern states. They do often get 10 inches of rain in 10 hours and the flooding results in some very bad roads. I have H & R reds and Koni adjustable inserts. The adjustability is really nice in that you can taylor the suspension to adjust for how bad the roads are. I think the progressive H & R springs really soften up the sharp edged bumps compared to the stock non progressive springs.

RallyDogRacing

Thanks all - As Hawk911 mentioned we did the H&RTurbo's & Bilstein HD's on his car but I didn't drive it enough to know if this is a good setup for Houston. So presuming the right setup for me wanting a soft-ride is the Koni's and H&R's. Anyone got the right part numbers I should be getting? Again, I really don't want to drop the car much at all. I'm a believer in wheel travel. My car is a'90 which I think means I have to muck about with the Koni's on the rear.

Drew_K

What diameter wheels are you running? If you're on 17 or larger, the easiest thing to do would be to get a set of 16's. They're noticeably smoother.

RallyDogRacing

My 16's have brand-new snow tires on them, ergo I won't run them on the bajillion degree streets. And well I'm not one of those people who thinks the D90's are great looking. I liked the ride, and love the lighter weight - but I don't see those being in the cards.