New Member/ Billstein PSS Coilover kit
 

Hi everyone. I am new to RL, my name is Carl. This site is great for a wealth of knowledge on our cars.

I have a 1996 993 turbo, midnight blue with gray interior (hardback sport seats) 30k miles.

I wanted to get a set of coilovers for the car and it seems that everyone is using the billsteins. I am not going to track the car so I don't really need the adjustability.

Are the billsteins what everyone would recommend or is there another option??

Where is the best place to buy the billstein kit if I decide to get it. I am looking to give a vendor here my business or a friend of a friend on here as long as the price is fair.

Thanks everyone and I hope to hear from and meet some of you from the NJ/NY area.

Any insight anyone can provide is much appreciated. I am anxious to get the suspension done and get rid of my 4X4 appearance in my car.

You can't go wrong with the Bilstein kit if it's for the spirited street, and some tracking. Not a full dedicated track set up, but more than adequate for lots of fun. Go through FD Motorsports if ya wanna be nice to a great outfit :-)

I have PSS9s and have never touched the settings and think it's an overkill for street use.

Not sure what the ROW spring spec is but you can contact Gert at Carnwal. That is an great setup.

If you don't plan to track the car, then I'd suggest not getting the PSS setup; it's quite firm for just street driving. I'd go for the ROW setup

I'll never track mine but love the adjustability. I adjust based on roads and passenger. Usually keep it at 6/4 r/f but bump it to 8/6 for spirited driving on decent roads by myself.

I am in the same boat. RoW or Pss10's? The later can be corner balanced while the former cannot be, correct?

I have Pss10's and love it. Could adjust the rebound to 10 different settings. I love my ride pretty stiff so I drive around in settings 4 in the front and 5 in the back. Imagine if you crank it all the way to 1...:thumbsup: the lower the firmer.

I went with Bilstein HD B6 with Turbo RoW springs from Gert set to Turbo Row ride height and corner balanced.

Went all the way with PSS10 and Rennline camber plates and made a mistake. HD B6 is the way to for the streets, light track duty and ride height.

I believe it is the other way around. 10 is the firmest and 1 is the softest.

See this document for dampening curves.

+1. Heavy butt is why you set the rear 2 stops above the front.

I've had them all, do pss10, can set anyway you want....

You are not going to get an definitive answer by just asking and reading the responses. Take a look at the variety of responses above, everyone has a different view of what a "good" ride is, how useful the adjustability is, is it too firm or soft, and there is even variability in the driver's ability to feel the car and be sensitive to how well the suspension works.

Clearly, the most popular shock replacement, judging by my years on Rennlist, are the PSS series, most recently the PSS-10's. WHY? Because they are very good shocks, reliable, adjustable and ADD to the value of the car. Putting on crappy shocks does not do that, and since you are talking a Turbo, who's values are upper scale, it makes sense to put in the best shock that gives you the best return.

There are a few other choices - KW V3's are very good, not as well known as the PSS-10's, and frankly because of that in your case avoid. You can do the Bilstein HD's, but that is the economy version of the PSS-10, and it will perform well but not as well as the PSS-10's.

Do a search through Rennlist, and look what the predominant shock replacement is - there is a reason for that. Then hunt down some locals and drive cars with different shocks if you want to be totally convinced. Even then, you will not be able to push their cars so you will to rely on a large part on research.

:)

Cheers,

Mike

PS - if changing the shocks, replace the front A-arm bushings with Walrods if not done before, they are almost certainly shot.

Actually the lower the number (1) is the stiffest setting on them. The 9 (or 10) is the softest setting. When you look at the chart, it shows more rebound/cushion at the higher number (10).

That's not the way I read it. At Stage 10 it takes approximately 3000 N force to move the shock at 1 m/s on the rebound. Likewise on Stage 1 it takes about 1000 N force to move the shock at 1 m/s.

Based on this I always assumed that the lower stage was the softest. Also, I can see how the marking on the adjustment dial can be confusing. Numerically the arrow is showing that 10 is soft while if you base the arrow on rotation then counter clockwise is Soft meaning 1 is the softest.

With that said. I pretty much set and forgot my settings at 3 front 4 back and liked the ride which I felt was pretty soft but harder than stock.

However, now that you, Richard, have corrected me I am really confused. You are track experienced and I trust your experience.

So I would like others to input as due to the graph I am very confused. I guess I will be doing some testing.

Johnny