gfl

Car: 2000 986 S 6-sp

Goal: track car, but street legal (drive to/from even if 500 miles)

I have the row m030 in my current (street) car. So far its very, very good - highly recomended if you really want performance.

However, when i think track car i have to consider even more expensive, bu maybe better (????) options. The 3 on my list are:

1. ROW M030 - $1400 ish plus install or DIY
2. PSS9 - $2200 plus same plus corner weighting
3. KW V1 - $2100 and ditto

I put the KW in my Audi S6 avant and its a wonderful balance of comfort and control. But that's and Audi and that's not a track car.

Who cna compare the PSS9 to the ROW M030 for the track and AX?

KW also interesting, although i expect few have had experience with it.

Grant

ep3_lol

I don't have experience with any of these (yet, KW V2s are in my car's future), but what you are looking to do with the car on the track should be a consideration. If you are just going to do DEs for fun and not compete, then it does get complicated and you will have to actually make a choice. But if you want to build the car for a certain time trial or race class, the rules for the particular class could make the decision for you.

gfl

not concerned with classes at the moment, and in Solo only the M030 is legal in stock. But the car wont be stock anyway, so its irrelevant.

Thanks for the thought, but for now, i'd like to stick to factual on-road experiences.

If i raced, i would honestly think about spec miata. $7k for a car with active tech and you';re done.

And if you do ball it up, its less painful to the wallat

Grant

EPWilson

Subscribing to this thread as I'm curious about hearing other's M030 versus PSS9 comparisons. I have the former and will eventually go to PSS9's (building towards Spec Boxster), but the car is currently street driven on some nasty roads in the NYC metro area and the M030 is pretty stiff for that.

DOUGLAP1

When I was shopping for coilovers for my Boxster S, I found a few people who had shock dyno charts on Bilstein that showed very poor non linear performance. i know that Bilstein can make a very good damper, but not the PSS9 - it is built to a price. I tried to get some units custom valved, but just got the run around from Bilstein vendors, so I crossed them off my list. I have AST, and are very happy with them. They supplied shock dyno curves when shipped and have a good digressive damping curve. The only others I would consider are Motion Control (MCS), JRZ, and Moton (AST bought out Moton, but they may still be using that name). From what I have seen, the KW's aren't too bad.

Good luck

gfl

in one comparison i read. The conclusion was:

"fantastic shock, great damping response, adjustments are nonlinear".

The criticism was that the 9 settings were in no way evenly spaced.

You read different?

In any event, i'm really looking for comparisons. Yes, some of the high -end systems you note are very good - also out of my price range and awful for street driving.

have you used the KWs in a 986/987 application?

Grant

DOUGLAP1

Non-equal spacing of damper curves does not bother me if I have a shock dyno sheet, as then I know what curve that I am dialing in. The part about the PSS9 that concerns me is the non-digressive nature of the individual curves, and Bilstein dealers gave me the run around when I tried to get some tested and custom valved before shipping.

It is hard to find any real test data on PSS9's, as most people don't dyno them, and only have qualitative things to say. But, here is one that is referenced in quite a few places:

http://forums.audiworld.com/showthread.php?p=23271726

gfl

thanks. I'll dig a little more on the KWs since they worked so well in my Audi (but then again, different cars and different goals here...). A huge number of folks use PSS9s for the track and its the mandatory suspension for spec boxsters, so i have some hesitation to rule it out....

The curves you show, if i read them properly, show the damping first decreasing, then increasing, then decreasing again, incrementally, with velocity. I got it right?

I wonder why.....
Grant

Grant