Is anyone running the non-adjustable osrav shocks and what do you think of them? Are the similar to billies?

Basically my suspension has seen much better days (is on the original standard shocks and eibachs fitted a couple of years ago). I have my coupe booked in for new shocks all round and am wandering what will be best; standard shocks or the osrav non-adjustable ones? By the looks of things the top mounts are fairly recent and wishbones are ok but I'll get everything checked when it goes in.

So what are people's experiences? The ride at the mo is shocking and is ruining my coupe enjoyment.

i run osravs and they are much better than billies in my opinion i have had both

i run osravs and they are much better than billies in my opinion i have had both

Eibach springs on (tired) standard shocks will give a terrible ride - it'll be hopelessly under-damped

If you're trying to save money by going for non-adjustable shocks, the Billies will be fine and will improve your ride by several hundred percent

I can't see that non-adjustable Osravs would be noticeably better

However, the adjustable Osravs are pretty much the best MacPherson setup you can get for the Coupe, with a wide range of damping adjustment between soft and floaty and rock-hard

Good, but not cheap (circa £600)

just to clarify mine are the adjustable osravs and they are worth the extra imho

I have the non adjustables as an alternative to the billies and I am very happy with them, although they did take a while to get used to.
They are quite firm. When I first had them fitted I drove down a road I have used many times before, I had to pull over to check my tyres. I thought I had a puncture.
It turned out the road surface was really rough. Previously I was running completely standard, but I'm now running Eibachs and the osravs. with hindsight I wish I had the adjustables just to soften them up a little but then again I think they would never get adjusted anyway and I dont track my car.

Thanks for the opinions guys, I can't stretch to £600 for the adjustable osrav's at the moment otherwise that's what I think I would go for.

The non adjustable osravs which are an uprated shock are £250 (which is similar price to standard shocks), billies about £400?

My main concern is that the osravs may be a bit too firm? Will new standard shocks be underdamped with the eibach springs then?

no new shocks and eibachs are a nice road set up if you are only driving it at road speeds..when the shocks are shot they become very crashy but new they are fine..

I certainly paid more than £250, by the time duty ,tax and delivery was paid, I cant really remember it was a couple of years ago now when i bought them but I think they were in excess of £400.

Just had the osravs fitted today, however need a new wishbone fitted and the tracking done and then I'll let you know what I think off them. They were £250 plus fitting (which means I have enough cash left over for a flea remap :-) )

On another note Barbz took me for a spin in his 2.4 coupe, what a rapid machine that is!

Just completing my road test on these having driven to Bristol, france, Manchester and Birmingham on all sorts of different roads in the last week or so.....I'll post a full review soon

Well just thought I'd give an update on this....

So this is my setup:

Coupe LE
standard strut brace
eibach springs (a few years old)
new osrav non-adjustable shocks
new wishbones
realtively new topmounts
Flea remap ~270bhp
Prestivo sport tyres (not the best I should add, alright in the dry but pretty poor in the wet).

I’ve had these shocks on for a few weeks now and done over a 1000 miles on a variety of different roads so thought I’d give my opinion on them. My car was on original shocks and the ride was awful, they had seen much better days. So took the car to Barbz (Torque Italia) and he recommended the non-adjustable Osravs as a good replacement within my budget. I was tempted to go for the adjustables Osravs but just couldn’t justify the price at the time as had other stuff to pay for so went for these which are actually a little cheaper than standard shocks. One of my concerns was that these Osravs maybe a bit too firm as they are apparently 30% uprated over standard but I decided to bite the bullet and give them a go:

Town driving
First impressions after picking up the car was that it felt much better than before. The crashyness has gone and it handled the bumps much better. The ride is firm though but perfectly acceptable on the roads of London, Birmingham and Manchester. I have to go fairly slow over speed bumps (slower than in a golf for example) but that’s down to the ride height. I don’t have to swerve round recessed manhole covers etc like I had to before. I asked my passenger what she thought about the new suspension and her comments were “it feels a lot nicer and much smoother than before, and my boobs aren’t bouncing as much”.

Motorways
This depends on which motorway but generally it feels pretty decent and planted. Driving long journeys on the M6, M40, M60, M4 all ok, some more bumpy than others. Concrete section of the M42 is still a pain but now I don’t think my teeth might fall out when driving along it. The drive down from the Eurotunnel to Boulogne was great, I was amazed at how smooth and level the French motorway was compared to ours!

Dual carriage ways / roundabouts / country lanes
Ah finally onto the fun roads… these are the best roads to drive the coupe on with this setup. The car comes into its own when you press on and feels fantastic. I took the car for a spirited drive near Redditch, south of Birmingham. For those of you who don’t know the area basically there are lots of roundabouts linked by dual carriage ways and some country lanes thrown in. The car felt very stable, sharp and planted when going round the roundabouts and up slip roads. Acceleration was well controlled with little torque steer and down the country lanes it changed direction well, soaked up the bumps and I could make fast progress. I miss not having any roads like this near me in London.

On the Track
Well haven’t had the chance yet but hopefully will give it a go on a trackday soon.

So on the whole I recommend these shocks as a good bilstein alternative (I had them on a previous coupe). Don’t get me wrong they are firm and in combination with the lowering springs don’t give a ride anywhere near as comfortable as you would get in a new BMW or Golf for example (recently drove a 318d and TDI as a streetcar member in London), which may not be to everyone’s taste but they are more than acceptable for me and do give your coupe much improved handling. If all you drive is town and motorway driving you may prefer a new standard setup I guess but I’ll leave others to comment on that. These shock though are definitely good value for money and complement the lowering springs well.

Finally, big thanks to Barbz (Torque Italia) for supplying and fitting them and sorting out all the little issues on my car.

Good review mate.

Tempted to get these shocks now.

pay the extra for the adjustables they are excellent

did you get a special offer on these or is the price always £250?i could do with some shocks and these sound ideal

Yeah £250. Give Torque Italia a call for more info on them.