Bilstein Review and lots of thoughts on suspension

Probably about time I should give some feedback on the Bilsteins. Before that a few notes on the long journey of suspension configurations that Ive tried so far:

1/
Setup: Standard springs and shocks
Ride: Crashy over rough ground, nice controlled ride over smooth high speed roads
Handling: Lots of understeer pushing on and moderate body roll.

2/
Setup: KYB Gas Adjust rear shocks, standard springs, standard front shocks
Ride: Awful, Even more crashy & choppy ride. Horrible to drive on B roads at speed. Too much compression damping for the light rear of the Coop.
Handling: Much less understeer. Good rear body control

3/
Setup: FK Highsport Coilovers 80N/mm front springs
Ride: More compliant than 2) but underdamped feeling from front on large road undulations. Copes well with low speed bumps but not very reassuring on fast uneven roads.
Handling: Much better than standard. Far reduced body roll negative camber helps turn in

4/
Setup: FK Konigsport (Koni shocks) Coilovers 80N/mm front springs
Ride: Bloody hard even on soft setting. As with 3), problems with underdamping despite increasing front damping rates

5/
Setup: FK Konigsport (Koni shocks) Coilovers 100N/mm front springs
Ride: Even harder than 4). Problems with underdamping largely resolved but the ride is very poor over rough ground with small bumps upsetting the balance and direction of the car. Rear of the car is rock hard and upsets passengers.
Handling: Best yet. The Konis are superb at holding body roll in check. Very neutral front/ rear balance, much easier to get power down in corners.

6/ Setup: As 5) but with rear shocks swapped for KYB Excel G's
Ride: Better than 5) but still awful over rough roads. At this point I'd had enough of Coilovers and decided they were only for the track.
Handling: Not much different to 5)

7/
Setup: Back to standard but with KYB Excel G's rears.
Ride: Blessed relief after the coilovers but the standard ride height looks tragic after the sexy lowered look. You get used to it. Overall better than 1) The rear KYB's are slightly stiffer than standard and control the car well. Ride can stil be choppy but only on the worst roads.

8/
And finally:

Setup: Bilstein B6 Sports shocks/ Standard springs
Ride: Very compliant. Its a bit like someone has put 3"'s of rubber between the road and and your tyres. Small bumps are just driven through. Overall, the ride almost feels softer than standard until you hit larger undulations then you feel the stronger dampers doing their work.
Handling: The softer feel makes you think its going to roll, but when you push on, it grips, then grips some more, really progressive. Obviously more body roll than the coilover setups but you can feel what you are doing and your limits rather than worrying that the front is suddenly going to break traction.

Verdict: Overall Im pleased with what Ive seen so far. There is no doubt that the Bilsteins try to cover all bases and when used with standard springs are a triumph of compromise between ride and handling. I think its likely that those who are used to a real stiff sporty ride wont like this setup as its some way off the more go kart feel of coilovers. For those making the transition from the standard setup, you will love them as they handle better and the ride quality is far superior. It sort of gives the Coop an air of a German quality saloon.

For me personally, I loved the handling of the FK's but couldnt stomach the appalling ride. The Bilsteins with standard springs solve the ride issue but the handling will never be in the same league. As long as you realise this you cant go too far wrong.

It really comes down how you use your car and what you are looking to get out of it.

My curiosity is raging now and my next step is to play around with some lowering springs with the Bilsteins to regain the smooth lowered look and maybe just add a touch more stiffness as I think the superior ride of the Bilsteins will overcome some of the increase in spring rate.

Anyway, apologies for the long post, hopefully it will be useful for those currently reviewing their suspension options.

Nice write up there, Rob, thanks for the hard work.

Really looking forward to receiving my Bilsteins now, I'll be fitting them with Pi -35mm lowering springs from Paul_H in time for the Brands Hatch trackday on April 18th

I'm going straight from standard, though, so I won't be able to give nearly as much of an experienced view on how it all performs, though

Make no apologies, great post and convinces me that the billys are the way to go to maintain comfort. They should last far longer than standard too.

John

Great reviews there Cosmo, I'm sure your post will be extremely useful to a lot of owners on here, myself included.

Thanks Chaps,

Richard, let me know how you get on with the PI's. We should be ready courier on Thursday so you'll have them on Friday. Will confirm later. Dont forget to get your tracking done.

Thanks Cosmo, a really informative post.
Cheers,

thanks for the review cosmo.

Glad folks are beginning to see the light

The Bilsteins are cracking shocks and they are expensive for a reason!

Not too bad for day to day driving, but also very good on the track when combined with Eibach springs. Add a strutbrace and you have an alround very good set up.

Quote:

---

Dont forget to get your tracking done.

---

Rob, I had laser 4-wheel tracking done couple of weeks ago, so I'd need to do it again after suspension fitted too?