Konis or Bilsteins?

[Norm Peterson]

The type of maneuverability and response where the adjustables give you an edge can only be rarely found on the street, but it can be found. Tracks and Autox - yes. The occasional twisty backroad switchback - rarely. Lane change maneuvers at high speed - definitely yes. Highway road trips are one of the situations I'll put my shocks on stiff settings. The car responds better at high speed if you have to do something sudden with a Koni on a stiffer setting versus a non-adjustable shock.

On the street, you'd use adjustability more for ride quality than performance. For example, you'd have the ability to dial the damper stiffness back further than your own personal preference for longer drives where your passenger might not be as tolerant of stiff-ish damper settings. Your own street settings could well be softer than your track settings.

Stiff shocks and swaybars with soft springs is also a common modern manufacturer recipe to a ride that's comfortable (soft springs), but responsive and controlled (stiff shocks and swaybars). I ran Konis with stock PP springs for 3 years on my current car and on a low-middle setting they definitely rode better than stock shocks.

Sounds like my experience with the S197 chassis. Makes me wonder where people are setting their S550 Konis that makes them complain about harshness. And about how long they're driving on them before complaining.


Norm

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[Norm Peterson]

I believe they have the highest 'slow speed damping' rate of any reasonably priced shock you can buy. The compression damping is highly regressive so they don't get harsh like Konis typically do over higher suspension speed events. The trade off is they can be a little "jiggly" at very slow speeds.

I had some Bilstein curves somewhere that IIRC showed the knee point for compression damping being pushed up an inch/second or so faster than stock dampers (this being for a Subaru LGT). Similar initial slope, just carried out a little further.

They were definitely 'jiggly' at low speeds over certain pavement contours, but they handled the bigger stuff much better. That was with OE springs. Turned out to have been a good choice; they were still going strong something like 7 years and 70,000+ miles later when the engine seized.


Norm