[s-cars] Bilstein/Intrax install and impressions

[Scott Munger]

Besides "I love it"...
I acquired a set of Intrax springs from Bob Pastore who had them sitting in
his attic and then a set of Bilstein shocks.

I didn't attempt the install myself, not enough old guys in hula shirts to
help out in Arizona :-)
I paid the shop that did my exhaust install $470 for the install and
alignment.  It took them a full day and they said it was much more difficult
than other cars.

No camber plates... they fully dialed the camber as much as possible and it
was still -1.3 degrees on each front side... which is barely within the
spec, but not as bad as I thought it would be.  I plan on doing camber
plates w/a brake and wheel upgrade in the future.

Aesthetically, the car was 27.5" from floor to fender and is now 25.5" on
all corners  (2" drop!!).  The wheel gap went from 3" to 1".  The car looks
much lower, but not slammed, as the wheel gap is still apparent, and the 8"
(stock) wheels fill the fenders in nicely.  Very aggressive.

The ride is great.  Reminds me of my old, neu-S4 but a bit stiffer.  The car
handles like it's 500 pounds lighter.  Getting on the throttle is much
quicker as the car hardly bucks at all.  With the stock setup, full throttle
meant a lot of rear squat.  Cornering is quite a joy now.  Before, the car
would dive into a turn like a Cadillac, now it's much more behaved and
drivable through the twisties.
Now I need stickier tires!

All of this is, again, on the stock wheels.  I thought the ride would still
be too squishy, but now I've decided to go full RS2 before I get new
wheels... although I *definitely* need bigger brakes.

Does anyone want a '93 stock suspension???  Make offer!

--Scott Munger
'93 S4