[s-cars] Correct Bilstein / Eibach Suspension Availability

[Doug Landaeta]

Taka reminded, "Personally, rather than trying to make the big boat turn
flatter, I'd enjoy the car for what it is- a very refined big bruiser of a
car with a lot of power and decent handling for a big sedan."

ABSOLUTELY! I don't want an Evo or anything else. - In fact Miss piggy is
about all the fun I need and still maintain my driving priviledges in this
state.  She just has that Rancho-look, and the last time I bumped something
(before the big brakes), I smacked the grill from dive and left the bumper
unscathed.

Doug L
94 S4
92 500E
97 T&C minivan
05 Pacifica

-----Original Message-----
From: Taka Mizutani [mailto:t44tqtro at gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, May 20, 2005 8:38 PM
To: LL - NY
Cc: Doug Landaeta; s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: Re: [s-cars] Correct Bilstein / Eibach Suspension Availability

Sorry about the misinformation- Larry's totally right- POSITIVE caster.
Ooops.

The biggest improvement in ride is getting your shocks valved to match your
springs- for a high spring rate shock/spring combo, the best results I've
seen off-the-shelf are generally coilovers with the shock and spring combo
matched by the manufacturer.

Our old A4's H&R coilovers rode significantly better than the less stiffly
sprung 200 with Bilsteins and H&R springs. I believe this is primarily
because the Bilstein shocks in the 200 were not valved properly for the H&R
springs. Bilsteins need more damping to better match H&R springs- probably
the reason why the Eibach/Bilstein combo for the UrS works so well- the
spring rates and the shock valving are a good match, or so they feel.

Conversely, the reason US spec STis ride poorly is because the shock is
overdamped- there are many reports of the use of stiffer JDM springs
resulting in a better ride.

Personally, rather than trying to make the big boat turn flatter, I'd enjoy
the car for what it is- a very refined big bruiser of a car with a lot of
power and decent handling for a big sedan. Kind of the reason why I like the
D3 A8 so much- feels so good driving it (a manual gearbox in the A8 would
make it the ideal big sedan for me).

Taka