[V8] V8 Springs

[Carol, Dave, and Zach Weiss]

Back in '96, I talked to the guy at Intrax (forget his name), Roland Graef
at H&R, and a couple folks at Eibach.  Eibach tech service said they had
discontinued their S4 springs, and absolutely would never recommend putting
their springs on a car other than what they had spec'd them for; based on
the spring rates they seemed like the best bet to me, but I didn't get far
enough to check ride height (some folks have been concerned with getting
into bump steer if you drop our cars too much).  Rears were almost as stiff
as the H&R's, and the fronts were in between stock and H&R.  Roland said the
Germans had designed the V8 springs and they were just what he would have
done for the V8 (but he had no idea that the dead coils belong on the top of
the rear springs, like the Eibachs had).  Intrax said they lower a car to
get a certain look, and admitted that the performance might not be optimal!

 

I went with the H&R and Bilstein sports (which were actually not quite as
stiff as the Konis, based on the specs at two points ant the shapes of the
damping curves), and built adjustable rear perches to get the rake right.
Overall the car is only about .75" lower because I used thicker damping
rings in the front with the Bilsteins.  For a while I thought it was just a
tad stiff, but have since grown to love this setup.  I would have liked to
have seen what Ingo's car felt like, though..

 

Dave