Mk1 Suspension (fast road)

You are right - Both the above manufacturers are regarded as the best in their field.

The only thing I would say is that you may find the Bilsteins a little softer than you were hoping for. Ride and handling will be great, though you will still get some body roll, which the stiffer Konis would minimalise.
Personally, I like the damping on the firm side, so would go for the Koni adjustable kit.

I'm not sure I'd be happy using shortened springs on stock height dampers….

want to have a matched set really

Thanks for the info guys…

I'm still undecided but I think I may go for the Eibach / Bilstein combo, on the basis that it'll be better quality and I can upgrade later…

Decisions decisions!

Cheers

Rich

mcscrew said

I think I may go for the Eibach / Bilstein combo, on the basis that it'll be better quality and I can upgrade later…

If you know you are going to upgrade later, why waste the cash?  :dontknow:

was in my brothers 16v mk1 last night - with konigsport coilovers - hard to beat for a suspension set up….

 8)

AL_Mk1 said

mcscrew said

I think I may go for the Eibach / Bilstein combo, on the basis that it'll be better quality and I can upgrade later…

If you know you are going to upgrade later, why waste the cash?  :dontknow:

Well standard shocks are all in for ?82 delivered, whereas the sport ones are ?398. At the mo cash is a bit tight, although I do see your point that I am effectively wasting ?80.

Overall I'm a bit concerned that the Koni setup isn't very good quality, and won't last. Am I being too harsh on Koni?

Rich

Koni are one of the biggest manufacturers of shock absorbers… I don't think that one be an issue…
I would be more concerned about the standard ones at ?80!

Good point Al  

Yer I'm swaying back towards the Konis again…

I'm going to grab some lunch and ponder some more

Rich

dubboy said

I don't think I would have coilovers for track use only. What's the point as you will not need to vary ride height from track to track that much?

Sounds like you already have a decent set up and I would add the Eibach springs and top adjustable Konis.

Dubboy coilovers are not just for setting ride height ! the reason tey are adjustable is to set te corner weights up  if they were all set the same height when someone gets into the car it will lean over towards where the weight is but if the car were being used for track days you would likely need to wind the springs up on that side to get the ride level and weighted right.

Stu

Just in case anyone's interested I went for the Konis in the end, because they were matched to eachother, and because the damping will be firmer (and adjustable too). Including VAT and delivery these were ?360.

Also, in case anyone wants to replace their dampers but keep the ride height stock, do check out www.motorsportworld.co.uk as they do a whole set of Bilstein dampers, made to OEM specification, for ?82 delivered (as mentioned above).

I'll let you know how I get on with my new suspension too

Cheers for now

Rich

Just fitted a Koni SSK kit (lowers 35-40mm) to mine. Not driven it yet but it looks like it's been lowered more than 40mm - peering inside the arch it looks like the car is sitting on the bumpstops at the front. The wishbones are pointing upwards quite a bit - 10/15 degrees… The rears seems fine though.

Will post some pics in a bit…

[edit]Just measured the wheel centre to arch edge (metal not plastic) and it is 300mm… Standard GTI 340mm? so guess 40mm drop it is…[/edit]

I've got Koni shock and spring on my wee car, although the handling it pretty sharp ( i've not driven her much, only to MOT station and back), its VERY harsh on bumps and potholes ( ie bangs and really thumps). Has it maybe not been installed right? They came on the car having done about 500miles. Looking at it it seems ok, i'm wondering if it'd be worth taking it to bits, even if i did, what should i be checking? i've done suspension many times before, but none were as harsh as this,

Cheers Jamie

It took me 3 goes to get my koni Sport Kit fitted properly, although it should have only been 2 (Koni gave me mismatched springs).

One thing I forgot to do was to cut off this little blob of metal on the bottom of the front shock inserts - it did say so in the instructions but I wasn't 100% sure at the time whether that was a good idea.

Before I chopped them off (with a hacksaw) the car would bottom out at the front just by me leaning on the wing - now it's much better, despite the piece I removed being pretty small (10-15mm long).

If you do strip them then this is worth checking IMO

HTH

Rich

Sorry, I only read the first page and skimmed the rest  :wink:

Basically if the cars for track use only then I'd go for a quality set of coilovers if they're within budget.

The principle of coilovers isn't so you can slam your car into the ground, its to enable fine tuning of the chassis. The slamming bit is just a bonus.