Miata Mailing List: April 1997, Message #308
sponsored by



     



From: 	Jeff Giordano <jeffgio@earthlink.net>

Subject: Re: R-Package. Bilstein

Date: 	Wed, 2 Apr 1997 21:59:42 -0500



I've replied to several inquires about my removed Bilsteins directly,

but

still see some life in this thread, so I'll add my .02. 



I can't imagine my 96R as a street machine with the stock Bilsteins. The

ride was TERIBLE! I left them on last year thinking they may be good for

autoXing (apparently I was wrong - as judged by the maita autoXing

comunity).

The lousy streetability of the Bilstein's didn't however bother me since

I

rarely use the car on the street and trailer it to events. 



I've just replaced the Bilsteins with adjustable koni's (along with a

front

sway bar, Borla exhaust, new front lower a-arms, etc.). The koni's can

be dialed

up to about the bilstein's damping when wanted, but on their softest

setting

provide a wonderfully improved street-ride quality.



I strongly suggest that anyone with an R and not racing show room stock

consider

replacing their Bilsteins. I suspect the adjustable tokico's are also

good shocks, and can't really comment on any expected ride change with

non-adjustable replacements, although I doubt they are as highly damped

as the Bilsteins.



The adjustable koni's run about $100 each and can be had from many

vendors

advertising in both the maita magazine and miata.net. The koni's also

offer slightly lower spring perch locations which you can use to lower

your

maita (not legal for SCCA solo II stock classes).



Cheers - Jeff





>I've been thinking about swapping out the Bilstein's in our new R with the

>Koni's (since this will be a street/solo car as well).  Which model Koni's

>are these (I have "sport yellow" adjustable koni's in my GTI, and for that

>application at least there were a few other koni's available).

>

>Any recommendations on where to buy them (and how much do they run?)