Event 11 is at Marina. The good news is that the entry number is usually low enough to allow a number of fun runs. The bad news is that the surface there is very smooth/sandy concrete that promotes understeer.

Events 12 and 13 are at Oakland...less chance for fun runs, but a good surface to test on.

If you need a "control" driver, let me know

 

I believe we're shooting for Oakland, I'll be towing over the STU car, not sure if DKNV will drive the Stock one over or not

 

I'm shooting to be at the Oakland event.....I doubt I'll make Marina.

 

What ever happened to this thread? I'm interesting in hearing about the results of any further Koni/Bilstein testing.

Thanks to those have posted already; lots of great info in this thread.

 

40th anniversary RX-8 will get Bilstein from what I've read.

 

I haven't seen Cooper47 aka the Bilsteing guy at the last couple of local events, so we haven't had the opportunity to do any comparisons...too bad, we've had lots of "fun runs" lately, so it would have been easy to drive one car, then the other, on the same course and conditions.

The only thing I can tell you is that the Bilsteins, ots, do raise ride height a fair amount and also don't seem to be stiff enough, just watching the car.

 

What can I say, two kids, a wife, a job and trying to buy a house has not left much time for me to autocross.....

As far as the Bisteins are concerned.....I would not say they "raise" the car. Yeah, the folks running KONI's are all sitting 1/2" lower then myself but according to my measurments the car is still sitting at stock ride height.

I do like these shocks even though I do not think they are stiff enough to compete with the KONI's without a revalve. Still, even with revalve I do not think you'll get the static height advantage the KONI's have.

To summarize, I would buy these shocks if you're looking for a good replacement for the stock dampers or if you plan on doing additional suspension modifications or a revalve. If you're running a stock suspension you're probably better off sticking with the KONI's and rebuilding them after they start leaking....At least they have a warranty.

 

Reviving an old one here.

I was looking at getting a set of Konis for my car soon but was thinking about a set of revalved Bilstein HD's. I didn't see a clear winner on this thread (and there probably won't be one) since FM and Shaikh haven't comeback with results or info on the revalved shocks.

I was a week away from getting some revalved Bilsteins for my Solstice when it died, which is why I am so interested.

Anyone... info please.

 

Mike's been slowly working on revalved Bilsteins, but having trouble getting them to be stock legal. It's possible with a bunch of cutting and welding, but he hasn't gotten around to it yet.

 

There is a clear winner, and has been for years now... Get the Koni sport and save yourself the trouble. That is unless you need a built in excuse at natls, like you had the wrong shocks.

 

What I will say is that you need to adjust your driving style, if you are to run on OTS Koni. Adding compression to rear is the easy cop out, or deal it with via other means. In this case, ULLLOSE is just exceptional as far LFB/trailbrake go (purely conjecture on my part).

 

Why would you need to adjust?

 

^I think CRX may be talking about the car's increased rotation under trail brake, after I convinced him to go full stiff on the back shocks...

I've driven cars with OTS Konis at various settings and, like most other set up variables with the RX8, just don't think it really matters all that much...you just need good tires and minimal driver input errors to go BS quick, imho. Of course, I am known to drive around stuff, so my opinion may be worth exactly what you've paid for it...

 

I take it that the Bilstein HD's are not stock class legal on the 8?? Or are you talking about the Miata-core Solstice shock he's been working on??

If the HD's are legal than Shaikh or Bilstein should be able to revalve them without a problem.

There's a clear winner because no one has run a set of revalved Bilsteins competitively right?

Just lookin for info guys. Where's Shaikh and FM?

 

Assuming you are willing to have the bilsteins revalved multiple times until you get the proper balance. Seems like a lot of work for very little possible gain.

 

:yawn:

 

imho if you have to trail brake the car you did slow down enough in the first place.

 

Don't tell that to Matthew...might hurt his feelings

He's one trail braking hombre

 

OTS HD Bilstein's do not match stock class legal measurements.

After watching David's car recently, I think he might be onto something with his "new settings".
Watch out...UmightLose!
He is straight timing me and Kevin by 2 seconds!!!!
His changes did exactly what I thought they would do.
Perfect? not yet.
Time to mess with toe and bar.


FM

 

OK, so we can take trailbrake out of ULLLOSE's playbook =)

My co-driver and I are simple minded folks, so brake in a straight line and no fancy footwork with LFB. We are fighting exit push, besides our own driving deficiency.

 

Slow in=Fast out, it is very simple. If you have corner exit understeer you are probably going in to hot. It is a long car and does not like to change directions if you are behind.

 

As long as he has you helping him, we have nothing to worry about.

 

I know David is a good driver, but do I have to be the first one to call bullshxt, on this one?

 

 

HAHA!
At least most of the cars that I work on win lots of big events.
Maybe not with me driving everytime though.

Hmmm, I wonder if I got the CS/BS results from SD confused with our CS/BS results in regards to the 2 second per day thing?

I can say that David's 8 looked better on course than it ever has and is getting very close to the Solsti scourge that seems to infect the NWR.
I figure if he can always us, he can have his way with the current BS.

FM