Track Car Suspension Manufacturers

I think Bilstein has a Clubsport line that is about 2-2.5x the price of the PSS10. Ohlins is right in between those price points, for the VW at least

PSS10 $1500, ohlins $2700, Clubsport $3900

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Wish we had had this thread about six months ago... The KW clubsports I bought for the 911 work really well, but that is very disappointing to hear about their support. Btw tirerack had the best pricing by far.

 

The guys at MotoIQ put the clubsports on their Golf R.
https://motoiq.com/project-mkvii-golf-r-part-2-bilstein-clubsport-suspension/

Let me know if you're going to sell off your GTI brakes. I've been thinking about brake upgrades for the wagen.

 

I was keeping some of the stock stuff if I ever wanted to go back to OEM and sell, but it looks like I'm way too deep and well I just enjoy the damn thing.

If I do sell, I'll give you a heads up.

 

Few years back I had s2k for track car and was on their forums. One of the guys tracking his wanted to use much stiffer springs than what comes with KWV3 (shocks he had).
He called KW and asked if they can revalve for stiffer springs. They said no and that he can buy Clubsports which I think are another $1k more than V3.
I told him to send me shock and I will see what I can do. Took shock apart. It is basically twin tube shock with cartridge that works pretty much like bike forks. Bad part was valves did not have shim stack as usual so I was limited how much change I could get. I changed things, had shock on dyno and fortunately it was what we wanted. I also wanted to replace main seal while in there. KW would not sell it. I spent hours and hours searching all over the place to find one. Finally found then in Hungary and ordered bunch of them.
Later I had another S2K guy that wanted me to refresh his shocks, he had KW Clubsport. When I opened shock it was identical to KWv3 except one shim. Basically it was same thing as V3 after I changed it .

Last year I had local car shop call me and ask if I can fix KW shock that was original equipment on Dodge Charger (I guess some models came with optional KW shock). Shaft got chewed up where it mounts to hat (upper chassis mount). I guess nut backed out little and there was play in mount. I figured I just take shaft out, weld it around and turn on lathe back to original size. Turned out only thing KW was outer shell with preload adjuster. From outside looked just like any other KW shock. But instead cartridge, oil, valves and all stuff normal in this shock had nothing in there but basic damper. They simply put basic shock, one of those that look like hood holding shock, inside their housing.

 

Fack zoran. I thought you were going to make this Easy for me and tell me you have found some Budget bilstein that you work your magic on how you drop cartridges in SV forks

I’ve done research and for E46 m3 it seems there are some better options than the PSS10 for similar price.

a lot of track guys like to run JRZ, MCS or tc kline but not sure how bearable those would be on the street. I guess if sprung and valved correctly i could make the dual duty situation happen fine. At this point I’m leaning toward ohlins r&t

 

Isn't tc just modified Koni?
Some shops will use standard shock and modify it. Just recently had Koni that needed shaft replaced. Had to buy standard shaft and machine it down and rethread to match. It was shortened by one of this shops.
People say JRZ, Moton are good but I never seen one apart so don't know.
Think MCS is recently new company and kind in line what penske does. I considered this for my Cayman when I was shopping but did not want to pay what they cost. It helps that I work on shocks so I can change them if needed, it only cost me my time. Reason I got PSS, I figured I can change it easy if I had to. I actually took apart my stock shocks which are pretty good and I think built by bilstein. Started machining shafts and shock body to shorten them but had to scrap it due to shafts been hollow and not letting me get length I wanted.

 

Good thing about them is any shop can work on them and you can buy parts easy. They are same thing as bike shocks, they just look different, inside they are same.

Another funny car shock I worked on, was some of brand from Japan. When opened turned out to be Showa shock, everything inside was identical to stock gsxr shock

 

so did you shim it 5mm or 10mm to get proper turn in?

In all seriousness, that is why I want ohlins but JRZ, moton, etc can also rebuild. I’m glad you shed some light on KW cause I was considering v3 or club sport. Another one I’m considering is ground control, I think they use eibach springs and koni shocks?

I bought my car and it had ST coilovers installed already. They’re supposed to be exactly like kw v1 but different shock coating.

 

So BNG?

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It's also the reason I went with the ST XTA which is supposed to be a hybrid KW v2/v3

Almost no decent coilvers come with a camber plate for my car, so options are limited to stock, Fixed camber top mount (superpro or 034), ground control, and Vorshlag. these ST that I have or the Bilstein Clubsport and I think the KW Clubsport are the only built-in top mount options that I believe are quality vs say a BC or other random company with "coilovers"

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Lots of people buy wrong shocks for car. Like I said you have to consider what you will do with car before buying shocks.
Some people buy shocks that are long but at time sounded good. Then they want to lower it, camber it, stiffen it ...etc and start running in problems. Not enough travel left, then they have to put stiffer springs, then they need helper springs because mains are too stiff, they they change sway bars and they keep running in circles swapping parts but never getting it right. Cars are lot more complicated than bikes.

 

Here is Ohlins shock for Lotus Elise, same as bike shock.
Other one is Koni modified for autocross. To take this apart adjuster rod needs to be cut and new one used for assembly. This are notorious for leaks

 

KW internals

 

Pretty much. Thought I would just do a few AutoX, but now well we are past the initial hit. My regular street 19" setup needed to be raised at least 3 turns to deal with the track and the wide rubber.

Fun times with the tires burning [emoji23]

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TC Kline Koni

 

Bilstein

 

Mugen. This is the one using showa valves and sealing head, same as gsxr

 

@BigBird do you have another thread about the car build? I have a MK6 GTI that's a daily driver, thinking about doing a little track day with it. Car has 120k on the clock, though, kind of scared how it's going to hold up.

 

I don't really have a build thread. It was basically bolt on and go.

The MK6 is a fairly strong car. I think cam followers were a weak point. But what's the worst that can happen with your VW? just send it [emoji1]

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