Bilstein HD with lowering springs?

[MattS67]

I just picked up my first E30, a '91 318is. The car recently had all the shocks replaced with Bilstein HD and still has the stock springs with 175k miles on them. It handles like a boat so I want to give it a slight drop and stiffen up the ride a bit. I know Bilstein Sports would be the ideal choice in this situation, but if I drop my car an inch or so, would the HDs work fine or is replacing them with Sports recommended?

Thanks
Matt

[vert_this]

sports will ride a lot better IMO.

[bmwguy325is]

Air Bags FTW

[Jaxx_]

HDs will work fine. In another application that was heavier I lowered the car about 1.5" on HDs and it wasn't a problem. You're not getting close to the bottom of the stroke so I wouldn't worry about it.

[cholyoke]

I have HDs and H&R sports, which I like very much.

[nrubenstein]

Valving is the same. The basic difference is that HDs extend further.

You may want to trim an inch off the internal bump stop up front.

[MattS67]

Cool deal, sounds like it's not really worth the ~$500 extra. Thanks for the replies guys!

[MR 325]

I've also run HD's with H&R Sport on a M20 powered E30 and it was great!

Trimming 1/3 off of the front bump stop is a good idea though. I did.

[MattS67]

Well I was told the car had new Bilstein HD shocks, but it has the factory originals. Guess I'm replacing them after all. The joys of buying a used car. :)

[Northern]

Would go with billy sports over HD's.