Jom vs h&r race springs

[dillon7]

I have owned JOM's and h&r sport combo.

JOM's are basically you get what you pay for. They get you low and it's a really comfortable DD ride. The only problem you run into is when you either try to drive it somewhat hard or you run the coils too low. The springs are really soft and while it makes for a nice ride they will bottom out easy and you will rub a lot because of it as well.

H&r sport is good but not the best. They aren't low at all so I think you would be unhappy with them. Ground Control or BC is going to be your best option.

[nrubenstein]

Having gone from Koni SA to Bilsteins custom valved, I would never buy Bilsteins for street use again.

Some of you guys get confused about what the purpose for a suspension is. What race cars use on a race track doesn't mean that's the best for a mostly street car, and vice versa. I might do Bilsteins again for track use, but I'd make them dyno them before accepting them. By default they'll make them way too stiff for the street and even the track.

For street use Konis ride way, way better. It's not even close. The adjustability doesn't mean you play with it all the time - it means you adjust it to suit your springs, and then leave it alone forever (or until you change something else).

The ride quality of my custom bilsteins is horrid. it's like riding on a washboard. And over bumpy surfaces, the handling isn't very good because the car bounces all over the place. There are times I feel like my internal organs are going to come out my nose over bumps that I shouldn't even be able to feel.

On smooth surfaces it handles extremely well. On a race track it'd probably be fantastic. On the street, it just sucks.

as far as the price of customization, Bilstein doubled it last year. I think it's around $150 per corner, not including dynoing. After all that you may end up with what I have - shocks that aren't really that good for either purpose.

also, there's some pretty ignorant comments on the two. Bilsteins are inverted. The giant "rod" you see is actually the body of the shock, it's not the shaft. The koni's shaft is much larger, but that doesn't say anything about the quality.

mototube vs twin tube - paper arguments. And neither will last forever. My Konis were dead after 150k. I already noticed the Bilsteins got a lot softer after a year of use, which is the only way I've been able to tolerate them at all.

Just as an FYI, custom valved Konis will be awful on the street, too. Whenever you ask for calculated optimum valving, the engineers will tend to give you something that is far too stiff to tolerate in normal use.

In reality, each shock has its plusses and minuses. I'm actually running Bilstein HDs on the E46 M3 because they offer the most plush and pleasant decent handling ride of a reasonably priced damper. WAY better than either stock or the Konis. On an E30, the GC Konis kick the shit out of the Bilsteins, but that shouldn't exactly be a surprise. And again, most of the ride quality problems with the stock valved Bilsteins are because the internal bump stop is too fucking long.