Ford Contingency Money

Hm. If someone runs a Ford Probe, do they get both Ford and Mazda contingency monies?

What if you run a Saab 96 with a Ford V4 engine?

Or a DeTomaso Pantera?

Or a Sunbeam Tiger?

Or a Cobra Daytona coupe?

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Morison

I can say that having ridden on RS/SP, DMS, HotBits, Koni Home-brew and Bilstein Home-brew that the difference in the RS/SP is astoundingly obvious.

Worst to best, how would you rate them? My guess (having only ridden in a couple of rally cars at speed):

Koni home brew
Hot Bits
Bilstein
DMS
RS/SP

What was the topic again?

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fiasco
Worst to best, how would you rate them?

*Koni home brew
*Bilstein
Hot Bits
DMS
RS/SP
* I'm noti confident that the set-up/spring rates were optimised and I didn't have a lot of time in these cars to really judge them.
The Konis were in the RX7 an combined with ex Hintz springs I picked up from Dave Clark. The subsequent owner replaced the Konis with HotBits and saw improvements in performance.
The Bilstiens were serious home brew struts - not the 'matched and valved' JVAB stuff.

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What was the topic again?

Why let that get in the way... but part of the previous discussion was that R2 Kits included overpriced bits such as Reiger suspension which provided 'diminishing returns' (there is a bilstein damper option too)

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Morison

Quote
fiasco
Worst to best, how would you rate them?

*Koni home brew
*Bilstein
Hot Bits
DMS
RS/SP
* I'm noti confident that the set-up/spring rates were optimised and I didn't have a lot of time in these cars to really judge them.
The Konis were in the RX7 an combined with ex Hintz springs I picked up from Dave Clark. The subsequent owner replaced the Konis with HotBits and saw improvements in performance.
The Bilstiens were serious home brew struts - not the 'matched and valved' JVAB stuff.

Quote

What was the topic again?

Why let that get in the way... but part of the previous discussion was that R2 Kits included overpriced bits such as Reiger suspension which provided 'diminishing returns' (there is a bilstein damper option too)

Thanks for the reply...wouldn't it be cool to get Rally Gearbox Magazine to do Ultimate Gravel Suspension Comparison!!!!!

Hot Bits vs. DMS vs. JVAB vs. RS/SP vs. Reiger vs. Ohlins vs. Proflex vs. blown KYB GR-2!!!!

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Morison

Quote
fiasco
Worst to best, how would you rate them?

*Koni home brew
*Bilstein
Hot Bits
DMS
RS/SP
* I'm noti confident that the set-up/spring rates were optimised and I didn't have a lot of time in these cars to really judge them.
The Konis were in the RX7 an combined with ex Hintz springs I picked up from Dave Clark. The subsequent owner replaced the Konis with HotBits and saw improvements in performance.
The Bilstiens were serious home brew struts - not the 'matched and valved' JVAB stuff.

Quote

What was the topic again?

Why let that get in the way... but part of the previous discussion was that R2 Kits included overpriced bits such as Reiger suspension which provided 'diminishing returns' (there is a bilstein damper option too)

now sort by price. then sort by replacing insert price.

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Mark
now sort by price. then sort by replacing insert price.

Why.
I have no interest in doing that homework at all. The other part of the equation are service life and performance during use. At the end of the day you'll end up with a spreadsheet of data that you can manipulate to show whatever you want but in the end you'll find that Bilstein home brew struts give you mediocre performance at bargan basement prices and are cheap to rebild, which is good because you'll be doing that.

Paying good money for good struts is not a waste.
Paying $2K for a homebrew set is probably great to get you on the road but don't be fooled into thinking they are the end-all of options out there. Probably fine if you are going to run in the same conditions all of the time - but what fun is that?

I know some people will say that no-body knows how to adjust dampers so why waste money on adjustable dampers ... I've seen the opposite. Same car, same stage, same day with different rebound settings - vast difference. (Pogo stick vs. smooth landing) (yes - an example of how adjustments can be a bad thing if used poorly and how a properly valved shock that can't be adjusted is better ... but the adjustment in the first case was for different springs and winter conditions and was just left un-adjusted after changing the springs...)

Things I would consider putting on a rally car that I was paying for and assuming purchasing them new at full price are in red


By price (roughly):
Bilstein HD with stiffer springs
Bilstein "rally" shocks
Hotbits--basic
JVAB Bilsteins
DMS 40s
RS&SP basic (forget the name)
HotBits Delux
Tein HG

***Significant price gap***

DMS 50s
RS&SP
RS&SP with hydro bumpstops
Ohlins
Proflex
XTC
Reiger
etc......