koni sport insert {adjustable}

Guest · Nov 30, 2004

ok l replaced all my insert with stock bougeee! inserts, but l find these very soft ...loads of lean in to corners , has anybody else found this ...or has anybody used the koni insert in to the stock housing.....or i was told about the bilsten track and sprint inserts... any good..

michael

plhorner · Dec 1, 2004

Michael,
I've got Koni adjustables on the front and Bilstien on the back, they were on the car when I bought it so I'm not sure wether the fronts are inserts or not. Suffice to say the car is rock solid with almost no body roll, I'd recomend it.

Guest · Dec 1, 2004

So you have just shelled out for new Boge inserts and you want to change already? Lets see if we can minimise the pain to your wallet and avoid throwing away the Boges. I have a couple of ideas. One would be to replace just the rear shocks. For two reason: first, the front is so lightly loaded that you do not need stiff shocks in the front and indeed having stiff front shocks will destroy the ride quality more than any other single change. Secondly, the rears are very easy to change so you will have an out of pocket cost of little more than the parts. My personal preference is for the Bilstein HD when using std torsion bars. I think the Bilstein Sport is too stiff for the std spring rates (I realise others use them and like them, I just think its a suboptimal match). Adjustable Konis (yellow not red) would also be a fine match. I have only used the Koni Reds but I have been told that the Koni yellows have a slightly stiffer ride than the Bilsteins (hard to believe as the Bilsteins are quite stiff). Another option is to leave the shocks alone and look at the sway bars. You don't say what year your car is but upgrading the rear sway to a 22mm bar is nice in that it is not so stiff as to noticeably effect ride quality but it gives a little extra roll stiffness in the rear. The "spring rate" of a sway bar relates to its cross sectional area not its diameter, so a 22mm sway is quite a lot stiffer than a 19mm sway. A Weltmeister sway bar is a little better quality than std, is not very expensive and is fairly simple for a home mechanic to fit. Any decent Porsche shop should be able to make you a 22mm bar that would work with the std hardware at even less cost than a Weltmeister. Running a 22mm front thru the body sway is the next step in sway bar upgrades.

Of course if you really want zero body roll then you are into a whole different ballgame of tbars, sways and shocks. The picture of my car below shows it now starts to lift the inside front and rear wheel off the ground before it rolls more than a couple of degrees. This, of course, has other consequences in terms of suspension travel, ride quality etc.

Richard

Guest · Dec 2, 2004

Great picture of your car Richard - what size wheels/tyres are you running.

I liked you post, very useful for me as I'm considering upgrading/rebuilding my suspension set-up next year (when the piggy bank is full again) - thanks!

Guest · Dec 3, 2004

There are quite a few posts on suspension set up if you are prepared to search. If you have any questions, I am happy to give my $0.02 worth.

The wheels/tyres are 245/45 on 16x9 with 14mm of spacers and 225/45 on 16x7 with a 5mm spacer. There is a lot of -ve camber to run this set-up at this ride height. For every day, I run OE size 225/205 on 7s and 8s with the same spacers to get a little more compliance and ride height.

RB

Andy Tims · Dec 3, 2004

Got my inside front completely off the ground in this shot. I'm running with the original boge shocks, car 26mm lowered, no strut brace at this point & just a wiff of negative camber, but big wheels / tyres & 26/31mm spacers

Looking to get new dampers when funds allow. Bilsteins or Koni adjustables - what do you guys think?

Guest · Dec 4, 2004

hi richard ..sorry for the delay .been busy watching my posts for a few days...the car is an 87 . targa...low milage but sat for some time in a private collection {8 years}only got 43000}..sad undriven car....i was also thinking what would happen to the torsion bars if the car was left for years not on blocks the car seems to have alot of rear body bounce ..could this have something to do with the bad cornering ...car loses grip at front very quickly..even taking corner slowly it seems unsure.....could this be a torsion bar leakness...car is standard other wise .havent had time to change tie rods yet..all bushes seem fine..front and back...its just been away having box done .missed it for over 13 weeks...couldnt get the parts....there went my summer...also where did you buy your Weltmeister sway bar did you get it from USA .cant seem to find a local agent...

Guest · Dec 6, 2004

Tbars should not be effected - after all, our cars sit on their springs all day, every day.

I would be more concerned with anything rubber or that has rubber seals (this prob includes shocks). Bouncing sounds like a damping problem - but you already have new shocks [&:] hmmm

What about tyres? I presume these were stored for 8 years also? The front symptoms sound like alignment or tyres.

I got my Weltmeister from Autofarm. FWIW, I think you could get an independent to make up a bigger than OE bar for less money than buying a Weltmeister.

Sounds like you really need to invest in some expert suspension set up diagnosis. Why not see if one of the independents will do a quick 15 minute test drive and preliminary diagnosis/chat for free? You want an expert shop that does track suspension prep (IMHO), someone used to jumping in race cars and identifying set-up issues in the first minute of driving, rather than the more maintenance oriented shops. Someone like Steve at JAZ, Neil at BS motorsport and the equivalents at Parr, G-force etc (there may be others).

Richard

PS nice picture Andy - what size tyres do you squeeze on the 17s?