I would like some opinions about the difference between MR bilstein vs standard RS/GSR suspension.
Can you feel a BIG improvement in ride comfort on bumpy streets with Bilstein?

I intend to buy the complete Ralliart Bilstein suspension kit, but I have to know if worthwhile...

 

I own a GSR, I have driven a couple of MR Editions and I know first hand that the difference is very little. If fact, I will go as far as saying that it takes away from the razor sharpness of the car. It is a little softer riding but not "WOW!" I would equate it to a shot of Whiskey with Ice Cubes. Still strong, just a tad smoother. The biggest difference is in the gear box. The 6 speed shifts very smooth, almost Honda like.

 

MR bilsteins are more resposive to any road condition, less harsh ride compared to the RS/VIII set-up.

 

i have both an mr and gsr and there is a difference. gsr was darty and it's bouncier. now i have all weather tires and that changed the ride considerably, making it smoother. i have a complete factory mr suspension and tire/wheel setup for the gsr in the spring. drool. rear end seems to come out faster on the mr.

 

I have an 03 EVO VIII. I bought it new in May 03 but it now has 30k miles. I bought it after driving Audis for many years. I don't have the time for track days so all of my experience with it is road driving. I found the original suspension to be almost punishing on any surface but glass smooth roads. The original struts (KYB) are too overdamped for small surface imperfections and cause the car to skip over small bumps, especially at speed. The springs are so stiff they don't even deflect over smaller bumps and instead transmit clunks to the body. This all may be fine if you do a lot of track driving where the super stiffness will allow the tires to work to their best advantage but makes the car tiresome on the street. Since I drive into a city in the Northeast rust belt regularly the original setup would have me darting and weaving all over the street to avoid the pot holes and other road irregularites. Luckily I was able to buy a full MR suspension setup from a shop who took it off a new MR to convert the MR to track use only. The difference is gigantic. Firstly the MR suspension is not soft. It is softer than the original though. More importantly the dampners allow the springs to do their job better and make the car far more secure over any road surface so more speed can be carried through a bouncy corner or over uneven surfaces than before. Also with Bilsteins the ride improves as speed increases so high speed driving becomes more comfortable. And, yes a lot of the car's tendency to dart around on the highway disappears. But driving an EVO on old pot holed city streets still stinks. No magic carpet here.The struts also transmit less suspension noise to the car and the better ride quality eliminates a lot of small buzzes and rattles that were induced by the original suspension.
But the picture you have with your post is NOT the suspension that comes with the MR. The MR suspension looks just like the original one except the struts are yellow. The spring perches on the rear struts are alloy not steel and are held to the struts by tabs. All spring perches are non adjustable. If you want an MR suspension I'm sure you can find one for sale here from time to time. If you get the Ralliart setup, you are on your own and as I recall, the Ralliart stuff is way expensive.
I also use lighter wheels than the stock Enkeis. I use 17 x 8.5 SSR Comps and have had them since the car had about 10k miles. Lighter and stiffer wheels like the SSRs also help handling since there is significantly less unsprung weight at each corner that has to be controlled. Sorry for the lengthy post but I hope it is helpful to you.

 

i forgot that i also have the bigger front strut tower brace and the dealer installed rear tower brace, so that prolly stiffens the evo up

 

Doe it affect handling at all to soften up the suspension? I would think in a bad way maybe.

 

Nice review painthorseblu !

What is the difference between MR and Ralliart suspension?

 

Absolutely.

I picked up a full MR suspension (Bilstein shocks and Mitsu springs) and had them installed on my JDM 8 GSR. The ride was noticeably more comfortable, especially over uneven surfaces; And because of the softer damping, the tires stuck to the road better, translating to better mid-corner tracking.

However, because of the same softer damping, I and an accomplished local racer experienced turn-in AND power-induced understeer; mainly due to the fact that the front of the car was lifting. Although the set up felt easier to control, it lost some of the initial bite that the stock E8 suspension had. This could be why the GSR outperformed the MR in some slalom and/or other handling tests, results of which were recently posted here on evom IIRC.

I have re-installed the stock E8 fronts, and mated to the MR rears, I have a balance of sharpness, tracking and comfort.

 

is there a BIG performance gap between the regular E8 suspension and the MR's?